My Favorite Race Ever

Chris and I made a whirlwind trip to Duluth to run the Gary Bjorkland (Grandma's) half marathon this weekend. We left at 2:00 Friday afternoon, stayed in a dorm room in Superior, WI, got up at 4:00 a.m. to catch a bus to the starting line, ran 13.1 miles, drank a little water, then got in the car and were back in Minneapolis by noon on Saturday. Running has definitely made us crazy!

We had to sacrifice some fun for our insanity... camping with friends and the neighborhood TGIF gathering, but it now seems worthwhile. We had a perfect day for a run, were well prepared, and met our goal of finishing in under two hours. We ran across the finish line together and shared an official chip time of 1:55:59. I don't think the day could have possibly gone any better for us.

The kids had a great time at Pirate Adventure camp last week and are off to swimming lessons next week. Jerod also played his last official game of T-ball. He's moving on to coach pitch for the next session. Elise will be starting pee wee T-ball soon... that should be interesting!

Next weekend we're headed to western Minnesota for camping. Needless to say, we're hoping for a week of stellar weather!!

A different week

It's been an unusual week around here. It was the first week of summer, which meant there wasn't a whole lot going on. No school, but no summer activities yet either. This prospect was worrisome to me, but we had a good week.

Jerod went to Grandcamp near Des Moines last weekend with my dad. He spent the night at camp on Friday, while Chris, Elise, and I stayed in a hotel. Elise really seemed to think she was getting away with something... she's not used to having both parents all to herself. It was very fun to spend some one on one time with her without her beloved brother interrupting her at every turn.

On Thursday Jerod had an 'all day play date' with one of his pals, so we loaded up and went to the zoo. Jerod actually took the picture of the bison... not too shabby for a six year old! Our neighborhood book club then met here Thursday afternoon, so it was a full day. We started the book club in January... moms get together and discuss a book while the kids play. It actually usually works out pretty well.

Chris and I did our last long training run before the Gary Bjorkland half marathon yesterday. The weather made for a tough run (lots of strong wind). Now we have the 'taper' week, then we do 13.1 on Saturday!

Today is a beautiful Saturday. Chris is helping some friends move this morning, but we're looking forward to enjoying the weather this afternoon. I think we're even going to hit the pool. Yea!!!

Graduation day

Jerod finished preschool last week. They hosted a graduation ceremony which I thought had a lot of potential to be completely over the top and ridiculous; but it was very cute.
It is very odd for Chris and I (small towners) to go to something like this and see Jerod with all these great buddies that he's gone to preschool with for the past three years; then realize that pretty much NONE of them will be going to kindergarten in the same place. It doesn't seem to faze Jerod. I think it just seems normal to him since he's lived here his whole life :)
Next week summer fun goes into full swing. It's pretty much going to be a new world here each week until the fall. Next week's pirate camp, then swimming lessons, then day camp for Jerod, a week of Bible school, blah, blah, blah. We'll all be on our toes for the summer.

Piano Recital Video

Check back soon for video and pictures from Jerod's preschool graduation. And, in this video, be sure to listen for Elise screaming in the background, "I want to try!!!". Never a dull moment...

An insanely full weekend

We left the house at about 9:40 on Saturday morning to get Jerod to his soccer picture. We went straight from there to his piano recital, then some lunch at Chipotle (thus the lemon pictures); and then to Corcoran for a carnival. The carnival was put on by the family of one of Chris' former colleagues at William Mitchell. It was held in the middle of nowhere (past Maple Grove for those of you from around here), at a house with some of the most amazing landscaping I've ever seen. The weather was awesome and the scenery was great. Unfortunately the warm weather brought in a pretty nasty storm. Mostly just hail and some strong winds here, but we biked over near Uncle Matt & Aunt Donna's house yesterday and the mess was much bigger over there.

We hit the trail with the bikes yesterday and traveled about 30 miles. Chris figured out a way to rig Jerod's bike onto the trailer that the kids ride in, so Jerod was able to carry his own weight for part of the ride. He took a pretty good tumble early on, but other than that did great and covered about six miles.

Of all the weekend fun, however, my highlight was that it was finally warm enough to eat Saturday's breakfast on the patio :)

In the interest of getting this posted before Jerod graduates high school, I'm not adding the recital video right now, but check back soon for that footage.