October happenings

Here's a few pictures from a couple of weekends ago. We missed the Aspen trees turning yellow by about a week but had a fun family day together.

October brought us visits from both of Jon's parents in from Texas one week and South Dakota another. As always, fun to see family. And on another family note we wish a happy 40th to Charlie! We know this will be a good year for you.

Only two weekends away from the Marine Corps Marathon. Tomorrow I'm running Denver's half marathon...it's the inaugural Rock-n-Roll marathon for Denver which means it's now part of a series of marathons around the country, bands at every mile and I think I heard about 17,000 people running. Not quite the 40,000 that will be in DC but a great start to putting Denver on the rock-n-roll route. I am finally in taper mode and ready for the marathon with the last 20 completed last week (at the same time as running my 20 miler I came down with a stomach bug...not a combination I recommend...I ended up Saturday night in the ER instead of celebrating a buddy's 40th).

We're off to the pumpkin patch with the clan. Have a great weekend!

Catching up v.2

After posting today's earlier entry I realized I had no Shoshana pictures. Here are a couple of Shoshi and I this afternoon before heading to a baby shower.

And here's a shot of one of my best care packages ever from my cousin Steve (other than the pringels, squeeze cheese and teen bop magazine from my parents in sleep away camp). He leads an advertising group that works for Chap Stick - one of the greatest inventions ever and forever an obsession of mine!

Catching up...

Here's a few noteworthy activities from the past month -

* Spencer turned three. We had a party at our house where the Fun Bus came...a gutted out school bus with gymnastics equipment, mats, etc. It was great. On a Sunday morning the kids got entertained by someone else and the adults had coffee, mimosas and bagels on our patio. It was super fun to watch Spencer with his school and neighborhood buddies. We shared the party with our neighbors and good friends (and Spencer's classmate)...Kaia also turned three and a few days prior Andrea and Sander had a baby. It was fun to join efforts. In the pictures below Kaia and Spencer are eating cupcakes together.

* Shoshana turned eight months and started crawling. She's absolutely adorable! She follows her brother (who usually is quite sweet with her) and is into everything. She's way more mellow than her brother at this age (or any age, for that matter).

* I am one more 40-mile running week away from tapering (translation: running less) for the Marine Corps Marathon. We ran a crazy hilly 20-miler last Saturday (it gained around1,400 feet of elevation) and have one more next Saturday (this is a recovery week so I "only" have a 12-miler that I'm taking off for in a few minutes). It has been a total blast training for the run. I meet up with a large group early Saturday mornings for the long run and on Tuesday morning (even earlier) a smaller group does speedwork. Tuesday and Saturday runs are with a coach (which is fun and very new for me). As the runs get longer during the week our start time (even for the other runs which I usually do with a couple of girlfriends) are crazy early...like setting my alarm for 4:30. Yikes. But it's great and by the end of this month I'll be a marathoner again. And we're so excited to head out to DC and meet up with my parents, cousins Steve, Julie and baby Harrison and hopefully a few of our friends.

* Jon is totally loving the kids and the stages they are at. He's off later today with Spencer for a train ride through the mountains while I take Shoshi to a baby shower. We finally had our first date night in a long time at one of our fave sushi joints. Last night we had a really fun evening at the club where our kids go to daycare...they had this huge party everywhere in the building including the beautiful roof deck with bands, a jumpy castle for the kiddos, etc. So much fun for all of us (except when Spencer got spooked out by the lady on stilts and the mardi-gras themed greeter at the door!).

* We have had a fun visit from Jon's parents Lewie and Linda who finally met Shoshana.

Enough chatting...here are a few pics before I'm off for a run.

Three years ago today...

An amazing little boy joined our lives. What a ride we've had...happy 3rd birthday, Spencer.

Spencer has become a funny, sweet, and full of life kid...always with a smile (and always jumping off something!). There's nothing more fun than hanging with him and now he can carry on a full conversation, usually making me laugh! He has become extremely affectionate with his sister and on the way home from school every day he talks about playng trucks with baby Shoshana (who now sits up and laughs a lot at her big bro).

I am drinking coffee, downloading the 240 pics from our trip last week and waiting for Spencer (and the rest of the family) to wake up. Instead of running with my group this morning, I woke up yesterday (Friday) at 4:30 am, met Kathy, Becky and Shelly outside just before 5am and ran 12 miles (and then worked all day!)...just to make sure I'm here when Spence wakes up.

Spencer doesn't know this but he's about to get his first bicycle. Shoshi will give him a new pair of goggles (Spencer is obsessed with wearing goggles....and not just in the pool). As for what we'll do, it's supposed to be warm so we may get our last day at one of the water parks.

Here's our little boy three years ago...

More pictures from our NY trip to come. Have a great labor day weekend!

Georgetown to Idaho Springs 1/2 Marathon

Last Saturday morning I ran the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half marathon. It may count as the most beautiful race I've ever run...it starts at about 8,500 feet in the mountains and runs downhill to a neat little town. Jon, Spencer and Shoshana, my friend Kathy (in the white hat below) all went together in Jon's extra large vehicle (which I have come to really appreciate!). The scenery was amazing and it was so much fun to have the family at the end...Spencer jumped in and ran the last few yards with me (and nearly took out a few runners - thankfully no one got hurt!). I shaved about five minutes off my Steamboat half time which was a little less than I hoped but there's still a lot of running to do before the marathon. This race was an official training run for the group I train with so it was great to have lots of people I knew (and many I didn't but wearing the same shirts). The group's coach stood at various places with his megaphone...that was quite the inspiration!

We are an hour or so from heading to the airport for our late summer vacation with my family. We're headed to a house on a lake in PA. We also will celebrate my dad's 65th with a party next Saturday night.

Love and running...

I start several of my weekday runs at 5:45 am when I walk out my front door and meet up with Becky and Kathy (Andrea is currently on pregnancy hiatus). Yesterday morning at 5:43 I heard little footsteps walking downstairs as I was lacing up my sneakers. Spencer - holding his puppy and wearing a swimshirt and underwear on top of his pull-up (outfit courtesy of the prior night's babysitter) - looked so sweet and said "where are you going, mommy...are you going runing?". Jon and I spent the prior night (sans kids) at the botanic gardens watching Marc Cohen play in what is probably the best intimate music venue ever. Since I was missing my little guy I altered the plan, put some "running sneakers" on him, filled a sippy cup of milk and off we went on a jog. We chatted the whole way and stopped for a few minutes at the playground which so early in the morning Spency had all to himself.

Big news...

I am officially signed up for the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon (yup...all 26.2 miles). I have been training with a local running group and was running all the mileage of my girlfriends training for Marine Corps. Since it's out east near my family and friends and Jon has never been to Washington DC I decided this is the year to re-enter the marathon world. I am so excited! If you're in the neighborhood, stop by on Oct. 31 and cheer me on.

In the meantime, here are a few pics from this past weekend. We had grandma Vonnie (Jon's mom) and his aunt Ruth Ann for a really fun couple of days.