Marin County Triathlon

My dad and I competed in the Marin County Triathlon last year and somehow I managed to convince him to do it with me again this year!  The triathlon took place this past weekend and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Andrew and I made our travel plans to fly out to spend the weekend with my parents and Saturday morning for the tri.  

Our plans were foiled (slightly) when I took a tumble on my bike on Thursday and banged up my knee.  It hurt like hell and Friday afternoon I decided to pull out of the tri last minute.  I was super bummed (and still am), but I was happy to play spectator and paparazzi to my dads accomplishment!  

The Sustainable Sports Foundation puts on this annual triathlon.

We didn't arrive in time to see my dad take off on the swim, but we were able to catch him right as he came out of the water!  Luckily I was able to get a good spot on the beach and snapped a couple quick photos of him.  

 Then there was a lot of waiting.  I wasn't able to snap any pictures of him while he was in the transition area (my lens wasn't nearly big enough) and we were standing in the wrong place to see him off on his bike ride!

Great sign I spotted right by the transition entrance!

These flags lined the pathways and went all the way to the finish line.

 Seriously there was a lot of waiting.  We had a good time though, laughing at my Aunt's hilarious stories!

My mom and Aunt Deirdre

My big brother Travis

And then dad came charging down the hill!

He was all smiles.

 Then we had more waiting until he came back around for the run.

Conservation Core was everywhere.  Definitely felt like we were in the Bay Area!

 And then came dad!  He couldn't stop smiling the whole time.

Last leg of the race!

My mom ended up chasing him down the path so she could get a photo of him!

Mom had to get the shot!

Deirdre and Andrew

Me and Andrew.

 And not soon after dad came through the finish line!

He actually finished 1:37, but the clock was started from the first round of people (my dad was one of the last).

All done!

We Went On a Hike

Anne-Marie found an awesome hiking spot through one of her field courses and suggested we go check it out. It ended up being Spruce Mountain which is the second highest peak in the area, so I was excited about the good views.

We rounded up the dogs, packed them in Anne-Marie's new car and off we went!

Riley looks so little compared to Dooley!

The road to get to Spruce Mountain was a bit treacherous! It was a crazy dirt road that went on seemingly forever. I'm really glad we took Anne-Marie's car because I don't think my little 4 cylinder engine could have gotten us up there! 

When we finally got to the entrance the gate was closed. It wasn't a problem though. We just parked the car and hike up the remainder of the road. The hike was fairly easy, although we raised about 2,000 miles in elevation from town so we were pretty winded by the time we made it to the top!

The hike was totally worth it though! Look at those views!

Dooley was being a bit silly and loved exploring everything he could. 

I don't think he sat for a minute the entire hike!

We walked around a bit but decided to head back to the car before we completely lost the sun. I can't wait to go back and check out some of the other trails out there. It was so beautiful it definitely deserves another hike!

Fall Has Arrived

Its so wonderful seeing the leaves change color and the weather get cooler! What a nice change of pace from the blistering heat waves and monsoons we had over the summer months! So glad they are over! 

This is my first actual Fall. We don't really get the change of seasons in California (at least were we were) so it's nice to see the scenery change so drastically and have to pull out my sweaters! 

To celebrate we visited a local farm. Throughout October they have a huge Pumpkin Fest going on. Not only do they have a ton of free rides and a haunted house (not free unfortunately), but they have a 15 acre corn maze! 

Mini Ferris wheel for the kiddies. 

Who doesn't want to see their kid kicked off an animal!?

This is the coolest blow up I've ever seen. There are 4 blow up stands (the gray thing) that you stand on and in the middle is a blow up wrecking ball. You have to swing the ball and knock off your opponents! Awesome! 

We had to wait a little while for the tractor to come get us (complete with hay bales and everything!). 

It was a little chilly but luckily they were selling the most incredible hot apple cider I've ever tasted. 

We finally made our way to the haunted house. 

Complete with graves. I have to admit I was pretty freaked out the whole time. Andrew told me later that it was a lame haunted house, but I think it's because he was last in our group and I went first. 

Andrew and I before my pants were scared off! 

We then made our way through the corn maze! We made it in record time. Only took us 17 minutes! 

Corn maze selfie! 

BB King

After seeing The Lumineers in concert, Andrew and I wanted to create more intentional date nights.  We had such a good time at the concert we wanted to spend more time making memories like that!  Which is why we are so lucky, because we just found out that BB King will be coming to perform in our small town! We both love BB King and immediately bought tickets. He's not coming until early December, but I'm already super excited!

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A Few of my Recent Favorites

I feel like I've been running around like a crazy person the last couple weeks.  Everything just started all at once: school, work, more work, house keeping...lame.  I've compiled a few things that made me pause and smile these past weeks.  I hope you enjoy them too!

1. I'm a sucker for beautiful photography and I instantly fell in love with these shots that Nick Brandt took at the shoreline of Lake Natron in Tanzania.
2. I'm a CrossFit addict.  I've joined the ranks of the CrossFit cult...I practically live at our local box, mainly because I work there, but that's another story!  If you follow health related media at all I'm sure you would have seen the controversy over the pregnant mom who CrossFits.
3. Ever since I first saw this beautiful Photographer's Tripod Floor Lamp from Pottery Barn I knew I needed it in my life.  Unfortunately I could never justify that price tag.  Luckily, I ran across this the other day - a DIY spotlight tutorial!  Yay!
4. With Halloween around the corner, and all those cute costumes on Pinterest, I was quickly reminded of the horrors of Halloweens past with these photos.
5. Jamie Moore is in incredible photographer, and an even cooler mom.  Check out these portraits she made of her daughter.

Halloween Masks

Have you ever thought how hilarious it would be to show up to a Halloween party as your friend? You know you could dress like them and mimic their hilarious ticks. Well now there's a website that allows you to make a mask out of anyone's face...you just need their photo!

PopMask is a spin off of the company that brought you the face pillow (found here).  If you order today, you will receive your mask in time for Halloween!

I stumbled upon this creepy little gem while on Photojojo. If you haven't visited them, they are one of my favorite sites and sell all sorts of gadgets for your phone/camera! 

Date Night

Last night Andrew and I were able to go on our first 'real' date night in a while! These past few weeks have kept us both pretty busy, so it was nice to have some time to be together. We were lucky enough to win a local raffle for 2 tickets to see The Lumineers! Of course the concert was down in Phoenix, but that just added to the adventure!

After an hour and a half drive we made it to the venue and quickly grabbed a bite to eat with some of the other winners (the benefit of living in a small town is no one is a stranger for very long). We got obit tickets from will call and made it to our seats to see the first opening act, Nathaniel Rateliff. He was pretty good but I couldn't help but notice that he looked like a heavier Tom Hanks! 

There was a short break between Nathaniel and the second opening act, Dr. Dog, so we were able to catch up with even more winners (there were 20 tickets given away).  We all reveled in how incredible our seats were! I mean...we were 5 rows from the front just to the left of the middle section! We had the perfect view because we were close enough to see the stage, but high enough that the people in the standing area weren't blocking our view!

After what seemed like forever, The Lumineers finally came on, and I definitely think they were worth the wait. The put on such an incredible performance that the entire crowd was standing for the whole performance. 

We wound up leaving just before the encore. It was already 11pm and we still had an hour and a half to drive home. All in all it was a super fun date night and Andew and I promised we would have more intentional nights like that!