Hogle Zoo

We love the zoo... and legos.

Spudman Triathlon in Burley, Idaho

That's a finisher medal on a live body. It's exactly what I wanted out of this race, and more than I expected.
I've completed the Spudman Triathlon three times in my previous life as a younger and cooler person (2005, 2006, 2007).

I started it in 2008 as a five-months pregnant person. I had to borrow a wetsuit from my coach because mine didn't fit and I didn't even take a bike or running shoes because I planned to quit after the swim, which I did.



Woah. This picture from Spudman day in 1998 grosses me out, but I kind of love it because I am crazy about Ikey. Still, I looked gross, but I felt fine and surprisingly, I felt like I looked fine.

This year, TB graciously agreed to watch the kids for 24 hours and Coach Scott miraculously got me an entry into this sold-out race. I drove three hours to Burley, desperate for a rest area (none) and suffered a coronary when I had to drive through a really dense dust storm wall caused by a tractor and plow working the fields adjacent to the windy highway. At the race headquarters at the lovely Burley Golf Club, Heidi and Marilyn and I sold tons of triathlon gear at Coach's stand. I ate spaghetti and green beans and potatoes at race headquarters, then set up my bike for the race the next day. I noticed that my pulse would go up every time I looked at that big Snake River. 

I set up my bike stuff in the first transition zone. Note the white cross on the island in the middle of the river? I believe it's a memorial for a man who died during the swim in 1998.

Team Fast Lane checked into our comfortable accommodations at Dr. Geodhart's home and veterinary clinic in nearby Declo and Marilyn made dinner. I went to bed at about 11 am and woke up sometime after that, still in the dark, with my heart pounding, anticipating swimming the next day. I just knew that my heart was going to stop right that minute or that the world was going to run out of air, and I was worried that we were kind of far away from an ER or an ambulance or anything, but I was hopeful that the vet could save me if I was able to summon her before I expired. Eventually, I fell back asleep and woke up to the alarm at 5 am. We all packed up our stuff and headed to the start area to set up our second transition zone with running gear, wiggle into wetsuits, and jump into the river.

Heidi, Coach Scott, Marilyn, Aimee

I talked myself into and out of trying the swim about five times, and  since I found myself in the water when the start bell sounded, I decided not to fight the current and I committed myself to starting and finishing the race. I floated downriver for the first half of the course without putting my face in the water. When it felt like I'd been in the river pretty much long enough, a kayaker yelled out that I was just about half way. Halfway?! This was taking forever! So I put on my super-foggy goggles and swam just fine without hyperventilating or drowning and only running into the shore one time. I was so elated to climb out of the river. The second half of my swim was probably an average pace for a regular swimmer, but the first half was so slow that I was only faster than 6% of the people who finished the race. Most people who spent as much time as me in the water quit the race. I didn't!
I started riding my bike the same time it started raining, and I remembered that I forgot to train on the bike. The last two times I'd ridden my road bike was in the triathlon earlier this month, and in June of last year (and yes, I am including all of my training rides. There were none.) Both of those times, I rode less than 15 miles because they were sprint events. This race had a 40K (25.6 mile) bike course. So the bike was slow and fine and I didn't draft and I didn't crash. 
It started raining in earnest during my run, and I spent the first part of the run trying to remember the last time I ran 10K (6.2 miles) in a race or in training. I really think it must have been five years ago when I did a half-marathon while I was barely pregnant with Isaac.  The run through the sugar beet and corn fields was truly lovely with rain falling on us and a surprisingly large number of soggy locals cheering us on. I was hoping to finish under three hours, but I just missed it at 3:05:02. I sprinted that last tenth of a mile down the grassy hill and I was really blazing fast for just a minute.
I clearly am not "in training", although I am "carbo-loading" year round. What kind of fool travels across state lines for a competitive event in which the first leg causes anticipatory panic attacks, the total completed training miles for the second leg (in the whole previous year) is slightly less than the actual event, and the third event hasn't even been attempted in five years? So I'm foolish, and I felt like it when I checked my results and found that I am about the top of the bottom third of women who completed the race. It's not great, but it's something I can do and I really did enjoy the trip with my team and the actual race was fun too. And really, I was exerting myself for a full 56 minutes longer than the woman who won the race, so that's something. I think I'll train a little more and hopefully get better results. I have a couple more races this year, and I sure hope I haven't timed this precision machine to peak yet this season.

