Summer Adventure

This past weekend was one of our greatest adventures yet.

Its always such a joy to be able to say that after a trip requires so many months of planning, so many hours of driving, and race fees in a sum you swear you will never pay again.

Except we are totally paying the race fees again.

Yep, the weekend was that great.

On Friday we loaded up the kids and the camping gear and hit the road for Washougal, WA.  Skilled parents that we are, we planned ahead and found a great park in Hermiston, OR for our pit stop.

Giant xylophones built right in!

And a splash pad to boot.

By mid-afternoon we arrived at our campsite in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, where Justin's parents were waiting for us.  We've talked about camping together for years and finally made it happen.  Bonus: they have a trailer!

Can you believe these trees?  I was in awe.

I even had got to wear a sweatshirt most of the time at our campsite.  It was wonderful.

I really need to get out of the desert more often.

As was expected, the boys thrived in their camping habitat.

The twins' finally conceded that s'mores are indeed delicious.

Not long after setting up our tent Kendry asked why he couldn't see the volcano (i.e. Mount St. Helens).  Darn all those tall gorgeous trees!  So on Saturday we took a short drive up to a great lookout.  

{Incidentally, on our drive back home on Sunday he also got to see Mt. Hood, another volcano.  We pretty much made his summer with these two sightings.}

But the real weekend adventure was our race. On Saturday morning Justin and I braved our very first Spartan Sprint, 4+ miles of running, mud and obstacles.  

We were both pretty pleased with how we did.  While we don't anticipate becoming regular Spartan racers, we are already looking to register for another sprint in 2016.  This really is an impressive and challenging race.  A big shout out to Justin's parents who watched the boys for several hours so we could do this; you both are amazing grandparents!

We headed home on Sunday, finding another neat rest stop and playground in Arlington, OR, where the boys practiced their own Spartan skills.  

Did I mention that I totally bombed on the monkey bars and rings in my race?

I taught him this pained look.

Not on my next race though.

A Half-Marathon Weekend

On Saturday, September 27th, I completed my 3rd half marathon - the Happy Girls Run held in Spokane.  First and foremost, this was an awesome race.  I felt like I was in great shape, the course was difficult but beautiful, and it was amazing to run with so many women.  Secondly, this race kinda kicked my butt.  It was a tough course, with nearly the entire first half on rocky trails.  I had hoped to PR with a sub 1:51:00, but that just didn't happen.  I also came away with a foot injury.

All smiles before the race:

Looking a wee bit exhausted at the finish:

My race groupies:

The weather seriously challenged my packing strategy for our weekend.  As you can see, Kendry had to wear Daddy's coat in order to stay warm.  Fortunately, it was great running weather.

All along we had planned to spend the entire race weekend in Spokane, a short two hour drive from home. Justin's sister lives there and we intended to crash at their place. However, four days before the race our niece came down with fever that eventually developed into hand, mouth and foot. Yeesh!  For those who aren't aware, the twins came down with hand, mouth and foot - one baby right after the other - in August.  It was quite possibly our most brutal parenting week ever.  Needless to say, we were more than willing to make alternate arrangements for the race weekend in order to avoid hand, mouth and foot.  We ended up booking a hotel room for the weekend.  With a five year old and two babies still sleeping in cribs, it was quite an adventure, but we made it work.

Off we go!

With my race completed on Saturday morning, we strolled down to Riverfront Park in the afternoon.

 

In hindsight, walking probably wasn't the best choice for my injured foot, but its not like we were going to stay cooped up in the hotel room.

Before heading home on Sunday we hit up Trader Joe's and Manito Park. 

All that playground time paved the way for this on the drive home:

It was a fun weekend away.  While I didn't PR, I did finish under two hours with an official time of 1:59:37.1.  Out of 591 women, I placed 43rd.  

The babies did not get hand, mouth and foot.  Yeah, baby!  

And I came away with a cool new tee.

This race could be a fun yearly tradition.  Any volunteers to join me?

Happy running! 

(particularly if its hand, mouth and foot that you're running from)

Fun Times in the Emerald City

Be advised: this is a photo heavy post.

We spent the last week of September in Seattle, with a few days up in Bellingham visiting some friends. One thing you should know: Justin hates Seattle. Okay, so maybe he doesn't hate the city itself; I think he just hates the traffic, limited parking and then having to pay for parking. I'm with Justin on the paid parking thing - its a bit of a drag to add $10 onto the cost of an activity simply to park your car within walking distance.

But I digress.

We just knew that for this IVF cycle we wanted to stay near our clinic. And stay near we did - we rented an apartment a mere five minutes from our clinic. It was fabulously convenient.

We also knew we wanted to get out and see Seattle a bit, which we did as well.

Our first adventure was the Seattle Aquarium. It was Kendry's and my first visit. We arrived just in time to see the diver feeding the fish.

This octopus was really on the move when I snapped this photo. It was a little creepy.

The tide pools were pretty neat.

This seal was doing laps, coming right at the glass.

We visited Pike's Market after leaving the aquarium, not realizing it was packed with Seahawks and Packers fans for the Monday Night Football that evening. Craziness!

That evening I took Kendry to one of my favorite spots, Alki Beach, while Justin yelled at watched the Seahawks on TV. We met up with my friend Amanda for a walk on the beach and some yummy fish and chips.

Our next adventure was the Children's Museum at Seattle Center, which we conveniently found a groupon for earlier in the week.

This photo of Justin cracks me up.

Kendry was pretending to call his grandpa while driving. I didn't have the heart to tell him this is illegal in Washington.

He was pretending to fall off the ledge. I think he gets his dramatic side from me.

The weather was gorgeous all week!



Mid-week we headed north to Bellingham to visit our friends and their new baby girl.

It was nice enough to BBQ and eat dinner outside.

(It was around this time that we stopped taking so many pictures.)

Toward the end of the week we returned to the Seattle area, this time staying in a hotel so Kendry could do some swimming.

We later met up with Justin's dad to hand over the kiddo for two nights so Justin and I could have some time to ourselves.

My proposal for rounding out a great week in Seattle:  a Saturday morning coffee and pedicure with a bosom friend, an afternoon trip to IKEA (Justin actually agreed to go!), a short nap and dinner with my best man.

Such a great trip!