Jade's cut and color...

Jade has been wanting to cut her hair alot shorter for a while now, and we finally had time to go today. So I thought since we had the time we might as well get a color, too! Jade was down with that! Here's the before...Jade holding 9 inches of her hair that was just cut off... WOW...

Getting ready to be "foiled"... mom, this picture reminds me of that one of Jade where she was about 7 years old and she had 3 pony tails going on in her hair, remember? Just look at that cute face!Jade's partial foil....While waiting the 30 minutes for her hair to color, the lady and Jade were talking about drawing manga/anime style. So the lady wanted to see how Jade drew that, so here she is intently watching Jade draw...Here's her cut and color, isn't she absolutely adorable? She makes that pasty white skin look good! I crack myself up! I think she looks good with that choppy hairstyle. And the red highlights look pretty cool, too!Kent, being a genius... reading about Einstein cause he wants to. It's his light summer reading of choice!FYI- we are going camping tomorrow for the next 3 days, so I will not be blogging for a couple of days, but be ready for some awesome pictures when we get back. We also have Aurora for a whole week so she gets to go camping with us! Have a great weekend!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

I'm being a BIG baby right now.

My neck has been stiff and causing me alot of pain over 9 days now. It started a week before the marathon. I got some pain killers/ muscle relaxers cause I couldn't even turn my head to drive with out it hurting...

(keep reading if you want to hear more whining)

So I'm sure running 13.1 miles Saturday didn't help it... all that jarring and stuff.

It started in the right side of my neck for a week, then yesterday it moved to the left side, and now today it's both sides GGGRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Not sure what to do, I think the doctors would just prescribe more pain killers, but I don't want to keep taking them.

I thought maybe a massage would help- it couldn't hurt :o)

Usually I get this strained neck thing and it lasts a couple days, the last time I got it, it lasted several days (about a year ago so it's not that frequent). But this time it has lasted 9 days and I'm getting tired of it.

Any advice out there???? I'm assuming this is just one of those things that just has to run it's course... I'm sure lifting the 5 million pound costco milk container this morning while shopping didn't help either.

Lame, ok, enough complaining.... OUCH!

Another birthday party?

Yeah, June is a very busy month.

Aurora turns 11 this month!

After my run yesterday, Jeromy went to go pick up Aurora, and he wanted to participate in the "Fathoms of Fun" parade that runs thru port orchard. Our church has a float and members of the church walk along side of the float in matching t-shirts and hand out tracks. I wanted to go too, but I was so tired from my run.

So Jeromy and Aurora went, and they came back with 3 Trig girls! You can see how they were dressed in the parade- so cute!

So the next day- today- was party time! Johnna also came over so we have 5 girls for the party! Here's Tae', Johnna, Nadia, Beriah and Aurora!

Jeromy wanted to play "catch the chicken"... people- we are not rednecks- please don't tow your broken down cars in our yard. Here's a video of Jeromy trying to catch the (un)lucky chicken that was going to be chased...

And now the girls trying to catch the chicken...

Ok, now onto presents...

This is a funny little story... Aurora has been telling her dad for a while now that her barbie doll house doesn't have a bathroom, and you know "you can't have a house without a bathroom" she said. So here she is opening the barbie bathroom set and she says: " I finally got a toilet!" we were cracking up, she's so funny and cute!Now the girls are decorating cupcakes... there was pink, green, purple and chocolate frosting and all kinds of sprinkles...Hey, look at these masterpieces.... you know you want one of these "one of a kind" creations...Aurora's cupcakes...We told Aurora she could have what ever she wanted for dinner for her birthday. And she wanted takeout Chinese food. Well, the birthday girl gets what she wants, and we all get to eat yummy food!One of the presents Aurora got was "Alvin and the chipmunks 2", so in a little bit we're going to make some popcorn and the girls are going to watch a movie before bed.

HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY AURORA!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

If you haven't read my blog in a while scroll down and see the awesome half marathon pictures... if you dare!

This just in....

I went to the website and I found out my official time! Remember I wanted to run it some where between 2:30 and 3 hours? Well.... I ran it in 2hours 29 minutes and 33 seconds! YAYYYY!!

Also in my age division of 35-39 year old females I was the 1,259 runner out of 2,212 runners in that group. Definitely not the slowest!

Ok, continue reading on into the next post with some awesome pictures!

