My First Race

It's official. I survived the 10k - my first race ever! My final time was 52:49, by far a personal best! And there is definitely something to be said about the race mentality and just pushing yourself to catch one more person, and then one more. I finished 16th in the women and 34th overall, with over 250 runners! Now, I don't even pretend to imagine I'll ever win a race like this . . . but I feel great for being a newbie!

Goofing off before the race. Thanks for coming to run with me, Shelle!

Sweet success!

Sweaty and proud. Amy, Ashley (giver of the fabulous armwarmers in photo #1) and me. These are the girls who talked me into running in the first place!

Granny and Grandpaw

It's a constant in my life that wherever my parents are, I feel more at home . . . even in my own home. Mom and dad drove up last Thursday for a long weekend visit. We wandered Pinedale like tourists, ate, ran and walked the 10K route, ate, spent time in the Mountain Man Museum, ate, went to the Bar-J Wranglers show and played outside with the little boys. Yep, even Granny got on the trampoline for awhile. Oh, and then we ate some more.

Remember Porter and the banana? Well, here's the sequel.

PJ versus cantaloupe. He wins every time.

Grandpaw went with the boys to feed the horses -

but of course, he's behind the camera

Dad created portions of Michelle's and my costumes for the Halloween Half Marathon (photos to follow in October), we stayed up late playing cards and laughing hysterically about stupid things - the way you do when you're deliriously tired (which delirium sets in any time after 8 p.m. for mom and me) - and read books which led to afternoon naps on the couch almost every day. It was glorious.

Lincoln and PJ listening to silent stories at the library

I feel relatively certain that, with a little more effort on my part,

this could have been an excellent photo

As soon as the door closed behind them on their way out at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday morning, Lincoln said, "Awww. But I wanted them to stay for longer, longer." Ditto, buddy. Come back soon!

At long last . . . Kindergarten!

I kid you not when I say that Ethan was awake and in my room at 5 a.m., ready to get dressed, eat and wait for the bus . . . which of course would not arrive for over 2 hours. Ethan has been ready for kindergarten for SO long. I even showed up after his first day to drive him home, only to have him roll his eyes at me and exclaim, "Aw mom! I thought I was riding the bus home!" which he then proceeded to do while I went back to my car and drove home without him. Nope, definitely no anxiety issues with this kid.

So many moms told me I would stand around and weep after he left. I didn't. I kept telling them I was the mom who would slow to 5 mph and tell him to jump, tuck and roll. I didn't do that either. I watched him climb, excited and ready, onto the school bus and wave at me until I was out of sight. What a happy day.

Boys

So, attempts thus far have been unfruitful in trying to get an autumn bear for Dale, BUT we've sure had a lot of fun going out with Greg occasionally to check the bait site. See if you can find all 3 boys...

Yup - Porter's favorite hiking spot is inside Greg's full-sized hiking backpack. The boys do pretty well hiking in but come time for the hike out, the little ones are pretty fried. When PJ and Link get too whiny, I monitor Ethan and Boone and Greg takes both the littles on.

I'm only occasionally disappointed that there's not enough room on his shoulder for me, too.