Camping and Triathlon in Longmont, CO August 18-20

 I received a discount for Outdoor Divas, an all female triathlon in Longmont, CO.  My intention was for the whole family to camp up there.  But, on Friday, we got a call that our kitchen sink on our old house was leaking. We are supposed to close on the house in 3 days so we had to scramble to get it fixed.   I was ready to just cancel the whole camping trip.  However,  Lloyd thought it was unnecessary for us both to stay to fix the leak.  So I headed up with Camilla.  We got there at 8:30pm on Friday night.  Thankfully, we had camped at the same site before and knew the layout.  Even with that, we still struggled to get everything set up in the pitch black.

The next morning, after finding out that a raccoon ate all of Lola's dog food, we headed out to open water swim.  The water was 77 degrees and was almost too warm for a wetsuit.  This place has a dog swim beach and it was so fun to take Lola there.  She doesn't believe she is a dog but we had fun watching all the dogs run around in the water.

Grandpa showed up at about 10:30 and we were so excited for him to camp with us. He brought his kayak and I also paddle boarded on Blue Heron Reservoir.
We then spent the day at the campsite before going to dinner and a yummy Hawaiian Barbecue place with boba.  
Our campsite was nice and quiet and it didn't end up getting too hot since we had some rainstorms.
There weren't too many bugs or mosquitos but I got bit by a red ant and it really irritated my skin.
There was a perfect spot to hang my hammock and poor Grandpa fell out of it once.  That hammock has lasted forever!

Formerly named Barbour Ponds, this nature and people-friendly park offers 604 acres of land and 152 acres of water split among several ponds. After completing my 1st week of teaching 3rd grade, I was desperate for an outdoor escape.

The triathlon went real good but there were 700 women registered so it was a huge race.  My age group had 64 people and I finished 13th.  The bike is still my slowest event.  

I took 3 minutes off of my swim time since 2021.  It shocked me because I haven’t been putting much focus on swimming.  It must be because I have a stronger upper body and less fear in the open water.  

Camilla spotted a bunch of toads at the race.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way back.  I was so hungry that I ate a bunch of cheesecake filled pancakes.

It was so special for Grandpa to come up and camp with us.  Camping is so much fun with family!

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