Training

I registered for the Seattle Half Marathon with my friend Candice.  We started training about six and a half weeks before the event, and managed to squeeze a full seven weeks of training into that time span.  When we started out, I was fairly sure that I'd be able to accomplish the half marathon, but I was also more than a little scared about our plan to walk increasing distances every Saturday.  Doing this with Candice was my saving grace, without having a friend as a training partner I may have backed down.  But we didn't!  Candice and I trained every planned mile, plus some until the week of the marathon.

Some fun facts...  During training we covered 119 miles in 33 hours.  We started at an average speed of 3.4 mph and ended at an average of 4.0 mph. 

Our goal for the marathon was completion, not speed.  But as we got closer we found that we wanted to finish it in a shorter time frame.  I can't speak for Candice, but for myself this whole experience was cathartic.  I felt great.  I have never gotten outside so much.  The air was refreshing, even if it was often rainy and/or cold.  The socializing was fun too - and I think the sense of accomplishment from building a training plan and successfully implementing it was probably the best part for me.

I brought the camera along on all of our longer walks.

The first week we walked 6.29 miles around Silver Lake in Everett, WA in 1:52.  It was very sunny and very cold.  We had the strollers along with us for the entire walk.  This was a relatively hilly walk and my legs really, really hurt when we were done.  (And for the next day.)

The second week we walked 8.17 miles in 2:22 on the Centennial Trail, starting in downtown Snohomish.  We thought we were wet that day, but it was not the most wet we would be.  The trail was beautiful and fall was just starting to show itself.  We loved this walk...  and no strollers this week!

The third week we walked exactly 9 miles in 2:28, again on the Centennial Trail.  This time we had little Tanna with us, and thank heaven we also had a rain cover for the stroller.  It was so wet, and windy, and cold.  It took me a very warm shower and about an hour of sitting under blankets to warm up after this one.  This is also the stint that taught me about bringing an extra pair of socks.  It was so wet that I couldn't see through my glasses, so I simply propped them on top of my head.  And then there was so much rain hitting my eyes that I still couldn't really see.  However, we were happy that we covered nearly a mile more than the previous week, only adding on about six minutes of time!

The next week we covered 11.08 miles in 3:02.  We meant to take the North Creek trail in Mill Creek, but couldn't find it right away - so we did a hybrid trail that took us through different areas of Mill Creek, landing on the trail near its completion for our first lap.  In order to do 11 miles we had to go out and back on the trail more than two times, and we did a slightly different route each time.  This is a beautiful trail with lots of hills, and was my favorite overall.  We got lucky with weather.  It was supposed to be pouring again, but didn't start raining until we were covering our last quarter mile.  Most of all, I was surprised about how good my legs and feet fell at the end... I expected to be in pain, but it wasn't very bad at all!

Week 5 was a big, big week.  That Saturday we did our own half marathon, plus some.  We covered 13.59 miles in 3:37.  We used the Sammamish River trail, traveling from Woodinville to Marymoor Park in Redmond and back.  The fact that we walked a distance that covers half of Andy's commute to work was baffling and empowering.  Sore after this one?  Yes, but felt so amazing with the accomplishment.  No strollers for this walk, the kids would not have handled it well!

After this we started our taper, and cut down our distances for the two weeks leading up to the event.  The following week, our final long distance before the marathon, we covered 6.81 miles in 1:41.  (The first week we did 6.29 in 1:52, so that was a nice improvement!)  We used the North Creek trail in Mill Creek again.  It was another sunny and cold morning.  We left early and had a different experience on the trail because of the different sun positions.  My camera was dead this day so I only have a pic from the cell phone to document it!

With that, we pronounced ourselves ready... and I really felt like I was!  We had eight more days to the event - two more two mile walk/runs and we would be in Seattle.  Candice was readying for her parents, and I was preparing for my brother.  We would be joined by my brother and Candice's mom on the day of the event.   Coming next... the Seattle Half Marathon 2010...

Dad's Smallest Helper

Ephram is starting to be "helpful" when Andy has quick fix-it tasks, like this job on the dishwasher.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving this year.

I woke up early - but not as early as in years past - to see this beautiful snow outside.

