Happy New Year! Wait, am I late to the party?

Apparently I missed the party I was asleep before midnight but was up around 2 am because the fireworks that everyone was still setting off for the new year woke up my baby and he decided to have a party of his own in the crib and my dog decided the safest place to hide from the fireworks was sitting directly on top of my head!!!  So that being said a few things have come and gone and I've survived! 

This happened: 

A's 1st Christmas

New Year's in which we participated for moral support and fun in the beer run, I ran 4 miles and drank 0 beers but I was able to assess my competition for next year! ;-)

My birthday where I ate a HUGE burrito at Chipotle, had a Love it Size waffle cone (1st time in my life) and my husband thought there was noooo way I'd be able to finish the ice cream after that burrito so he thought he'd just eat was I left, sorry bud not this time breastfeeding works miracles when it comes to your metabolism, and we watched a movie and left lil' man with my bro & SIL and yes I cried as we drove to the theater!!  But of course he was a perfect angel for them.
 
Now that the holidays are past and we are back to the normally scheduled programming I have come up with a "wish list" of races for 2014 and I call it that because I realize with a baby anything could change at a moments notice.  My heavier training won't start until about June which works out nicely because by then A will be a little older and be able to go for runs with me in the jogging stroller instead of the one that holds his car seat and hubs and I will trade off doing our long bike rides while the other plays with A.  For swims we hope to get him in classes by then and we'll trade off who goes to swim class with A and who gets to swim laps for training.  Ready, set, go!!!  And it will all go just as planned right?!??? :-)

Jan - 5k Race
Feb - 5k Race
March - 10 mile race
April - 1/2 Marathon
May - 1/2 Marathon
May - November: any sprint or olympic tris we can manage to fit in to practice for November since it will be hubs 1st triathlon ever!! and my first since baby
November 1/2 iron distance triathlon Lake Havasu
December - sprint triathlon that last time I did it qualified me for nationals but wasn't able to go due to pregnancy so hopefully I can qualify again and actually go!!!  But I don't know I'm in a new age group now and I'm nervous this ladies are very dedicated and fast!! 

What exciting races are you doing this year?!?!

Don't Be Jealous

You know that post Christmas warm fuzzy feeling that you have as you drive home from seeing all your family, eating lots of food, and opening gifts or sharing memories, then BAM back to reality you have to go back to work?   Well I still have 6 more days to recover from that! Hence, the "Don't Be Jealous" Title!!!  Yes, that is one of the wonderful things about my job we usually get more than a week off at Christmas time this year it's a week and 2 days and with any luck it looks like a snow storm will be coming in the day we're supposed to go back to work and we'll have a snow day.  Ok Ok I know don't push my luck.  But I have to say the most wonderful part about having this time off is that EVERYONE has it off at the same time so you don't come back to a completely ridiculous number of emails and urgent phone messages!

We spent the last 5 days at my parents house in the mountains and it was awesome!  I usually relax the whole time I'm up there.  We went for some hikes and I went for a little run but what I found out is that although it is easy and enjoyable to run in snow it's not so much fun to run in that weird mush/ice/snow mix that you get in between storms so while I was up there I didn't do any long runs.  On one of the hikes my dog came across a carcass that was hideous some one had obviously not done a good job of taking care of their probably illegal kill!! Grrrrrr and my dog started to lick some of the bones before I got her to come to me.  Thank goodness she didn't try to eat it!  YUCK!!!  Half of it's face was eaten off but the other bones were pretty clean!  Other than that the hikes were uneventful.  Ahh the joys of growing up in a small backwoods town. 

Ice skating was the highlight of the outdoor activities while we were there.  It was a popular place to be.  It brought back lots of memories from my childhood!

I also convinced my fam to go to an abandoned horse stables right after it snowed for some family pics.  Someones dog got out of their house and wouldn't listen to them to come back when they called for it.  So we stood their patiently waiting.  But as it kept getting closer we started getting nervous for little Lexi and my husband slowly went near it and it started to back off but the owner yelled "It will bite your ass" which is ridiculous, I picked Lexi up off the ground just in case but then the owner finally got his hands on his dog and said "Sorry about that Merry Christmas" which unfortunately didn't quite make up for the first comment but at least nothing happened!  But by then everyone was getting cold including the dog and we packed it up.  Which if not I might have kept on trying until we got a pic where my dog actually looked happy, check out her face in all our pics...

Now we're back home, going to volunteer for a couple of hours at a food bank, and get back to the gym.  Yesterday's spin class is just what I needed after a long car ride home.  But as for the format of the spin class I'll have a whole nother post about that!!  Have you ever taken a Les Mills RPM Spin class? 

Merry Post Christmas!   Do any of you hit the after Christmas sales or do you avoid it as much as I avoid Black Friday Sales?

Merry Christmas, Ironman Style!

We woke up to some white snow which made my husband very happy, he says he's never had a white Christmas (he grew up in California).  For me it was like most of my Christmases growing up!  It was good to spend the Holidays up in the mountains!  The only thing missing was the rest of the family!  But for my dad and I my brother made us this video of our Ironman Race and we loved it!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Watch out for the ELF!!!!

Santa checks his list to see who’s been naughty or nice, but while he’s checking it twice…. the elf on the shelf is already there….. so for goodness sakes be NICE!!

   MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Happy Holidays from the Arnold Family!

I'm getting so excited for the Holidays and even more for the 7 days I have off from work!!!!!!  I couldn't contain myself any longer.... Happy Holidays blogger family!!!