Hayden's Photo Used in Costco Ads

The next time you're at Costco, be sure to grab the October "Costco Connections" newsmagazine and check out Hayden on page 40 in the 1-hour photo advertisement!



An older photo of him is also on the main page online at the Costco.com Photo Center upload page:

Kirkland Triathlon

Allow me to brag about what a stud Phil is for a minute. He competed in the Kirkland Triathlon on Sunday.

Swim = 0.5 miles in 14 min, 54 sec
Bike = 12 miles in 44 min, 28 sec
Run = 3 miles in 27 min, 34 sec

He placed 356th out of 900 entrants with an overall time of 1 hour: 33 minutes, 14 seconds.

A few of his Costco co-workers competed with him, too. Prior to about 6 weeks before the triathlon, Phil hadn't been swimming since before Hayden was born. He trained a few times at the pool and a couple of 6 am lake swims before work. He's been running and biking a bit more consistently, but only "trained" for a few weeks.

What's also impressive is that it was about 60 degrees outside and Phil didn't use a wetsuit for the swim, which started at 7am! BRRRRR!!! Hayden and I had fun cheering him on for the run and watching him cross the finish line. Unfortunately, my camera's battery was still on the charger at home, so here are some photos his mom took at the beginning of the race and the transition to the bike.

Mission Beach Mom's Retreat

My long-overdue first night away from Hayden was happiness (real sign at the turn-off). I've just returned from a weekend retreat with the moms from my PEPS group. One of the moms, Jodi, has a family-owned beach house on Mission Beach, which is about an hour away on the Puget Sound coast near Marysville on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. It miraculously worked out that most of the 10 women in our group were free to get away this weekend, and God blessed us with unbelievably beautiful weather.

We left at 9am on Saturday morning. I carpooled up with 3 other moms so the 4 of us had a great time chatting away in the car. On the way, we stopped at a Starbucks where we could actually go IN and order, instead of using the drive-thru. Funny what things give you a delightful sense of freedom without a child.

Jodi had called the beach house a "cabin" so I wasn't really sure what to expect, but when we got there I was blown away by this spacious, new, beautiful beach house with a spectacular view of Puget Sound.






There were enough beds and bedrooms for everyone to sleep comfortably and a huge deck where we enjoyed long conversations, many bottles of wine and beer, reading magazines, playing games, and RELAXING! It was incredible.


We also enjoyed spending a few hours on Saturday at the Marysville Outlet Mall, shopping and eating lunch. How nice it is to be able to try on clothes, take your time picking through the sale racks, and popping in and out of any store you want.

In the evening, we had a great big lasagna dinner on the deck and watched a beautiful sunset, drank some more wine and played the game "Table Topics". But with such a big group and our tendency to feed off each others' answers with new questions and tangents, we only got through 2 cards: "If money was no issue, what would you do with your life?" and "What do you miss most about being single?" What a great way to get to know each other even better and talk about some things that reminded us how we are individual women, not "just moms". We also had numerous proclamations about how much our PEPS group has meant to us, how much we love everyone, and how we can see us continuing to meet on a regular basis for a long, long time. I just can't get over what an incredible group of women it is, how well we all get along, take care of each other, talk openly and vulnerably about the most intimate issues of our lives, and have so much FUN together! I don't think I have ever in my life felt like I have had so many great girlfriends. Makes me even want to volunteer to lead a PEPS group someday.





We had also planned to do pedicures and paraffin wax dips, but we were all too tired and 2 of the moms actually couldn't stay over since they had church commitments on Sunday morning. So around midnight we headed off to bed. Sorry hubbies, we did not have a pillow fight in our underwear! ;)

Even though Hayden sleeps through the night just fine and I usually sleep a good 8 hours at home every night anyway, there's still something about a night away and not being on Mommy-duty first thing in the morning. None of us "slept in" past 8 am but it was so nice just to relax, drink coffee and make a huge breakfast of blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, and orange juice.

After breakfast, we went for a walk along the beach, enjoying another hot, sunny day.





We got home around 4:30pm on Sunday. It was a wonderful feeling to give Hayden a great big hug and kiss when I got home. Phil had a great time with Hayden and everything went just fine. Phil took Hayden on a jog, fed him healthy meals, and went to church together. The house was clean, the dishes were done, and a load of laundry was in the wash. Phil did good being on Dad-duty for the longest time in Hayden's life. But I wasn't worried for one minute. OK, maybe one. ;)

Next time I have a night away from Hayden, though, I want Phil to be with me too. I think our relationship could benefit from a little TLC. Time to call Grandma...