Triathlons and German Festivals

We had a wonderful weekend enjoying the weather. The first of our major outside activities was watching Joe compete in his first sprint triathlon, the Manitou Tri. It was so fun watching him compete in a race again, I forgot how much I missed watching him run marathons. Sprint triathlons include a half a mile swim, 10 mile bike ride and a 5K (3.2 mile) run. He was hoping to finish in about 2 hours and he blew that out of the water (haha)! He finished in 1:36.12! We are so proud of him. My favorite part was watching him finish the swim portion, seeing him running up the chute after swimming a half a mile was just awesome! His parents and brother Mike and Benjamin came out to join the boys and I in cheering him on. It was a beautiful day and the boys behaved so well, it was a wonderful experience and he is already talking about do another Tri in August.

After the tri, we headed to Deutsche Tage, a German festival held in St. Paul. We try to go every year with the Schmitt clan and this year did not disappoint. Mom and Dad Schmitt and Mike, Jessica and Benjamin were there to enjoy the festivities with us. We enjoyed some wonderful German food, German beer, German music and the wonderful outdoors! We always have a blast and the weather was perfect this year. AJ had the best time with the model train they had set up. I think he would have watched the train all day! It was wonderful day.

We are heading to the Manitou Days (White Bear Lake days) parade on Friday night and hopefully will hit some of the other festivities this weekend as well. Joe wants to spend Father's Day just relaxing at home and grilling some ribs (his usual request). It's his day, so whatever makes him happy!

Next weekend we will head to Rochester for our nephew Benjamin's 4TH Birthday party and then we are staying the night and watching Mike race in his first Tri on Sunday. Boy those Schmitt boys are competitive! Then Monday, the boys and I are headed to the cabin on Duck Lake for the 4TH. Should be a blast!