ROCK AND ROLL SEATTLE MARATHON AND 1/2 MARATHON!!

I DID IT!!!

Today was the "Rock and Roll Seattle Marathon and half Marathon"- I did the half Marathon. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that I have been doing alot of training for this- 10 weeks to be exact!

Since it was in Seattle and I had to pick up my number the day before the race, I thought it would be fun for the whole family if we just got a hotel and stayed the night in Seattle!

Our favoritest cousin Kyle was also running the half marathon- he probably would have done the full marathon but you have to be 18 years old. He was going to be running with Trent and his wife, so we brought Kyle with us so he could meet his dad there. Here are the kids walking down to the ferry terminal...

They've really made this place quite park-like...Since we had time, we stopped at Subway right next to the ferry terminal...

This was funny, and it was not planned... all 3 of them pulled out their game boys or DS's or what ever they are called...The kids checking out the outdoors... Jeromy and I thought we'd take a little nap... (I had worked a 12 hour shift the night before- lame)

As soon as we got off the ferry, we headed to our hotel room to check in and drop off all our bags, and then off to the Health Fair Expo. (I mapped out everywhere we needed to go- and everything was with in walking distance so we left the car in the parking garage where I work- saved some $$)And it's off to the Expo. This run was so HUGE- 25,000 runners, that they made it a requirement that you had to pick up your number the night before cause it would have just been an absolute zoo to get all those people their numbers and then start the race. So I had to get a picture of Kyle and I while I could, cause he'd be leaving with his dad, and I KNOW I wouldn't see him during the run cause he literally runs twice as fast as I do. That's a pretty amazing boy you have there Laura!

We saw Kyle's dad right after this, so off he went. The Expo.... ooooooooooooooThere was alot of stuff to check out there. I got my number and some other fun stuff in the "gear bag" they give you. They had a booth with giant posters that you could color on to cheer on the runners. I wanted Jade and Kent to make one, doesn't take much for those kids to want to draw...This is just cause they're cute! Also while at the Expo I preregistered for this same Marathon for next year 2011, the price is almost in half by preregistering so early. And now I have another goal/reason to keep up on my running!After the expo, I needed to go fill up on some carbs... so Jeromy suggested "The Old Spaghetti Factory". Sounded great to me, but we took a cab there cause it would have been a long walk, which we could have handled but it was starting to get dark, and I wanted to save all my energy for the run in the morning. Jade and Kent with their dinner...Jeromy and I with ours...After a yummy filling dinner we took a cab back to the hotel and then went swimming for a bit! Jeromy loves swimming, can't you tell by the look on his face??Jade and Kent and Jeromy played "Marco-Polo" for a while, but not by me cause I didn't want to get splashed- I know what a stick in the mud! I was kinda disappointed cause there wasn't a hot tub, I really just wanted to relax in the hot water, and let the muscles in my neck relax.We got back to our room and watched TV for a bit, and then went to bed some time after 11pm. I was too excited to sleep. We had the hotel give us a courtesy call at 4am. I had to ride a shuttle bus to the start line cause they were closing a bunch of streets for this run. So Jeromy walked me over to the shuttle area. It was funny cause there was a bunch of school buses picking up hundreds- no thousands of runners. One interesting fact is that there were people from all 50 states participating in this run. So cool! This is a huge event! Here I am about to get on the bus around 4:45 am. Once I was on the bus, Jeromy walked back to the hotel where the kids were sleeping like little angles. There it is... the starting line! Getting really excited now! They had free bagels, bananas and bottles of water for the runners. Yum! While running, I heard someone say "ya know, running is 90% mental, and 10% mental." I thought that was so funny, cause it's so true, running for long periods of time, your body may be just fine, but your brain is saying "this is boring, what's the point, just quit you're tired, why are you still running?", this goes on alot the last few miles, and I'm constantly telling myself, I have a goal to meet, I'm not a quitter... and so on!

I also saw my running friend Regie between mile 12 and 13, and we were able to run across the finish line together. It was awesome! They had professional photographers taking pictures, so Regie and I had that done, so I'll probably have to order that online. Here's my kiddos!

