A Special Trip

Friday, 5-6-11

To See Special People

Grandma Myrna and her parents, Lyle & Fran

When Elissa got home, we jumped in the car and picked up Daddy in Seattle and went up to Mountlake Terrace to bring Grandma Myrna her Mother's Day gift and to visit with Lyle & Fran.

It was a fun evening of conversation and watching how the kids decided to entertain themselves. :-)

Grandma Myrna doesn't just throw the flowers into the vase, she actually arranges them.

Elissa had to show Grandma Myrna how to tie the new scarf we got her.

And then Elissa took off the little bookmark that was on the card we gave Grandma Myrna and told her that it can stick on her scarf with the little bit of glue that was still on the back. Ingenious!

And Zach is teaching Grandpa Frink how to transform.

We love you Grandma Myrna!

CANNOT WAIT

Until we have our new sectional!

We bought it over 6wks ago and it is supposed to be coming by Wednesday of this week.

We had to order the configuration we wanted and then the fabric was on backorder.

In our family room we have had two rocking recliners and a chaise for many years. The kids would sit in there "anywhere" chairs or they would scoot in with us. Well they are just growing to big for this. It is not comfortable and I can't work on my computer while watching TV and having them right next to me.

I'm DONE with this scene!

All of us are!

Mother's Day Lunch

Thursday, 5-5-11

Zach's Preschool class hosted a little Mother's Day lunch.

It was SO adorable!

Though I do have to be real and say that I was trying to keep Zach sitting down nicely and not wrestling me, or his friends during the lunch. Oh, my sweet boy!

Here is his cute class singing.

Then they gave us a gift.

This is what the present was. LOVE IT!

It was a fun time with Zach.

Eugene Marathon

The DAY finally arrived.

Chad and I running the half marathon and Dad running the FULL.

I don't think any of us slept very well the night before.

I got up at 4:45am to give myself an hour to get ready before we left. I had put all my stuff/food in the bathroom so that I wouldn't wake up the kids while I was getting ready.

We all had goals we wanted to achieve. I wanted to finish sub 2:30.

I finished my first half in 2:45. I was pretty devastated that I didn't do it in 2:30, but the last 3 miles were sloping uphill. I wasn't prepared for that. Mentally and physically I barely finished.
Then I finished the Seattle Half Marathon in 2:48. It was a brutal course, but I was "ready" for it. I still was mentally and physically exhausted the last 3 miles, but I gave it my all. I felt good about the run.
The Eugene course is supposed to be fairly flat and the best course to get a personal record (PR).

I had shirts made up to support Dad running his marathon.

It ends up the we were all in corral B together. I had planned on lining up behind the 2:30 pacer, but they only had marathon pacers. So I lined up with some friends from the Y that were running the half also. Keri is a little faster than me and Allison is about the same speed. I knew that if I could pace with Keri, then I would make my goal. I lost my Dad in the corral, so I didn't get to give him a final, "good luck!" But I know that he knows I was sending prayers his way.

We were off!

Now Keri told me that this was a flat course, but I'm starting to think that there is no such thing. :-) There were hills. Several of them. I passed Dad going down one of them. I kept with Keri the first couple of miles and then she pulled away. Allison and I ran together for about a mile and then I got the energy to catch up with Keri. As I was back with Keri, Dad passed us. :-) I stayed with Keri another of couple of miles and then I lagged behind on a hill and from then on I tried to keep her in my sights. I could actually see Dad and her ahead of me for most of the race. I knew if I just kept a steady pace that I could come in at my goal. I lost sight of Dad and Keri around mile 8. Then it was just me and the Lord pushing me onward.

A side note: Keri and Dad ran together on and off for several miles until it came to the split at mile 10. She is a really nice person that likes to talk while she runs. :-) Dad was happy for someone to help get his mind off the miles. When I saw Keri after the race (she came in at 2:19) she told me that Dad was doing good and felt really good when they split. That was so great to hear. 

I often have thoughts while I'm running a half of why I feel the need to run so far. Really, isn't 6-10 miles plenty?! It may be in the future, but today I wanted to make my goal. I wanted to show myself that I can do it. That I can run the mileage. That I can NOT give up on myself. That I can push through the times I want to walk or quit. That I am strong. That part of life is pushing through the tough times and not giving up or making excuses or lying to myself and saying that, "I'm just not that kind of person". I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The race is no longer about proving my worth, but to just simply persevere and see that I have the strength to do it.

I felt really strong. I felt like I had fueled up and I passed through many of the water stations because I didn't need it. I ate energy jelly beans throughout. I listened to what my body needed. I didn't feel nausea at all. My legs felt good. I just needed to keep my mental strength going. I knew I could do it.

