Summer Vacation 2013: The Rest Stage

After the crazy Iron Man, Mark was able to relax and we were able to enjoy ourselves in the beauty that is Mont-Tremblant. I think I've been there once before, but I don't remember it being so beautiful.

We stayed in this house which was nestled in off the main road surrounding Lac Mercier. We were about 200 yards from La P'tit Train Du Nord which is an old rail bed turned into the longest linear park in Canada.

At our end, the trail took us into Old Tremblant Village (which I much preferred to the new town for its quaintness) where we went to the beach and had a picnic. It was so cute because about 10 minutes into our visit to the beach a few daycares came with all of their kids around the same age as Leo wearing life jackets and one by one they trotted down to the sand and into the water.

The rest of the week was filled with boating, lounging, eating (lots of pasta and pizza for some reason!), deer spotting, biking (yes Mark biked even more!), house spying (there was a gorgeous house along the trail pictured below), local beer drinking, and gondola riding.

When it was time to leave, both Mark and I said that it was the first time that we just didn't feel ready to go home. Oh well! We'll just have to make a point of going back some day!

Summer Vacation 2013: Mont-Tremblant for the Iron Man

Like many people, my husband Mark has a bucket list of things he wants to accomplish over his lifetime. On that list was to do a half Iron Man. He finished one in 2009 in Calgary. I don't remember the training being too bad, but we didn't have any kids. I do remember being exhausted after watching him for six hours and all I did was stand on the sidelines!

About a year ago one of his friends talked him into doing a full Iron Man. I'm sure there was alcohol involved in the decision. So suddenly completing the Iron Man was now on his bucket list. There was one coming up in Mont-Tremblant so that was the target.

Here's the thing: the training is pretty crazy. Several hours a week. Mark would be up at 4:50 every morning doing something and would be gone many a weekend riding his bike west of the city (did I mention that training started a month after I had Mila?). I had my days of swearing and breaking down. It wasn't always easy looking after two very young kids for that long, but over all it wasn't too bad. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Fast-forward to August. The training is done and we're off on the seven hour drive to Mont-Tremblant. Once we got to the cottage we were renting, it was like the past 11 months of training woes had disappeared. Mark was ready for the race, we were on vacation and I was so proud of him for coming this far and for working so hard to accomplish something of this calibre. I thought he was crazy, but proud.

For those of you unfamiliar with this race, let me break it down for you: there is a swim, bike and run. The swim is 4k, the bike is 180k and the run is a full marathon at 42k. The average time for this race is about 12 hours. Yes you read that right. The average time for the bike alone is 6 hours! So it was interesting with the kids to say the least. Thankfully I had Mark's parents there to help.

Leo and I decided to take the shuttle to the swim portion of the race at 7 am to try to catch Mark on his way out of the water, but unfortunately the bus took longer than we anticipated so we didn't get there on time.

This is what we would have seen had we made it to the water! All photos following are care of Iron Man

We did however get to see him on his way out for the bike which was nice. We headed back on the shuttle, missed our stop, and got a bit lost. Mark's Dad found us and we headed out to another spot to see Mark on the bike again.

We headed home soon after to get the rest of the crew, pack a lunch and head back out to the same spot to see Mark again on his way back from his first loop on the bike ride. He said it was nice because they were climbing a pretty steep hill so seeing us gave him some extra encouragement.

The next and last leg of the race was the run and there happened to be a nice spot pretty close to our house where we could watch. The kids needed a nap so we sat out the first pass-by, making it down in time to see him the second time through... or so we thought.

We were a bit off on the timing so we had to wait another hour to see him on his way back. By this time, it was 5 pm, it was hot, the kids were cranky (I was cranky) and the shuttle buses were packed to the gills. We had intentions of seeing Mark cross the finish line, but there was no way it was going to happen. I cut my losses and headed back to the house with the kids to watch the rest of the race online and have dinner while Mark's parents jumped on the shuttle to try to get to the finish line. I was pretty upset we couldn't get down there, but I knew it was the right decision.

Mark finished in 12 hours and 12 minutes which was amazing, but part of him thinks he should have pushed harder to finish under 12 hours. Regardless of his time I couldn't be more proud. It's so inspiring when you see the people out there racing... All walks of life and they're doing this. It makes you believe you can do it too.

Mark was fortunate to have his childhood next door neighbour Neil by his side pretty much the entire race. It would have felt much longer if they were alone doing this!

So that was the long-winded story of our Iron Man experience. We stayed an extra week in Tremblant which was so much fun. I'll share more about that in a later post.

florida 2013

Last week we went to Florida for what's becoming our annual family trip. Mark's parents rent a house for a few months near Ft. Myers and it makes for a nice getaway during the dreary months of February. The thing is - it turned really cold by the end of the week! As in 1 degree cold (33.8 for you Fahrenheit folks!). This happened last year too so I think if we go next year we'll head down a week later.

Also Leo just wasn't himself this trip. He was fine, but by the end of the week he started to act like a different kid. Yes, yes, he's two, but I wasn't diggin' it. Just out of sorts and barely napped. Oh well, hopefully I can get him back in a routine this week.

 I was going through these pics and one of my favourite one is in the last row above, middle picture. Mark's dad exercises daily on the floor and Leo wanted to do it too. So cute.

Mila turned six months while we were down there (Valentine's Day!) so I took a few shots of her. I want to have the same background of the other monthly shots so I'll have to do that this week! And Mark and I got to go on a date - wow! We went to a super random place by the beach. It was basically a gift shoppe/boat and jet ski rental place that had a really nice outdoor restaurant in the back with beautiful stone work and outdoor heaters that lit up like fire towers. We're not eating meat these days so we had some salads with shrimp (oh ya we're still eating fish). It was nice to get out on our own.

Hope you had a great week!

cottage getaway

This past Sunday, the fam and I took off to a cottage getaway to Bancroft. Mark's coworker has a cottage there and offered it to us for a few days. I wasn't sure what I would do up there that was any different than what I was doing here: sitting on the couch nursing Mila, but it turned out to be a really nice mini vacation.

Attempt at a photo with my little ones ;)

Family shot: Leo's ready to jump over the chair of course

Miss Mila hanging out looking cute

This is pretty much what Daddy did the whole time: read the same books over and over. Very sweet.

I was getting caught up on my books: Bringing up Bebe - highly recommend this one! Leo was making a mess with his yogurt :)

Daddy and Leo out on the boat.

Miss Mila prefers to be sans clothes most of the time

Leo is telling Mila all about his choo choo

This choo choo stuff is very serious business

Deep in thought about what to do next...

...tell scary stories!

Hope you had a great week too!

mess

We got home today from a week in Florida and the house is a mess. I could have sworn we cleaned it before we left.... I guess that's what unpacking and a million loads of laundry will do to you.

Oh and I took this pic the week before I left. I'm 15 weeks now (14 in the pic I guess) and I already look like I'm 5 months pregnant. I guess the second really does show up quicker! Damn (lack of) abs ;).

Happy Family Day to those who have the day off!

Update - I guess I'm 16 weeks pregnant now, not 15, so apparently your brain fries a bit faster in the second pregnancy as well. Thank goodness for BabyCenter!