The winged avenger

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These are pictures of our current Hom Family gym.

  The machine on the left is called a leg press it can work out your leg muscles and your calf muscles. To work out your legs you sit on the pad thing and you put your feet on the metal thing and you push. To work your calves repeat everything but pushing the metal thing; then push it so it’s like you’re going on you tippy toes. The machine on the right is called The Rack. You can bench press with it and it is useful for many other things.

The machines on the far left are tread mills they only have one purpose: so you can run at any speed, incline inside. And you can watch TV while you run.

The machine on the right is called High Low Row. You can work most of your muscles on it so I wont specify everything it does. You can do Weighted Crunches, Lat Pull Downs, and Extensions. The rack on the left it has only one purpose and that is to hold barbells.

Here is a picture of Will’s new haircut. This was one of the easiest he has received at the hands of his parents. In the past we have to bribe, persuade and manipulate him into it. Saturday he decided he did not mind a haircut like Dad and so he let mom chop it off for summer. We liked the long hair, but like the short haired version too!

What a great time we had! This was a busy week with the Merkley camp for Jack and Will. I came home early on Monday from the stomach flu and we had swim practice at 6 pm. So the boys were already pretty tired going into the weekend. Wednesday came around and I was feeling much better and so talking with Jamie I decided to go ahead with the race. I thought that I might just go by myself but I spoke with a friend (Troy) who mentioned that he brought his family last year and that it was a great time. So talking to Jamie we decided to make it a family event (Awesome wife of the year award).  Jamie

started Friday night by having a great high carb dinner of spaghetti. We then tried to get everyone to bed early. Nick was real excited and got up at 3 to see if it was time to go yet.

We then got up at 415 AM and got everyone in the car. Here is a picture of me  and Nick and Mary at 445 in the AM. People were a little testy but luckily we bought a dvd player from amazon linky and got overnight shipping (thanks amazon prime) and everyone quickly settled down to watch Stuart little 2 and Jamie and I were able to talk.

Well we ended up getting there plenty early and I was able to set up everything and figure out the course etc. I was a little intimitated becuase I only had my mountain bike and a lot of people had very expensive Triathlon bikes. But once the race started it was just like I was training out in crozet. Jamie and the kids set up a sheet on the grass and were able to cheer me on and take pictures during the race.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here are a bunch of pictures from the beginning of the race. I did not too bad in the swim. The times between the swim and bike and the bike and the run are called Transition 1 and Transition 2 or T1 and T2. I did not do great on T1 but on T2 I did much better. The bike ride was alright. It was not my strong point. A lot of it had to do with riding a mountain bike.  The kids were great at cheering me pm.

 

 

 

During the down time they played in the water. Jack made a pile of mud which hardened and he called it clay. He was a little upset that he did not get to take it home with him when we left. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my triumphant finish! You can click on the link below for results. I came in 96th. I wont be quitting my day job (or night job) anytime soon to join the pro circuit, but it was a lot of fun.

http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=1912

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards the kids played on the beach and I talked with a guy who finished 5th overall and had parked next to us in the parking lot. He had done several ironman including the one in coeur dlane. He had two children and his wife was also there rooting him on. We were a little white trash with mary just in her jean shorts, but hey its Virginia!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jamie took the older two boys to swim practice and I stayed home and showered NIck and Mary.  I laid out some batman pj,s for Nicholas after his shower and asked him to dress himself and come join us in Mary’s room.  Mary and I began reading Beauty and the Beast on her bed . When Nick came into Mary’s room he was dressed in superman pj’s instead of Batman and asked me to help put on the cape. He sat down next to us and pointed at Gaston in the book and said that superman could beat him up by punching him the face. And then he yelled POW! and demonstrated his best air punch. Mary and I both looked at him and nodded approvingly. He  then pointed to the beast informing us that superman could also punch him in the face. POW ! repeating the air punch, and plopping down next to us feeling pretty empowered.

Mary then turned to him and said as sweetly as possible: “Superman can you get my bunny?” Superman felt that he was immediately up to this task and asked “Where is it?”

“Downstairs” Mary replied

This would have been too far Nicholas to go, but it was not a problem for superman. He ran downstairs and returned with her treasured sleeping Bunny. Mary then tried her luck again.

“Superman, I need a tissue”

Superman immediately inspected her nose and concurred that she did need a tissue and he ran to get it and came back immediately. That was the totality of the exchange.

I thought it was interesting that at such a young age she recognized an opportunity to massage a young mans ego and then use it to her benefit. It is a gift she has. I think she may have gotten it from the only other female in our house.

Jamie told me earlier today “Ben you would not like anything I would not like”. To which I immediately agreed and assured her “Of course not, Honey ” 

Great talk give several years. I have listen to this talk many times and it has brought both strength and hope to me. They have recently made it into a mormon message. I thought it was good.

We had a great time on vacation this June in Angels camp CA. We went with Paul and Debbie Hom and all 5 boys were there with the their families. It was great.

 

Here are some pictures of us arriving in our condos. Nana and Papa were very generous and we all got separate condos for each family. We were kind of in a row so Johnny and James could come over as soon as they woke up.

Here is a fantastic Picture of Matt looking like Starsky and Hutch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were in charge of giving the family home evening and everyone took part in giving the lesson on service. Mary and Nick led us in songs. Jack shared a great scripture and an example of Will serving him. Nana had then organized some school items to donate to the church so that children would have something to draw on and do if there was a natural disaster.  So we organized the pencils and crayons and paper etc into different bags. All in all it was a great beginning to the trip.

This is another test. I have not used this blog for awhile and would like to see if this works still