Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Wedding and Ironman Weekend

We wrapped up our last wedding weekend of the year in grand style: a trip to Madison for a wedding and some Ironman cheering!

We dropped the kids off with my parents and headed to the wedding: Devon, our former neighbor in St. Louis, and her new husband, Brad


 It was great to catch up with some old St. Louis friends. Here, Carrie, Devon, and me

A kid-free night!

Sunday morning dawned sunny and temperate, perfect for an Ironman. Our brother-in-law Pat was competing, and the race had been on--would he finish before Baby E arrived? (I'll spare you the suspense...yes. Baby E waited 2 more weeks to join the world.) What is the Ironman? Why only a 2.4 mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run.
It was amazing to watch the race, and Pat did a phenomenal job. Jenn also did a fantastic job, organizing the fans and the Patrick viewing locations (Jenn & co. saw him 10 or so times? Ed and I came a little late due to our late night).
 Pat on the bike

 The boys cheering Uncle Pat on.

 Jenn watching for Pat to ride by. We chose this spot for watching the bikers go past because they'd be going slower since it was uphill. :)

 Jojo (and TJ) took naps on the fly.

 Love this sign!

 The group cheering on Pat and his two friends--pretty good turnout!

 Jojo, unsupervised, helping himself to some Chex Mix. I found out after the fact that Jenn saw this about to happen and sat back to photograph it rather than stop it. I would have done the exact same thing. :)
Pat often tells Thomas "Not in my house, Kemosabe!" so we made TJ a sign to hold.

Ed gave Pat some encouragement during the marathon. We set up camp right by Camp Randall and saw Pat a few times on the run (the course is a loop, twice).

Hands down my favorite photos of the entire day. Jenn had a spot against the finishing chute and Pat came over on his way to the finish line. His time: 11 hours, 16 minutes. Fantastic! And he looked like he could have run another lap. We were so impressed! Great job Pat!

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