Ramsdell Family Blog

The past week was both good and bad. The sad- This past Wednesday our sweet little Pesto passed away. He had been sick while we were gone on vacation at the begining of the month but seemed to have recovered. Tuesday night he started seizuring again and they seizures would not stop. We miss him so much. He was the sweetest little dog who loved to snuggle so much. Then to top all of that off our fridge broke that morning. On a better note: Kelly, Steve and Nate were here and we had a lot of fun with them. We enjoyed rocking out the the Experience Music Project-not that we were any good but still fun. We stayed one day at Pikes Market Place eating all the good food Seattle has to offer. I celebrated my 36th birthday this week. My friend Ann gave me a Harry Potter party at her house with a cool Harry cake. Jake and Jenna planned a surprise for me. They blindfolded me and took me to the Spaghetti Factory.YUM! Jenna had her second swim meet and did very well again. She got her first indivi...

I don't know what I was thinking but I signed up for the 3.2 mile "Fat Salmon" swim, with the level of training I have been doing I would have been better off with the 1 mile event...but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. The swim started under the I-90 bridge and was a straight point to point swim to Madison Park that was a little shy of the 520 floating bridge. I was little intimidated by this distance in that I have never swam this far before. After the gun went off I knew after first 200yds it was going to be tough day, realizing that I wasn't feeling that great (on Thursday during swim practice I had my whole calf cramp up.) Compared to a triathlon there were a lot of "real swimmers" - swimmers who dedicate 100% of there time training for swimming, compared to triathletes who spend only 1/3 of there time. . Well anyhow I slugged it out - never felt that focused or felt that I was giving it my 100%. I ended up finishing 18th overall, within t...

Happy Birthday George! Todays was George's birthday. It was a great day. We got to have a birthday party with his mom, my parents and Kelly, Steve and Nathan. Jake and Jenna baked Dad a cake and decorated it all by their selves.It is great to have so much family here at the same time. Who knows if we will ever have this much family all together again. Jake and Jenna are so thrilled to have everyone here and they had to count chairs to see if we have enough for everyone. Today we took Kelly, Steve and Nate to see my parents camp ground and to Teriyaki-you can't come to Washington and not have Teriyaki. Tomorrow we will take them to downtown Seattle.

Jenna had her first swim meet today. She competed in 5 races-2 relays and 3 individual events. With out the official times we think her relays got 1st place and she got 1st in the backstroke, 2nd in breast and freestyle races. We were so proud of her. It was so fun watching her swim.

We went to Sunriver for there Pacific Crest triathlon weekend and to Crater Lake Oregon on our vacation for a total 6 nights camping. On our vacation we got to go inside a lava cave, go to Crater Lake and enjoy the outdoors and the sunshine. We went to a fish hatchery,hiked, saw lava fields and played in the snow-even though it was 80 degrees. George placed 24th overall in his race with the 10th fastest swim results , there was about 450 participants. It was a lot hotter than we are used to. George said that was the hottest (85+ degrees by the time he got to the run)he has ever been in a triathlon. George's mom came on our camping trip with us. I was excited that we got to go to Carl's Jr. since we don't have any close by where we live. It was a great time and it went by all too fast!

This past week we vacationed in Beautiful Sunriver Oregon. We kicked off the weekend Friday where Jake and Jenna participated in a Kids Triathlon!!! The triathlon included over 500 participants ages 11 and younger. This was Jake's first triathlon and Jenna's second! Jake was a little tentative but as soon as they said go - he was off! Jake and Jenna finished the splash part and were off to the transition area, Jenna got to her bike and was off, Jake had a little trouble finding his bike (accidently setting off a domino effect of other bikes!), Jake recovered jumped on his bike and was off riding in pursuit. Jake had the biggest smile on his face! Jenna was focused in pure determination. Jenna finished with a stong bike leg transitioned to the run leg. Jake came in a couple minutes later, returned to his transition area, and started his run...his secret weapon!!! Mom and Dad ran and positioned themselves at the finish line (the same finish line used for all the triathlons th...