How Tall This Fall?

Every year we get this shot with Sammie, and of course added Brenna's last year.  Sammie proudly stood there, Brenna wanted to run!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

This year's trip to the pumpkin patch was great!  The girls had a good time, it was a perfect day, the farm we went to had a lot to offer while not being overly expensive or overcrowded, it was a fantastic trip!  And, because we picked a place close to where we and lots of our friends live, we even ran into some familiar faces!

Lewis & Clark Half Marathon

A few weeks ago, our friends Rachel, Jamie, and Stan did something incredible; they ran the Lewis and Clark Half Marathon.  I'm still in awe!

Sammie and I went down to the finish line to meet up with Erin and Lucas (Stan's family) and Adam and Aiden (Jamie's family) to cheer them on.  It was cold!

But Sammie was a trooper, we wer there for three hours total, and she spent her time picking flowers, leaves, and making a sign for our friends!

We managed to meet up with Erin and Lucas, but neither of us had Adam's number, and with so many people, we didn't just run into each other.  As we waited we thought of all these great ideas that would have helped us be able to pick the runners out of the crowd, but they were only useful had we thought of them the night before the run.  You know, find out what they were wearing, what approximate time they thought they would be in, get Adam's number so we could meet up with him and the kids could play, etc...  Oh well, next time we'll have this down, right?

Aunt Rachel made Sammie's day by giving her a high five as she ran by at mile 13!

And then made it even better by letting her wear her medal for a while!

Erin and I somehow (and very unfortunately) missed both Jamie and Stan running past us, we could be bad specators!  But I'm sticking with the story that we would have been better off having known what they were wearing!

Rachel's brother Vince and Mike both rode along the 13.1 miles to cheer Rachel as she went, they definitely get the best cheerleader award!

And as Adam, Erin, and I all lined up to get pictures of the finishers (at the same time) the photographer in Rachel couldn't help herself - "now who are we supposed to be looking at here?"

But we managed to figure it out:

This was the last Lewis & Clark event, next year it will the the Rock N Roll something or other.  It was incredible to be there, to see all the different families and friends lining the streets to cheer on their loved ones, to see all the different runners each FINISH, and most of all, to see our friends achieve a something incredible, see their pride in themselves, and to get to be there to tell them how wonderful I thought they did.

Congrats to all three of you!!  Amazing job!!

Random Shots - September 2010

That's right, just last month, a couple more posts and I'll be current!

Apple Picking 2010

This September, for the first time, we took the girls to a local orchard and went apple picking.  Sammie loved it, and Brenna was much more into it than I thought she would be! 

Flat Five Race - August 1

Finally!  Some pictures from our Flat Five Race in August.  Yes, it took me that long to catch up, and yes, two months later I did just download them from my camera, however, I've been busy, running, among other things - which was very noticeable to me by these pictures and then the pictures I just got done sorting and filing from our apple picking in late September. 

There were five of us in all (that knew each other) racing that day, total obviously much more. 

Before picture:

Dad - Jamie - Rachel - Me - Karen

Rachel blew us all out of the water:

Dad and Karen finished together, in under an hour!

Jamie finished with a smile on her face!  A trick she will have to teach me someday!



And I finished, finally, but I finished, which was goal number one for me.  Goal number two was to not finish dead last - check; finished before 11 other people...And goal number three was to finish in under

one hour, fifteen minutes - check, finished in one hour, three minutes and change.

After picture:

And some other shots I like from this day:

Last but not least, my favorite, my awesome big sister coming back to run the finish with me, and help see me through...