The Big 40!

Coast to Coast in 48 hours. We went from our Florida trip and the beaches of the Atlantic to surfing the waves of the Pacific in just 48 hours last week. Steve surprised Ann with a trip to San Diego to fulfill her dream of learning to surf. Grandmas Moe and Schwartz were nice enough to come down to Atlanta and watch the kids the four days we were gone. Hopefully, their time with the children was more fun than our trip and they will make it a semi-annual event.... wishful thinking of course!

Our first morning in San Diego we went for an 4 AM run TOGETHER, had a nice BIG breakfast and headed over to Mission Beach for our surfing lesson.

The seas were angry the morning of our lesson, but we headed out to conquer the surf regardless. The weather was strange this morning, and it looked like the early stages of a major hurricane! We had so much fun with the surf lessons... we were laughing the entire first hour.

"The natural" riding in the tail end of her wave... not bad for an old bag.

During the lesson, they teach you to relax and work with the wave... don't fight it. Based on Stiv's face, I don't think he was listening. Intensity in ten cities!

If you enjoy the picture of Stiv's wipeout, please contact us as we have many more that are just as good.

We spent part of our second day in La Jolla, enjoying great food, shopping and scenery. Above, Ann is posing with the sea lions in the background.

We capped our first full day off with a beautiful hike through Torrey Pines State Reserve.

Kayaking through the seven caves of La Jolla was another highlight of the trip. Our guide was making fun of people who actually bring their camera out in the boat protected only by a ziplock bag. Don't worry, ours was a heavy duty freezer ziplock.....

One of the Caves in La Jolla.

We took stairs down to one of the caves... it turned into kind of a tight fit for Steve.

On our final evening, we headed over to Coronado for dinner with our friend Mary. Here is Ann, in front of the historic Hotel Del.

Stiv met a new friend at lunch!!

October and our annual Florida trip

We took a trip to Stone Mountain for the Pumpkin Festival. The kids enjoyed looking at all of the pumpkins. The favorite part was the special balloon swords that a clown made.

Both Jackson and Catie recently completed Space Units at school, so the Kennedy Space Center was a must-see.

Mr. Lego was impressed with the lunar robot made out of Legos. Of course, the comment was "I want to get that!"


The Schwartz family ready to blast off to outer space... just pretend Steve is in the photo... someone had to take the picture.

Each year, we take advantage of a 4-day holiday around Columbus Day to drive down to Florida to see Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sandye. We took a day trip to Disney World with Grandpa Schwartz and the Boston Schwartzes. Grandpa and all the kids were troopers and had a great time riding the rides and begging for candy and stuffed animals. Unfortunately, Uncle Dave and Aunt Sandy did not fare so well... they decided to bail out of the Disney World a little early...

The kids loved the carousel, dumbo and small world rides. By the time the kids are ready for roller coasters and other fun rides, we will be so old that they will be pushing us around in the rental stroller!

Abby handled the long day at the park like a champ and even posed in Mickey Mouse ears against her will without pitching a fit. Once we got back to the car, she was out the second her head hit the car seat.

The Schwartz men at the New Smyrna Beach. I wonder which one is holding in their stomach the most???

The cousins hanging out on Grandma Sandye's couch after swimming in their pool. They all got along wonderfully, and it is so much fun watching them play and bond with each other. Abby wants to be older and get more in the mix so badly.

The Augusta 70.3 Finally Arrived

Well, the 2009 Triathlon season has finally come to a close. We did not participate in as many events as last year, only 4, but our season was actually longer. We started our training in January and finished with our A race, the Augusta Half Ironman last Sunday. This was the inaugural event, and the Ironman folks claim it was the largest 70.3 race ever. Whether that is accurate or not, it was a huge field with over 2,800 participants.

This is a picture of the 1.2 mile swim start. There were 25 swim waves that started on the pier and swam down river to the transition area. This was a fast swim due to a slight current and a great way to start our race.

Ann crushed the swim but her wetsuit zipper broke and would not open, causing her precious time! Even so, she still had a blazing swim split.

Steve is heading out of T1 trying to figure out where he is going after his best swim ever.


Speed racer... passing several men... typical males don't want a woman to pass them, so they speed up and try and pass her again, only to delay the inevitable.

Steve looking calm and confident on the bike..."if only I had aero wheels I would be really destroying this bike course!" We did a great job with our bike training as we both held back on the bike and managed very good times with a controlled effort. It is a great feeling when 56 miles seems like an easy distance. Too bad the impending winter will cause us to lose much of our bike fitness and have to build it back up again in the spring.

The 13.1 mile run snaked through FLAT streets of downtown Augusta. This sounded like a great run at first, flat and fast! Surprisingly, the 1.5 mile stretches through town became a mental grind from the monotony.

The run is where the race is made. Unfortunately, both Steve and Ann did not perform up to their potential. We had decent times but need to figure out how to nail a run that we are capable. More speed work for Steve and back the drawing board for Ann's race day nutrition in 2010.

Overall, the race itself was a ton of fun, and we will probably sign up for this event again. The entire Stien Mountain Triathlon Team qualified for the USA Triathlon National Championships next fall! Ann Hattamer, Donovan, Ann and Steve all had PR's (John did a full Ironman two weeks prior so PR was not expected). In fact, Donovan popped off such a fast race that we are waiting for the drug test results to see if it actually counts.

Again, we have to thank Grandma Moe for watching all three kids overnight back in ATL so that we could do the race. I wonder who expended more energy???

Stinky Zoo

We had another fun trip to the Yellow River Game Ranch, or Stinky Zoo as the kids call it. Above... "I wish this kid would stop slobbering all over that graham cracker! When I swipe it out of her hand I'd like it to be crispy!"


Hey Donner, have you seen Rudolph running around here?

Jackson is checking out the bear in the pen below. Two zookeepers were cleaning the pen and Jackson was relentlessly asking them all kinds of bear questions.


No, this is not the same cracker as in the first picture...


Catie is very happy to show off her buddy and future husband Isaac. I wonder what kind of dowry the Shores will pony up for her?

Abby loved running around the Stinky zoo and feeding any animal that she could chase down.

Catie's new glasses need some adjustment...

Ann and Steve before one of the two Century rides that they rode over the last few weeks. Their long training efforts are over, as the Augusta 70.3 Ironman is just over a week away!

Life is a bowl full of Jello...

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!