Preschool

Max officially started his school year today. This morning he wanted to make sure I would LEAVE HIM THERE and NOT STAY. Yeah. Not a lot of separation anxiety there:)

School Pictures 2012

So, in continuing with my tradition of NOT purchasing school pictures, I did portraits of the kiddos the other night instead.  Last year I was a little dissapointed... especially in the terrible smiles I got out of one little five year old boy... but not this year.  This year, I got so many good ones... I know there's a ton, but you wouldn't have been able to choose either!  I sent even more than this off to print!!!  So, for the record, Pearl is in 4th grade, Sam is in 1st grade, Max is starting his first year of preschool, and Miss Ruby is 10 1/2 months old.  Precious.  I kind of love my kids.  

Max is THREE!!!!

Mr Max recently had his third birthday.  His cousin, Maya just had a birthday too.  She got her very own photo shoot with an outfit and a field of flowers... 

Max got 3 minutes in the backyard with his grungy hand-me-down Thomas t-shirt that he wears at least once a week.  Sorry, kid, you're number 3 and you have a cute baby sister.  That's all I can say in my defense:)

 I don't think he minded... not then, and I'm sure he'll forgive me in the future.

 This kid... is STILL obsessed with trains!  We squeaked in one more birthday at the train museum before our passes expired.  The child has everything, so this year, we let him pick out his own present from the train museum... the silver train pictured here.  I'm not sure what the pull was, it was not something I would have picked out for him, but two weeks later he's still sleeping with it.  Most awesome birthday present I ever bought him:)

 He's still generally a happy boy, and more and more interested in what the big kids are doing... especially Sam.  It is safe to say that this one is Sam's shadow.

How I love having this little boy in the family!  I think he's a keeper.

First day of School!!! First day of School!!!

Can you believe it?  School started August 9th this year.  I know, summer was just getting started!  (at least it feels that way...)

Max was a little sad not to be going to school too, his will start up in a few weeks:)

 Pearl is in fourth grade this year, and is now attending the big school up the hill (sniff, sniff!)  Sammy is in first grade, and this is how I know the school knows him well... I was so worried about first grade because they do a lot of whole group instruction with the overhead projector, and he would totally not pay attention, but guess what?  His seat is front and center, right in front of the overhead and the teacher.  Hmm, maybe think his Kinder teacher talked to the first grade teacher?

 I was so busy this summer, and it is SO HOT, that I didn't get around to shopping for a first day of school outfit for Pearl.  Luckilly, I was halfway through a t-shirt dress I was making for her, and was able to finish it in time.  Dorky that I made her first day of school dress, or uber cool?  I can't decide... but she likes it.  She's worn it three times this week!  (don't worry, only once to school:)

 And Sam... this Hawaiian shirt was purchased for his kinder graduation (which I still haven't blogged about) and only worn one day.  Since it's the only non-superhero t-shirt shirt he owns, it became the first day of school shirt.  He didn't complain too much:)

On the first day, it was like 102 degrees, so I dropped them off and immediately took the babies for a 5 mile run.  Ahhhhh, it was SO NICE to just go RUN by MYSELF (and my double stroller:) without having to figure out what to do with all the kids!  Max and Ruby like the ride, the whole way back Ruby was waving and squealing at all the other runners, she got a lot of attention that way:)  Then, we went to wal mart, got some more things done... I love the routine school gives us!!:)  Good good good first day!

Half Marathon

 We did it!  We ran the whole way!  Jared, Mara, our friend Wes, Brendan, and I ran the whole dang thing.  Paul ran 10 miles then walked 3, but he did it with pretty much no training so we hate him.  Here is us pre-race.  See how happy we are, and how we're not sweaty yet?

Pearl and Sherry walked the 5K while the rest of us ran the half marathon.  My favorite part (besides the finish line) was when the half marathoners caught up to the slowest 5Kers (of which Pearl and Sherry were a part) and I got to wave at her as she made her first turn.  Sherry says she did not want to leave the finish line because she didn't want to miss me coming in:)  So glad she could be a part of it!

The race was super well organized, water and bathrooms every two miles, so that broke things up nicely.  We got glowsticks at mile 8, and it was just getting dusky and super fun to watch a sea of bobbing glowsticks ahead of you.

Including all my bathroom breaks, I ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes, which put me at an average pace of 12:23.  I was thinking it would take me 2 hours and 30 minutes, so that was pretty close.  If only I hadn't needed every single pit stop!

Jared was a trooper and powered through even though he had pulled a calf muscle in the last few weeks of training.  Which means he won't be running for a while, but now he knows he can:)

Here we are at the end.  I must say, it did feel like a major accomplishment.  By the end, my body was just hurting so bad, I'm fairly certian I have no need to do a full marathon to prove anything to anybody.  But I would run a half again.  I enjoyed training, and since I followed my training religiously, my recovery was pretty good.  I was able to run all my days this week, even from Los Angeles (we left for LA less than 12 hours after we finished our run:)  And five miles still doesn't seem like such a big deal:)

Running

Jared and I ran our first 10K on July 4th.  I've run six miles lots of times.  I've run MORE than six miles lots of times.  It was still different running the race, I'm glad we did it before the half marathon coming up.  There are all these PEOPLE in your way, messing with your pace, getting in your way... it's so different.  One of the things I like best about running is the feeling of aloneness it gives me... with so many people asking for my attention all day, it's nice to just be ALONE.

 This is us before the race.  See how we're happy and relatively sweat free?  We ran together for about the first half, then, just as I was getting my stride at about 3 miles, Jared got a cramp in his calf.  So, I ran the rest of the way alone (well, kind of).  There was finally enough space (translation, I was finally far enough behind) that there weren't so many people and I could find my rhythm again.  The last half was more fun than the first:)

This is Jared finishing the race.  There is no picture of me finishing the race because I smoked him.  (Ok, I came in like 4 minutes before he did.)  My average pace was 10:34, which is pretty good for an old lady who ran four miles (ok, lets face it, I'd never run 2 miles!) for the first time in her life 11 weeks ago.

I am really enjoying running, but every once in a while I ask myself why I'm running places, circles in fact, to get nowhere.  The answer?  The way my calves look in my four inch heels on Sunday.  That's what it's all about:)  No, seriously, it's all mental.  I never thought I was one of those people who could do it.  Running is serious exercise, for serious athletes.  My sister in law Lora asked how I was feeling about the big race coming up, and my answer is, nervous.  About what, I don't know.  That I won't finish?  Not likely.  And besides, if I don't what is there, a half marathon police that gets you if you walk the last mile?  I think I'm hoping it will be almost... fun.  I have religiously followed my training, I hope this race cements my enjoyment of running and that my body is not so trashed at the end that I never want to run again.

Because, guess what?  I'm a runner:)

Rasberries

Miss Lu started blowing rasberries last Friday... right on time, I must add, speech development-wise.   Her face is SO CUTE when she does it, I have been trying for days to catch a picture... and here she is!  Just look at that PUCKER!!!!