Aimee, Heidi (1st place!), Coach Scott (2nd place!), Marilyn (her first tri!)

Coach Scott treated us to a yummy lunch at The Upper Crust and I drove home in sleepy solitude to my hard-working husband and lovable children. The kids ran up yelling, "Did you win? Did you win?" They seemed satisfied with the finishers' medal on the red, white and blue ribbon and I guess I am too or I would try harder, right?

Pioneer Day - July 24th

Dallin slept over the night before because he was babysitting for the Kenny Loggins concert. So we made a good breakfast like we do when we have guests, watched half the parade on TV, checked the weather - mid 80's and overcast- and headed for the Days of '47 parade to celebrate the arrival of Mormon pioneers in Utah.
It took us as long to find a parking space as it did to walk four (long Utah-style) blocks to the parade route. The weather was great and the other revelers were friendly enough to let us share their shade.

 After the parade, we met TB at our favorite frozen yogurt shop for a cool treat. Happy Pioneer Day!

Kenny Loggins at Red Butte Garden Concert

The weather was perfect and the VIP tickets were unbelievable. Kenny Loggins wrote and sung way more songs than you think.

My favorite of the evening was "Conviction of the Heart". TB's favorite was "Celebrate Me Home".

We sat in VIP seats (thank you Bricks!) with Mitch, Josh, Holly and Skyler. Rachel and Lachlan came to visit. We ate Meier's chicken. I saw Monica for the first time in about four years.

And then....I saw Kenny Loggins! It was awesome. Rachel had aftershow passes and I grabbed one and ran right up to Kenny for a hug and a photo.  It was quite a day for a celebrity-crazed person such as myself.

Parade Floats and a confused deer

We don't always attend the July 24th parade, because it is usually blazing hot and so many people camp out that it's hard to get a decent spot. The forecast is for high 80s and clouds tomorrow morning, so maybe we will venture out. We found out last year that you can check out the floats in an air conditioned conference center before the parade and vote for your favorite. The groups all give out candy and prizes to bribe us for votes, and marching bands march around the place and it's nice and cool. Grandma Rainey and the Wans came with us to the Float Preview Party.

 

Todd saw this guy wandering around our yard while the kids and I were at the float show.

Road trip from Idaho to home

 After our road trip on the western edge of Idaho and a big fun week in Wallace, we decided to drive the quick way back through Montana to home. The drive to Missoula was super smoky. Visibility was low and it was kind of hard to breathe. We stopped Missoula for some ice cream at The Big Dipper. The drive through this part of the world wasn't nearly as pretty as our northern route and we didn't stop to see much, so it wasn't interesting either. We hadn't planned ahead for lodging so we missed Craters of the Moon and Nevada City, Montana so we'll have to come back this way sometime. We would have stopped at the ghost town of Bannock, but it just got washed away in a flash flood. Todd just drove like a robot and we made it to Idaho Falls where Ikey had a huge bowl of chicken noodle soup at Yummy House.

 In the morning, we visited Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls, which was a pretty little place with some animals that we don't have at Hogle Zoo.

Burrows and burros. I still think it's funny. TB still does not.

 We met my parents and Dallin in Pocatello at Buddy's for a meatball sandwich.

We drove all over Pocatello looking for the Model Railroad and Historical Society until the pharmacist eventually pointed us in the right direction. We made it a half hour after their monthly open house ended, but Ronnie was nice enough to let us in and start some trains for us. It was great, which is an opinion that of course I would have.

 

From Pocatello it's a boring straight shot to home. I don't usually think things are boring, but this last piece of driving after all our adventures kind of was. Anyway, we were lucky to have been where we have been and lucky to be coming home again.

More Fun in Idaho

After our first few days of fun in Idaho, nearly the whole crowd loaded into a trolley car for a tour around town and up to the Sierra Silver Mine.

