Summer of 2008 in Review

We had a very busy and very fun summer so I thought I would take a minute and reflect back on all of the fun that we had. It started with Memorial Day weekend which I spent in Las Vegas for my mom's 50th birthday. After a fog delay of 24 hours, I finally got to see my 3 sisters, my brother, my mom, and Mindy too! It was such a fun trip, although it was really short, but that just means, I need to go back! :)

The next weekend, we celebrated Chloe's 3rd birthday with a pasta feed and really fun birthday party with about 40 guests. We are lucky to have have such wonderful family and friends who always like to come have fun with us! The next day was the Deadwood Mickelson Marathon and 1/2 Marathon. Chris ran the Marathon with a great time of 3:36:55 while I ran the Half in 2:16:14, which was 13 minutes faster than the half marathon I had run last year. Caiden also participated in this race, running the 1K in 6 minutes and 32 seconds!

The next weekend was another race, this one was the local 4 mile race for our Community Center and Chris took 2nd place overall and I was 12th in the walking division, pushing the kiddos in the stroller. The rest of June was spent mostly swimming and playing in the sprinkler and also a fun visit from my Dad!

We spent July 4th weekend with the Erlenbusch Family visiting us from Billings and we had a GREAT time. We went to the fireworks show, the mile long parade, the carnival, the rodeo, and also watched Chris run the local 10K race in which he ran 4 minutes faster than the year before and was first in his age group. We also went to Storybook Island and had a really fun time there. We had a wonderful visit and we were sad to see them go. Another person we were sad to see go was Lauren as she moved back to Montana in July. Her old room seems way too big now with just the computer in there.

The big news of July was when Chris qualified for the Boston Marathon when he ran the Missoula Marathon in 3:09:41!! He didn't tell anyone that he was planning on attempting this feat so it was quite a surprise to us all and we were all so happy and proud of him! My friend, Lacey, and I threw a really fun surprise party for him and about 20 of our friends came to say congrats to him and he really had no clue about it until we got there. It was awesome!

A couple of weeks later, we were back in Montana, this time for my 10 year high school reunion. It was so much fun to see old friends and spend time catching up with them and my family. The kids had a blast playing with their Auntie Lauren and Auntie Kelly and playing on Pa's trampoline and swimming at Lake Como. Kelly came back with us to South Dakota and visited us for a week and so of course we had to go to Chuck E Cheese while she was here. I think she loves that place more than the kids do! It was really fun to see her a little longer!

The beginning of August brought a newspaper article about Chris qualifying for Boston so now he's a local celebrity! It was fun to see him in the paper for his hard work - you can read the article here:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3yFCnWA5kE2Z2bOlOeOcj0X4EaQQQhsA8m9W9MDJjgxVX54RD02ImTWNB9SYJwl5A3aIH53cHHtb8ahYDQbXNCcrgB3a7s0hG9OKL_tXUitLfA8GNJKTjtD1Drm9KbwugR-afxjZPGy8/s1600-h/newspaper+001.jpg

My favorite thing about August was running my 3rd 1/2 Marathon at the Leading Ladies Half Marathon down through Spearfish Canyon. I not only took 11 minutes off of my time at the Deadwood Half Marathon in June, but I took 25 minutes off of my time from the same race last year!! My time was 2:05:12, which was way faster than I ever thought I would be able to run and so fast in fact, that Chris and the kids missed me finish the race because I told them I would be there 5 or 10 minutes later than I actually was...Oops!

The rest of August was spent back at Storybook Island, school clothes and shoe shopping, more swimming, more running, and then today at the Waterslide Park to end our summer. Tomorrow brings September and time for the kids to start preschool, Caiden to start soccer, and of course the wonderful cooler temperatures which makes training for our races a lot easier!! It's only supposed to be 70 tomorrow and then 60 on Tuesday - that's a 40 degree drop in 4 days! :)

We already have some races for the fall too! I am running in a 10K race on September 21st, Chris is running a 10K trail race on September 27th, I am running another half marathon on October 4th, and then we have the Halloween and Thanksgiving Races to follow so our running is not over for the year! The kids are very excited to start preschool on Tuesday and Caiden can't wait to see what soccer is all about! So, here is a "good-bye" to our summer and a very happy "hello" to fall!!! I hope your summer is full of good memories and that your fall is very enjoyable!

A Fun Day at the Waterslides!

