Walla Walla Half Marathon

 Marni and I ready to go before the race.

The race started at 8:15, I didn't even worry about setting an alarm the night before because I was sleeping with Colt and knew that he would be up by 6 at the latest (I was really hoping he would sleep in until at least 6!). I had a rough night, woke up a couple times feeling like I was going to throw up and just really nauseated but when Colt woke me up at 6 that morning I felt pretty good and was excited to race. Marni and I were out the door by about 7:40. My mom and the kids were coming later to cheer us on.

We did not plan our outfits, in fact black was probably a bad choice as it ended up being 75 degrees and sunny when we were running. The weather report said 65 and rainy! My face even got a little burnt.

Since this was the first marathon/half marathon Walla Walla had ever put on it was not a huge race, there were 162 runners in the half marathon and 101 of them were female!

You can tell this is early in the race because I am still smiling.

First time we saw mom and the boys.

Off we go....

Colt spent most the morning decorating these signs for Marni and I.
My mom followed us in the car and would stop at different points along the race course and get out with the boys. Colt would stand there waving the signs and yelling "Go mommy, Go Marni". It was so great to have that encouragement every couple miles and Colt and Jax were great about sitting in a car following us around for almost 2 hours. When my mom would drive past us, Colt would yell out with window "Good job mommy". He's such a sweetie!

My good friend from high school Rachel came from Spokane and ran the race too. It was fun to catch up with her and Sean and see their two kiddos (Mae and Owen).
My mom has the rest of the pictures on her camera so I don't have any from the end. Somewhere around mile 8 I started getting really bad stomach cramps, we kept running and kept a decent pace until about mile 10 when it got so painful I started to get worried (did I mention I ran this half marathon 7 weeks pregnant) so even though my doctor had given me the clear I was still a little concerned and didn't want to push it. We took it easy to the finish after that and finished in a disappointing 1:52 (especially disappointing since exactly 2 weeks before I had run 1:42). This was a tougher course than the previous half I had done in Tri-Cities but I still thought we could run somewhere around 1:45. I kept telling Marni just to go but she wouldn't listen, she stayed right with me the entire time. I guess this means I won't be doing any more races for the rest of this year. I am hoping to run the Walla Walla half again next year, it will give me good motivation to get back in shape after the baby comes in May.

Pumpkin Day

Marni came for the weekend so her and I could run the Walla Walla half marathon on Sunday. We stayed at my mom's place all weekend long. Both Dave and my dad were chuckar hunting so it was a girls weekend plus the little guys. Saturday morning everyone got up early thanks to Colt and Jax so we jumped right in and go the day started. After a yummy breakfast of bran muffins and ham/egg casserole (thanks mom!) we got in the car and went to Klickers pumpkin patch.

Colt and Jax had so much fun with these silly glasses.

Jax had the most fun trying to take them off every time I wanted a picture.

At Klickers, Colt grabbed a wagon to hold all our pumpkins and we went in search of some pumpkins.

 Apparently Colt knew just what he wanted, he ran right over and picked up the biggest pumpkin he could find.

 Then put it in the wagon and tried to pick up as many others as he could get to fit in the wagon. He was so excited.

 Jax just wanted a wagon ride and he didn't mind sharing his wagon with the pumpkin either.

 Jax didn't seem too thrilled by the slide but I think Marni had fun.

 Colt did it all by himself this year, and wanted to do it over and over again.

 We really tried to get some fun pics with the boys but they were not cooperating!

 Once we got home and Jax went down for a nap we got out the carving tools and each of us carved a pumpkin.

I forgot to get a picture of the pumpkins when they were done but they turned out cute. Later that night we lit all the pumpkins and Colt loved it! It was a fun fall day with my sissy, mom and boys.
Next up, running 13.1 miles!

Di Di's Birthday

My mom's birthday was today and we spent the entire day over at their house playing, picking apples and tomatoes, making homemade applesauce and catching up. I feel like I hardly see or talk to my parents now that school is back in session.

 Colt making my mom her birthday card. He loves to do this for birthdays!

 Picking lots of tomatoes. We keep having to remind him to only pick the really red ones, sometimes he still picks the pink ones but he is good about not picking the green ones!

 Running to show Papa his tomatoes.

 Lots of apples and applesauce. My parents have 2 big apple trees and they have a ton of apples. We made 6 big batches of applesauce and there are still way too many apples on those trees.

 Colt loves the picking process, it doesn't matter what it is, rasperries, blackberries, blueberries, tomatoes, peppers, apples. He could spend all day picking if there was enough for him to pick.

 I made the cake, 3 layer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting. I have never made a cake like this but it was yummy (though very time consuming). Colt picked the candles out, he wanted balloons!

 Singing to Di Di on her birthday.

 Happy Birthday Di Di!

