Coopers Rock

Tanner, 3 of the wrestlers, and I went rock climbing at Coopers Rock yesterday. I'd never been there. It was a really great place to climb. We got quite a few climbs in and met some fun people. I've never been climbing with so many older people. There were 3 couples all in their 50s or 60s at least who were showing us all up. It was really fun to watch. I am going to be a cool old person!

I was really proud of Tanner yesterday. He is really great with those guys. They completely respect him and have a great time with him. It was fun to watch him coaching them up the climbs.


He also really makes some hard climbs look easy.

Hopefully, we will be back there a few times before it gets too cold!

Kayaking

Dad and I borrowed Jon's kayaks this weekend for a nice little trip down Wolf Creek. It turned out to be a really long, hard trip with what felt like more walking down the creek because it was too shallow in so many places. Apparently, there are websites where you check water levels. I'm going to have to learn how to do that. But despite all of that, it was fun to be out on the water with my dad. We'll just pick a better trip next time!(Yes, he is sitting in the water behind the kayak. It was that shallow!)

Triathlon

After blowing a tube in the Morgantown Tri last weekend and not finishing, I decided to race this weekend so I could finish. Mom and I drove up to Vermilion, OH. I thought it was going to be like Petoskey, but honestly, it wasn't even close. Man, have I been spoiled. Anyhow, there were 700 competitors, which I'm glad I didn't know until after the race. I felt like I did great. I did better on the bike section than I thought I would, but wasn't able to cruise through the running part as much as I would have liked. But I think that was due to the heat and running in sun on blacktop. Nothing I could do about that! I did pass a number of people and didn't get passed on the run (I got passed plenty on the bike!). There was only one other woman in my age group who did the Olympic distance, so I got a second place medal. I'll take it! The rest of us must be too busy having kids to do a tri. Mom got some good pictures, but since she can't send me digital versions, I thought I'd just give you a picture of my lovely little bike.

I know, I know ... using those fancy shoes that clip into the pedals will make me faster, but I have a faster transition when I don't have to change from bike shoes to running shoes. Maybe next year!

The Induction Dinner

The actual dinner which was the purpose of the trip was much more interesting than I thought it would be. Everyone was dressed very elegantly ... and I love people watching, so that alone was fun! There were a ton of people there to see Jon, which also made it fun because I knew a lot of them. Caleb and Tanner both did a great job with their introduction speeches and Jon, as usual, did a great job. He is a terrific storyteller!
The rest of the speakers weren't bad either, so it was an enjoyable evening. And, to top off the evening, Tanner and Caleb got their pictures taken with Miss Oklahoma.
Oh, and I guess I should put in a picture of me so you can see what I was wearing since I was checking out what every one else was wearing!
Thank you, Amber, for picking a bridesmaid dress that I could actually wear again! And thank you, Anna, for curling my hair for the occasion!

Gunner and Ethan

The friends we stayed with in OKC have two little boys. We had fun playing with them.
We got to see the Budwiser Clydesdales and the Dalmation.
And we also did some goofing around in Bricktown. So after a few days of playing around, we were off to the big dinner!

Billy's Backyard

While we were in Oklahoma, we got to see a number of our friends that we had met when we lived down there. While in Stillwater, we stopped at Billy's place. He had a number of things set up in his backyard to help him train for rock climbing. Here is Tanner on the slackline. We used to mess around with these a lot in college. Honestly, there doesn't seem to be a direct correlation between the skills you develop on a slackline and the skills you need for climbing, but climbers like to play around on them because they already have the webbing!

He also had a new contraption I hadn't seen before. Caleb flew right up it. Thanks for the entertainment Billy!

News Worthy

Lots more to come, just wanted to brag for a minute: Check out the article in the Oklahoman about my hubby and his family.