The training, the yard, the dance and the dragon

Das Brace!

Well that is the main story for the week. Got it on Wednesday along with the news that there was to be no running or biking for 2 weeks.  I had already ridden Wednesday morning, so I swam Thursday and took the weekend "off". 

2 swims, 2 bikes, 4.5 hours total. Now that's how you do a recovery week.  This is going to be a recovery week too.  The plan was to only work out once a day, but I still wanted to get in a long bike ride around 3 hours on Saturday and a long run 14 miles on sunday.  It is what it is.

The foot is feeling much better already. The brace is working, the Aleve is working, the rest is working.  The mental side of this is the hardest part now.  I love the rhythm of Ironman training. I embrace how difficult it is. So this interruption is challenging me to stay busy in other ways.

And that's what I did this weekend.  With no long ride, I was able to squeeze in some yardwork while the kids were away.  Actually I chopped down a dead tree in the front yard using an axe since Morgan still has my chainsaw. It ended up being a good workout. The tree fell in the road so I had to cut it up into pieces small enough to fit into the yard waste trash cans so it took all afternoon and left me quite sore.  Then Sunday I got to trim the hedges and got up on the roof to blow the leaves off (there was actually wisteria growing up there - that's how bad it got). And sunday the sun and heat normal for this time of year came back roaring.  ugh.  I'm glad I got that stuff done before football season.

Saturday I took Evil Genius out to lunch since I had an Indian Princess thing with Ella on Sunday.  She chose going to bojangles, and we had to get some pics taken too. She loves the fancy princess stuff.

totes adorbs

Ready for Chicken

The big highlight of the weekend was Sunday night.  Bigun and I had a daddy/daughter dance with the Indian Princess tribe.  Rainbow Thunder in the house! This thing is only for the third year tribes and it is like the third grade prom.  First, we had to go find a big fancy dress for Bigun.

The queen getting her glam on

silly monkeys!

Daddy Daughter Date Night
Sunday was the big day. We found a great dress and the girl got all dolled up.  I threw on the suit and we went out for a night on the town.

it has an empire waist and beadwork.  and that's all I learned about girl dresses.

Sweeter than honey

We started out at Tom's house for a mock-tail pre-party. They put out quite a spread too!

Most of the girls in the tribe.  We had 2 that couldn't make it.

Love this pic.  Something about the lighting.  She's getting so big!

Then we went downtown to the main event.  They sat us down for a big fancy dinner with salad, main course, and dessert.  It was all delish, and Bigun ate almost nothing except the dessert.

They even gave the girls corsages.  Then after dinner we went down the Red Carpet (formalized) into the ballroom for the big dance.  And I actually danced.  Since IP is a YMCA program, of course the DJ played YMCA.  He also did "My Girl", and Call Me Maybe, and a bunch of other familiar and girlie tunes. I got to teach Bigun how to pop-n-lock.  it was awesome.  As awkward as you might think it is watching me try to do that - that's how cute it is watching my 8 year old trying it for the first time.  incredible.

It's a 3rd grade mosh pit! Seriously, the DJ called it a mosh pit.

totally wiped out after all of that dancing.

She even jumped into a twist contest with Tom & his daughter!

We made it home about 8:30 and I thought she was going to fall asleep holding my arm on the drive home.  I asked her if she had a good time and thought that I made her feel special that night, and she said yes.  Then I got her to promise me that she would never accept anything less than that from a boyfriend or anyone else as she got older.  I doubt she'll remember the promise, but ladies expect a man to treat them the way their daddy treated them even if it's only a subconscious expectation. I tried to raise that bar on Sunday.  Dads take note, if they don't learn how to feel loved now, or what it feels like when someone does something special for them now, then they will never what to do when a boyfriend brings them flowers, or when it's time to get out of an abusive relationship.  These are the lessons that we teach our kids.

Meet Spike
Bigun went crazy Saturday wanting a bearded dragon. This is insane. We looked at Petco, and they were $60.  We told her that if she could save up her own money to get one, then she could.  When she counted, she had $14, so I thought we'd be safe for a while.  Then she started dumping change out of her piggy bank.  Kelley separated out the quarters, and she added them up.

$46. in stinking quarters.  Do you know what 14 + 46 is?  Bigun added it up.  It equals trouble. Nothing but trouble. Who keeps that many quarters in a piggy bank? This is insane.

She named him Spike

This thing is actually incredibly cool. He is calm and loves human interaction. so he'll just grab onto my shirt and sit there for half an hour without moving.  It's really cool. A friend of mine said that Bearded Dragons are the Bunnies of the lizard world.  They are really calm, eat crickets and worms, and Bigun absolutely loves it.  EG also got another beta fish while we were there. She's quite happy about it.

So there you have it.  Minimal recovery training, the brace, the yard, the dance, the dragon.