The Offspring!

I loved The Offspring back in high school and remember buying my first Offspring CD when I was 14 or 15. I remember my dad singing, "Come Out and Play (Keep Em' Separated)" to my sister, Kristin and I as we were always fighting and my parents would have to separate us. :) They have been one of those bands that I have always listened to, even 15 years later. When we found out they were coming to Rapid City as part of their "S*%@ Is F*%@ed Up Tour, there was no question as to if we would be going or not. We did decide to sit in the balcony this time with the other old people after getting pushed around a lot at the Buckcherry concert. We just can't mosh like we used to!

The concert did not disappoint! These guys are in their 40s now still rocking it out. It was definitely the loudest concert I have ever been to and my ears were ringing for sure, but it was all worth it!

The Street Dogs from Boston, MA opened the show and they put on a really great performance and seemed like really cool guys. The lead singer even crowd surfed to the back after his set. Check them out if you get a chance. Alkaline Trio was also an opener and they were okay, but definitely did not bring the energy the other 2 bands brought. The Offspring played most of my favorite songs and Dexter Holland even got on the piano and did some acoustic stuff. That was pretty awesome. That guy is amazing. If you ever get a chance to see these guys live, I highly recommend it! Here is a video of my current favorite Offpsring song - it's a great one to run to!

More Soccer!

Caiden had a game on Monday night and we got stomped on, something like 6-1 so Caiden was determined to score more goals in his game last night. You could see it in his face. He ended up scoring 3 goals in the game and here was the most funny one.





You see, that Orange kid was not in the game as he kicked it back in bounds to Caiden for the goal! But hey, they are only 5 so it counted! :) We still ended up losing the game 6-4, but Caiden was much happier that he was able to score some goals during this game. At the very end of the game, he got cleated in the knee and had to come out, but I think he will recover in time for his game this weekend. :)

An Hour of Fishing

That's right. An hour. That's how long we were fishing before the kids wanted to go. You see, if they aren't catching any fish, then it's not fun. The kids were SO excited at the thought of fishing, they could barely contain themselves. But after not catching a fish after 5 minutes, they didn't see the point anymore. That morning we had packed up the cooler with a ton of food thinking we would be at the lake for hours fishing. Well, we came home, filled up our little wading pool, turned on the sprinkler and ate our cooler of food on our porch. :) The fishing hour ended with me dropping my camera into the lake. Luckily, I was able to save the memory card and didn't lose our pictures, but the camera is a goner. But Chris saved the day and bought me a new one yesterday. I get very grouchy if I don't have a camera on me at all times! :)

A Dissapointing Personal Race, but Overall a Fun Day!

On Sunday, we headed up to Rapid City to run the Wellspring Stampede 10K, which was postponed from it's original April 26th date due to the snow we got on that day. Wellspring, Inc. is a non-profit corporation located in Rapid City, SD. Wellspring provides family focused therapeutic services for youth who cannot function within their family setting, the open community and the open school setting due to mental, emotional and/or chemical dependency problems.
So, the race is for a great cause and it's a really fun time. Kelly and I had planned on running the race together this year as Chris thought he would still be recovering from Boston, because the race was supposed to be a week afterwards. But, a couple of days before the race, Chris decided that he was going to push the kids and run the race. He had never pushed the kids in a 10k before so he figured it would be a good challenge. I felt good about the race going into it, but that would soon change! I ran the first mile (including a HUGE hill for most of the mile) in 9 minutes. You see, I cannot run 9 minute miles so how I did this, I still don't know. But I figured if I ran as fast as I could and get the hill out of the way, it would be smooth sailing the rest of the way. So, the next 2 miles, I also ran 9 minutes something for both miles. And then at mile 3, I crashed and burned....big time. My legs were just so tired after running that fast for 3 miles. I didn't know how I was even going to get through the next 3 miles, but somehow I managed to...very very slowly. When it was all said and done, I finished in 1:08:53, 7 minutes slower than I have ever run a 10K before! I ended up dead last in my age group (16/16) and was just really glad the race was over. Chris however had a great race and finished 4th in age group and ran it in 47:20, yes, pushing both of the kids. He also made a girl behind him puke because she was trying her darnest to beat him (she didn't). :) Kelly also ran a good race and has accomplished a lot in her running. Caiden ran in the Kid's 1 mile run after our race and ran it in 9:47 so he also did really well! Next year, I plan on coming back with a vengeance and running that race with a much different strategy than this time around!

3 Months from Today!!!

In 3 months from today, I will be able to call myself a marathoner. I cannot wait for that moment. Just to say I ran for 26.2 miles will be something awesome. I trained for the full marathon last year, but chickened out and ran the half marathon again 3 weeks before the race. That will not happen this time around. I am committed to this race and my training is going well. I have a 10K tomorrow morning and that will be the last of my short races for a while. I have 3 half marathons before the full in August which calls for more longer runs and I prefer those so much more than short quick runs any day! The weather is finally nice enough to be running outside on a consistent basis which really helps things too! Leading Ladies here I come!!! The picture is of the medal that I will be getting as I cross the finish line - Everyone's a Star! :)

Soccer is in Full Kick!

