My First Triathlon

Today was supposed to be my first triathlon.  I've been wanting to do one for a few years now.  I was going to do one two years ago, but never got around to it for some reason and then last year I was pregnant, so this was going to be the summer.  I chose the Millenium Triathlon because it is the shortest one around (500 yard swim, 15 mile bike, 5k run).

I got up this morning at 5, left the house at 6 and got to Millenium Park at 6:30.  I unloaded my bike in the dark, pouring rain, set it up in transition, got my body marked and then parked the car.  When I made it back to the transition area I heard that the race was postponed for an hour because it was thundering and lightening.  I quick called Jared because he was going to come with the kids soon, but they were already in the car, so they decided to come anyway.

We hung out during the hour delay and then heard that we were to go to the transition area for announcements.  I figured we would hear about how the race would start since the storm had blown over and the sky was clearing up.  When I got there I heard that the race was cancelled.  Their reason was that even though the front had passed they needed a four hour window of good weather and that the meteorologist couldn't ensure that.  Nobody was too surprised since the weather was so bad and it has been cancelled in the past, but there were still many disappointed people.  We headed to our van and promptly got stuck in a huge traffic jam.

So, my first triathlon has not happened yet.  There is no refund, but at least I got a T-shirt, water bottle, and coffee mug.  I'm thinking about doing the Reeds Lake Triathlon in a month so all my training doesn't go to waste.  Maybe I'll wait to sign up until I see the weather forecast...

6 Years and Counting

Today marks a special day for our family, 6 years ago Susan and I tied the knot.  It was a memorable day in our lives along with the stormiest day for the month of July 2005.  The storm clouds rolled in just as our guests were arriving and then the rumbling began as soon as the beautiful bride came down the aisle.  Even with the rain it was a great day.  There have been many wonderful events in the Benthem family since July 16, 2005.  For a short time we lived in our first house.

It was a nice place to begin, however, after only 5 weeks of living in our first home we were led to our second home.  We boxed up most all of our belongings, gave away many others to a neighborhood free sale, stored our car and countless other items with our family and moved to Honduras to begin life in our second home.

It was a nice three bedroom apartment on the end of a quiet street with a wonderful view of the neighborhood river and picturesque hillsides.  Susan and I had the opportunity to teach at the International School Tegucigalpa for the 2005-2006 school year.   We had a wonderful time, Susan taught 1st grade and I taught 4th grade.

Back after a long break

I've decided to get back to our blog that we kept starting in 2005 while we lived in Honduras to keep connected to friends and family and when our first child was born. Then we didn't keep up with the blog as much mostly due to other social media that we were using. I'm hoping to use this again now that the Benthem family is four and create posts that are interesting to any of our followers and family rather than using other sources. I have a lot of editing to do to catch this blog up to 2011 speed. We'll see how it really goes. So keep tuned.

Here's a family photo from our latest photo shoot. More to come...

While you wait for me to upload, write, share more great Benthem family fun. Feel free to search the archives of this good ol' blog to see what we were up to back in our earlier days.

Julia's First Birthday

Julia turned one on Sunday!  Here are a few pictures from her party with our families on Saturday.  More to come...

Recent Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Julia.  Sorry about my lack of posting!

January

Julia loves the activity table she got for Christmas.

One of her favorite activities is watching Jared shovel the driveway.

Bedtime story!

November

Here are some pictures from November.  Julia now has two teeth and is learning how to crawl.  She mostly just scoots around on her belly, but is trying to coordinate her limbs to crawl on all four.