Let the 18 week countdown begin

A few weeks ago, my friend Kris and I decided to compete in our first sprint triathlon at the end of September. This has been on my "bucket list" of sorts for several years. With my 30th birthday looming just around the corner, I figured that this my shot to give it a "tri", haha!

Today marked day one of training with 30 minutes in the pool. With my competitive swimming background from childhood through high school, I thought that this would be a piece of cake. I was sadly mistaken. First, my competitive swimming days are long, long ago, TWELVE years to be exact! When the heck did that happen? I've done a few pool workouts here and there over the years, but this is the first time that I will be committing to swimming two to three times per week over the next 18 weeks. I thought for sure that it was going to be like riding a bicycle, some things you just don't forget. True, I still know how to swim, but my speed is slow as molasses and my form is less than desirable. However, there was a comfort about getting back in that water today. It's like slipping back into an old, worn-in t-shirt. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the quiet monotony that comes with swimming laps. No strangers chatting next to me, no ipod, just quiet nothing. It was quite lovely! After my workout, I had to head to the grocery store and as I walked around, I could smell that familiar chlorine smell from my hair that brought me waaaay back to high school.

Baseball, baseball, baseball

Our child is obsessed with baseball, in a way that I never thought possible at only 19 months. All he sees is a glimpse of a baseball field on the tv or in a book or magazine and he loudly proclaims "Baseball!!" with much gusto. Cole loved going to spring training every weekend this year, but it was a little bit of a nightmare now that he can walk or run shall I say. How does a toddler with short little legs run so freakin' fast?

The highlight of every day is playing catch with Daddy, Mommy's not nearly as good at it or has the patience to play it for hours like Daddy. He recently received his own mitt at the Cubbies vs Dbacks game at the end of spring training. His eyes lit up as soon as John presented it to him. He's still having a rough time figuring out which way it goes on his hand, but he loves it nonetheless.

Every day I hope that perhaps today will be the day that is not completely centered around baseball. But alas, no such luck. The first word out of his mouth in the morning is "baseball" well, except for the days where it's "waffle." He may look like his mama, but he is his father's son. Baseball, baseball, baseball....

Cole and the Goats

We had our friends, Bill and Nikki along with their little man, Tyler come visit us a few weeks ago. While they were here, we decided to take the boys to the Phoenix Zoo. While Cole was mildly impressed with the animals, he was in heaven when we made our way over to visit the goats in the petting zoo. They have these little rubber brushes for the kiddos to brush the goats with. Cole decided that every goat in the place needed to be brushed, but just once or twice each and then he was off to the next. Well, you'll see....

Finally....

Cole's already for the 7th inning stretch: "ah one, ah two, ah three!"

We have been having some technical difficulti both with our camera and computer over the past few months. We got some pictures of Cole taken a few weeks ago, so you can see how big he's getting. He's definitely got a personality on him too! And for a little peanut, he eats like it's going out of style.

Very cute he is

Cole had a great Halloween. The weekend before we went to a pumpkin patch with some friends, where he got to pick out his own little pumpkin and check out the animals. They had a hay maze that Cole wanted to walk through, but we had to take him out since he was holding up the crowd. His speed wasn't very great at that point, plus he wanted to stop to pick up pieces of hay along the way. At the rate we were going it would have taken an hour to get through the maze.

On Halloween weekend, he got to wear his costume twice, once on Friday and then again on Saturday. He was quite the hit! On Saturday night, our street does this huge block party event. Everyone comes out on their driveways and sets up games or activities for the kids, or just hands out candy. We had our bean bag game set up and the kids seemed to love it! Cole loved marching up and down the driveway and trying to figure out what the big kids were doing. The best part was the house down the street. They happened to have a Star Wars theme at their house, so of course Cole had to take pictures with all their cardboard characters. Everyone was checking out "Baby Yoda".

He's one already???

Somehow, John and I have survived the first year of Cole's life. It was definitely the fastest year of my life. I can't believe how much he has changed these last 12 months. He went from being a screaming, hungry, blob of a baby to this little bundle of energy with a full-on personality. He is like a force of nature. He walks all over the place and just this week has learned how to point at things that he wants. This has made him quite demanding, especially at meal times. If he wants his sippy cup of milk, he points, yells and then bangs on his tray until we give it to him. Just like his daddy, he wasn't overly interested in his cupcake on his birthday. In fact, the first thing that he did was pick it up and throw it to the floor. It's fun to watch him get interested in new things, like when we went to the zoo a few weeks ago. John had him up against the fence and you could just see his little brain wondering "what are we looking at?" He is very curious and so fun to be around. Our favorite game right now is called "I'm gonna get you" in which John or I would tell him that we are "going to get him" and he squeals in delight and takes off waddling away from us, laughing hysterically. Unfortunately at this point, he only has one speed, which is slow. I'm sure that he will be running in no time, which is frightening for those of us that have to keep up with him.

Sedona

View of the creek from the porch

View of the Sedona red rocks as a storm was rolling in

Cole and I getting ready to take a short walk

John, Cole and I traveled up north to Sedona this weekend to stay in a cabin with our friends, Steve and Kristi. We had so much fun up there. We went up Friday night and stayed until this morning. It was so nice to enjoy the cooler weather and just listen to the sounds of the creek and nature outside of our cabin. Cole had a lot of fun terrorizing Steve and Kristi's Boston Terrier, Monkey. Monkey was not a fan of Cole at all. I don't really blame her because the one time she allowed him to get close to her, he almost poked her eye out.

On Saturday night after Cole went to bed, the four of us busted out the board games. We played Battle of the Sexes, where Kristi and I took on John and Steve. Of course, Kristi and I won because we were able to prove that we are the superior sex. I seriously laughed so hard that I almost peed myself. It was so much fun.

On Sunday morning, John, Cole and I started heading back to Phoenix. We decided to make a spur of the moment stop in Jerome to have lunch, which was great. Apparently, Jerome is a big biker destination, so Cole was fascinated by the all the loud noises of the motorcycles. About an hour from home, we noticed that the a/c in my car wasn't blowing quite as cold as it should have and we realized that the car was overheating! We had to pull over on the side of the road and let it cool off. We drove the rest of the way back home with the windows down and the heat turned on. Not exactly the way that you want to drive through Phoenix when it is 100 degrees outside. Besides the car mishap, we had a great time.