We had lunch at the City Limits Pub, then headed to the railroad museum.

I took a quick walk through the Bordello Museum (closed for business in 1988!) We met up with the Wans for a hike on the Pulaski Trail. It was breathtakingly beautiful the whole way. We saw two snakes and only two other hikers the entire four mile round trip.

 We had a big family dinner at Red Light Garage, which had a UFO in the parking lot.

Most of us walked to 6th Street and Bank Street which is the official probable Center of the Universe.

 The next morning, we went to breakfast with Tim and Jo at a cute little tiny bakery in Osburn.

The Burrows and Dallin headed up to Albert's Landing to float the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. The nice guys there loaned us some tubes for our rafting adventure.

The water was chilly, and not too deep. After heading upstream for a while (we are such novice rafters!) TB pulled us into the current and we went through the "rapids". We rafted under a steel bridge and onto a rocky beach where we skipped rocks. The grown ups towed the kids back up stream and did the rapids again. We filled our rafts up with interesting rocks and had a really great time.

 Back in Wallace, the little girl cousins attended a tea party with Aunt Jo. Jovie dressed up like "The Black Swan". The ballet, not the movie.

 There was lots of swimming at the WPA-era swimming pool and the Burrows made chili dogs for dinner. The Faucheux kids sat around a card table making jokes late into the night.
On our last day, we took some walks up and down the public stairs and checked out the alleys.

It was a very cool part of the world to visit, and we didn't come close to running out of things to do.

Faucheux Family Fun in Wallace, Idaho

This is a big year for my parents. They celebrated their 40th anniversary last month and they celebrate their 60th birthdays this fall, so they treated us all to a getaway in Northern Idaho. Everyone arrived on Monday evening from various road trips. The Grandparents, FaucheuxDeux, Preeces and Wans checked into Hercules Inn. The Burrows and one Bible (we missed one Bible and one Hopewell the whole week!) checked into a cute house a half mile away.

Did you see this house in "Dante's Peak"? It was at the top of the viaduct just above the mine tunnel where the heroes hid out from the volcano. Our famous accommodations!

Tuesday morning, the Grandpa and everybody else loaded up bikes and bike trailers and headed us barely into Montana to ride "The Route of the Hiawatha". It's a 17 mile Rail to Trail path that goes through 10 tunnels and over 7 trestles.

Jovie was towed along cheerfully the whole time.

Aimee and Jovie's outfit. Cousins traded in and out of all the trailers throughout the day.

Todd and Ikey in the triple-rig. Ikey rode his bike for portions of the trail, but this 1.7 mile tunnel with no lights was a little disorienting for him, so TB gave him a ride in the trailer and towed his bike behind too. It was chilly in the tunnel!

Mike and Popa and TB just outside of Taft Tunnel.

Ikey, the intrepid biker.

Our first view of one of the trestles on our path. Caitie said no one warned her about heights. The highest trestle was 230 feet above the ground.

We rode a dusty bus on a narrow curvy trail back to the Taft Tunnel.

The boys head into Taft Tunnel to end the day back at our vehicles.

Aimee and Jovie made it!

Grandpa Faucheux made it!

When we got back to our home base, we met up with Aunt Jo and Uncle Tim who had been traveling around Glacier National Park and Canada. We went out to eat at historic 1313 Club.

Wednesday morning, the Preeces made breakfast for everybody at Hercules Inn.

Popa, TB, Coco, Mom, Dallin

Grandma and Caitie organized a bunch of games and craft projects.

Uncle Tim discusses construction vehicles (toys) with Jovie.

Aunt Caitie made these shirts for everyone. Aren't they the coolest reunion shirts you've ever seen?

We started posing for group photos on the front steps of the Hercules Inn.

Grandma and Grandpa with their dozen grandchildren.

 Florida Faucheuxes, Faucheuxes, Dallin, Burrows, FaucheuxDeux, Wans, Preeces. Everybody but Mike (the photographer) and Nikki and Sean (the workers).

 

Check for more details on Part II of Idaho Fun.