A little mistake on my part turned out to be a very fun day! This morning, we packed a cooler full of lunch and headed up to Rapid City to spend the day at our favorite pool. Today was the last day of our summer temperatures so we wanted to spend the day outside. We thought the pool would be the best place to spend our last "summer" day. But as we arrived, we see that the pool is completely empty, and obviously, closed. I guess maybe I should have checked the website to see when they closed for the season? But who would have thought they closed LAST weekend? Not me, for sure. I thought they would have stayed open through Labor Day weekend, especially with the really hot weather still here! But no, all of the Rapid City pools are closed for the season already. So now, what to do? We couldn't just drive back to Belle after promising the kids swimming today. We contemplated what do to next in the Walgreens parking lot while I was waiting for my ink cartridge to get filled. So, while we are eating our lunch in the car in the Walgreens parking lot, I call my friend, Lacey, and asked her to get on the computer and see what she could come up with. We thought of the indoor waterslide park, but learned that this would cost us almost $20 a person! I thought that was a little expensive! And then Lacey came across the Rushmore Waterslides, something I had never considered, because I didn't think they would have much for little kids to do. But I called them up and it turned out they had a kiddie pool with a boat to play on a little slide that the kids could go down themselves and there were 3 bigger slides that the kids could go down with us, and even a lazy river to play in, so it seemed like a great choice. And man, it was sure a fun day! We all had such a great time. Probably even more fun than the pool! Caiden had his favorite slide and I swear he and Chris went on that thing 100 times in a row! The bigger slides were a little on the slow side, so we tried to do them with the mats, but that was the wrong choice as we instead went way too fast and were flying down the slide and flipping all around and the kids were not impressed with this at all! So, no more mats for us! But overall, the earlier mistake was forgotten and the waterslides are our new favorite place! This was the last day of the season, so they will have to wait until next year, but I'm glad we found them on the last day! And my favorite moment from the day - Caiden and I are walking up to one of the slides and he says to me, "Mom, why do they have a slide for cats? Cats don't even like the water!" Of course my response was something like, "Huh?" To which he replies, "They have a KITTY slide here!" Oh, now I get it. "No Caiden, that's a KIDDIE slide, not KITTY, kiddie, like kid!" "Oh, he says" But I still don't think he understood what I said! But it was a good laugh!

Thank you Lacey for saving our last day of summer!!!!

Hiking in the Black Hills

Ok, so we actually went hiking a few weeks ago and I'm only writing about it now, but better late than never, right? I have been slacking on this blog, but I will be better about it, I promise!

It's really easy to find places to hike right here near our house which we are very grateful for as our kids love to be outside. When we asked Caiden what he wanted to do one Saturday, he said, "take a walk in the forest." I think he wanted to go and try to find Smokey the Bear because he knows he lives somewhere in the Forest. But we decided instead to go check out some waterfalls at Roughlock Falls. "Roughlock" comes from back in the days of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok and describes the difficult travel through Spearfish Canyon. They would "roughlock" the wheels of their wagon with logs or chains so they would not turn. They would then hitch the horses to the rear of the wagon and slowly slide down the slopes. There's a little history for you even! It is considered one of the most beautiful locations in the Black Hills and judging by how many people were there, a lot of people think this. The last scenes of the movie "Dancing with Wolves" was even filmed there. It was really neat to see the waterfalls and walk along the paths and trails around the falls. The kids had a great time finding birds and bugs and rocks to climb onto.

After some time at the falls, we headed back down Spearfish Canyon and stopped at Savoy to try out the "76 Trail." It's name comes from the 1876 Gold Rush and it was a quite a bit steeper than what we were used to, but the kids did really well. Chloe of course had to do everything herself so I stayed behind with her and Chris and Caiden zoomed up the trail pretty quickly. We made it halfway up (3/4 quarters of a mile) and the kids were pretty tired and we came to a sign that said the next half was even steeper and there was a lot of loose rocks on the "trail" so we decided that the halfway point was the end for us. The kids found a deer print on the way down and thought was was really neat. Caiden really liked how high up we were and could look down at everything.

