Science City

We had gotten 5 free tickets to Science City when we were down at the kids marathon. The kids were out of school for conferences last Thursday and Friday so on Thursday we went downtown and spent the day. We walked over to Fritz's for lunch and then finished up with some more time at Science City. It was a fun day with the kids!

Have a great weekend! Don't eat too much candy...i will be!! Daddy will be doing his yearly instructing of "go for the snickers!"

Takes on a new meaning!

Do you remember this post? "get the gun" takes on a whole new meaning! I am armed and dangerous so if you have thoughts of sneaking in my back patio doors...you might want to re-think!

My husband got his Grandfather's gun that he is very proud of! He had it out doing something with it...something about moisture in the case...yada yada yada... if you tried intruding i would not be smiling like this...


i might look a little more like this. i know pathetic attempt at looking fierce, i look a little more shocked than fierce...

but finally he says i'm holding it ok here. he doesn't seem confident in my holding a gun, he says i would break my arm if i tried shooting it...

you wanna come sneak in my back door anyone?? I don't think our husbands will be sneaking home and surprising us anytime soon again...not as long as this thing is in the house!

I know...i'm so cheesy...

Pumpkins

I'd love to say we went to the pumpkin patch and rode the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and each of the kids picked their pumpkins to bring home to carve...but that would be a lie. So, truth be told, daddy swung by Walmart and grabbed four pumpkins that were on sale. They carved them Saturday night while i was at work and Daddy did good...he snapped some pictures!

Raegan doesn't seem to hesitant to dig in!

hmm, i wonder who didn't really have a say what her pumpkin was going to be??

first we have Avery's, Trey's Raegan's (aka daddy's) Ethan's

One of those days

I think i want to be 3 yrs old today and crawl back into bed and watch cartoons! If i have never mentioned it, and i am sure that i have...Mondays are not my favorite day of the week! I am always playing catch up after all the activities and working all weekend. I am usually exausted, sometimes not even hearing my alarm and often times a little cranky.

Even though i stayed up till 1 am washing the pumpkin stickiness off the floor and doing loads and loads of laundry....more loads are staring me down! But, as i was reminded one time..."having lot's of laundry means you are blessed to have plenty of clothing for your family"...for that i am very thankful! (i try to remind myself of that as i am piling three loads on the living room floor to be folded and put away!!

If i was three years old though...I most certainly would not have cut my hair last night and given myself bangs...this picture was obviously taken before the little 3 year old stinker wielded the scissors!

Happy Monday! Out of the kindness of my heart, i hope your laundry pile is smaller than mine :)

KC kids marathon

Last year the kids signed up and did their first 25 miles of the kids marathon and then all came down with the H1N1 right in time for the final 1.2 miles they run on race day so none of them got to run. We thought we would give it a go again this year and they had so much fun i think this will be a yearly tradition for us...Raegan might even get to run next year! It is so awesome watching kids just pour everything they have into running this race!

getting the numbers all pinned on

ethan getting all ready to run

avery hanging out with her cousins waiting to run

the groups of kids...LOTS of kids!!

and they are off...daddy ran with avery and ethan

oops out of order but cousins, caleb, trey and brendon waiting to run

trey got 5th place!! awesome job trey!! (and that was after running in his cross country meet earlier in the morning)

ethan, daddy and avery

ethan let go of daddy's hand and took off for the finish...atta boy ethan! :)

my little runners!

all the cousins that ran, such a fun time for the kids!

avery was worried because she had left her inhaler in her back pack but she did awesome and didn't even need it!

I'm so proud of you Trey, Ethan and Avery! And you too Raegan because you sat in that stroller like a trooper all day!

Cross country meet #2

Trey had another cross country meet on Saturday. This time it was at the high school near his middle school so they had actually been able to run the course so he had told me it was going to be hilly and a tougher run than his last one. I wanted to be there so bad!! His time was 6:35 and he got 16th place. He got 1st place out of the 6th graders at his school. Way to go Trey! We are so proud of you!

I am really enjoying watching him get into running. I encouraged him to do cross country though it was his decision and he is so glad he did it and loves running now! I guess it's in his blood...i did run while he was in my belly :)

The season is over. Tomorrow they get an end of season party. He is looking forward to track this spring.

KC half marathon 2010

Could not have asked for more perfect weather for race day! Beautiful fall day! We headed down to crown center only to get stuck in one big ol traffic jam on I35 which we continued to sit in for an hour! Nervously watching the minutes tick by, and having thoughts of jumping out of the car and scaling the I35 bridge to Union Station. With a 7:30 start we were coming upon the road that led to the parking garage at about 7:15. The 5kers of the family so kindly allowed the half marathoners of the family to bail out of the cars and literally run to the starting line. We had the packet and timing chip and number of another girls' so we were desperately trying to find her in the masses of people (11,000 runners!) We gave up our porta potties visits we all needed, did no stretching and started with the 2:35 pacers instead of the 1:55 as planned, handed off a race packet along with a cell phone to a kind but complete stranger that offered so Mandy did not have to run with it (we didn't have time to bag check it)...ahhh, nerves were in full force as you can imagine!!

