Ironman Florida

Last week I went to Panama City, FL to watch the Ironman.  My Dad was supposed to be in it, but tore his Achilles tendon and had to withdraw:(  But Jess decided to do it without him and we were all there to support him. It is an AMAZING accomplishment for every single racer involved.  Whether you finish or not, the fact is, these people give it their all and they are ALL Ironmen in my eyes!  Training for an Iromman means you change your entire life for about a year.  The hours and hours of training, the literal blood, sweat and tears, the diet change, the sleep schedules, the disruption to your entire life.  Training for an ironman is THE hardest thing you'll ever do.  It's stressful, it's expensive, and it hurts.  And yet they want to do it because they want to feel that HUGE sense of accomplishment; they want to hear the words "You're an Ironman!"  But even if you get so close to that finish line and can't quite cross it because your body gives up and you literally can't make it another step, you are STILL an Ironman. You still put in the work.  You still sacrificed a TON; your family sacrificed a ton right along with you.  You are STILL a winner.  You changed your entire life for one grueling day, and I was in awe of every single contestant.  There was a lady with only 1 arm (how she did the swim, I don't know!), an 82 year old man (YES!  EIGHTY- TWO!!!!), overweight people, super young and super old people, and of course, very fit people.  It doesn't matter if you're the fittest person in the world- an Ironman is still beyond hard.

My brother might not have crossed the finish line, but that doesn't change a thing for me (or my family who watched him).  He flew through that 2.1 mile swim and looked SO good when he was done!  The bike was incredibly hard for him and he almost gave up, but he finished!  112 miles on the road- it was about 7 hours... no music, no one to talk to.  Just hours and hours of riding and feeling alone.  We cheered him on as best as we could, but for the first 3 hours we let him ride so we could get dressed for the day, and then we went to search for him and we couldn't find him anywhere!  We had to drive for about 45 minutes before we finally found him.  He was struggling and said he needed to see us more because he was feeling the strain and needed encouragement.  So for the next 2 hours we made sure we stayed close to him and cheered him on the rest of his ride.

When he got off the bike he was hurting.  But he rested for a few minutes, ate some snacks, took more supplements and then started his run.  He looked good going into it, but little did we know that at mile 4, he would stop running altogether.  He was not OK anymore.  He walked for almost 3 miles and then he just could not take another step.  He was done.  He said he literally couldn't get up and keep going.  His body stopped and he was done.  He had to pull out of the race.  It was so disappointing because I know how badly he wanted to finish, but we all understood. He beat himself up over it, but not ONE of us was upset with him.  We love that kid and he is still an Ironman.

I think I forgot to mention that my Aunt and Uncle Tom and Carisa Karren ALSO did the Ironman! Both finished, but Carisa CRUSHED it!  She came in 2 hours before Tom and crossed that finish line so perky and excited!  It was fun to see!

I ran into Coley, Tiff and Coco Bean in Atlanta and we were able to fly the last leg to Florida together!

The morning of the Ironman.  It was cold but oh-so-beautiful on that beach!

Carisa ^^^                                                      and Jess ^^^ getting ready to swim!

Brittany and Jess.  This race was hard for them both!

And here are all of our "Cheer Squad" pictures!  We took these while Jess was on his bike.  Coco even had a shirt made as well! So cute!!  After these, I didn't get many pictures because all my stuff I was doing was videos and I can't load videos on my phone....

Me and Coco.  She's my buddy.  I love her more than words can say and I'm pretty sure she loves me a lot, too.  She let me dress her up all week, hold her all week, she slept in my arms a lot, I introduced her to ketchup (which she's obsessed with, hahaha!) and we snuggled a LOT.  I miss her.  My heart literally aches for her.  She's not even my baby but I love her like my own.

We spent Sunday and Monday being tourists in Panama City since none of us have ever been there.  It is a really cool place.  Lots to see and fun stuff to do.  Plus.... those white powdered sugar beaches..... ahhhh.  Nothing better.  The sand squeaks under your feet because it's so soft.  The only other time in my life where I have felt such soft sand was on the private Disney Island.  It was not hot enough for us to swim, but we still put our feet in the water and spent a little bit of time just relaxing on the shore.  I love the beach.

The view from our balcony in our room! Tiff, Coley, Coco and I shared a room :)

In the mornings I would lady in Bed with Coco and snuggle and laugh with her.  She's just the best!

Saying goodbye to Coco was heart wrenching.  For real.  I cried.  I kissed her little face and arms a million times and when I pulled away from her, she took her teeny, tiny little hand and pulled my face back in for more kisses.  She didn't want me to leave her either! Oh, my heart! She holds a such huge piece of it.  I miss her so much right now as I write this; my sweet little baby girl.  I wish I never had to be separated from her.

Now for news back in Oklahoma!
Shawn was home alone with my kids which is a whole 'nother story.  Over the weekend, Lucy had "Showcase" and I had to miss it.  I was devastated.  Truly broken-hearted.  I hate missing big performances and to not get to see her perform something she's been working on for months and months just broke my heart.  Talk about Mom-Guilt! Shawn took my camera though, and took great pictures while Piper filmed it on the iphone.  So at least I was able to watch from afar.  But still....not being there to give her flowers and see her open her gift from the coaches was extremely hard for me.   They had to do it out on the field because the High School power went out, so it didn't go as smoothly as planned since they had been practicing on mats and not grass all season but they still did great! And then on Monday the girls' had Picture day!  Shawn can't do hair at ALL.  But I gave him a tutorial before I left on how to put curlers in Piper's hair and he did it!  He did it perfectly.  He didn't know how to do braids or anything else so with Lucy we stuck to a headband.  He took pictures of the girls before school, and if everything looks as good as it did before they left for the day, they will turn out great!  So, fingers crossed!  He had two big events to cover and I was worried about them, therefore I gave him tons of instructions and he pulled it all off!  I was SOOOO proud of him!  He really was the best Mr. Mom EVER!! He even had to take Sullivan to Urgent Care for another ear infection :( AND went and ate lunch with both girls at school one day! Seriously, I couldn't have asked for a better Daddy to my kiddos.

I missed them though, as all Moms do.  So when they jumped out of the car on Tuesday afternoon as I walked out of the airport and ran to me cheering and squealing my name, my heart was full <3