Shane is not one for moderation. Â When he orders a pizza, he wants to eat the whole thing in one sitting. Â When he decided several years ago that he wanted to take up running, he thought registering for a marathon would be a good place to start. Â And when Jack asked him and Jason a couple of months ago to take part in a 100-MILE bike ride near Deception Pass, Shane jumped at the challenge.
I’ll admit, I’ve been slightly less than supportive about the whole thing.  All the bike gear purchases, the Saturday mornings spent pounding out the training miles while Jules and I were left to fend for ourselves, the post-ride aching back and muscle spasms that left him laid up.  I didn’t expect his race would be so tough on me!  And so all of us, die-hard bikers and hard-core mamas, decided to turn race weekend into a special little getaway at an incredible rental house in Bellingham.  We rolled up to the house on Friday afternoon – as we walked through the lush front yard, complete with a waterfall, I knew we were in for something good.
And then…BAM!  We stepped through the front door and were greeted with a panoramic view of the water – the deck was insane.
The kiddos were eager to explore the house, which meant pulling all the books off the coffee table and then pounding out a few tunes on the piano.
We had our own little happy hour out on the patio with white wine and fresh oysters. Â Once the kids were in bed, we popped open another couple of bottles to enjoy with Jack’s famous spaghetti and meatballs.
As we watched the sun set over the bay, I realized I can’t imagine ever living anywhere other than the Pacific Northwest.
We watched the stars come out and then turned in early on Friday, as the guys had to get an early start the next day.  Correction: some of us turned in early.  As Shane was laying out his race clothes before bed, he realized he’d left his bike shorts at home!  He and Jack made a 10:30 pm dash to Walmart in desperate hopes of finding a replacement; Walmart didn’t come through, but Jack did – he got in touch with a friend that was joining them the next day and asked him to bring a spare pair.  Crisis averted!
The bikers headed out at 6 am on Saturday and the rest of us spent a leisurely morning at the house. Â After naptime, Juliette and I joined La Verne and Nico on a trip into town to check out the Bellingham farmer’s market. Â We grabbed lunch from a food stand there and then swung by Fairhaven on the way back, treating the babies to a taste of our strawberry rhubarb ice cream.
Nico has just started walking and is so adorably proud of himself with each step he takes.
When the guys returned that afternoon, they were a little sweaty and a little stiff, but also giddy over their impressive pace – turns out they had finished in first place! Â (Shane – this is where I apologize for not being more supportive and tell you that I’m really, really proud of you…).
The kids ate their dinner out on the deck while we all put our feet up.
And then Juliette ran shirtless for the evening, after painting her tank top with spaghetti sauce…
Gosh, these boys are sweet to Jules – especially Gryffin, who is so quick to snuggle her and to make sure she always has an assortment of toys at her fingertips.
Leave it to Jack to bike 100 miles and then cook dinner for all of us.
Again, we dined on the patio and watched the sun set and chatted until the guys could hardly keep their eyes open.
We were all up bright and early on Sunday. Catching the misty pink light of dawn was decent consolation for not being able to sleep in.
The childless dinnertime chats were pretty great, but I also loved the mornings as we all roamed around the house, drinking coffee while the kids played and read books in their PJs. Â Felt so much like we’re one big family.
And breakfast mimosas made the mornings that much better!
I didn’t get to do quite as much quiet porch-lounging as I’d hoped, but I didn’t mind – Juliette was a lot of fun to hang with this weekend.
It felt good to have our goofy, smiling little girl back after the tough time she’d had in California!
The Rusts rolled out for a family hike around 11 and we headed out around noon, not wanting to leave a minute earlier than the required checkout time. Â Thanks, gentlemen, for putting in all those miles on your bikes so that I could eat oysters and ice cream. Â I suppose I actually made out pretty well in this whole deal.
