Todd's Triathlon and Birthday Weekend

This past weekend we traveled to Des Moines, IA for the HyVee Triathlon. This was to be Todd's first time competing in it. Since his birthday is tuesday, he decided for his birthday gift that he wanted us and his parents to come up with him for the competition and to spend the weekend. We arrived, ate lunch at Perkins, and checked in the hotel. Todd was going to go get registered while Aiden napped and then we would take the boys swimming. That was all Aiden talked about all day....swimming. Well, after we gave up on the nap we all excitedly changed into our swimsuits. Just as we were getting ready to go down, a nice young girl was going into her room next to ours and let us know that the pool had been closed down. Apparently someone pooped in the pool, so it was shut down to be taken care of. Amazingly the older boys took it well but I wasn't sure how to break it to Aiden. He was upset but was more enthralled with the idea of poop in the pool. We ended up hitting the mall and eating there at the food court. We got back shortly before bedtime and the pool was open. Now, I saw with my own eyes earlier some men in shirts and ties with their box of chemicals testing the pool so I know it was supposedly safe. But I just couldn't get in. And I watched the kids like a hawk, trying to make sure no water got in their mouth. And then I hung out in the hot tub! Todd was so excited that he was up at 2:30 am and ready for the race. He was meeting the rest of the Multisport club at 3:45 to head over for the race (the race that started at 6am). It cracks me up. They just wanted to be there in plenty of time.

Here's a picture down at the lake where Todd had to do his 1.5k open water swim. We were here the night before to drop off Todd's bike. No spectators were allowed during the actual race for the swim portion. Drew scoped out the cool playground.
Saturday night at the mall playground. It was the coolest playground I had seen at a mall. Noah and Aiden hopped on the lion. You know Aiden and his lion addiction.
Sunday morning on the way to the race. We had to take 2 shuttles to get there and Noah and Aiden were so excited about the bus rides. It's the little things. (notice Barney came along for the ride)
Todd after the race. He did a 1.5 k mile swim, a 40k bike ride, and a 10k run in 2hrs 50minutes. He was VERY happy with his time. We were so bummed that we missed him crossing the finish line though. I almost cried. We had no idea this thing was so huge and that we would have to take 2 shuttles and then walk 1 mile just to get there. It was insane. And we JUST missed him. Live and learn I guess. There were over 2000 people competing and then after the race they had the Olympic Qualifier Trials.
Family Pic.

All the guys from the Quincy Multisport Club that raced. Todd is one the far left.

The Multisport Club . I think a couple were missing but there were 17 total from Quincy that came up to race.

Afterwards we celebrated his awesome accomplishment AND his birthday with lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We all sang to him when they brought him his sundae out. Aiden helped daddy by blowing out the candle for him. We then finished off the day with some shopping and then the 4 hour drive home. We were exhausted and happy.

Just had to take a picture of this. EVERYWHERE you look in Iowa are Kum & Go gas stations. I never saw any other gas stations except for an occasional HyVee gas station. Really?? REALLY!!! You couldn't have picked a better name for your chain of gas stations????