What an awesome vacation! Everything went just great, and we had an awesome time on both legs of our trip. Minneapolis was a ton of fun, even though we didn't get to the Como Park Zoo like we had planned because of a thunderstorm. I think that was the only hitch in plans, and we went to the Children's Museum in St. Paul instead, and the girls enjoyed that pretty well instead. They handled the car trip pretty well on the way up, but on the way back it was a rougher trip because we did 4 hours straight instead of splitting it up with a break at a park like we did going up. I was surprised at how much the girls were NOT into the splash pad in Apple Valley, despite the excitement of putting suits on and heading to a park that sounded like a ton of fun. Emily at least finally went into the water a little bit, but Audrey wanted nothing to do with it, and preferred the traditional playground nearby. They thought the hotel pool was all right on Sunday morning, but they were still leery of all the splashing features in the 16" deep wading pool.
Anyway, the baby shower was awesome, and it was so great to see everybody. I'm all fired up to plan the next rendezvouz with that crew! It was like no time had passed, except that for some reason all of the guys ended up measuring each other one night, as in, head, bicep, and calf circumfurences (and their ratios, of course.) I thought it was akin to a group of dogs all sniffing each other: "I've missed you so much!! How big is your head these days??" Sidenote: Travis and two others tied for largest head at 24" head circumference; Audrey's was 20"! Anyway, I'm hoping to get back up there for yet another baby shower this fall, and then we're going to have to meet this little baby that was the unseen star of the party! Emily really enjoyed shopping for a gift for the baby, and was so excited when they opened it. It's fun to see a child's genuine enjoyment of the act of giving.
Then began the second leg of the trip, which was Ragbrai! Trav and I joined up with the crew in Elk Horn, about 15 miles into the 2nd day. Within 3 miles, I had already found some of Travis's dad's co-workers, and chatted them up about how I know Tim. Seriously, out of 20,000 people, and I found the 3 people that Tim mentioned in passing would be on the route? I mean, they did have the company name on their jerseys, but still, weird!! And at one point, I was leading a paceline that my co-worker was in (she and I are two of four people in our group), so when I dropped back she recognized me and we biked together. Awesome! The second and third days that I biked were flat enough that being in pacelines was totally the way to go, and there's something about the buzz of all the bikes together that I just can't resist, even if it means taking my turn up front. My sister and I said we felt like horses pulling everyone along. Neigh!
Man, I love biking. I mean, the atmosphere on Ragbrai is fun and the people are nice, but really, I just like being on my bike. I like the mental and physical challenge, I like my bike, and when I'm done, it's a satisfying but not overwhelming exhaustion. I also decided that I prefer to party during the day, and actually sleep at night. That's probably a product of motherhood: being denied sleep means I don't take it for granted anymore! I had a great time out on the route, and then just chilled on top of the bus in the evenings for a little while before getting some good sleep in my tent. The rest of the team got blitzed up there frequently, which led to some slow starts in the mornings, which was unfortunate because then we ended up biking the hardest miles in the worst part of the day. But I'm a trooper, I survived. I also made an official suggestion that we try to find hosts that do not live on an address such as HILLCREST drive, since that was the biggest insane hill I've ever had to do to reach a host's house. She was a lovely person and a fantastic hostess, but that hill was awful. We had kickass hosts on the next night, too, who fed us dinner and breakfast in their gorgeous house. Makes me love being an Iowan, meeting other great people like that.
I got Travis involved in a shotgunning contest. I was leaving the bus in the lunchtown one day, since my brother and I were going to hunt down a water station for refills. Half a block away, in an alley, this team of bikers shouts out to me an offer of a free beer. Dan reminded me that team rules are that I have to accept, so I did (it didn't hurt that I was already in for about 3 drinks that morning. Really, I was buzzed at 11 AM on a Wednesday. What a killer vacation!). I asked them what their team name was, as I was slamming this beer, thinking I could catch up with Dan, and they said they were undecided, but they wanted to be Team Awesome or Team Whatever or Team Shotgun. I said, they couldn't be Team Shotgun because they'd have to actually be good at shotgunning beers (like I said, I was feeling sassy), and they roared at how they were really good. I said, no way, I'll go get my husband and he'll smoke all of you. Then I chugged the rest of my beer, threw it on the ground, and biked away, much to their uproar at the challenge. it was so dramatic. :) I went back and got Travis, and he did it - he won! there was probably 10 guys in teh first challenge, and 5 in the second, although the results of the second were more contentious since he finished drinking first but another guy threw his can down harder so it hit the ground first. But it was awesome. Stuff like that happens all the time on Ragbrai! These guys also turned out to be some of the same guys who Trav's little brother Mark beat in a shotgunning contest in a beer garden last year. Sullivans rule!
So, as great as the week was, I was ready to be done biking after 3 days, and I was SO happy to see my girls. They had a fantastic time at Grandma's, but they missed me and Grandma was ready for a break. I've been on my own for the past 3 days, almost, and now I'm ready for a break of my own! They were driving me nuts this morning, absolutely crazy. There've only been a few habits and tendencies that the girls have had to get used to being back home instead of at Grandma's, but I think in the future I won't attempt to tackle that on my own - that is a two person job! It's not like it's any specific thing, either, it's just that as everybody is getting comfortable with being back home, it's hard to do unless everybody is actually home. And Travis won't be home until at least 9:30 tonight. I also had gotten spoiled at being around only adults for a few days, and I realized it was hard to go back to dealing exclusively with people to whom logic and reason play a marginal role in decisionmaking, overshadowed by, "But I WANT to..." I got the feeling that Trav and a few other young dads thought maybe they shouldn't be doing the entire week if the burden of childcare for their offspring is being placed entirely on their wives. I mean, there's one level of maturity to enter (and win) a spontaneous shotgunning contest, and then there's the whole I'm-a-Dad maturity level.
All in all, a good time for the Sullivan family. I think I'll schedule a massage for sometime in the next week. I deserve it. Now, off to hunt down something delicious to snack on, since apparently my stomach hasn't gotten word that I'm no longer burning 3500 extra calories a day on a bike. :)
Oh - and my tan lines are to die for. I've got a wicked sunburn on my right shoulder, the expected drastic lines across the tops of my thighs, and a ridiculous racoon look since my face got it really bad the first day. I was waiting at the pharmacy for my prescription (sunburned lips = cold sore! damn!), and this old guy pointed out how he could tell where my sunglasses had been. I was still super tired from biking the day before, so I just nodded and smiled a little. Then he reassured me that it wasn't really that bad, so I said, politely, "Not so bad that anyone would notice, of course." I'm apparently capable of being sassy when overtired, too.
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