Hello, my name is Jungleprincess and I'm addicted...

I have this addiction to triathlons. Well, not just any triathlon, but the Burley Spudman Triathlon. It started in the year 2002 when I did my first Spudman. My roommate Kristina and her brothers had done this one for several years, and I kept hearing how fun it was. So my bro and I signed up and we did it together (well, not really "together"--he's much faster than I am). The next year we did it again. And then it happened again. And again... Each year, more members of our family joined us. I even got D roped into it when we were engaged. This year, I did it with five of my seven siblings. I am not the athletic champion that some of my family members are (there were two Spudman trophies in the family this year, including one for the brother who returned from a mission less than a month before the race, WOW!!), but I'm proud to say that I've done the most Spudmans (that's SIX, and I haven't missed a year yet!). And just to prove how addicted/dedicated I am, I did a Spudman one week after running a marathon, I did another one two months after giving birth, and I did this last one with an 18-week-old fetus in my uterus. Yes, that's an announcement. Squeak is getting a little sibling--we've been calling it "Pipsqueak" or "Pip" for short. So, yeah, it was my slowest Spudman ever, but I sure felt like I deserved that finisher's medal!!

What you see there is not a twosome finishing, but a foursome. My sister competed with her 16-week-old fetus, and I competed with my 18-week-old fetus. If you look at it that way, our 4-hour finishing time ain't too shabby--like 2 hours per person, and that's a personal record for me! It was so fun to do the whole race with my sis! We finished together second-to-last--only one lady finished after us, hee hee!

Six Siblings Smiling in front of the Snake at the Spudman

Look, it's me and my favorite fans!

I'm hiding behind the bike so you won't see the bulge in my belly


Setting up our bikes the night before

Squeak had a birthday!

It happened long ago in May, but I've been on vacation (from blogging and everything else) so I haven't yet posted the photos. We celebrated her big day by doing her favorite things. Oh, and I had high hopes that she'd break 20 pounds by her birthday, but alas, it didn't happen till she was 13 months old. We are pleased to announce that at her 15-month appointment last week, she weighed 1/2 ounce shy of 22 pounds, putting her at 25th percentile, phew. Her height is 50th percentile, and her head circumference is 75th percentile (she can thank her dad for passing on the large noggin gene since her mom is a pinhead).

We started the day with a birthday run...

followed by a birthday toss on the bean bag...

and a birthday swim with Mom...
(check out the double wave!)

and Dad...

and then a birthday shower...

and a birthday nap...

and of course a birthday dance...

and then concluded it all with a birthday packing party.

We moved the week of Squeak's birthday, and I wasn't organized enough to do the cake, so we waited till we were in Utah with family. I'm a big fan of "the one-year-old gets to destroy her cake before anyone else touches it" spectacle, but I'm also kind of weird about Squeak getting too much sugar. Well, I came up with a brilliant solution--banana cake (hey, it's just sweet bread) covered with whipped cream, almost no sugar added, and topped with Squeak's favorite thing besides cheese--bananas. She dove in and consumed lots of bananas and cream, and then she let everyone know she was done by sitting on the cake. It was precious. No, she is precious!