aloha friday!

Hey hey! Two posts in a week? Lucky you!

Happy aloha Friday!!

Today is off to a good(ish) start. I woke up super early at 4:05am (the :05 makes all the difference really) and almost murdered the cat. He was all up in my face last night, on and off the bed, making cookies on my pillow, back in my face. Oh, Baxter. Baxter. Baxter. Sleep all day, play all night is the cat mantra, as any cat owner will tell you. And then my new ALOHA necklace broke, so I am suuuuper bummed about that. If Rob can't fix it I'm sending it back to the lady I bought it from who super apologetic and promised to fix it. (UPDATE: Rob fixed it! Hurrah!)

However everything quickly turned around once I got to Kaia. Today is Friday Flow, and the yoga was exactly what I needed to destress and turn this morning right around. Rob doesn't have to go into work until a little later this morning so I had a chance to indulge in a little me time with a smoothie at Blue Tree Cafe and... Wal-mart. Whomp whomp. Wal-mart at 6:30am is tolerable. I picked up some fancy duct (duck?) tape for our Kaia handbag making party on Saturday. Some girls (#beastmode) use kettle bells, and the rest of us use this awesome Kaia invention called a handbag. It's a bag filled with sand, and then duct taped all pretty.

Kaia handbag (photo cred: http://kaiafitsacramento.com)

Right now Tom (of Tom & Jerry) is trying to poison a dog while singing, Lullaby, but changing the lyrics to "I hope you don't wake up..." Um... um... yeah. That's all I got. Why can't Christian just want to learn Spanish from Dora?

I've decided to do the Windward Half Marathon in September, which I'm stoked about! I haven't done one since 2012. My friend Val is into it, so we've decided to do some early morning runs together after Kaia is over. Another mom from Mighty Moms said she was hoping to do it too, so I'm super motivated and excited to train for it. Anyone else? Jayme? Brandi?

My beautiful friend Jayme and I pushing through with smiles!

This handsome little man was waiting for me at the finish line. An 8-month old baby Christian. 

I really need to get my butt off the couch and go to Stroller Strides this morning. We have thankfully moved onto Curious George (no poisoning dogs there!) and he's happily racing his cars down his "new" racetrack so I'm not feeling particularly motivated. Probably also because I have that yoga buzz going on (yes even after Wal-mart).

We had a lovely beach playdate with friends yesterday! I met Natalie at WeePlay way back when Kobe was just a little babe only a few months old. (Kobe just turned 2 and now has the sweetest little sister that is 5 months old.) Christian is a little bit older than Kobe, and I'm so happy that we have stayed in touch and remain good friends! 

I'm hoping we find ourselves at the beach again this evening with some Stroller Strides friends! Speaking of Stroller Strides... better late than never. 

Have a wonderful weekend!! 

swim, bike, run

Back in 2006, I decided I wanted to do my first triathlon. I started training for the Santa Barbara Triathlon, the sprint distance course. Rob was training for the "long course." Normally with triathlons there's a "sprint course" and an "olympic course." Santa Barbara was taking it up a notch and making it more challenging than your typical olympic distance.

Around the same time, I got hired by Alaska Airlines and was starting Barbie Bootcamp the same weekend as the triathlon. Fortunately, I still got to see Rob race, but I had to leave the next day (the day of the sprint course) for Seattle.

Fast forward SEVEN years, two moves, a few jobs, three pregnancies, and one baby later... I have completed my very first triathlon.

I started training a while back, and was super serious at the beginning, but it tapered off. Of course I would still go for swims, and bike rides, and runs, but more or less when I felt like it. And that week in Virginia... waste of suitcase space packing a sports bra. My evening-before-pre-race-fuel? Rob's home brewed beer and a red velvet Cake Couture cupcake. How I didn't drown, I'll never know.

One of the best things about this race was doing it alongside my good friend Suzi. Love that girl to the moon and back. We are race buddies - we've done the LA Rock-n-Roll Half-Marathon, Great Aloha Run, and now the Honolulu Triathlon.

Race morning started early. Really early. 4am early. And in true Suzi/Amber fashion, we were running on the late-ish side. The transition area opened (the area where you rack your bikes, set out your gear, etc.) at 4am... our alarms weren't even going off until 4am. We were out the door, with a sleepy but happy toddler in tow at 4:30am. For the most part, we were all functioning. Once we got to Magic Island and set-up our stuff we had lots of time to kill before our wave entered the water. 

One thing I love about races is the energy. There's just this great, nervous, excited energy buzzing in the air. People are chatty and happy; I love it. 

At 6:18am the Sprint Women entered the water at Magic Island. We swam 750 meters, which was a cluster. I'm not used to swimming with hundreds of other people in the water, but luckily I was only groped and kicked a handful of times. 

Once I got out of the water, I ran directly to the transition area and searched for where I racked my bike. Let me tell you, I am ashamed of my transition times. It took me FOREVER. I dried my feet off, wiped the sand off as best as possible, put on my bike shorts, tank top, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, took a swig of Gatorade and walked my bike out of the transition area. I biked for 12 miles. It was quiet. It was serene. There weren't too many others around me. The air was crisp, like how it is in the early mornings. The course itself was ugly, but probably the best for the event. We biked down Nimitz Highway, past the Aloha Tower, and towards the airport... and then turned around. 

