Our annual trip to Western North Carolina for the Lake Logan Triathlon was this past weekend. As most of you know, this race is dedicated to Todd, as the men's overall winner trophy bears his name as the inaugural overall champion. The usual crew from the Stien Mountain Triathlon Team participated. Ann, Steve, John, Ann H, Donovan, Amale, and Trevor. It was a stellar day all the way around. The race continues to grow and to be a well run event with over 600 participants. The weather was perfect, with a high of 78 and very little humidity making for ideal race conditions. Once again, the Stien kids carried the team and tamed the olympic distance course. John took 2nd overall with a blazing 2:02 time and Ann smoked the swim and bike on the way to taking 1st in her age group. Ann H, Donovan and Steve all had PR's and were pleased with their efforts.
Western NC is a beautiful location and makes for one of the best race venues that we see all year.
Here is a photo of part of the swim course. You are probably wondering by now if Steve was finally able to beat Ann in a triathlon. It you are keeping score, they have gone head to head 6 times with Ann victorious each and every time. On paper, this was Steve's race to win... if only it took place on paper! Ann had the second fastest swim overall and put 9 minutes on Steve resulting in the same old story... Steve frantically killing himself on the bike and run only to come up 2 minutes short! Adding insult to injury, the kids ended the day with..."mommy won, but daddy didn't."
Steve, realizing that his swim was 3 minutes slower than he planned and was in real trouble....
Hey, which way to the bike course?
The girls waiting for their mom to exit the bike...
Here she comes ready to roll... Ann had a great bike, dropping almost 8 minutes off last years time. All of her sneaking out for secret bike training paid off.
John looking determined to go for the win.
With just yards to the finish line, Stiv is working hard hold his place.
Here's the team, post race.
Super grandpa!
Grandpa keep the kids busy in the luxurious Best Western pool Friday night, while Steve took a quick nap with Abby.
Jackson and Catie loved Trevor's dog Ninja, but they know their chances of having one of their own are slim as "Daddy does not like dogs..."
Jax and Ann accepting the age group award.
After the race, we headed to the cabin in Hiawassee. Abby was exploring and ran into the bear below... just kidding.
Grandpa and Uncle John are obsessed with feeding the animals and always manage to reel in some good ones! John kept telling the kids that the bear would come in the cabin at night after us, so Jackson made a "NO Bears Allowed" sign and hung it in the window. It worked great as the bears stayed outside.
Here's Jackson with Uncle John. Guess he is going to have to figure out which way the helmet goes if he is going to be a future biker!
Jackson participated in the County Swim Meet this year, and was surprised to find our mailbox decorated in preparation for the meet. The folk around here take the county meet very seriously, and it is amazing the work that the Leslie Beach Club volunteers put in to getting our team ready for the event. Maybe next year Jackson will actually care as much.
Jackson and his friend Matt before the Medley Relay..."Which stroke am I swimming again?"
Jackson diving in for his freestyle... He did not like the pool because it had the "coldest water in the world"!
Here are the 6 & under girls at the end of the year swim team awards ceremony. Catie was thrilled to get a trophy! She may not look it by her size, but she was the youngest swimmer on the team.
Jackson did a bit of "grandstanding" when he got his trophy!! His shenanigans made us so proud... every time we look at this picture we just shake our heads.
The "Stinky Zoo" is always a hit with the kids... one of the kid's favorite parts was riding the mechanical horses at the entrance.
We got up early on July 4 to run the Peachtree Road "Race" (12 years in a row for Ann, 9 for Stiv, and 7 years of babysitting for Grandma)... Our friend Brandie actually woke up early enough to watch the race in front of her condo and snapped a few action shots...
Abster in her patriotic 4th of July outfit. She is growing into quite the busybody.
Here we are at the Chamblee fireworks, waiting for night fall. The fireworks turned out awesome this year and were extraordinarily load. Catie was so frightened that she kept her head buried under Daddy. After, she claimed that she saw them because she "peeked."
LBC had pool games on the 4th. After about 15 minutes of whining, Jackson finally agreed to participate in the Cowboy relay... he had to swim a length of the pool with the noodle and cowboy hat.
The last race was the shaving cream relay race... the kids kicked across the pool, transferred the glop of shaving cream to the other teammate, who then kicked back across the pool.
Grandpa made a batch of his popular orange jello and applesauce, but he and Jackson thought it would be fun to drown a Lego man in the bowl. This is right up there with the paper bag house he lit on fire and had Jax put out with a toy fire truck!
I see a chipped tooth and a trip to the dentist in our future...
The kids love exploring in the creek behind our house with Grandpa. First, they always perform maintenance on the trail through the woods leading to the creek and then jump around in the creek looking for tiny fish and tadpoles.
A picture of Abigail so everyone does not think we always leave her out!
Ann took the kids to the Zoo while deadbeat dad went on a long run. Here is Catie with her favorite animal... aren't pigs supposed to be pink?
More pig action....
Catie found this friendly goat to her liking. Notice how the goat is smiling at her.
No, this is not another animal at the zoo! Another example of great parenting on display.
The kids have been into watching the series "Planet Earth," and it is a nice change from the cartoon Justice League! We are enjoying it too.
Try as we may, genes are impossible to fight! Catie and Jackson BOTH found out they needed glasses this week. We took them to the ritzy LensCrafters and let them pick out their glasses on their own. We tried to influence the decision but had no effect. We think they both made good selections. In a matter of minutes, we now have two four-eyed nerds!
