Still Here!

We are in full summer break mode! Sorry to not be blogging as much, but we have been busy having fun!  I do have a camera full of pictures....maybe I'll get to that this week.

We are also in full party planning mode, which is kind of fun! Who knew. We've never done a big kids party, so this is a whole new experience for us. Myles definitely earned a good, fun party. While we are not going overboard, there are a few things that he's really wanted, like a bouncy house. So that has been ordered, plus a snow cone machine, tables and chairs.

In the mean time, we knew we needed a 16x15 foot level space for the bounce house, so we needed to drain the pool and move it over to make room. We have a 15 ft x 48 inch above ground pool that the kids love and use daily. Got it drained, moved, and refilled up (no easy task). We had about 20 friends over for lunch today and guess what....the pool busted open...like way open, flood the yard kind of open, and was empty in about 45 minutes. (it usually takes about 5 hours to drain).   So...add that to the party supplies since all the invitations said to bring "pool" clothes.

We spent an evening at party city with Myles showing us what he had in mind for decor, and hit both Costco and Safeway to look at cakes and pick one out.

Aside from party stuff, the girls went to their first sleep over, have had friends over, done lots of crafting stuff, and are keeping busy.  We spent a long day doing volunteer work  out in the country and got to walk around a ranch and saw the cutest baby pigs! There was a batch less than 24 hours old, and another batch 1 week old.  So cute. Made me really want a pig....but then I took at look at the mama's and realized they were the size of a small car. No thank you.

We have our Regional Convention (formerly known as district convention) this coming weekend, so this week will be busy with prep, but we are really excited. We will be tied into the convention happening at the same time in Seattle where my mom, uncle, cousin, and all of Brian's family will be, which is kind of neat!

I'd love to post about all the running we've been doing, but we just quite honestly haven't been doing much.  Brian and I are back to working out in the evenings when he gets home, and that has been great....but I'd really love to be getting some runs in. The 12 hour is literally right around the corner, and coming out of last year's I was stoked to go for 50 miles this year.  At this point I'd be thrilled to hit a 50k. I don't think I'll hit what I did last year (41 and change), or maybe I should say it would take a tremendous amount of effort to break even with what I did last year and as out of shape and under trained as I am currently, I don't know how wise that would be.  I'll really be happy to hit the 50k and keep going and see what happens......which is exactly what I said last year and I had a great time, so there you go.  I'm quite honestly looking forward to getting outside and moving for 12 hours, all numbers/mileage aside.

Anyhow, hopefully in the next few days I'll have a real post with pictures and not such lame content : )

A Mom's Perspective

 Told y'all I had a lot of pictures from last weekend! These are all from my camera, so you'll have a peek at what the day was like from my view.

First, it was beautiful. This was a memorial pool, and behind it was an elevated wooden deck in the trees. Very Ewok-ish.

 Brazen's village. That whole structure on the far side that is covered was food.

 Sam and Jasmin hard at work, getting the runners prepped for take off.

 The half started first, then these two and the 10k, then the 5k.

 That's the 10k getting started.  When I finished, all those blue chairs had runners sitting in them with bloody knees, that's the first aid area. Lots of tripping and falling during this race.

 Here we go!

 We were heading out of the aid station as Sophie was heading in.

 Above, man I love this picture, such a pretty picture of Sophie and Blythe kicking in for the uphill finish.

There ya have it. Another beautiful day in the woods.  Looking forward to next months 12 hours of Brazen fun!!!

Brazen's TrailQuake 5k - 2014

 Sophie, Myles and I ran the 5k. Sophie always wants to go at her own pace, while Myles likes to have me with him...although he finds it hilarious to run ahead really fast like he's leaving me behind, and then stop and laugh.  Until this race....where he just did not stop the whole second half.  Once we hit the turn around and had 1.5 miles of downhill (and again, this was tricky down hill, not easy to run), he was gone. I'd catch glimpses of him, but he was nearly a full minute ahead of me at the finish. In fact, I heard him announced as he crossed the finish while I was still in the woods.

Aside from that, we all started out together with a runner named Blythe. You may start to recognize Blythe by now, she and Sophie run the same pace, so if they are in the same race, they tend to end up together. This race, they were together from start to finish, and we all climbed the first hill together. I was cracking up looking at these pictures wondering what Sophie was saying that had Blythe laughing the entire race....but she's generally pretty perky anyway, so that is her normal, happy face.

 You would totally think the kids were running with Blythe and I was just some lady in blue behind them : )

 

 We were just coming up the first climb, deciding we should start running again.....

 Now we've climbed up 1.5 miles, and down about a mile...Myles had hit turbo and was cruising pretty good.  Allen took these next few pictures....(and some above)

 I'm getting heckled for letting Myles beat me, but I had no chance of catching him, lol. I have no turbo button these days.

 Sophie and Blythe, still deliriously happy : )

 Look at Myles go!! He was so happy, and very proud to have been "the first from our family to finish".

 Um...well, it was a little bit of an uphill finish and it felt like a huge up hill finish and I haven't really run in 6 months but really I have taken most of this year off and ....yeah, just don't look at me and let me finish-pretty much what I was thinking.

 And here come Sophie and Blythe!

Again, these are all pictures taken by Brazen's volunteers and put on-line free for all us runners. Thanks again volunteers!!  It was a great race, and we all had a great time!!