The Active Family Travels: Storming Seattle

Question: How much luggage does it take for one mom and two kids to go to Seattle for five days?

Answer: A LOT!

The problem is this: We stayed with my sister in Seattle for five days, but in that time:

- Asa went to a two-day dance intensive with some of the nation's top choreographers. Result: three bags of dancewear and shoes.

- Mackenzie wanted us to visit the Shudokan Karate dojo in Mercer Island. Result: Two bags of karate gis (those funny white outfits) and belts.

- I wanted to fit in a bike ride and run with my sister, who is also a triathlete. Result: One bike, one bag of biking gear, one suitcase full of cold-weather biking and running clothes.

- We wanted to go visit a Wing Chun Kung Fu school while we were there. Result: more athletic wear.

Oh yeah, and we wanted to go out for dinner and visit friends while we were at it. Result: Pack nice clothing and shoes. And I had to feed my teenage son for five days. Pack lots and lots of food and snacks.

In the end, it's a very lucky thing that we still have a mini-van. You could've mounted an invasion of a small country with less stuff than we packed in that van. I'm just glad my sister was not overwhelmed when we landed in her entryway with our massive amounts of gear. But the upside is this: hubby and I have accomplished one of our goals: we've raised active kids. Kids who are engaged in life, and fit in body. If that takes a little more equipment, cargo space, and planning, not to mention lots of fresh food, so be it.

Seasons Turning: Coming Into Parenthood's Autumn

Fall came today. Yesterday it was summer, hot as Hades, the air conditioning on for the first time this year. In the evening it started to cool down, and I grabbed my bike and headed out my favorite back country road. Swirls of wind sent the first crispy golden leaves dancing ahead of me. The calendar says nine more days of summer, but the seasons say otherwise: autumn comes earlier in the Northwest forests. The days will still be hot now, but the nights will chill and I shook out my down comforter and changed the duvet cover.

Although we homeschool, it seems our lives are inevitably tied to the school calendar. So as September rolls on like a steam train, I headed to Portland with the FTC robotics team I coach for the season kickoff on Saturday. This year my team of boys all tower over me. At fourteen to seventeen years old, they are near-men and their voices boom with new depth as they chatter about coding and servos and the inevitable video games. They make decisions with maturity, stay doggedly on task, and it seems that my years of "herding cats" as I've called my role as a coach is coming to an end.

Sunday brought the first of the year's ten thousand dance performances for my daughter. Her dance and theatre company had an open house, so she performed with the dance team, and reprised a song from her role as "Annie" in the musical. Whereas in years past, I was needed backstage for hair, makeup, and costume changes, now I can sit in the audience and chat with the other parents. Clearly, I am becoming superfluous, like a leaf cast off from a tree to drift slowly down to earth.

Yet as the earth has its magnetic poles that it must orbit around, I sense that my kids still need me at their center, still need a direction for their compass arrows to point. Even as they reach out in all directions, I am still there at the core. This year will be very different from the last time I trained for the Ironman. They were seven and ten then, now they'll be almost thirteen and sixteen when I do the race. I won't have to scramble to fit my workouts in around my husband's schedule or when I can find a babysitter. But I have to be careful to guard my time with them and make sure that I don't take my fleeting hours with them for granted. Like summer's last rays outside my window, their time with me is drawing to a close and I want to hold it close and make it last.

There's Not Much Better

There aren't many things better than getting to swim outside in the sunshine. Unless your daughter decides to come with you and swim laps, that is. We had a great time in one of the first truly hot days of the year. It's cool when your kids get old enough to do these things together. When they were younger, finding time to work out was about finding babysitters or using jogging strollers. Now we just do it together. Love it.

My Cute New Training Partner

Asa, my 9 year old is training for her first 5k, so today we went out for our first training run together. I have to say, it was bitterly cold and I was underdressed for jogging at her pace, but we had a great time. She ran/walked 1.6 miles, running three blocks and then walking one and repeating that for the whole distance. I think that's great for a first outing, this girl is a goer for sure!

When we got home, we mapped the route together on Mapmyrun.com, and then entered it into her training log. Boy does she feel like a big girl athlete now, I even put quick ties on her shoes. I'm looking forward to more runs together. This is one of the greatest things about being an athlete mom, passing on the gift, the love of the sport to your kids.

