August 23 - Birthday Number TWO and a Triathlon

This year we had a very exciting August 23rd. It is, of course, the girls' birthday - and we were thrilled to celebrate. We had driven out to Portland, OR for a triathlon Steve was competing in, and the girls got to celebrate their birthday big-city style. In the days leading up to their birthday we had taken them for fancy kids' haircuts, we'd gone to the big Portland children's museum, and had treated them to sushi, ice cream, and Lebanese food (not all in the same meal).

On their birthday, they woke up in a big fluffy bed with mom and we called down to room service to have banana bread french toast with whipped cream brought up for birthday breakfast - it was a hit:

But that wasn't all. The room-service person saw that it was their birthday, and asked if it was too early for cake. Our response: never! So he brought up two huge slabs of chocolate cake that were an even bigger birthday-breakfast hit:

But what is that behind the girls - why are they eating at a sliding glass door? Why, we were looking down upon Dad's triathlon site!

Steve came up to the room to show us his calligraphy to mark his race number, and to give the girls birthday hugs and kisses. Then, it was time for him to go compete:

The three girls (Elena, Clara, and Christina) got dressed and headed out to watch:

Here are the girls after a heated bout of cheering- you can probably make out a few people swimming in the background, because Steve's wave had just left the dock to start their swim, and we were shouting "GO, Daddy, GO!"

We watched Steve transition from swim to bike, and then caught him after his first bike loop:

We settled in to wait for him to finish the second loop, and can't believe that we MISSED him on the way back down!!

Seriously, we watched and WATCHED, but lots of those bikers looked the same, and we could not find Steve for the rest of the bike ride. So we missed him transitioning into the run:

When next we saw him, he had crossed the finish line! The birthday girls were thrilled to see their dad (especially since from this point out, he kept fetching them watermelon to eat from the runner's table!):

A triumphant triathlete dad and his beautiful birthday girls:

Clara decides that Dad needs to hydrate:

And Lena sweetly steps in to help him, too:

Barely an hour after finishing his race, Steve suggested we take the girls out to the beach, and so that is just what we did. For the rest of their birthday, the girls rode carousels, played in the waves, and had "little bit of candy" (their favorite phrase). We took video of this rather than photos, and we'll try to upload those soon!

What a wonderful day - next up, we celebrate the girls' birthday with a big party this weekend!