Bolder Boulder 2008

We did it!!! My family and I finally completed our goal of running the Bolder Boulder. Ben did great and could have easily left us behind with his long gazelle-like skinny legs and long stride. He hardly trained at all and he finished in 1 hr and 10 minutes, and still had time to take a potty break and eat chocolate covered strawberries on the side of the road. What's up with that????

My cousin Claudia and her boyfriend lake finished in 1 hr 5 minutes. My mom and busted our butts, stopped for water break and finished in 1 hr 16 minutes.

Our friends Jenny and Steve Desmond beat the whole pack of us in 1 hr and 5 minutes.

My sweet brother, Hernan was our one man cheering section in the stadium!! Thanks, Hernan!!

My dad was kind enough to ride on side streets on Ben's bike to take photographs of us and document our adventure.

Finally, on our way to the car, we ran into the Colorado Rapids mascot and posed for a picture! The best part was, that 2 nights earlier, our team "Chivas USA" (the striped shirts we were wearing) had just beat the Rapids in a soccer game in Denver!! And that fuzzy big raccoon posed with us anyway.

Would we do it again? You bet!!! Let me know if you want to join us for next year's race!! We start training next week!!

Winding Down the School Year

As the school year draws to a close, Alec and Ethan are eager to get their summer started and I am wondering what the heck I'm gonna do with them day in and day out. My parents and brother are here for another week so, I can survive that long. Then we will start swim lessons and baseball a week after that. Okay, that will get us through till mid summer. I suppose we can do the summer reading program at the library too. I think I can...I think I can....

Alec concluded the school year with a piano recital. He was first on the program and I think he was relieved to get it over with. Great job Alec!!!

Ethan and 7 of his good preschool buddies graduated from preschool last weekend. The children had a blast enjoying the food and play set at our friend Caiden's house. In the fall, he's off to Kindergarten. Let's hope he has stopped wetting his pants by then!

Ethan tells it like it is...

The other day as I was showering in our bathroom with a clear shower door, Ethan walked into the bathroom and proceeded to make one of his usual interesting observations. "Mom, your bottom is jiggley and big." "Oh Ethan, you're funny," I said with a giggle. "No I'm not, he replied...I'm serious."

Run Grandma Run!

This blog is a tribute to my mother Martha and the inspiration she has given me to be healthy, kind, loving and supportive. My mother is the female version of Forest Gump. About a year and a half ago she started exercising at a gym and joined a dance group for seniors called "Sassy Gals" and joined a running club! She trained for several races and continually got second place in her age category, 65. She said that she just wanted to win a first prize medal and she'd stop running...not...she has placed first in her age category for the last 3 races she's run. 5 and 10K's And she ran the LA Marathon the first week in March and ran 26.2 miles in 7 hours!!! She's amazing. I felt like a big loser after she told me this, so I invited her and my dad to come out for the Bolder Boulder and suggested we could run it together. Of course, she agreed to come so Ben and I are about to get smoked in two weeks by a 65 year old grandma!! I have been training 3 times a week and the best I've done is 4 1/2 miles. Yikes, I'm in trouble!!

More Pics from California

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I'm Goin Back to Cali...

Actually, we just returned from Cali...where we visited my parents and brother and sister for a week. My brother turned 30 and had a big birthday bash complete with a youth mariachi band, a regular band, and "ballet folklorico" mexican dancers who performed for us. My mom even performed at the party with her "Sassy Gals" old lady dance group. For those of you who aren't aware, my brother has Down's Syndrome and he really felt special that we were all there along with 200 family friends to celebrate at his party with him.

Then we were onto the typical California visits to the beach and Disneyland. Carter made himself at home lying in the beautiful sunshine at the beach. He acted like he was working on a tan. (As if he needs one) The water was freezing cold, but the other two boys had fun just running from the waves breaking on the sand. We daydreamed about how nice it would be to live on the beach in one of those beautiful homes in Newport. Then the million dollar price tags set in and we got over that dream!! The boys had a blast with their Aunt and Uncle Tristan who live on a man made lake and took us all out on their boat for a ride. My parents are the best for hosting us and enduring my crazy boys for a week. Good times!