Last Race of the Season...And a Knit.

The last open water race in our area was called Slam the Dam and was held in Lake Mead Nevada. I used to go to Lake Mead with my best friend when I was a kid and I love it there. You will find no hotter place on earth but you can always escape into the water :). The lake is lovely and the conditions were so perfect (in my opinion) on race day.

Steve had been deathly ill and we weren't planning on doing the race until the day before when we got all sad about missing it. There's such a great vibe at races; wonderful, positive people and good fun. Plus, you get a fun t-shirt and for swim races, a new swim cap ;). See, fun.

So at the last minute we decided to go. Steve was just going to swim it alone because we ended up taking the kids and we couldn't just leave them alone on the shore ;). My angel of a cousin offered, out of the blue heavens, to babysit the kids so we could both swim. This put me in a ditherspaz because I had gotten out of the "swimming-kind-of-a-long-distance" mind set and needed to get back into it VERY quickly. Like overnight.

Anyway, the morning came and we dropped the babies off at Chris and Jess's house and drove over to the lake (about 5 minutes away from them, lucky buggers). The air temperature was divine, about 80 at the start, and the water temperature was about 79!!!! You have no idea how amazing that felt to me after my Deer Creek fandango! I turned to Steve about halfway through and yelled, "this is so great!!!" However, for that distance, it's probably better for it to be a bit colder. Your body just feels better after.

Steve had a really hard time because he had massive chest congestion and if you've ever tried relieving yourself of chest congestion while treading water, it's nearly impossible. We spent a good amount of time treading water until he could hack up his innards and now Lake Mead is about a foot deeper thanks to his phlegm. You're welcome for the visual. I sort of made Steve finish the race as he thought it might not be a good idea to swim with the way he was feeling (do I get wife of the year for that or do I get turned in to the police?). I know he was really happy he finished. Our time was terrible. Steve asked me, when the results were posted, how I felt that we were the second and third to last to finish. I told him that was about normal for me! Slow and steady, baby!

After the race. We are covered in dirt. The lake is really low (thank you California) so we had to wade through a ridiculous amount of mud at the start and finish. Yuck. Once out a few hundred yards, the lake was crazy clear.

After the race we went back to Chris and Jess's and spent the morning and early afternoon with them. Our kids got along with theirs like peas and carrots. So cute! We got pizza and went to a park and just let them run wild. At this park there are frequently mountain goats and we were super excited about that. They're adorbs, as you can see. There are signs warning people not to approach them. Really? How dumb would you have to be to approach a wild animal with massive horns? You honestly deserve a bump to the rump ;).

Adorable little mountain goats.

Later that day we went to see Hoover Dam (which holds Lake Mead together, thus Slam the Dam). That is an architectural masterpiece. So amazing. They recently completed a bridge across it and I have to tell you, job well done! It's so beautiful. It was opening like 3 days after we left so we didn't get to drive on it but seeing it was pretty dang cool. Our kids can't wait to go back.

The new bridge over the dam.

So, a knit. I still knit. I've lost my mojo a bit and I've started at least 15 million projects and have completed none. Shameful, I know. This one I had to complete because it was needed to adorn a baby's head. A really cute baby. Steve's brother Matt and his wife Hilary just had their first doodle bug, Madelyn. She's adorbs. I can't post a picture of her because I wanted to post this today and haven't got her parents permission (and I never post pictures of kids without parents permission). But here's the hat. Just the basic cotton baby hat from LMKG. They take about 20 seconds to complete and are soft and fabulous. We didn't know if the baby was going to be a boy or a girl (her parents are weird like that ;), so I knit it in a gender neutral color and waited to embellish it until I knew. Girl=button. Done.

Cotton Baby Hat for Madelyn. Cute, huh?

So there you have it. A slow swim race and a 20 second hat. Fun, right?

Peace out,

Heidi