James, meet... Everyone!

There are perks to being born on a weekend, lots of visitors are able to stop by to meet you!

Posted with Blogsy

Drumroll please....

James Patrick Ellestad was born Sunday, September 23 at 9:05am.

After 26 hours of labor, we learned he was a chunka monk!

Here is our favorite nurse, Mattie. She and Patrick made a great team and basically delivered James together. Patrick was a great coach (would you expect anything otherwise?!?) and stepped in wherever needed. The nurses even joked about hiring him!



We later learned that Mattie was also there when Landon was born and left quite an impression on Eric and Tara as well.

First family photos!

Can't wait for everyone to meet James this fall :)

Posted with Blogsy

IRONMAN recap!

Lots of posts surrounding Ironman --- I would recommend going to the bottom and reading up if you prefer to follow the day in order.
Enjoy :)

Hopefully next post --- the arrival of Baby Ellestad!

Some extra stories and photos from the day...

Patrick, Dusty and Derek all completed IRONMAN in record time - it was clear that these guys put in the time and worked hard to accomplish this amazing goal!

And here are the ladies that lead the support team.

I will never forget Patrick coming home from a "meeting" (aka beers at a local establishment) telling me that Derek (an Ironman vet) talked about the importance of balancing the training with every day life, work, chores, fun, etc. They did a wonderful job of maintaining this balance - and of course having Anne and Connie to hang out with through it all made it that much easier!

Anne had a surprise for Dusty at the finish line - IRONMAN happened to fall on their one-year anniversary and in honor of that - Anne officially changed her name to Hebel! 

So fun to watch Dusty read the sign and I love the look on Anne's face as she is waiting for it to register :)

Happy Anniversary Dusty and Anne Hebel!

Derek and Connie are celebrating post IRONMAN in Mexico - what better way to rest after a long race and 9 months of training than on a beach with a bucket of Corona's and endless salsa and chips!

At the end of the night Patrick and I ran into some race officials on State Street.

Back story... a few days prior to the race, Patrick connected with this group to confirm options if Baby E decided to make an early arrival. The IRONMAN officials determined it would be acceptable for him to leave the course to go to the hospital if the baby was on the way and then come back and finish the race as long as it was before midnight.

So - while we were enjoying Ian's pizza and cheering on the runners - Patrick recognized the group - they were pumped to see us and so happy to see that Baby E was still safe and sound inside!

Turns out they had placed a few bets on athletes/ stories/ etc. from the day and we were one of them!

9 out of 10 bet that we would not have the baby on Sunday ---

so glad we could help out and provide the answer!

And the last photo of the night --- Patrick enjoying some "Recovery Juice" from Bells Brewery! - thanks Ed!

Way to go Patrick - the IRONMAN!

It's Official - Patrick is an IRONMAN!

Patrick had a goal of 12 -13 hours and ended up with a time of 11 hours 16 minutes!

What an incredible day!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day - the pure joy and energy is amazing.

I couldn't be more proud!

And he even stopped to cheer with us, high-five the fans up and down the shoot and give me a kiss!

It was totally awesome!

Enjoying some chocolate milk after getting his medal and finisher gear!

And here are just a few of the celebratory photos from after the race.

The Fans!

Check out the wonderful support group Patrick, Dusty and Derek had following them around all day!

Jo-Jo made some incredible t-shirts for the Pain Cave/ Fondy fans. We all had the same design, just different names - so our group looked huge!

It was really fun (though sometimes confusing) to see others that you didn't know in the same shirt - but we made friends pretty fast!

Thanks again Joe for all your hard work!

Here are Tara and I sporting our shirts --- guessing this will be our last picture together with pregnant bellies!

Baby (Patrick) Ellestad - due any day

Baby (Eric) Ellestad - due February 15!

Thomas and Josiah were troopers for the entire day in and out of the car / in and out of the stroller/ etc.  

Thomas loved to wear Buppa's hat and pointed out all things BUCKY all day! - I loved it!

Thomas and Dad watching the swim.

Cheering on the bikers with the cow bells

he was pretty good about not ringing it too close to Buppa's ears!

Mom and Barb were great about setting up a play area for the boys at each stop - ready to entertain but quickly pack up as soon as the guys raced by!

We also had some great signs for Patrick and the other racers!

This one was inspired by our neighbors Andy and Heidi. Andy often tells his nephew, "Not in my house Kemosabe!" - something Patrick now says to Thomas!

Landon and Jo-Jo cheering on the bikers in Mt. Horeb.

Landon was also wearing a tough Mudder headband - Eric, Jeff and Joe competed in this insane obstacle race on Saturday - running through fire, electricution, dumpsters full of ice, huge mud pools and much more! Crazy - but totally awesome!

Many of us met up in Mt. Horeb during the second loop of the bike - Jen created one of the best signs of the day - I think all of the athletes thought it was hilarious!

After the guys went by, we took a group photo - not the whole group since many were spread out on the course - but still, quite a spectacle!

Thanks again for cheering the Pain Cave group on!

Mid afternoon nap - no problem, how about the side of the road near the Mobil station!

In case you are worried, this side of the street was completely closed!

Jo-jo was sick of getting chex mix one piece at a time :)

Here was my sign --- better get this baby moving or that whole "one week" thing won't be accurate!

Race Day!

After tracking the weather all week - race day was pretty darn perfect!

Here are the guys just before the race - the perfect mix of excited and nervous!

All of the athletes had to enter the water by crossing the timing mat - then tread water or float until the cannon went off - like they weren't going to exert enough energy already!

And they're off! - doesn't it remind you of salmon swimming up stream?!?

Here is Patrick on the bike at approx mile 20 --- all smiles!

With the colder weather, we needed to make some last minute sleeves the night before.

My family knows I tend to be good at cutting things to make new things in a pinch 

(not the 2nd step of sewing/hemming, just the cutting part!)

We were resourceful and Patrick was toasty - ask him about it!

Here is Dusty on the bike in Mt. Horeb - looking strong, even on the big hills!

Derek and Patrick found each other on the run and passed Camp Randall together at mile 3.

Their race gear really looked sharp!

And here is Patrick coming into the finish. You can see he is on the right side of the cones - the left lane is the turn around for mile 13 - brutal that you get THAT CLOSE to the finish line and have to circle back for the 2nd half of the marathon!