After getting back down, we asked the kids where they wanted to go eat lunch and they both chimed in with "rice and noodles" so it was off to the Chinese buffet for some lunch! Hiking and Chinese - could the day be any better?! :)

Leading Ladies Half Marathon Report

There is one word that describes my half marathon today and that word is AWESOME! First off, it's all women!! No offense to any guys out there, but running with all women is very exciting and fun. Secondly, the weather was perfect, pretty chilly before we started running, but just great when we got going. And then there's the course, which is mostly all downhill and my favorite race course ever.
As some of you know, I was planning on running the full marathon today, but then with a month left to go, decided that I wasn't quite ready to run the full and put that off until next year. So, I wanted this half to be my best, but wasn't sure I could pull that off as July and August were not the best running months for me with how hot and humid it had been here. I really didn't know what to expect. I told Chris to be there after the 2:10 time and hopefully I could finish around there or just after that.
I was up bright and early (at 3am!) to get onto the bus at 4am. We left just after 4:15 and I sat by and met a really nice girl, Kristy, and we chatted as the bus rolled on. When we got up there, we headed to the bathrooms along with the 300 other people who were also there. The line was long, but moved pretty quickly and then we still had over an hour until race time. I have no idea why we got there so early, but it was fun to meet a few other women and hear their stories of running. Finally it was 5:45 and time to get to the start line. After one last porta potty stop, we got in line and pretty quickly started counting down from 5 and we were off. And it was about then that I realized that my Garmin had not located the satellites yet!! So, I had no idea how fast I was going, but the pace felt good so I just went with it. I knew it was faster than my training runs, which was good; I was just hoping I could keep it up. I started the Garmin at the 2 mile mark and when I got gotten to the 3rd mile, I ran a 9:30 mile. WHAT??? I couldn't believe it! I don't run under 10 minute miles EVER! But I still felt good so I kept it going. My Garmin decided to lose it's reception soon after that and came back on pretty quickly, but it wasn't caught up to where I was so I stopped it and reset it at the 5 mile mark. That mile went by very quickly as it was a water stop and time to take my gel and when I saw the 6 mile marker, I looked down to see a 9:15 mile!!! Oh my gosh, I am going faster than I was before?! So I kept that pace for a another mile and I felt really good. When I got to the 8 mile marker, I look to see how fast that mile was and to my astonishment, I had run an 8:50 mile! I didn't know that it was even possible for me to run that fast!! I guess that gel had kicked in! Now, I just had 5 miles to go - less than an hour and I would be done. This race was just flying by me! After the 10 mile mark, I got pretty tired and slowed down my pace a bit, running a 9:35 mile. It felt like an eternity until I saw that 11 mile marker. The next mile, I was even more tired, but now I was determined NOT to run over a 10 minute mile. I just had 2 more miles to go - I could do this! That mile was a bit slower at 9:40, but that was just fine with me. I finally get to the 12 mile marker and then I knew I could finish this race without walking and without running a mile over 10 minutes. That mile went by really fast (I ran it in 9:30) and then I could see it - the blessed 13 mile marker! Just one little .1 of a mile to go. I crossed the last bridge before the finish line and I saw the clock tick to 2:05:00 - I seriously almost lost it then - I ran 13.1 miles and it's not even 2 hours and 10 minutes yet? That was the time that I thought I could have run at my very fastest! I didn't think I could actually even do that! But here I was, finishing at 2:05:12!!! Lots of nice people were cheering us on to the finish and I listened for my family, but didn't hear my kids yelling like I usually do. After getting my medal, my rose, and my lemon scented towel, I walked to my car to get my phone and see where they were. Of course, by then, they were at the finish line, but they had gotten there 2 minutes late and missed me finish! Of course this is my own fault as I told him that I wouldn't finish any faster than 2:10 and they would have been there for that. :) But that means that there is no picture of me finishing!!!! So, I will have to wait and see how the professional picture turns out and maybe get one of those. But overall, it was the greatest race ever!!
I finished 98th overall (out of 370) and 20th in my age group (out of 42). I took 25 minutes off of my time at the same race a year ago and I took 11 minutes off of my previous PR that I set at my June half marathon. It really is unreal to me still. I feel pretty good, a little sore, and a lot tired. I'm thinking a nap is in store for me this Sunday afternoon! :)

Chris is Famous! In Belle Fourche Anyway! :)

Chris was in our local paper today - the Belle Fourche Post and Bee. They didn't spell our name correctly in any of it and they posted the wrong qualifying time for his Missoula Marathon, but he was in there and that's what matters! He was recognized for his great accomplishment of making it to Boston to run the Boston Marathon! Enjoy the article!

We Need 3500 People to Donate $1 to Get Chris to Boston!