I was SO HAPPY to get to mile 11 and then 12 and know that the end was near. I just needed to push a little harder and then I could celebrate. Just outside running into the stadium, my left calf started cramping. A cramp that could send you to the ground in a second. I prayed, "Please Lord, let me just make it to the finish line. Help me!" I tried to straighten up as much as possible and kept on running onto the track. I could see the FINISH! I pushed myself to go a little faster. I wanted to finish strong. I crossed the finish line at 2:24!

Oh, sweet victory! I wanted to burst out crying. If my family would have been there, I would have. I walked it out. I ate some food. I went to the bathroom. I got my official time. I went and found my family.

I really am so proud of myself. I ran the whole way (except walking thru the water stations that I got water at). I walked partly in both of the previous races. I felt strong the whole way through. I knew that no matter what my time ended up being, that I would have been proud of the effort I put in. But I'm SO thankful I met my goal!!

Here are my official stats:

Here are the stats from my iPod:

Next time (See Jane Run on 7/17) I would like to try and keep all of the miles at 11 or below.

Chad came in at 2:01!

Chad was wanting to beat Dad's PR at a half marathon and he did. I txt'd him later and said that He can't really say he beat Dad until he beats him on the same course. A little razzing going on. :-) But then today, I'm thinking about it and my first half in Vancouver, WA comes to mind. To say that I have beat "my mind over matter", then I need to go back and do that race again. None of my friends want to run that course again and I hadn't decided what I was going to do. But I feel like I need to. That is the only race I feel like I didn't do my best. I need to go back and conquer that course. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to sign up for the Girlfriend's Half Marathon again. It is October 16th. Hopefully Darin and I will make it a long anniversary weekend. :-)

And DAD came in at 5:06!!

He did amazing! He ran the whole 26.2 miles.

Mind you, he just started running a year and half ago.

He had his own cheering section.

"My Gramps ran 26.2....what did yours do?"

We were SO excited when we saw him come into the stadium!

We wanted him to hear us cheering!

What an accomplishment!

We are SO PROUD of YOU!!

Eugene Kids Fun Run

Saturday, 4-30-11

FRIDAY

Friday we made a very long trip to Eugene, OR for some running events. And when I say - VERY LONG TRIP - it is an understatement. It actually would have been enjoyable if we could have stopped and shopped at some neat outlets we saw and enjoyed the scenery and quiet, but that would have meant we didn't have the kids with us. LOL!

I'm pretty sure they needed to potty every 30 minutes. And they asked if we were almost there the other 30 minutes and did not think that taking a nap was a good idea. We brought movies and I brought out a couple of new little toys about a 1/4 of the way through the trip. I was going to wait longer, but they spied them and wouldn't wait to see them. We also had lots of fun snacks. There are just times that you can't plan enough to try and make it easier.

We got to Eugene about 6 hours or so after we left our house. At that time we figured out that Zach had got a bit sick in his pants and, as Darin found out, it is no fun at all to clean up a 4 yr old. We picked up our race packets and then headed for the hotel....finally. As we get on the freeway for a mintue, Zach has to go potty NOW and we can't pull off.....another mess to clean up. :0( We get to the hotel and get unpacked and the kids want to get in the pool right a way. Zach is down there for about 30 mintues with Grandma and Papa and then he is tired and ready to come back to the room. Grandma brings him up to her room and he falls asleep right a way. We come up later to settle down for bed and bring Zach into our room. About 10 mintues later he is throwing up on the bed. Poor boy! He is not a good long distance traveler. We get everything cleaned up again and then he starts feeling better and wants to play instead of going to bed. He got progressively better and was back to himself Saturday morning. Thank you Lord!

SATURDAY

The kids race started at 8am. That is very early. Grandma & Papa came with us and we left just after 7am, after having a pretty good free breakfast at the hotel. The morning was a bit chilly, but beautiful.

The race is finally about to begin!

I must apologize that I forgot to change my camera settings. The sun came up brilliantly and totally overexposed all the pictures that my Dad took. I tried to salvage them as best as I could.

It is about to start!

We don't know it right now, but this is a bunch of ruthless kids. "Fun" was not how the race started.

Do you see the faces on these kids?? 

  Just after this Elissa went sliding on the ground along with many other kids with the ones still running just jumping over them. Elissa got up and I asked her if she was alright and she nodded, but was trying not to cry. She started running again. For the next couple of minutes I would look down at her and she looked like she was about to cry, but she ran it out and never stopped. Tough girl!

Here we are finishing the .6 race that completed Elissa's Marathon!

She made me work too. She is a fast little runner.

Look at her knees....they were pretty scraped up.

Darin took a camera on his and Zachary's race.

Darin said that he did really good and ran almost all of it. He came skipping and jumping across the finish line, so it looked like he enjoyed it. :-)

And then a little fun afterwards and trying to get all the free stuff they were handing out.

It was definitely worth the early morning wake-up.

It was a fun family morning!

We went straight back to the hotel and the kids finally got to see their cousins that came in late the night before. Then they all went straight to the pool and pretty much stayed there the rest of the day.

I never got any pool pictures.