Monday, January 21, 2008

Happy Birthday Loren Paul

I can't believe my little man is 2 already. It's so sad, but luckily he doesn't look it yet. He got a 2t outfit from Gymboree from my sister Julie, and I was able to put the pants on Natalie. They were even long enough for her, just a little tight in the waist. He may be wearing these for a while!

Loren had a wonderful birthday Friday. We had a Cars party. We had a 5 ft mater on the wall that everyone took pictures with. I think I am going to put it in his room now. He got a huge mater balloon, well two actually because Natalie and Elisa were able to pop the first one within the first 5 minutes of bringing it home. We had a Baskin Robins ice cream cake, cause that is what grammie in the mountains would have made had we been there for it. He got four new cars on his cake.

We went to go get him a cars bicycle and after I had paid for it and we were leaving the store he wouldnt come. He was laying in the isle next to the cars bikes display saying, "Mine, Mine." I had to show him that I had one and that we were carrying out of the store before he would leave. What a silly goose. He was able to blow out his candles all by himself. We also got him a cars bedding set. (Grammie in the mountains paid for most of it) He went to bed just cuddling his new Mater pillow.

It was a wonderful and we had so much fun, but we were tired. Grandma and Grandpa with the birds were there along with the Habels, and Parkes.

THANK YOU

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

These thank you's are for the bestest people in the whole wide world! Grammie and grandpa in the mountains! They came all the way to Florida just to be able to help watch the kids while Chris and I did all of our running. They were so much help and we had a blast. We even had some fun while we were there. We were all pretty much beat by the time it was over. Grandpa is not so sure he wants to do this with us again, at least not for an extended amount of time. But there was no way we could have done it without them.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Micky Marathon Madness

Okay this is delayed but I am finally going to tell y'all about my wonderful experience in Florida. First off, I was scared to DEATH over doing this, thinking the goody challenge was probably one of the dumbest things I have ever decided to do. (I have since vowed never to let a medal motivate me to do something crazy). I had three reason to be scared,
1. training was hit and miss
2. 5 weeks post gallbladder surgery
3. 3 full days wandering around disneyworld could be enough to sap all my energy before I even start.

So the half comes around and I am so excited, especially when I saw the food at the starting line. Oh wait this is Disney, you had to pay for it. Bummer. The first few miles were really tough and I was afried I might not even be able to keep the 16min/mile pace requirement. But after about mile 3/4 I finally started to relax and feel good. Running through the magic kingdom was amazing and I was surprised by all the characters I saw along the race. Which inspired me to buy a disposable camera to carry for the marathon. Around mile 6 I started running with a girl who had started out too fast and was having troubles but she was able to stick we me great and we had a blast. It was"brilliant" She is from london and we had so much fun. OH yeah, I wore my tigger ears through the whole race:) We finished with time to spare a 14.30 average and vowed to find each other the next morning.

Well marathon morning came and I couldn't find her I was so dissappointed and nervous that I made Chris promise to run with me until I loosened up again. One more time I had a rough start and thought I wasn't going to make it. but yet again around mile three and my first potty stop, (In a REAL bathroom in Norway) I decided I was going to make and sent Chris on his way-who later finished under 4 hours......................... But luckily around mile 4.5 Sally, my new friend, recognized my tigger ears and came to run with me again. YIPPEE. We had a "brilliant" run and laughed and joked and posed for pictures with
mickey
minnie
donald
daisy
goofy
pluto
chip n dale
mater
alice
wicked step sisters and mom
baloo
rafiki
king louie
ariel/prince eric
snow white
pochontas/john smith
wendy/peter pan
a turtle
a goat
and a hawk and probably some I missed.

It was really warm and there and i love it. (Day two I had brought money and carried it with me) and around mile 23 I felt a popsicle was in order so in Disney Hollywood studios I found a push cart vendor and took a detour and bought a strawberry popsicle. It was wonderful, a few thought I was crazy but for the most part most were jealous, that is until we were running through mexico and they peeled off to buy margaritas and beers 1 mile before the finish line. My last mile was 2:30 faster than my average and I felt great until I crossed the finish line and something happened and I could hardly walk anymore, but who cares! I AM GOOFY.