I turned on the tv to the Macy's parade - my favorite part is the pre-opening show when the Broadway plays perform numbers - and started cooking cranberry sauce, banana cream pie, sweet potatoes and apple pie.  Those were my morning cooking tasks.

Eventually Charlie woke up, then Andy and Ephram and then my brother.  Jordan was here for the Thanksgiving holiday and the Seattle Marathon which was the Sunday following.

I got Charlie and Ephram to sit still for a brief moment so that I could get a nice holiday picture.  The sitting still part is very hard for Ephram now.

Then, after we all ate some lunch, it was back into the kitchen to start the rest of the meal.  I turned the oven back on and started prepping our turkey breast.  When I turned around there was a fire in the oven. Turns out that some of my apple pie filling had fallen on the burners, where it sat just waiting to catch flame.  Luckily it was caught early and cleaned up, and only put our dinner behind about a half an hour. After this the turkey went in, the sweet potatoes and stuffing followed.  As dinner approached I threw the potatoes into a pot for our mashed potatoes and did the green beans as well.  Before we knew it, we were sitting at the table enjoying our meal.

When we were all stuffed there was still enough food to feed about three times as many people.  But it was really good!  I was especially happy with my cranberry sauce and rosemary turkey.  Together, they made excellent sandwiches for the next four days.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing, and Jordan entertained our boys.  They really like their Uncle Jordan!

This may have been one of my favorite Thanksgivings ever.  It was the first time I had made the whole meal, but also the first time that I had focused completely on my family... making it one of the more relaxing holidays, fire and all.

Ephram's First Snow

Last year the weather was just odd.  I guess it was an El Nino year, which means a more mild winter in the Northwest.  We had a very, very mild winter.  I can only recollect one snow, in early December, and I don't think it even stuck on the ground.  Since Ephram was born on December 31st, he never got to see a snow last year.

They say that this year will be very different.  At this point, I'm inclined to believe them... even though they are often wrong.  Why?  Because this year we got one of the earliest snows that I can remember in my 12 Washington years.  Our first snowfall came the week of Thanksgiving.  It started on the weekend and snowed enough to close the schools for the entire week.

So Ephram got his first snow and we all enjoyed it because we didn't have to go out much...  We did take Ephram out in the snow, but as I can't take pictures while I'm holding him, the pictures included are from inside.

Honestly, I think the snow confused him more than anything.  He had fun holding out his hands to feel it as it fell and laughed at how much fun Charlie had running around in it.  He did stare out the windows a lot while it was on the ground!  (Even more than he normally does.)

Brotherly Love

Brothers that love each other...

Play together when they should be eating,

Make each other laugh hysterically,

Give each other random hugs,

Sit together to listen to a book being read,

And smile knowingly at their own inside jokes.

I just love watching this relationship grow!

Yard Work?

We are lucky to have a stand of trees behind our house.  They aren't actually on our property, they're controlled by our HOA, but we get the benefit of looking at them all year long.  We also get to watch all their pretty leaves turn colors, and then... fall.  Along with them, we have a few leaf-dropping trees in our yard.  So every year we watch the leaves turn color.  Every year we watch them fall.  They start to drop slowly at first, and then they come off in large groups and make what Charlie calls "leaf tornados".  After a couple weeks of rapid dropping, they slow down again.  And then we get to rake a lot of leaves.

Get to?  Yep... look at how much fun Andy, Charlie and Boone had doing leaf clean-up this year!

More Fun with Tanna

Charlie and Ephram both love little Tanna Zaniewski.  Someday I picture them arguing over who likes her more - they already seem to vie for her attention.  Luckily she is really nice and plays with them both equally.  :)  We had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with Tanna in November.

Ephram and Tanna spent a lot of time reading to each other.  They actually opened books and listened to each other read - almost like taking turns... or at least as close as two toddlers can get.

Tanna also got to spend some time playing without Ephram and Charlie chasing her down.  She had a lot of fun working on a couple of art projects.

Charlie and Tanna had a lot of fun playing on the computer together.

And I actually got all three kids to sit down for several minutes and watch a little bit of "Elmo in Grouchland" on Netflix.

We love playing with Tanna!