On July 13th, Chris accomplished a life-long dream of his and qualified to run the Boston Marathon in April of 2009. Now, we just need to figure out to get there! So, we thought if we could get 3500 people to just give $1, we could go to Boston as a family and watch Chris fulfill his dream! If we can get 3500 people to donate a dollar, we will send out individual thank yous and Chris will make a video thanking each individual person and post it on the Internet! We are also working on an idea of Chris writing each person's name on a shirt (or multiple shirts for the family to wear too) to display his "sponsors" while we are in Boston. If you can help, we would really appreciate it! Please spread to the word so we can make this happen! Thank you so much!

We have created two groups, one on myspace and one on facebook in our attempt to find the 3500 people to donate $1 to help Chris fulfill his dream of running in the Boston Marathon. Please join one of them and invite everyone you know to join also! Here are the links to the groups!

http://groups.myspace.com/sendchristoboston

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19394446247

Fun Times at Chuck E Cheese and Storybook Island

Kelly is in South Dakota for the week and whenever she is here we HAVE to go to Chuck E Cheese (her favorite place!) so she, Cody, and I took the kids there yesterday. We of course had a great time. Along with Chucky, we went to Storybook Island, which is always fun (and free too!) but it never gets old and everytime we are there, it seems like there is something there we missed the last time we were there. It was a very fun day!

New DayCare Baby!

One of the moms who I watch kids for, and a good friend of mine, had her 3rd baby last Sunday and after having to be in the NICU for a few days for some breathing problems, he got to come home on Friday. The kids were SO excited to meet the new baby that will be joining our daycare. His name is Prosper Alexander and he is a cutie! You really forget how small they are when they are first born! Welcome to the World Baby Prosper!

Our Trip to Montana!

We had an awesome trip to Montana! It started on Thursday night with at stop in Billings for the night at Amber and Steve's house. The kids were so excited to see each other and poor Kyle cried when it was time for us to go on Friday morning. The trip to Hamilton was uneventful (thankfully), but we did hear a lot of "how many more minutes to Pa's house?" and "are we almost there?" from Caiden. Both kids did sleep for a couple of hours after lunch so that was nice.
We arrived in Hamilton a little after 4pm and I went and got my hair chopped off. It feels awesome! I think I am meant to have short hair, especially in the summer. After some pizza for dinner, Chris and I headed to BJ's ( a local restaurant) for my 10 year high school reunion "meet and greet." It was so awesome to see everyone from my class, most of who I hadn't seen in 10 years! We all had a fun time playing a few games, chatting, eating, and having a few drinks. While we were there, my family took the kids to Qwivals for some go-cart rides, bumper cars, games, and prizes so they had a blast without mom and dad!

On Saturday, Mindy and I went and toured the old high school and we went to and the new high school that was built after we were long gone. Wow, what a nice school! Maybe my kids will go there someday! ;) Benj (Mindy's husband) and Chris headed up Blodgett Canyon to do some hiking, because really, they did not want to tour our high school! That afternoon, we headed to the family BBQ with the class of 98 and got to meet every one's kids. Some of our parents and old teachers were there serving up the food so that was fun to see them. After spending some time downtown and letting the kids bounce in the bouncy castle, we headed to my dad's house for another BBQ! My mom and grandparents and Chris' mom, my friend Derick, and Mindy and her family all came to eat some more food (I think that's all I did this trip!) and the kids had a blast jumping on the trampoline and getting soaking wet from the sprinkler. Later on, Chris, his mom, and I headed to the brewfest that was downtown and I wasn't planning on drinking anything until I found out that they had WINE! :) So, I had a few glasses and it was really good. There were a ton of people there and the band was really loud, but I met up with my friend Julie and her husband and it was fun to catch up with her.

The next day, I didn't feel so hot, but it didn't last long and by noon, we were headed up to our favorite lake, LAKE COMO! We spent the whole day there and had a blast. We don't have a lake like that around here and the kids didn't want to leave. They played in the sand and water all afternoon. I got a pretty good sunburn that I am still feeling, but it was all worth it! After getting home and making dinner, Lauren took the kids over to her friend Kristen's house to play and so my dad, Chris, and I headed to DQ for some blizzards. What a way to end the trip, right?! Bright and early (5am!) on Monday morning, we were out the door and on our way back to Belle. We stopped in Missoula to pick my sister Kelly up and she is here now visiting for the week. The kids fell back asleep soon after picking her up and they stayed asleep until 10am! So, that was a great way to start the long drive back. After a lunch stop and a couple of bathroom stops, we were home by 430pm - about 11.5 hours after we left Hamilton. It was a long drive back, but the kids did really well and there was minimal complaining! :) Overall, the trip was short, but such a fun time!!!