Annual Adventures at Waldo

This will most likely be one of the few blog posts I manage to scribble before we leave for Italy next Saturday (OMG!) The number of details rattling in my brain is mind-boggling, but we managed to still throw our camping gear in the van and make it up to our favorite lake for Mackenzie's 12th (simply not possible...he's twelve???) birthday. The thing he most wanted to do was to camp at a lake and go kayaking. So we met my mom and a bunch of friends up at Waldo Lake and broke out some s'mores to celebrate. At 4:14 in the afternoon, he became a 12 year old on the shore of the lake.

As soon as we got settled in at camp and tromped down to the water's edge, I could feel the water pulling at me like some kind of crazy addiction. I couldn't just NOT get in. Good thing I brought my wetsuit, Waldo Lake is cold and clear as glass. Last year when we camped here I went for a short swim, but without a wetsuit I couldn't go very far out past the shallows where it's (relatively) warmer. This year Mackenzie kayaked with me while I swam out and around an island over much deeper water. What a trip, it was like hovering over a canyon as the water got deeper, yet was still almost as clear as the air, and the bottom fell farther and farther beneath us. The only thing I've ever felt like that before was wall diving on coral reefs in some extremely good visibility, where you just sort of float out over the abyss.

One advantage to the wetsuit that I've recently discovered is that if I just keep it on, I can stay in such freezing water and play with the kids (who are seemingly immune to the cold). So I kept my wetsuit on for about three hours and alternately swam with the kids and did laps around the island with either Mackenzie or my mom in the kayak with me. As is the case every time I end up at Waldo Lake, I feel supremely blessed to be in one of the world's most beautiful places. Here's a pic of my mom in her kayak. You can see the wonderful clarity of the water, and her adventurous spirit. She's such a great pal!


While at Waldo, a friend of mine took me mountain biking. I hadn't been in a very long time and honestly, I'm a total scaredy cat when it comes to stuff like that. So I was Very Very Brave and went out on this rooty rocky trail with her that goes around the lake (I'm sure to a dedicated single-tracker this trail would be child's play, but it intimidated me). I think it's a good idea to jump out of our personal comfort zones every so often, at least that's what I tried to tell myself as I bumped and ground over the obstacles. But I have to admit that after about an hour I really relaxed into it and was enjoying myself, not to mention shouting "wheeeee!" when I managed to make it over a particularly challenging (to me) rocky bit.

I'm also pushing my comfort zone in a completely different way these days. Mackenzie is growing up, becoming independent, doing things like paddling away from me into the lake by himself. It gives me new appreciation for my mom and her fussing over me whenever she sees me swimming in open water. It's hard to let your kids go, even when it's something you know they love to do. And truthfully, there were times when I never thought I'd see the day where my son was so independent in this way. I mean, this is the kid who was so freaked out he wouldn't get on the Storybook Boats at Disneyland. They were "too tippy" and he totally wigged out and we left that ride when he was little. And now he jumps in a kayak and paddles out into this deep deep lake? Parenthood freaks me the heck out sometimes. But at the same time I'm totally thrilled for him, this amazing creature that I get to call my son.

In any case, it was a lovely weekend, followed by a more traditional birthday party once we returned to town. My sis and brother-in-law came down for a few days and we all had a great time. I was glad that we squeezed in those couple of lovely days at the lake though, a fall tradition that I wouldn't have wanted to miss.

My Little Swimmer Girl

As a mom, as a swimmer, I get so excited watching my little gal in the pool. She was in her second swim meet ever this weekend. She still doesn't know how to swim the butterfly, but she signed up for it anyways, what a brave little thing she is! At her age, I would've been mortified to mess up or lose, but she just takes it all in stride. She came in last in the butterfly and was just excited to have completed it.


Because our pool is so shallow, we don't allow diving and don't have any diving blocks. So it was a little intimidating for the kids to get to this meet and see the blocks for the first time. Still, Asa managed to take that into stride too, she's looking pretty nonchalant here leaning on the blocks before her freestyle race.



Halfway down the first 25, she's looking pretty strong. That's her in the pink suit in the far lane. But like me, she's more endurance than flash and as the other swimmers started to fade, she just started picking up steam.


About 5 yards out from the wall she took a breath to the left and looked at the other lanes and I could see she was so surprised that there was no one there. She told me later she wasn't sure whether she was way ahead or way behind. Well, that would be way ahead. Man, she is one strong little gal!