I would have beat my park city marathon time had I not paused for the photos but it was only a few minutes slower. What I truly loved about this race is I have never been in a race where I wasn't so spread out and far behind that I have basically run it by myself, but here I was surrounded the whole time. I have never had so many spectators and cheerleaders yelling my name (which was printed on my bib). And the best part of all, this made me feel like a million bucks, When we got back to the hotel and walked into the lobby, EVERYBODY broke into applause for us. I will never forget this race. I was a champion and I loved it!

Laurie Pope
official goofy runner!
PS, I'm definitly cutting back on the marathons this year, I think Portland will be the only other one I am going to run.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

The Goofy Challenge

The Disney World marathon and half was a great race. I take it nice and easy for the half because I was running the marathon the next day. I ran the first 11 miles at an 8 min mile pace. The last 2 I picked it up for fun. Mile 12 was 7:39 and mile 13 7:07. One of my faverite parts of the half was running throught Tommorrow Land in the Magic Kingdom. It was about mile 4 or 5 and it was still dark. They had all the lights on in Tommorrow Land. The weather was great also, some where in the 70's. After finishing the half I met my wife Laurie at about mile 12 and ran her in for fun.

My goal for the marathon was to run under 4 hours and I knew that would be easy to do. But then my wife wanted me to run with her for the first 3 miles because she couldn't find her new friend she met yesterday during the half marathon from London. Guess who she ran in to at mile 5? That's right her new friend. I left my wife at about mile 3 1/2. I ran the first 3 mile at a 15 min pace (which means I have 18 mins to make up in the next 23 miles to make a sub 4) and picked it up to a 8 min pace. For the rest of the race I was passing runners by the 100's and by the end I think I passed about 10,000 runners. At first I felt I was running the wrong race and I know everyone was thinking that I showed up late to the race because I slept in. There was no sleeping in for this race. Ther race started at 6:00am. That ment getting up at 3:00 am. I ran at an 8 min pace till about mile 17. I felt great so I picked it up to a 7:30 pace. In the end I got my sub 4 hour but it took some work.

I ran back about a half mile of the marathon and run Laurie in. I have run at least the last mile of all her marathons with her. Some times she has need the extra boost by having me run with her. But most of the time she is doing fine. Even though it was my slowest half and my slowest marathon by one min it was a lot of fun running a half and marathon back to back.

Half Marathon 1:45
Marathon 3:53

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

M-i-c,k-e-y, M-o-u-s-e

We are getting ready to go to "Mickey Mouse House" as Natalie says. She is so excited about going and has been a helper packing. She even pointed out that we didn't have tickets to get on the airplane. She found her swimsuit and had her care bear all ready to go. She is also so excited to get to see Grammie in the mountains again.

We are as ready as we can be for the race so hopefully all goes well. I ran 10 miles last Saturday, that's a far cry from a marathon but not bad for a post surgery training.

Natalie got stitches put in on Dec 19th, she hit her head on the shopping cart at Kohls. When we went to get the stitches put in the nurse asked what had happened and she said, "I cracked my head open and I need a band-aid. NO SHOTS!" I took them out on Christmas eve, and then sweet little Loren took a fall on my bed and split his chin open on New Years Eve. You could even see the fatty tissue it was pretty bad. He wasn't the easiest patient either but it worked.

Ok the house, we have ordered the countertops, (way way too much money but I guess it happens) and that cabinets are almost done. I can't wait, I am starting to get the nesting bug just to get out of my construction and have some order once again, but nesting DOES NOT include another little one yet.

We all got our haircut on Saturday, I chopped mine to my chin and dyed it. I love it! I look so cute and Loren looks so handsome with his little boy hair dude. He has grown attached to his lightning mcqueen/mater brief underwear and has to wear them over his diaper. I love that silly little boy.

only 19 more hours until we leave for disney, I can't wait, I told Chris I was going to get a job there and never come back to this freezing place (Average temp for the month of December was 27 degrees F--YUCK)


OH Christmas! Natalie got a sleeping beauty barbie from Santa. She says santa brought it because Papa doesn't buy barbies!
I know this is random but it's a recap of the last month.