Blowing out the candles.
This is Colt's favorite part, in fact he blew them out before we sang so we had to light them and do it again. We had so much fun celebrating my mom's birthday, my dad made an awesome dinner of steak and salad, Dave made some really good red potatoes and I made the cake. Good team effort and it was fun to just play and relax. 

Indian Summer Half-Marathon 2010

I signed up for the same half-marathon that Marni and I ran last year in Richland. I figured I could use it as a training run for the half that Marni and I will be running in Walla Walla on October 10. My legs had been pretty tired feeling all week and the boys had slept terrible most the week so I was exhausted too. I wasn't planning on anything spectacular as far as my time, I just wanted to get in a run in a competitive atmosphere before my run with Marni. Colt was up a couple times the night before so when my alarm went off at 5:30 I felt like I was already awake. Surprisingly, I hadn't felt nervous at all the night before (usually my stomach is a mess and I can't sleep) and I woke up feeling calm. I got myself ready, the boys ready, made Dave his coffee (his only requirement for getting up that early on a Saturday and driving me to Richland) and we were on the road by 6:20. Dave and the kids dropped me off at the race and Colt came with me while I got my packet and then they left about 7:40. I ran around for a little bit to get warm and then lined up for the 8:00 start. Meanwhile....

 Dave met up with his parents and got some coffee and breakfast for the boys and they headed to the park that I would be running by. Unfortunately I had already passed the park when they got there (I was bummed but hoping I would see them on the way back since it was an out and back course). The boys had fun playing with their Memah and Poppi while I ran.

 Dave had asked his mom to bring stuff to make a sign so Colt and Dave made me a sign that said "GO Mommy" Dave said he was coaching Colt on being loud and making sure I could hear him.

 Colt saw me coming and came running up to the path, I could hear him yelling from a little ways back and it made me so happy.

 Coming up on about mile 11.5. Mile 11 was really rough for me, it was my slowest mile of the entire race and my body felt like I couldn't go any farther. Colt was loudly yelling "GO Mommy GO Mommy" it was the cutest sound ever!

That is me in the white hat waving at Colt and Jax. Jax was giving me enthusiastic waves as I passed by.

 After I passed the kids I had about 1.5 left of my 13.1 mile run. I had been running in this little pack right behind this girl and her husband since about mile 6. My goal was to pass them around mile 12 and start pulling away, I didn't care about him but I wanted to beat her!Just like I planned about a quarter mile after I saw the 12 mile cone I felt an extra burst of energy and desire that I didn't know I had (I thank my dad for that gene). I kept telling myself that if Marni was running with me she would never let that girl beat her and she wouldn't be complaining about how tired she was either so using that as my motivation I put my head down and ran hard.....

 ....and I finished (and beat that chick)! 

My final time was 1 hour 42 minutes and 58 seconds. My first and last mile happened to be the exact same pace (7:36) and those were also my fastest miles of the race as well. This race was hard, it took a lot of mental strength for me to keep going and not just slow down and finish. Once I knew I could PR (my previous best was 1:49 last year) I couldn't just let myself slow down and take it easy. I loved having Dave and the boys there supporting me and Dave's parents too! It made me feel supported and loved and I really appreciated that. In the end its not about the time you get but how you feel finishing it, and to have my boys there yelling for me and waving meant more to me than any PR ever could have.

Memah's Birthday Party

Memah's birthday was today and we were going to her birthday party at Kenzie and Andy's house after Dave got off work. I made the birthday cake and a pasta salad. Both the boys wanted to "help" me make the cake.

All they wanted to do was eat the frosting. I had to keep telling Colt that he couldn't eat it until I was done frosting the cake!

While I was finishing the cake, Colt wanted to make Memah a birthday card. He was very excited about this and took a lot of pride in making it himself.

He found some gardening stickers and wanted to use those (which is funny because Julie loves gardening).

While I baked and Colt made his card, Jax had a few snacks so he wouldn't be in our way.

Lemon Blueberry cake with white-chocolate frosting. Yummy!

Apparently when you become a grandma its more fun to give gifts to your grandkids on your birthday than receive them. All the grandkids got gifts, Colt and Cam both got a microphone (you can imagine how loud that got!).

After a great dinner (Kenzie made it!) of bbq chicken, corn on the cob, salads and homemade guacamole and salsa it was cake time! I love how this picture turned out, Memah and her oldest grandkids.

We had to blow out the candles twice because Colt blew them out the first time before we even sang.

We had fun as always, it was nice to get together with all of Dave's family (we missed Trav and Katie) and relax, visit and enjoy good food.

Towards the end of the night the guys were all playing Madden on the XBOX so Cam and Colt watched "The Lion King" all cuddled up together. For the most part these two get along well, they always have a couple fights or breakdowns but they love to play together!

Happy Birthday Memah!

The mind of a 3 year old.

Colt after just falling on his head " Why did God make me breakable?"