Palm Springs Century Ride

Last weekend we were in Palm Springs for Al's first Century Bike Ride.  You can't take me in the car and drive to Orange County or the IE (Inland Empire) without stopping at Chick Fil A.  Alex got a blue balloon and this picture is to prove that he does in fact have hair.

We stayed at a big house in Palm Springs with a group of people that were also doing the race.  Ross forgot to mention that it was his Ironman coach and the group he usually trains with. These people weren't there to see Palm Springs, try new restaurants, or go shopping like I had in mind.  They were there to TRAIN and when I say train I mean go on a 3 hour bike ride, 1 hour swim, and then maybe a run.  We arrived just in time for Al to go swimming.  Al didn't have his goggles or swimsuit, but when you're staying with a triathlon coach he has extras. Extras as in a Speedo...hahah   Check out those legs on Al and Ross!!

The house was huge.  It had a pool, hot tub, ping pong table, and mini golf.  Alex was daddy's helper.

He is officially walking and he is all over the place.  It's pretty cute.

If you don't know what a Century Bike Ride is, here is the definition = 100 miles.  Sounds awful right?  I think Al was thinking the same thing the night before, but he has an Ironman in 6 months, so this is only 1 portion of that.  They started there ride at 6am and finished around 1:30PM.  Palm Springs is always windy, but there were extra strong winds this day which obviously makes the bike ride that much harder.  Ross was kind enough to take a picture on the course for me.

Since it would be too hard to find Al on the course we met him at the finish line.  

Nicest weather ever and not too windy where we were standing :)

Walk Walk Walk is what Alex likes to do.

Al and the group he rode with finishing the race.

 Scott the coach on the far right won his age group in Ironman Canada last year and Teresa his wife at the back middle won her age group at Ironman Kona last year which is the World Championships.  She is also an amazing cook and these aren't recipes you will find on Pinterest.  She has a book with a ton of yummy recipes designed for healthy eating and obviously triathletes.  These people are amazing, so amazing that some of them went on a run after their 100 mile bike ride.  Seriously?  

Alex's new thing is to put his hands up in pictures, funny boy.

Talk about helmet hair.

After the race Chipotle was giving out free burritos to all the finishers.  We obviously didn't learn our lesson from Yogurtland (see previous post), but we went.  Alex is such a lover these days....he will just kiss you out of the blue and these aren't just kisses.  These are big open mouth kisses...haha

Sometimes he bites so it can get a little scary.

He loves rice and beans.

Just enjoying dinner and chatting about Ironman. It was a very interesting weekend.  I learned a lot about triathlons.  I also got some new recipes from Teresa's book and learned that you should eat like a King for breakfast, a Prince at lunch, and a Pauper at dinner.  As we are all eating 5lb Chipotle burritos in this picture...ha

National Yogurt Day

Did anyone know there was a National Yogurt Day? I didn't, but I thought it was great that my favorite Yogurt place, Yogurtland was giving away free yogurt. We decided to join in on the fun and go get some. Obviously we weren't thinking....I mean everyone loves something free, but hello we live in over populated LA, so of course the whole world wants free yogurt.  As soon as we pulled up and saw this line we kept on driving.  

Buying a yogurt is much better than standing in a line so we went to a different yogurt place down the street that wasn't celebrating National Yogurt Day.  We let Alex have some sugar free yogurt but by the look on his face in the picture below I'm convinced it wasn't sugar free?

FIrst motorcycle ride.
Our friends met us there to celebrate the big day.

Here's to National Yogurt Day!!

Surf City 2012

On Superbowl Sunday Al ran the Huntington Beach Half Marathon. This is the first of many races he will be doing this year.

Alex was amused by the caution tape and was such a good boy the entire race.  Little does he know that this 2 hour race will be the shortest one he will attend all year. 

Al's dad Al the 4th was also supposed to run the race, but hurt his leg the night before.  I've been to many races for Al and his dad and I've never seen him as a spectator , so this is good documentation.

Looking good at mile 3!!

Abe Lincoln.  I don't understand why anyone would want to run 13 miles in a suit.

At mile 13 and almost done.....wooohoooo.

Having fun with Grandma Cameron.

Great job Al and Alex says thanks for the medal.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. 

Ice bath.....yikes

Later that day we watched the Superbowl and had lots of Superbowl food.  Al grilled for about 5 minutes 

and I cooked for about 5 hours, but I think that's better than watching the game.

It's too bad the Patriots didn't win because it would have been a perfect way to end the day. 

Oh and in effort to keep up with my husband I signed up for a Sprint triathlon.  I promised myself that if I signed up I would train properly.  I've been following the training schedule below since week 7 and haven't missed a workout yet.  So far so good.

I was a little worried about the swim, but Al came with me the first time and coached me through it.  I'm still not great, but at least I won't drown on race day.  I don't think I will ever have the desire to do a  tri with an open water swim, but we will see how I feel after this race.  Wish me luck!!   Oh and I know this swimsuit is ugly....I just got my Speedo in the mail.

Mickey Mouse

Last week we went to Disneyland with Al.  It's always so much fun to have him with us.  I've never seen so many characters out and there was a pretty short line to see Tigger, Eeyore, and Pooh.  Alex loved Tigger mainly because his costume is so bright. 

Al thinks since he lives in Southern California he doesn't EVER need to wear pants and then he asked me if I brought him a coat because it was cold. Seriously?

Alex loved Pooh too and kept trying to grab his fur...lol

My favorite part of the afternoon was our Mickey Mouse encounter.  Alex looooved Mickey.  I thought he would still be too young for the characters, but he liked them more than the rides we took him on.

He was hamming it up and had the entire line saying things like awww so cute.

We couldn't leave without playing Astro Blasters.  I found out the secret and still got killed by Al. 

Flo Rida

It only took 3 years, but I can finally check Ellen off my to do list. My friend Victoria and I had tickets to see her last week and it was so much fun.  Drew Barrymore, Octavia Spencer, and Flo Rida were on the show.  Flo Rida performed Good Feeling and I thought that was the best part of the show.  

When he walked into the audience he touched our hands....you can see it here in case you missed it.

I forgot how big of a production it is to go to a taping.....waiting forever, clapping every 2 minutes, standing, sitting, jumping, screaming. I was exhausted when we left...lol  I still have a few other shows I would like to see while we live in LA, but I might need to recover from this one first.

Our friends Celia and Aaron watched Alex for me.  Their little girl Madison is a couple months older than Alex, so it was perfect.  Alex got to play with cats which will never happen with me since I'm allergic.

He got to have movie night and watch Baby Einstein

and share some beads with Maddy.  Celia titled this picture Lady and the Tramp, so cute.