Merry Cartermas Eve!

Carter, Emma and I safely made the trip to Indiana! We started driving around 2pm on Tuesday, and drove till 9 or so, which was 10pm central time. We stayed in a sketchy (but cheap! and allowed pets!) motel of the highway on the Missouri side of Kansas city. We got going around 9am central time, after getting gas and breakfast, and arrived in Indianapolis around 530pm eastern time. That's 14.5 hours of driving--not too shabby! The weather was PERFECT--very cold but not windy, rainy, snowy or icy. The roads were completely dry and we set the cruise control on 5 mph over the limit and just rolled all the way downhill to Indiana.

Two nights ago we went out for sushi dinner, and Carter's brother Jason and his family came over to see us (and Carter's parents new BABY BLACK LAB PUPPIES!!!!!! Photos to come soon, when we figure out how to get them into the netbook)

Last night we spent time at Carter's brother Jason's house--it's BEAUTIFUL and they have 13.5 acres with a barn and ALPACAS!!! Lots of animal excitement here! I'll post photos of the alpacas soon too.

The alpacas are especially exciting because before we left for Indianapolis Carter and I exchanged Christmas gifts--he got me a Spinning Wheel!!!!!!!! Now I can buy the wool from Jason when he shears the alpacas in spring, and spin it into my own yarn! I am soooooo excited but I have no idea how to use the wheel yet. I guess I have until May to figure it out!

Tonight we are going to Carter's Aunt Carole's house for Christmas Eve Party (she hosts every year) to see extended family, then tomorrow is Christmas at the Cooper house--all of Carter's siblings and nieces/nephews will be here except Barrett and his family (who live in Colorado Springs).

I hope all of you are having a good Christmas week as well! Carter and I will be back to the Denver area on the 27th (hopefully early-mid afternoon?) to hang out with my parents and family. I can't wait!!

my new favorite video

My new favorite video:

coincidence? I think not!

http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/07/solutions-education-smartcities-oped-cx_apa_0207smartcities.html

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_16416654

Ironman Arizona--biking, running, after!

As the boys were biking, we found a great spot to sit and watch! Theoretically, I think we got to see each of them 6 times! (though we missed some a few times) We had a nice little wall to sit on, and were fairly close to the hotel and some restaurants, etc. It rained a couple times, and it was generally pretty cold and at times VERY windy! We were told this was very atypical for Tempe.

Carter:

Barrett (and his cheering squad)!

And of course the dad's were taking advantage of the technology--all three boys had GPS trackers on them that let us follow them during the race--it was awesome! It worked perfectly during the bike.

And here's our cheering section again--Adam's parents, Carter's parents, and Barrett's family. We made bright green shirts again, just like last year! Carter said the bright color really helped him pick us out in a crowd.

Carter's nephew, Korben--simply adorable!

Go Carter!!!

As you may notice, Carter looks really strained here. His neck was so sore from being in the biking position that it got "stuck" like this and he could barely hold his head up! This added a lot of time on his bike, as he couldn't be down in aero position. Also this added time because he RAN INTO SOMEONE and they both crashed!! !Luckily neither was hurt, and both kept going--Carter just had some road rash on his back and a cut on his arm.

From our place where we watched the bike, we could also see the run! Here's a random guy with a prosthetic leg, running in front of a rainbow. It doesn't get better than this!

Holmes and his wife and kid came down to watch part of the race--here's Graham wearing my hat and jacket (it was cold)--so adorable!!!!

Here's Carter's coworker Ehren on the run. Right here I think he's telling me "Carter's right back there, I just passed him!" hehehe

Here's Carter on the run--keep it up honey!

And Adam right behind him!

We then moved over to a different corner to watch the rest of the run--this was closer to our hotel, I could walk back and forth in just a couple minutes! At this point Carter was mostly walking I think--still in pain from crashing and generally just not having trained enough, but he was still doing great!

Getting dark but Carter's still going strong!

And here he is at the end, finishing strong!!

Carter Cooper, you are an IRONMAN!

13:48, great time for not training!

Here he is with his "catcher", just chatting it up like always.

And here he is with Adam (who finished before Carter but, importantly, did not beat Carter's best Ironman time)

And here's Barrett:

Barrett Cooper, you are an IRONMAN!

All in all it was a great trip and I think everyone was happy with their times and performances. Monday we slept in and hung out with Carter's parents before going back to the airport to fly home.

Great job, Carter, Barrett, and Adam!!

Ironman Arizona--start, swim, transition 1

Long overdue--here are two posts about Carter's Ironman!!

Carter and I flew down to Phoenix on Thursday evening before the Ironman. Adam (Carter's friend from college) had driven over from Amarillo, so he picked us up at the airport and drove us over to ultimate frisbee fields where we watched our friend Holmes play! He and Carter played at Purdue together, then Holmes lived in Denver and just recently moved to Phoenix. It was nice to see him again and he let us stay the night in his beautiful house.

Friday we checked into our hotel in Tempe, met Carter's parents, and spent most of the day down at the "expo" area where Carter registered, we shopped, etc. Here we are outside the expo near the bridge over "Lake Tempe" (where the race started).

Friday night there was a big pasta dinner for all of the racers--it was a BEAUTIFUL night to walk around by the river! This is the inflatable dam that broke back in July--they werne't sure they could get the lake filled again, but they did!

Saturday they opened the swimming area for warm up. Here's Barrett (Carter's brother):

And Carter:

And here are three dummies together: Adam, Carter, and Barrett

Finally, Sunday morning bright and early we arrived for the race!! We dropped off the boys and found a good spot to watch. We stood on this bridge (right next to the old bridge in that first photo), facing east. The swimmers started right below us, the view was great!

and they're off!!

good luck, Carter, wherever you are!!

We moved over to the other bridge to watch the transition (which was just west of the bridges). Here's Carter, first of the group out of the water, in just over 1 hour (a great time!!)

Hi Carter--keep up the good work!

Carter picked up his transition bag then ran over to the tent to change.

he got out of the tent with all of his biking gear and the volunteers lubed him up with sunscreen!

you can see they missed one small spot on his shoulder--that will be a nasty burn after awhile!!

There's Carter, with the white back on his shirt and the silver helmet, going to get his bike.

And there he goes--off to bike for a few hours! Good luck honey!

(to be continued)