I felt great and in spite of my having the urge to really push it to catch the two hr pace group, mandy, kristine and i fell into a pace together and slowly gained passing the 2:10 pace group. The miles really clicked by quickly...i had some great running partners!! Thank you guys!! I had no trouble with my blood sugars. Thank God! I ate one sports bean and drank a couple sips of water and gatorade at every aid station...getting more on my face and shirt than in my mouth (i cannot drink out of a cup and run at the same time, i tell ya!)

At mile 10 i knew it was all downhill from there (literally) that was SOO encouraging! Those of you that run know there is a lot of mind work that goes into running...talking yourself through every mile! They had various bands all along the course, at mile 11 the song "eye of the tiger" was blaring...it was just the boost i needed. I looked at my watch and started to get emotional seeing that i "had it" timewise...i quickly told myself "you have two miles to go you can't celebrate yet!" Runners were dropping off like flies with leg cramps, stopping to stretch!

On the last stretch i caught the two hr pacer as she slowed and screamed for all those near her to pass her to get the under two hr half. I can't explain how good it felt to beat my time that i have been trying to beat this past year! Thank you God!! (i was begging him to let me do it!) It's not a fantastic time, it's very average but it's about setting a goal and accomplishing it that felt so good!

I was shocked as i came into the finishing chute to see my husband there screaming for me to push it! Trey had a cross country meet and in no way did i think he would make it down in time to see me finish. Trey had no sooner crossed the finish line and they loaded up and rushed down to see me finish. Thank you babe! That meant the world to me! You have been so supportive of all my training and the time it takes, you always do whatever it takes to make it work and i am very thankful for that!

My goal time 1:59:59
My official time 1:57:05

And last but not least...pictures of the day...

coming down the finishing chute!

half marathon in under 2:00...check!

my fantastic running partners! We had not trained once together but all three wanted the same time very bad!

my mom and dad ran the 5k with my oldest brother roger...my brother in law greg ran the 5k with his boys brendon and caleb and my two sisters june and susan and i all did the half

the half- marathoners

my time print out to make it official!

my pace band that i tried to follow throughout the race...told us where we needed to be...

my sock felt soaking wet during the run and i couldn't figure out why...i had no pain but a must have done a poor job when i clipped my toenails the night before :)

It was such a fun day! The kids did a race too later in the morning but i will do that on another post because this got rather long ;)

My happy place

I love to run. It is like my happy pill. Yes, i have much to make me happy in my life besides running as well, but running is a big part of my life. My husband has told me during different times in my life "you need to get back to running" because when i am not i am grumpier, he knows it makes me happy.

While having my kids my running has been very sporadic but now that our youngest is three and i am out of the season of life of being pregnant, trying to get pregnant, having sleepless nights and such i have been able to stay with it consistently for a long period of time. That makes me happy!

I have had a fun spring and summer of doing races and i'm a little depressed of thinking of winter and the thought of running on a treadmill, ok a lot depressed about that thought!

I have been training for the KC half marathon over the last couple of months. It is this Saturday. I am nervous for the very reason that i am wanting very badly to beat my 2 hr time goal! If you read my blog, you may know that this past spring and summer i have completed two halfs...first one i got 2 hrs and 2 minutes and the second one 2 hrs and 1 min. so that explains why i want to beat it so bad! But if i don't get it this weekend you will be i will be trying again...till i get it!

Here have been my friends of training over the summer...

running shoes, well of course...

I don't always listen to music while i run, sometimes i just like to think...but on some of these longs runs by myself my ipod is my best friend. And yes i wear these big ear phones because i apparantly have the smallest ears in America and can't get ear phones to stay in my ears. My husband laughs at his nerdy wife in my big ol ears phones! edited to add-- i don't think my ear phones are quite this big but you get the drift...

peanut butter has really been my best friend since this summer when i started having some trouble with my blood sugar while running (this is one thing that makes me nervous for saturday!) I started taking about five spoonfuls of pb before i head out the door and have not been having near as much trouble (crossing fingers)!!

I borrowed my sister's water belt which was a life saver on my long runs this summer!

I only have one maybe two 3 mile runs to do this week and to be honest i am relieved that the training is done...i am ready to be done with long runs for a little while. Till spring anyway!

Party like your Ironman

I gave Ethan a choice between a party at Chuckee cheese or a party at our house and he chose a party at our house. I was shocked but happy! So we filled our house to the max tonight and partied 5 year old style!

Ethan picked out his cake and Trey decorated the table with all their ironman figures

his birthday guests

playing "telephone with 4-6 yr olds can be interesting ;)

Grandpa Seaba and Ethan

Grandma and Ethan...a little story about the playtime Woody...he woke up about two weeks ago and told me that he had one at Grandma's house, he was so excited...a little while later, he realized that it was a dream...so i guess you could say tonights gift was a dream come true! :)

the present huddle...there is no way to break up the present huddle!

do you detect a little excitement?!

thank goodness for older siblings to keep the older ones entertained...everyone's happy! We had a fun party. Ethan's only disappointment was that we ran out of time and didn't have time to play hot potato. He had so much fun with all his friends. Thanks to all of you who came and helped make his day special and also to those who are farther away and not able to come but made his day special as well.

As i tucked him in to bed, he stood up and said "i'm five now, see how tall i am?"