Here I am 13.1 miles later with my "Finishers Medal", so cool! They passed out these little metallic sheet/blankets. After running and sweating so much, then when you stop running, you get cold real fast with all the sweat. It looked kinda funny with all these runners with these funny looking sheets, but it worked, kept me warm...We got out of there pretty quickly. But not before I got round 2 of the bagels and bananas! We made the 11:10 ferry. While recovering on the ferry, I noticed my middle toe was bruised. Warning TMI- this picture isn't too gross, I'm a big baby, so when ever I get a (little) injury it's a big deal. Look at my toe! I know just why it happened, too. There were short parts of the run that were really steep down hill runs, so while running, my toes were really hitting the front of my shoe hard over and over. I also got a small blister on my toe on my other foot, but I don't think you all want to see a blister!

Other than that, I feel pretty ok, my knees are a little sore- ok alot sore, cause I do most of my running on a cushioned treadmil, so this was 13.1 miles on unforgiving cement. My knees are not happy, but they'll be better soon!Oh, yeah, after the race, I got a call from Kyle who wanted to run his 13.1 in under 1 hour and 20 minutes, and he did it! He ran it in 1 hour and 19 minutes and some odd seconds- I hope I got that right Kyle, and what's even more cool is that Kyle got first place in his age division! This kid is unstoppable! I wanted to run mine somewhere between 2 hours 30 minutes and 3 hours! Well, I know I ran it less than 3 hours, but I won't know the exact time till they post it online tonight. So happy I ran it under 3 hours!

Ok, onto the cool stuff I got. This is the shirt that came in my gear bag. It's a pretty intense shade of green, but cool!

I also bought 2 more shirts at the Expo cause they were cool...

And this shirt cracked me up. I have a co-worker who likes to call me lazy, which I'm not, we just like to mess with each other. Well, this shirt was perfect for me to wear to work, like there's any thing lazy about running 13.1 miles LOL........... still laughing.....

Here's some more fun stuff... My finisher's medal I got crossing the finish line. I also bought a smaller version of it as a pin that I can put up with all my other pins at work. And these cool 13.1 magnet and sticker! SOOOO COOOOOL!!!

We had a great time, and I'm going to do it again next year- I have to, it's already paid for LOL!

I'm just so thankful to God for helping me stay strong during all the training, to help me cross that finish line, and for keeping my family safe and happy during the event.

Happy 16th Birthday Kenton!

Kent turned 16 on June 13th, but you may remember that was Jade's graduation weekend. So we had Kent's party yesterday. We usually have a huge party with lots of family and friends- but I'm exhausted from all the parties we've had so far, so I thought it would be nice if Kent just had a few friends over to celebrate. Some how I still ended up exhausted by the end of the night :o)

Kent's balloon popped with the number "6" on it, so we taped it to the balloon that had the "1" on it to make "16"... All his balloons- it's not a party with out balloons...

We picked up Kent's friends Phillip, cousin Kyle and Austin. Then after much discussion we headed to the water front park. There was a farmers market going on... as you can see Kyle was ready to swim...The guys checking out the doc... "should we... shouldn't we?"..."We SHOULD!!!" "One-two-three... JUMP!!"Kent had to do a little more contemplating on the matter... he was worried about pollution- funny boy!He finally stood up, thought about it some more, then he got a little nudge (push) from his friends...

The "guys"...

Kyle found a crab and the guys took turns holding it...Gross...

Then we went to the indoor pool by the YMCA- more swimming!Kent diving...Then... my camera died... it was sad... but then I thought I could use Kent's camera on his cell phone, so these next swimming pictures from his phone (which had to be sent to Jade's camera phone cause Kent's memory stick wasn't in there, then from Jade's phone I took out the memory stick, stuck it into the tiny adapter then into the computer, and now on to my blog- pretty amazing, and the pictures are pretty clear!) After swimming, everyone was hungry... PIZZA!!!!!Kent's friend from school, Sam, came over... So here we have: Kyle, Kent, Austin, Phillip and Sam...Hangin' out and chowin' down, I ended up cooking 5 of those pizzas and they all went...Ok, now onto bowling... Jeromy played, too, so it was 3 on 3... I was the photographer... I can't believe I fit all 6 of them in this picture....Kent after bowling a strike woo-hoo!!My favorite boy...Jeromy bowled a couple strikes himself...The guys again...Now, back to the house for some presents, cake and ice-cream...Kent opening all his cards... $$$$$$$$$$$And blowing out his candles...The boys then played video games for I don't know how long, cause I crashed from exhaustion!

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY KENT!!!!