I am an Olympic Rav-thlete!

When I mention that I am competing in the the Ravelympics to friends/relatives/my husband I seem to get a bit of a chuckle. The object behind the Ravelympics is to cast on a project at the start of the Olympics, and finish it by the end of the Olympics.

Aaron is the benefactor of my Olympic pursuit with his camouflage-y scarf.

Nothing says manly like a hand knit scarf!

I'm kind of a slow knitter, so completing this scarf and one other smaller item (secret for now) will likely be the only items I complete for my first Ravelympics. It's supposed to be a challenge, and trust me, as slow as I am, this is! Full spread of the hand-knit yarn-y goodness once the Olympics are done!

Can you handle the suspense?!!

Christmas Came Early

Thank you Sarah!!! Another successful swap for the books! Now to find patterns...

See You Tomorrow!

This is the calm before the storm. Tomorrow night 2,100+ athletes will cross through the arch below to become an IronMan again or for the first time.
This guy is already Iron; he will be just polishing up his title tomorrow.
Thank you to Mollie for taking a picture of us together. Normally it's all just cheezy self portraits of myself and pictures of Aaron.

He's ready to go! Where's the start line?!


Well, maybe one cheezy self portrait. :)

The Over-Trained and the "Under-Trained"

Aaron met a man yesterday who has been swimming 3-4 miles and biking around 150 miles to train for the Ironman, even though the IM swim distance is only 2.4 miles and the bike only 112 (Ha! You can tell I'm an Ironman's wife when I say the swim is only 2.4 miles...). We met up with him and his wife after checking Aaron's gear in.

Get your game face on! The race a little more than 14 hours from starting!!!

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival

This weekend happened to not olny be the Ironman in Wisconsin, but also the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI (only 30 minutes away from Madison)!

I've never been to a festival of this sorts before, and man was it fun! I got to meet owners of the following shops:

Happy Hands Yarn
Rach-Al-Paca Farm (<- she's practically my neighbor!)
Cloudlover
Briar Rose Fibers

And these were just the ones I purchased something from! There were so many other great booths and it was tons of fun to chat with everyone. Please enjoy some of my pictures of the booths and sheep herding from the event!

And after all that excitement, I got to shop at my first ever Piggly Wiggly!

(Cheezy self portrait warning!)

We're Here!

Ironman Wisconsin is tomorrow and we have arrived. Check out Ironman Wisconsin to watch live race day coverage of Aaron! #562

I Made Power!

The Great Minnesota Get Together is a Hagen family tradition. Aaron can remember only four years (the years he was in the service) that he did not make it to the State Fair. So today, in true Hagen form, we set off with cash in pocket to go feast on fair food and get a feast for our eyes people watching.

This year marked the third year that the WCCO both has had the "We Power" booth at the fair where fair goers can burn off some of the fair food and help make power for the "We Powered" broadcasts live from the Fair. Aaron has gotten a shirt or bag (the promotional prize for making 500 or more watts) the last two years, and this year I joined him for the first time to get a t-shirt of my own.

After Aaron schooled not only myself, but everyone else biking by finishing his 500 watts in less than five minutes, I was completely ready to throw in the towel. But I kept telling myself how close I was and stuck with it to get a really fun t-shirt of my own!
I feel pretty darn cool if I do say so myself!