And, unlike her mama who totally sucks at backstroke, she's got a lovely stroke. The lack of a ceiling to follow threw her for a loop though, and she zigzagged across the lane a few times before getting the hang of guiding off of the lane lines. I love her sweet little smile in this photo as she strokes along.

All in all she had a great time. I love that the coaches keep it pretty fun and low-key, but she gets to try her hand at competition in a great atmosphere. I don't know if she has it in her to put in the grueling hours it takes to be a great competitive swimmer, but I do know that this girl's got some talent in there.

Like A Chip Off the Ol' Block

Asa had her first swim meet this weekend, only a week after deciding to join our club's swim team! It was great fun to watch, she's such a go-getter. Although she hasn't even learned all of the strokes yet, she entered an event in every stroke. This led to some fun moments, such as her flip turn during the 50 yard breaststroke event, and her butterfly with breaststroke kick. But she really kicked some booty in the backstroke (ironically my totally worst stroke), coming in 2nd in the 25 yard backstroke and swimming backstroke on the medley relay team! More than anything though, she had fun.


I can't help but reflecting this week on my own swim team experience. I also joined a club team when I was eight years old, but instead of fun, and encouraging Jordan (Asa's swim coach), I got grumpy, mean, whistle-blowing, name-calling Mr. Freeman. He more or less single-handedly ruined any desire for competitive swimming that I might've had, and I only lasted a couple of months. Since he was also the high school coach, I did not swim in high school either. Basically, I didn't swim competitively until college, an unusual start to my athletic pursuits. I'm so happy that Asa has a fun and supportive team to swim with and to have fun with. Whether or not she chooses to continue as a competitive swimmer, just watching her enjoy herself is the greatest!



And man, look at that top photo. Don't you wish you had a freestyle like this kid? After one week of coaching? She is totally a natural. I wish I could take credit for that, but I've only really given her a couple of tips myself. She's a fish!

How To Fail

I'm low right now, lower than dirt. Lower than the compressed layers of sedimentary rock that lies underneath the dirt. It's bad enough to fail yourself. That's not a fun thing. But those of you with kids know that nothing is worse than failing your kid.

Our karate dojo was having a "girls night out" sleepover. My daughter was soooooo excited, she's been counting down the days all week. They were going to have games and movies and pizza. I brought home the flyer and put the date on the calendar. You probably know what's coming, right?

I mixed up which night it was on. She got to karate this morning looking forward to the sleepover tonight, and it was last night. All twenty of her friends had just had their fun sleepover and were all talking about it this morning. She calls me on the phone just sobbing as I was out on my bike ride with the TNT team.

I feel like absolute and utter crap. Words fail me.

The only consolation available to me at the moment is that TriGirl Thea linked to Local Girl's very funny blog entry on FAIL, which in turn led to the incredibly funny FAIL Blog. Nothing like having a good laugh at other people's failures to almost let you forget your own. I've also promised my daughter a sleepover on the trampoline in sleeping bags tonight, complete with story-reading by flashlight. Small consolation I know, but thank goodness she has already forgiven me. It's considerably harder to forgive myself.

Note to Self: Buy Booties

It would seem rather late in the year to be buying cold weather gear, but it doesn't seem to be warming up at all around here. And having a race in May, which I usually don't do, is making me ride outside in all of this cold and rainy weather. My previous MO has been to not even think about biking outside until all the rain disappears, so I don't have a lot of the rain riding essentials (except my big flapping rain jackets and pants for around town riding.) I think from the state of my toes after today's ride, I might invest in some booties at the very least.
I came home frozen to my bike like a popsicle only to find that my hubby had been on the phone for awhile and predictably the kids had gotten up to mischief. Big bro' M. (trying to look innocent here) had devised an alien costume for his little sis from crepe paper and bags. The entire dining room looked like a bomb had gone off in a craft store, and I no longer have any tape in the house. But at least they were having fun, and I have to give them full marks for creativity!

At least it wasn't as bad as last week's ride, where I got a panic-stricken voicemail from my daughter that went something like "Mom, you've got to come home Now! The baby chickens are all bleeding from their noses!" When was the last time you got a phone call like that? And being twenty miles from home on a bicycle, there's not much you can do about "come home quick". As it turns out, the chickies got in a bit of a panic and a couple of them banged up their beaks on the cage wire. They weren't actually hemorrhaging out their noses as I was picturing as I listened to this message, just a couple of tiny scabs is all. We don't call Miss A. the Drama Queen for nothing.

