Iceland 2014 - the next installment

I've got another handful of photos from the great Iceland adventure to share. Geysir and Gullfoss in south Iceland, the sites of our first night of camping. That's right. Two sites in one night. We fell asleep near Geysir, but were woken a few hours later and asked to move. A few kilometers down the road we settled in again for the night, and woke up to the sound of Gullfoss waterfall. We opted to stay in official campsites after that little fiasco. But both Geysir and Gullfoss provided awesome little hikes and amazing sights.
The geysir calm:

And the geysir erupting:

And Walter erupting:


Check out that front tooth. The next day he looked like this:

The tooth fairy gave him 200 krona for that tooth.
A few more from Geysir:





And a few from Gullfoss. Seeing that much water, the sound, the mist... it's powerful. We lucked out and got some sun and a rainbow too.






These photos were taken with a variety of cameras, since I didn't always want to be lugging my big camera bag on hikes. The best camera is the one you have with you. 

Like father, like son

We have another triathlete in the family! Walter competed in his first tri Saturday morning – the Middleton Tri 4 Schools. He did the short course which was a 25 meter swim, .3 mile bike, and .2 mile run. Coach Dad helped him train, doing practice races on the bike path and transition practices in our living room. Walter was totally prepared and had a great race. He's ready for the next one.








The Tri 4 Schools was a really great event. It was very well organized and there were tons of volunteers making everything go smoothly. Definitely something we'd do again.

The 2014 Billmeyer vacation – Iceland!

The 2014 Billmeyer family vacation was an Icelandic camping adventure. 10 days, 9 people, 2 RVs, thousands of sheep, millions of waterfalls, and more landscapes than I ever imagined. We saw volcanoes, glaciers, geysers, lava fields, geothermal pools and mud pits, farmland, mountains, fjords, tiny harbor towns, and big cities. I took a lot of photos. I mean, a lot. And even though we've been home for over a week, I'm just now getting them onto the computer and only starting to sort through them all. I'll be sharing them in small batches, and I hope it's not too boring for any of the readers this little blog has left.
These first few are from our first day in Iceland. After a long, (mostly) sleepless flight, we started our drive around the island and stopped at the first interesting thing we saw – a crater. A deep crater filled with icy-cold, blue-green water. For Iceland, just a typical roadside attraction. There was a hiking path. We stretched our legs.

Door County Half Iron Triathlon

It was another triathlon weekend for Nate – this time the Door County Half Iron. That's a 1.2 mile swim, a 56.3 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. That's a lot of miles to cover in one day! Walter and I went up to spectate and my dad joined us as well. It's a pretty great set up for spectators. While Nate was out touring the peninsula, we lounged on the beach, played frisbee, caught tadpoles, and when Nate passed by, we were there to cheer him on.

There's Nate in the water. See him? That splash out there? Great.
Ok, so yes, Nate is probably in this photo somewhere, but the real point is to show you how far out that buoy is. Yowza!


We did see him finish the swim and here he is coming out of the water and on his way to transition.

He was so fast in transition that we missed him going out, but we caught him on his way back in from the bike.



And again on his way out for the run. Walter was ready for a high five but got a big hug instead. :)

And here he is coming down the chute for his finish.
We're proud of you, Nate! You did it!

Bennett's 1st birthday bash

This post is long overdue. Our nephew Bennett turned one in June and I've just now gotten around to pulling my photos together. Ashley threw an adorable circus-themed party for their little cutie. The kids had a blast and the adults did too. I've never seen such a good piñata bashing. Entertainment for everyone. And Bennett loved it all – especially the cake part. 

Happy (belated) birthday to Bennett!

Click on any photo to see more on Flickr.