Austin Ironman: It was the Best of Trips, it was the WORST of trips.

Saturday was the long-awaited Ironman race for my darling Hubby.  I was thrilled to go because we were finally going to visit my very best friend and we were so excited to let our kids play together.  (She has a daughter just a little younger than Munchkin Girl).  However, things did not quite go as planned and to an outsider, this trip would probably be considered a monumental disaster...Consider the evidence:

• The day before we left, Munchkin Girl and I came down with terrible colds.  We were both hacking away all night and literally didn't fall asleep until 3:30am the first night.  She woke up every 15 minutes with painful couging that made her cry and sob in agony.  I had no medicine for her cough and was helpless all night.
• Hubby flew down two days later for the Ironman and Frontier LOST his bag.  This bag contained dozens of items to do the Ironman, such as shoes, clothes, etc.  He briefly considered running naked but decided that was a poor option.  On the other hand, we'd already spent thousands of dollars to come to, and he'd spent hundreds of hours training for the grueling 6 hour race.  In the end, he bought all new stuff and did it anyway, which was a huge expense for us and quite a fiasco to drive all around Austin in search of the correct gear.
• After the race, we drove almost 2 hours to San Antonio to take the three kids to Sea World.  They were so excited to go.  To our dismay Sea World is closed during the week.  Who knew?  It was like a Vacation moment...I swear I almost pulled a Chevy Chase and demanded they get Wally World/Sea World open for us.  We ended up going to the San Antonio zoo, which I don't recommend.  If you've ever been there, you know why.  I won't go into detail.  On the way home, we got stuck in traffic and it took us another three hours to get home.  The kids weren't thrilled at all to be stuck in dead-stopped traffic for three hours.
• Lastly, my parents were taking care of the dogs and they got into a teensy fight with a skunk.  All I can say is Yuck.

Amazingly, I still consider it to be a FANASTIC trip.  People always say that during adversity that you find your true friends.  I always knew my friend was a true friend, but this trip brought that out in new and incredible ways.  Consider the evidence:

• We show up sick.  If I'm being honest, I wouldn't have been that thrilled to have sick house-guests.  We had medicine everywhere and we were both coughing constantly.  Not my friend.  She opened her house happily to her germ-challenged friends.  I quote, "I don't care if I get sick.  I'm just happy you're here."  She wasn't just saying it.  She meant it.  It's pretty nice to have someone care that much about you.
• In trying to figure out where everyone would sleep, she literally offerd to sleep on her screened porch if needed.  Again, she meant it.  She would have literally slept outside.  Luckily, we didn't need to take her up on this offer, but she still gave Little Buddy the nursery and put her own daughter to sleep in the Pack and Play in the Master closet.  Her poor little girl didn't even get to nap most days because my Little Buddy was sleeping in her bed, but she did it happily. 
• Before I came, she loaded up on my favorite cereal.  I was so happy.  I love my Quaker Oat Squares.
• After the bag came up missing, she and her husband changed all our plans, dropped everything, and tried to help us find it and her husband spent the entire day helping Hubby at the airport, checking in at the race, and eventually at the bike stores buying all new stuff. 

There are dozens of other ways she was awesome and the best hostess ever, but I can't type forever.  Research shows that women who have supportive best friends have better marriages, are happier, and live more fulfilling lives.  If that's true, then I'm set for life.  I hope all women have a best friend like mine.

The other good news is that our little girls got a jumpstart on being BFFs.  They took every opportunity over the 5 day trip to hold hands.  This went well of course until Little Buddy decided to tackle them and ruin the moment.  Oh well, probably won't be the last time that'll happen.


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