When I made it back to the transition area, it was time for the run. Surprisingly, it was the portion I dreaded the most. I felt so unprepared to run those 3 measly miles. But I laced up my shoes, TOOK OFF MY HELMET, put on my running shorts and hat, drank more Gatorade, and out I went. I pushed through it. I ran every single mile without stopping. I sprinted through the finish line with an official time of 1:45:06. I was ready for a nap. But Suzi and I hopped back into the water, and it was the best decision all day. The water was calm and cool, and it felt good to float and reflect. 

One of the best things while doing this race? Seeing Rob and Christian cheering me on. Christian's face would light up in recognition as I screamed to him and they screamed and cheered back at me. It was such a huge boost to see them. It kept me going, to know that they were rooting for me. And being able to celebrate finishing this darn thing with such a good friend. 

The rest of the day we low key. We ate a huge breakfast at Jack's Restaurant down the street. And by 11am, Christian was way past ready for his nap. He was such a trooper!! He was beyond a trooper; he was great. 

I loved doing this triathlon. It was probably one of the most fun races I've ever done, and I really hope that I'll be able to do another one sometime in the future. But probably only in Hawaii... I can't imagine doing that swim in cold water... with a wetsuit. I'm such a wimp. The water temp that day was 77 degrees, which technically meant we could wear a wetsuit. And some people did! So, who's the wimp now? Totally joking. I think anyone who even attempts to do one of these races is a rockstar. So, rock on baby!

aloha friday!

It's been a very busy week with Rob's sister and our nieces in town. A very busy, and very FUN week! I am so sad that they're leaving tomorrow, and I can't even imagine how disappointed Christian will be when he figures out that his cousins have left. It's hard to explain things like "vacation" and "went back to their home" to an 18-month old. I guess we'll have to tell him that his cousins went "bye bye" but we will see them again.

Christian LOVES his cousins!

A few of the fun things we've done together: many trips to the beach, the Waikiki Aquarium, pool time at Mimi & Papa's house, visited the Oahu Urban Garden Center where we received a fabulous tour from our good friend Jayme, and had a picnic lunch in the gazebo. I think I could write an entire post on how awesome that was. Maybe I will! We also went to the Makapu'u tide pools, and to a few different playgrounds.

Violet & Christian chasing a pigeon at the Waikiki Aquarium!

Waikiki Aquarium

Lilley and Christian walking through a tunnel at the garden.

Violet showing Christian something VERY fascinating at the garden.

Lilley sharing her seat with Christian at the beach.

My friend Suzi and I had fun at the Great Aloha Run. However, the race was probably the "ugliest" race I've ever ran. I mean, we ran under the H1 on Nimitz in the most industrial part of town. Um... this is HAWAII... HELLO!?!? It would have been nice to see a beach or something.

As you can tell, we are very serious runners... stopping for a photo op.

I'm looking forward to a beach day with our friends Jayme and Joel, and Quinten and Rachelle this Saturday. It's been pretty dreary the past few days, so hopefully the rain will hold off. Although that definitely does NOT slow the kids down. And the adults just go hide under the tent we setup.

Oh, check out this video of one of the Hawaiian Monk Seals at the Waikiki Aquarium spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning... I wonder if he gets dizzy?

(link to video)

I hope you have a great weekend! Aloha!

mud over matter

Yesterday Rob and I participated in a 5k mud run called the Makahiki Challenge. (You can read what Makahiki means here.) It was at Kuoloa Ranch, the filming location for lots of movies and TV shows like Lost, Godzilla, and Jurassic Park to name a few. We did see some "ruins" and found out it was from the movie Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which I guess is in theaters now. So the backdrop of the race was gorgeous, but at the start, I hardly noticed. The whole first mile was up a giant hill. There were lots of people in costumes and even some ran it barefoot, which was crazy. And kinda gross.

All in the all the obstacles weren't that hard... or has hard as I thought they'd be. And I didn't even get as muddy as I thought I would despite all the rain. We climbed over hay bales, high stepped through "tires," went down a giant slide (the most fun!!), waded through thigh-deep muddy gross water, walked a plank (skinny telephone pole covered in mud) over a bed of cow pies, climbed over a giant wall with the help of a rope, shimmied through "lava tubes," and waded through more mud. I swear that hill at the beginning was the hardest part of the race. I convinced Rob to run it with me, which meant slowing him down considerably, but he loves me, and so he did. I'm really glad too because I had a blast, and I'm pretty sure he did too!

The black leggings make it hard to tell, but I was actually pretty muddy.

And as an extra super awesome bonus, Christian and Papa cheered us on and were there to greet us at the finish line! Ok, so this picture is not from after the race (notice the non-muddy people), but it was too cute not to post!

After the race, we were treated to free pia (beer). As Rob said, Primo is kinda like the Miller Light of the islands. But hey, we're not going to pass up a free beer!

And maybe we should have just thrown all of our clothes away - and some we actually did - but this is what it looks like to wash your clothes after a mud run. Eww. 

I had so much fun doing this race that I actually considered signing up for the Warrior Dash - another mud run coming up. But, since Rob will be in ground school, and this one looks way harder than yesterday's, AND I'll be running a half marathon the following week, I decided it probably wasn't the best time. But without a doubt, this will not be the last mud run I do. It was just way too much fun! And when we got home, after a long hot shower of course, I crashed. Thankfully it was time for Christian's nap too. I was completely beat. But Rob... he went out for a surf.