Caiden loves soccer. He asks everyday if he has practice or a game. He runs around the whole time and never wants to stop. After practice last night, he asked Chris if he would play soccer with him when they got home. He is also on the yellow team which is his favorite color so he was pretty excited about that. Due to some bad weather (I know, shocking for SD, right?!) some of his practices and games have been rescheduled, but next week we should be all caught up. We have a game on Monday night, Wednesday night, practice on Friday night and then our regular game on Saturday morning. So, it will be a busy week of soccer and Caiden couldn't be happier! :) Go Yellow!

Mother's Day Hike

The afternoon of Mother's Day, we decided to go on a little hike up to Mt. Roosevelt. It was a nice, easy hike for the kids and they even got to make snowballs at the top as there is still snow up there! Chloe loved the "castle" at the top too! :) After the hike, we went into Deadwood and had some Chinese food and then after we got home and digested all of that food I ate, Chris went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream for everyone! It was a great way to spend my Mother's Day!

Mother's Day 5K for SIDS Awareness

Sunday was the inaugural “Run for Their Lives” 5K for SIDS Awareness. Because it was for such a great cause and it was Mother’s Day we decided to make it a family affair and I would run it while Chris also ran it while pushing both kids in the stroller. There were also 7 or 8 people who ran it from the Forest Service so it was fun to see our friends too. And as an added bonus I got to meet my Spark friend, Katie (Pearljgurl), there!!! I also met her husband and mom who were also doing the race! We got there and got our shirts, got the stroller out and met Katie and our other friends and chatted while we waited for the race to start. It was a beautiful day and the perfect weather for a race. At 1030am, we were off! The first half was a gradual uphill (not a huge one, but I could feel it, especially after running my 5K on Friday night!) But that meant we got to go down too! A part of the course was also the last part of my marathon that I will be running in August so as I was running that part, I tried to envision myself coming across the bridge and finishing my marathon.  Towards the end, I passed a lady who I had been following the whole race so that felt good. I came into the finish and heard my kids yelling for me and finished in 30:05. Not my fastest time, but a really great race. When I got done I asked Chris how he did and he said that he was 9th overall and ran it in 22:10…yes, pushing both kids. I waited for Katie to finish and then we headed into the church for a pancake breakfast that was included in the race. It was a great way to end the race! The food was good and the company was even better! Throw in proceeds going to the Lach’s Legacy for SIDS Awareness and you have one awesome race!

WAVI 5K Race Report - A Very Eventful Night!

On Friday night, my family, and my friend Amy and her daughter, Avryl, all headed up to Rapid City (about an hour from home) to run in the WAVI (Working Against Violence, Inc.) 5K. It was just a fun run with no prizes for places, but it was for a good cause, domestic violence, and there were shirts to be given out, free food after the race, and door prizes to be won. After getting our shirts and signing up for door prizes, we were off! The course was a really easy course that I have run before with no hills, but we ran the entire way on the sidewalk, which does a number on your knees. At the turn around, we were only at 1.46 miles so I knew it was going to be a short course, but that’s not a big deal in a fun run. After the half way point, it started spitting rain at us, but that felt good and then we saw a rainbow that we started running towards. I finished the race in 27:54, but it was a short course (2.93 miles) so not a 5K time. After getting some hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and lots of water, they started the door prizes. Caiden and Chloe’s names were called right away and Chloe won a Jenga game and Caiden won a 20 Questions Sports game where you think of something and then it asks you questions and tries to guess what you are thinking. It’s right…sometimes.
After the race is when things got interesting. We go to leave, and the car doesn’t start. Chris tried to do some things, some people came over to try to help and we tried to jump it with Amy’s car, but nothing worked. So, it’s 8pm now and the kids just want to go home. So, the kids and I pile into Amy’s car and she drives us the hour home while Chris gets the car towed to the Dodge place. We get back home, I take the kids to my friend’s house so they can sleep while I go back up to Rapid to get Chris. Amy lets me borrow her car to go get Chris, which was really nice (because Chris’ truck is a stick and I can’t drive it very well!) and we finally get back home at midnight! Luckily, the Dodge place is open on Saturday and they called on Saturday morning to tell us that all we needed was a new battery, because there was something wrong with the battery internally and that was why we couldn't’t jump it. So, Saturday afternoon, we all pile into Chris’ truck, drive back up to Rapid for the 3rd time in less than 24 hours, but this time we come back with our fixed car! As annoying as it all was, it could have been so much worse so you won’t find me complaining too much!!!

9 Years Since our Engagement!

On May 5th, 2000, Chris came into the Cascade Country Store at the University of Montana in Missoula, MT where we first met and were we both worked during college and asked me to marry him. I was on my break and he came in and pulled a rose out of his backpack (yes, a backpack...we were in college after all!) and inside the rose, was my ring! We met at the store (our first conversation was about football of course!), we worked together there, he asked me out on our first date there (I was making sandwiches), and he asked me to marry him there. He was graduating the next week and I just KNEW that he was going to ask me when his family came for his graduation. I think he knew that I knew that and so wasn't going to let that happen! :) I can't believe it's been 9 years! We had a long engagement (a year and half) so I could finish college and now here we are - 6 and a half years of marriage, 2 dogs, 3 cats, and 2 beautiful children later!