Birthday Celebration

I celebrated my actual birthday-DAY at Old Chicago and got my favorite hawaiian style pizza with the best "on tap" drinks with Katie and her kiddos. Oh, I also colored my hair medium brown if you were wondering why it looks darker. Bryan had school, so he wasn't able to surprise me on a Wednesday.But he made up for it with these roses when he came to Killeen on Friday. Aren't they beautiful? Then I had a fun birthday party with some of my friends from work and church. I got the best cake ever- oreo ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It was a big hit, we just forgot to let it defrost before putting the candles in and had to wait a grueling 15 minutes!

Bryan surprised me with a new trailer hitch, trailer hitch bike rack (since I ruined the one on top of my car), tinted windows on my Subaru, and a speedometer for my bike. I guess this years theme was biking and car upgrades? He is always so good with birthday presents. Thank you sweet heart. Happy 27 years to me!

Austin 2011 Olympic Triathlon

We competed in our first olympic traithlon on 5 September 2011, in Austin Texas. It involves a 1500 meter swim on Lady Bird Lake, a 40K or 25 mile bike ride around the state capital building and parks, and a 10K or 6 mile run through the parks. It was very intimidating seeing all these triathletes with muscles and fast looking bikes, while Bryan's running around in his Army gym shorts and I'm in a little girl swimsuit. But looks can be deceiving:)
Here's Bryan coming out of the lake. All his pictures were awesome. He is super photogenic when it comes to races. He was the second group to start the race, while I was the last (1 hour later!).See the capital building in the background? The audience was fun to see too. We had people dressed up as tacos, watermelons, summer Santa Clause, and penguins. Keep Austin Weird.Now this is my favorite! Bryan has his mouth open either trying to catch his breath or cheering because he is about to cross the finish line. Love it!

Me and my little girl swimsuit. Glad I had a matching swim cap. The water was super warm, so it wasn't a wetsuit legal race. I kicked Bryan's trash by 3 minutes on the swim, but he kicked my trash in the other 2 events.


I was so glad to be done. I was sick all the week before the race and was working night shift and had a mountain bike. I know, I know. Excuses. Excuses. The run about killed me though. Bryan was kind enough to run with me for 4 miles. My goal time was between 3 and 3:30 hours. I got 3:25 baby! My next goal will be under 3:15. Bryan did amazing as usual, 2:40. Thats probably why he had his mouth open gasping for air at the finish line:) Anyways, it was really fun. We will definately be doing more of those.

BLORA 2011 Sprint Triathlon

Unfortunately the triathlon was changed to a duathlon 2 days before the event due to the low water level at Lake Belton [24 September]. We did have 75+ days of 100 degree weather without rain all summer long! The duathlon was run 1.5 miles-bike 12 miles-run 1.5 miles. My goal this time was to make it through the run without stopping and with the run split, it was perfect. Bryan is always prepared for sporting events and made it easy to leave in the morning. This is the only picture I have of him alone pumping up the bike tires. He is also the first to finish and always collects on goodies and freebies.

Here is me at the close to finish line, that is why I am so happy. Usually I am not so happy, but don't my legs look nice?
This was Katie Whipple's first triathlon-turned duathlon- and she did awesome! I've got her signed up for a 1/2 marathon now, she just doesn't know it. "Good job working out girls!"

Here is the crew in the transition area after the race! The weather was nice, a little cold in the morning, but heated up quickly once the sun came up. The race wasn't as organized as we'd like, but hey, it was free and we all did great. Good job everybody.

Happy Birthday to Me!

St. Thomas

Bryan and I took a much needed, very spontaneous vacation to the U.S Virgin Island of St. Thomas. We didn't realize it was the off season (which is weird because the weather was fantastic) and there were so few tourists. We practically had the beach and pool to ourselves. This trip was mostly dedicated to really getting into the sport of scuba diving. The island has 80 dive sights, 15 of which are ship wrecks. We would love to go back to dive them all. This is the view from our little studio. The small resort has 64 condos, a gym, grocery/souvenir shop, dive/snorkel hut, pool, food bar, private beach, and tennis courts. It was covered in iguanas and lizards.
We spent time relaxing on the beach and hammocks reading. We tried to stay out of the sun because we burn so easily. Bryan's pretending to be studious and reading some optometry magazine.

We toured the entire island (25 miles) and stopped at the famous golf course. Their roads are way scary-curvy and the left side is the right side. I practically peed my pants every time we got on the road.
We snorkeled at Coki Beach. All the tourists come here to be completely surround by fish. If you snap your fingers underwater, the fish think you are feeding them and they will surround you just long enough to realize you don't have food. It was fun, but when I say jelly-fish, I was out of there!

We went on small hikes on the rocks. Most of the island is rock, unless a resort has created a beach or there is a natural bay.
We watched the sun set up at the lodge.

We ate the most spectacular squid at FAT TURTLES at the Yacht Haven Grand.

Another sunset at the lodge.

We went diving with the best guides: Chip, Wolfgang, and Ana. Ana and Wolfgang are from Switzerland and Chip is a college student working summers on the USVI. We went on 4 dives with them. We went to turtle cove and saw so many LARGE sea turtles. We did our first ship wreck which was incredible. I saw a moray eel there! Scary!

We also saw sting ray, puffer fish, squid, lobster, and every imaginable fish. Unfortunately, we didn't find any treasure. Boo!

I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves to snorkel/swim/dive. Some things to consider: rent a car, the food is WAY expensive, and St. Johns (a different USVI) is a must! 60% of that island is a National Park with biking and hiking trails, underwater snorkeling trails, and some of the most beautiful beaches. We didn't make it there, but maybe next time. We still have many dive sights to see!

CCRN

One of my goals for 2011 was to pass the CCRN exam. Yesterday I did just that. The CCRN certification validates my knowledge of nursing care in the acute and/or critically ill patients and it promotes continued excellence in the critical care nursing field. It has been a gruelling 7 month process as I completed the Army's 4 month critical care nursing course and then another 3 months of self studying. Now I have to start working on my other goals?

A New Hobby

I always say that in my next life I want to be a professional ballroom dancer. I am fascinated by the tv shows Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. The performances are amazing!
About 2 years ago, I found an advertisement for ballroom dancing. I didn't want to try it out because Bryan wasn't available to be my partner(him being in Houston and all). Now we are together all summer (lucky Bryan) and I signed us up for Cha Cha lessons. We are more country dancers, but I wanted to try something different. And boy is it difficult! Our first class was last night. We shall see how the rest of them go!