Half-marathoner: Take 2

Shortly after finishing the Pittsburgh half-marathon Lara began to look for a 5k that she could run and found that Buffalo had a half-marathon/marathon.  And so, she continued her half-marathon training and ran her 2nd half marathon in 3 weeks. 

Yesterday we went to the Expo in Buffalo to pick up Lara's registration materials and some free goodies. 

They had a free kids fun run planned for the afternoon so we stuck around, had lunch, and then went to the fun run.  Grant and Grace were both excited for the run until it started!  Then, neither one really wanted to run it.  They walked the "course" with Lara and I and were happy to get their chocolate medal.  It was a really cute idea and hopefully we can do it next year (and the kids enjoy it more).

 

Then this morning was the big race.  We got up around 5am and got into Buffalo about 6.  Everything went smoothly.  As you can see I opted to bring a double stroller this time so I could cover some territory.  We were happy to be able to see Lara 4 times throughout the race. 

This pic is just before the start.

Here Grant and Grace are waiting patiently to see Mommy at Mile 6.  The snacks certainly helped with the patience. 

Lara decided to push the pace a bit more than she did in Pittsburgh.

 

And...Lara finished with a new PR beating her old time by about 7 minutes!!!  Way to go!!!

Here are a couple of the signs the kids held up during the race.  They got lots of "awwws" from the other Mom's running.

CONGRATS LARA!!!  We are so proud of all you've accomplished and how you pushed yourself today.

Half-Marathoner

Earlier this month Lara ran her first half-marathon.  Her first half was in Pittsburgh and she ran it with our good friend from college, Beth.  Lara spent the night before the race with Beth while the kids and I spent the night in a hotel eating popcorn and watching Ratatouille. 

As you can imagine the city was a bit hectic that day but we all made it in plenty of time before the start.

I decided to wait for Lara at one spot along the half-marathon and unfortunately didn't see her.  The kiddos were getting a bit impatient and I was distracted by them and she slipped by in the crowd.

We did get to see the elite athletes, who as you would expect, were crazy fast.

We also got to see some pretty Pittsburgh scenery.

Rather than fight the crowds (& my kids) and try to watch Lara and Beth finish, we went to our designated meeting point, got a corn-dog, and waited for them to meet us.  The kids did pretty good considering I didn't bring a stroller along and made them walk everywhere.  

Lara and Beth both had a fantastic run and finished right around the time that they expected.  It was an especially hilly course and thus all the more difficult.

Jenny, Jed, and the crew also made the trip down to watch the big race.  Thanks for coming guys!  

Lara, congratulations on a superb first half-marathon!  I am so proud of you!!!

Easter

 We had an enjoyable Easter this year.  Actually, we had two of them!  The weekend before Easter we celebrated at Dale & Grace's with the whole "Standfest" crew.  We had an Easter egg hunt with all the cousins and a delicious ham dinner.  Grant was still sweet to his little sis this year and helped her find some Easter eggs during the hunt.

 

This pic is similar to a pic from last year (http://lawsnews.blogspot.com/2013/04/easter.html, but my have they grown.

Then, the next weekend we stayed at home and Lara made us another delicious Easter dinner.  

We colored eggs a few days before.  Both the kids loved it.

Grant was proud that he kept his hands clean this year.

Easter morning Grant & Grace were excited to find their Easter baskets and eat some candy.

Then, we had an Easter egg hunt with the two of them at our house... 

and finished off the day with a family bike ride.

It just doesn't get any better than this!  *Note Gracie's smile through a mouthful of chocolate!

Where did March go?

It was a cold winter with lots of snow.  

We all enjoyed playing on the ice in the wetland behind our house.

 

Who needs a snowman when you can build a snow slide?

These photos show the beginning of the 13" snowstorm that we had in April.  When Grant was younger he didn't want anything to do with the snow.  Now, he loves it.  Gracie is usually my trooper and often will stay out in the cold with me and help me shovel.  On this day the snowing and blowing were too much and she went inside after about 5 minutes. 

Gracie is still a spitfire that loves to make us laugh.  It is not unusual to hear her yelling, "Oh, yeah, oh yeah!" in response to anything that is exciting (like me coming home from work).  She incorrectly sings the alphabet all the time and after saying,"now I know my ABC's", Grant usually responds by saying "now you don't know your ABC's".  She is doing really well at using the potty.  We have kept her in a diaper so far but I think the switch to undies is coming soon.  She likes to play with her big bro and often is chasing "bad guys" or rescuing someone.  She also spends a lot of time taking care of her baby dolls.  She is most definitely a Mommy's girl and tells me that I don't know how to tuck her in if I try to put her to bed.  She can be quite sensitive and if you raise your voice, her little lips puff out and she gives you the saddest look you can imagine (& sometimes cries).  

Grant loves playing video games and we definitely have to limit how much he plays them.  In particular he loves anything Mario.  He is the first one awake in the morning, usually getting up between 6:30 and 7.  Gracie gets up somewhere between 7 and 8.  He can count to 60 and can count backwards from 10.  Lara and I helped him a bit in learning to count to 60 but never mentioned anything about counting backwards.  After he surprised us by counting down from 10 to 1, he mentioned that he learned it by watching the time countdown while playing Mario.  He is still fascinated by space and in particular by black holes.  Back in January Grant said something that was pretty funny and so I want to document it here.  After he got in trouble for bad behavior and finally calmed down, I asked him why he didn't listen to me when I first told him to behave.  He said, "I heard you and I understood you, but I just didn't listen.  Life is tricky."  Who can argue with that?!  That is the epitomy of our boy.  He always has an answer, for good or for bad.

As my 83 year old neighbor said," you have happy, healthy kids and that's what matters."  I couldn't agree more.

Our snow finally did all melt away last week as we finally had warm temps.  We actually had a day in the 70's but that was unfortunately followed up by a day in the 30's and an inch of snow.  As the weather began to break, we went on a small hike to view the Niagara River by our house.  

In the last photo you see Grant with a bunch of sticks in his hand.  He wants to collect nearly ever stick or leaf that he comes into contact with.  He also hates to throw things in the garbage because he says that he wants to keep them for "crafts".

Grant also took the opportunity afforded by the warm weather to work on his truck.

It has been a great winter and we loved having all the snow but are quite excited that spring weather is finally coming around.