My trip to Perdido Key was fabulous!  We had a sweet little condo right on the beach with a heated pool for the kidlets and a workout room so I could keep up with my triathlon training.  The weather was a little on the cool side a few days, but we enjoyed time on the beach and at the pool everyday.  We took walks, looked for shells, flew kites, swam, played beach baseball, built sandcastles, and sea turtles, and seahorses and even a crab!  We went night-crawling, ate some delicious seafood, and drank a few cold corona’s, ahhhhh.... J  H and Belle went deep sea fishing one day and came home with some fresh fish that we cooked up one night, yummm!  And we went out for oysters three times.  Love me some oysters!!  Ah, my kids ate oysters too for the first time!  How cool is that?!  It was a very nice, very relaxing vacation.  It was very difficult to come home and get back into the swing of things here! 

So we got home late afternoon on Saturday, unpacked the car, picked up animals from pet-sitters, packed up again and headed to my mother’s house for Easter!  We spend every Easter Eve at my mom’s house with my oldest sister and her family.  The kids color eggs and my sister and I drink wine and assemble baskets once they’re all in bed.  It’s so much fun!  Luckily I did all of my Easter shopping before I went on vacation so the “Easter Bunny” was totally prepared.  One year I forgot to do that and I had a hell of a time shopping for Easter goodies the night before Easter!  Easter day was spent with my family…big dinner, egg hunt for the kiddos, etc…  The kids had a super fun time!  I have no idea how I managed to reel them back in from a week at the beach, a late night at Grammy’s, and a crazy, fun-filled day with way too much sugar and running wild with cousins, to be ready for school the next morning… J  We’re *so* ready for summer around here! 

Speaking of which, my first of two triathlons is coming up in 6 short weeks!  Oh joy!!  While I’m sorry to say that I didn’t keep up with my swimming/biking/running as I should have these past 6 months, I am happy to announce that my ass has become reacquainted with my bike seat (ouch!) and I’m running and swimming 2-3 times a week again.  I rode my bike at my favorite park the other day and managed to eat about 7 bugs during my 9-mile ride.  Well, maybe not 7.  Maybe it was more like 9.  Or 10.  I don’t know how many, I just know that it is so gross to accidentally ingest multiple bugs!  There are certain parts of the trail where swarms of these gnat-flies hover in masses.  I started ducking my head through these parts in an attempt to escape accidental ingestion and massive pelting of these disgusting gnat-flies, but still my glossed lips (yes, glossed lips even on a bike ride!) acted as fly paper, and my mouth ~ like a venus fly trap.  Seriously, I choked on gnat flies, spit them out of my mouth, and picked them off of my glossy lips while riding!  My lips, by the way, were no longer glossy by the end of my ride…I spit/wiped it all off by the time it was over and done with.  So yeah, training is going GREAT!  Love me some gnat-flies, blog people.…. J

Other than that, life continues at break-neck speed.  Been super busy with baseball games and lacrosse, all of which have been lots of fun!  Took the boys and friends to the lake this past weekend.  We found a nice sandy beach where the boys played football and kickball, swam, climbed rocks and trekked through the woods.  Me?  I did what I do best.  I lounged.  It was glorious!  Oh, while there I also got a look at the bike path I’ll be riding during triathlon #1.  It is going to kick my ass.  I’ll leave it at that. 

Until next time, these are the days of my life….stay tuned for more!

Be great!