2 Tri Races & Monticello for the 24th

We went over to Monticello for the 24th of July weekend celebration.  It was a little different this year because Tige's parents and 2 younger siblings had gone back East on vacation, so we stayed in the house without them.  It was my brother David's 20th high school reunion, so his family came and stayed at the house with us.  It was great to spend time with them and also with Kirk and JaNae's families.  We packed a lot of fun (and a little work too) into our 5-day stay.  We ended up pressure washing and re-staining Tige's parents entire (large) deck.  I didn't take pictures, but it was a surprpise for when they got back from their trip, and it looked awesome!  Other highlights of our week were Kason's FIRST Triathlon, Tige/Kirk/Matt all doing a trithalon together and all 3 of them finishing, and the Saturday parade.

First we have Kason's kid's triathlon on Friday evening.  It was HOT.  I was glad I wasn't exercising.  They swam 1 length of the pool, then biked 1 mile and ran 1/2 mile.  Kason was the first one out of the water (there were 6 kids competing), and he never looked back.  First on and off the bike, and a first place finish.  We were excited for him. 

 He loves this 1st place medal (and wore it the next day to Tige's triathlon, which I thought was cute).

Saturday morning was the Hillman Triathlon.  Tige, Kirk & Matt all did it and were able to finish.  3 years ago Tige did this same triathlon and it was his first.  He finished in around 2:00 hours.  The 2nd time he did it, he had bike trouble with multiple flat tires and had his only DNF.  Matt also had bike troubles that year.  And finally this year all 3 of them were able to finish.  We haven't seen the exact finish times yet (we rushed away to the parade as soon as Tige was done), but he cut about 15 minutes off his time from 3 years ago, so that's great).

 Matt in transition

 Tige & Kirk coming in on the bike together.

The cheering crew.  Notice Taylor trying to take a picture with my camcorder.  These guys were troopers.

Matt starting the run

Tige finishing his run

Kirk finishing his run

We hurried to the parade which for some reason was moved up 30 minutes this year to 9:30.  Dumb.  It's been at 10:00 every year for as long as we can remember.  Anyway, we hooked up with David's family to watch the parade.  The kids had a great time and were able to get lots of candy.

David rode on his "Class of 1992" reunion float.  Dang he's getting old. ;)

After the parade we went to the park for lots of fun carnival-type games.  We thought the kids would love this little train ride, but Taylor was not at all pleased when Tige put him in the car.  So Abby rode solo.

Kason did a bunch of games too like football through a moving hoop, baseball knocking cans down, a joust with Bryce into the water, etc. 

That night Matt, David & Tige put on an awesome fireworks show for us in the backyard, and then we moved to the front yard to watch the city fireworks. 

We also had lots of playing playing in Kirk & JaNae's backyards as well as grandma's.  We threw frisbees, played catch with the dogs, and ran through the sprinklers.  We had a major dance fest at Matt's house Monday afternoon with all 7 grandkids dancing like crazy.  When they were tired, Tige and I had a danceoff, then Kirk and Matt.  I showed them all how it's done!  We picked apples from the tree and ate them all weekend and enjoyed all 3 huge yards and the cooler weather.