Here's hoping next week brings warm weather, and bike rides without frostbitten toes, craft bombs, or chickens knocking on death's door.

Welcome To My Three-Ring Circus

In ring #1, we have Robin the triathlete. She did a time trial last night with some of her teammates and they did a brick run afterwards (while cyclists going home looked at them like they were nuts), and then she gave them a ride home. The back of her minivan looks like a bomb went off in a bike store: wheels, trainers, shoes, helmets (some of which are not hers). Although she brought her bike in when she got home last night at 9:00 pm, it's now 9:30 in the morning and she's just realized that she has to put up the backseat in order to carpool everyone to Karate class by 10:00 am. She is frantically carrying biking gear into the garage and dumping it willy nilly.

In ring #2, we have Robin the homeschooling mom. Note: this is the same Robin that's in ring #1. She's busy making sure the kids are fed, they have their karate gis on, belts tied correctly, waterbottles in hand, and a bag with clothes to change into after karate. She also needs to bring along cloth grocery bags for shopping at Trader Joe's afterwards, and make sure she has playdate arrangements for the kids' afternoon, as well as time to shlep kid#2 to her horseback riding lesson shortly after lunch.

In ring#3, we have Robin yet again. This time it's Robin the urban homesteader and environmentalist. This is why she's carpooling to karate (when the weather is not so rainy, she'll be busy loading kids onto bicycles and making sure they have helmets, sunglasses, gloves, etc.). She's busy letting the adult chickens out of their coop for the morning, making sure the baby chickens have food and water. Oops, carrying all the biking gear into the garage has caused all the baby chickens (which currently live in a cage in the garage until it's warm enough for them to go outside for the day) to go nuts, so now that she's filling their feeder, they're busy popping up out of the cage and flapping around. She grabs a chicken with one hand and stuffs it back into the cage, then another, making mental note that they are now able to fly quite well, and moving cycling gear out of the way with her toes at the same time.

Usually, the three rings of my life run more or less seamlessly. I'm doing one thing or another, taking the kids someplace and then running or biking, or I'm home with the kids doing their stuff, or we're taking care of the animals together, or my hubby's home and that's when I exercise or whatever. But some days every ring has to be going at the same time, and there's just not enough of Robin to go around. This morning was just one of those times! And don't even get me going on what it felt like to have to complete dozens of punches in a torturous position known as Shiko Dachi while the sensei walked around with a bopper hitting you in the stomach and arms and shoulders to make sure everything is solid (it wasn't, my legs were quivering like jelly on a plate.)

Luckily, tomorrow is our day off from everything: all activities, places to be, things to do will cease. I will stay home, try to get the house straightened out, and dye easter eggs with the kids. Oh yeah, and bike. And run. And do it all again.

Isn't It Ironic

Speaking of my iPod playlists, I get this grief from Divagirl (my 7-going-on-17 daughter) this morning. She comes out with my MP3 player on (she has her own, mind you, she's just always losing track of it) and says "Mom, you listen to some really inappropriate music. I have to skip, like, every other track." She says the word inappropriate one syllable at a time, as if speaking to an elderly, deaf person of questionable judgement.

What can I say? Girlfriend, I want to tell her, I've partied with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, discussed Henry Miller with Henry Rollins, my band opened for NOFX, I'm not going to be listening to the Princess Diaries Soundtrack, okay?. Overall, I think I'm a pretty good mom, I strive to be an awesome mom. But sometimes my past catches up with me. I grew up an utter rebel, and have had to learn to be responsible and selfless as I've gone along on this wild parenting ride. This is the same daughter who has cured me of my sailor mouth. She "hates curse words", and also tries to give me fashion tips (see above photo for why I don't usually take them). She's probably going to be a Republican, and a CEO. My husband and I joke that the best we can hope for is that she turns out to be a benevolent Dictator of the Universe.

As it turns out, I saved the day by finding her MP3 player and even having a battery for it. So she's rocking out to the Ella Enchanted soundtrack, and I'm off to rip my old X, Live at the Whisky CD for tomorrow's run.