San Francisco Marathon

This past weekend, Randy joined his friend Jagdev to run his first marathon. Although there are plenty of marathons to choose from for an "easy" first marathon, Randy decided to pick San Francisco for a couple reasons. What better way to see the entire city? The race takes you along the embarcadero, across the Golden Gate Bridge and back, through Golden Gate park, and then you weave your way through downtown as you run downhill to the finish line. Also, where else can you race on July 25th in 60 degree weather? Here is Randy and Jag before the race, ready to join their starting group! Their wave started at 5:32 a.m. You wouldn't know it was 54 degrees by looking at their clothing though. They should have snapped one shot of me, in jeans, long sleeve shirt, hooded jacket (hood on 'cause of the breeze), ready to get a warm coffee in my hands as soon as the Starbucks around the corner opened at 6 a.m.!

The San Francisco Marathon's motto is "Worth the Hurt". I know they weren't referring to the hurt Randy sustained spraining his ankle only a half mile from the starting line, but that was a big hurt in Randy's race. Despite his frustration, he decided to press on and run the race. He said the uphills actually helped take the pressure off his ankle. So between the hills in the first half (which he had trained well for in the mountains) and his adrenaline, he actually finished the first half at 1 hour, 47 minutes. At mile 16 the downhills began and he had to slow way down to compensate for the jarring his ankle took. Around mile 20 he said he felt that "wall" that marathon runners refer to, and chose to walk for about a mile. He finished well though, smiling through the last corral, not showing a limp, even warming down by walking the mile uphill back to our hotel.

Unfortunately, because of the layout of the race around the city I wasn't able to go to different spots to cheer for the boys and take photos. I hung out at the starting line for a good half hour, walked to get myself a coffee nearby, then sat near the finish line with my coffee and a book until the first finisher came through, running 2 hours 22 minutes! I then chose to stand near the finish line, cheering on the runners! Jagdev ran a great race, finishing at 3 hours, 25 minutes. This was his sixth marathon, and he was a great encouragement to Randy as they trained together the past 6 months! Jag's wife, Manjit, was there too, running the half marathon. Although her wave left after the guys, and she finished across town in Golden Gate Park, she made it across town in the shuttle bus in time to see both Jag and Randy finish! Randy was hoping to run around 3 hours, 45 minutes. At 4 hours, Jag and I started getting worried that he may have hurt himself. Although, unfortunately, we were right, we didn't have to worry long. Way to go Randy! Feelin' it...but finished! We were able to head back to the hotel and shower before we had to check out. We headed out of the city and celebrated Randy's finish with a pizza and a pint at Pyzano's Pizzeria in Castro Valley! After getting home Randy iced his ankle well and relaxed on the couch the rest of the evening. He's a bit sore this morning but already thinking about what he can improve on for "next time". It must not have hurt too bad. I am so proud of him! He has worked hard towards this goal for months and his training and dedication showed as he ran on a sore ankle. Way to go Randy!

What? Not again!

I know, you're probably bored to tears of all our camping pictures. But yes, we went again to the mountains last weekend, this time with Randy's mom, Arlene. I never mind going camping over and over. It keeps us out of the heat (mid-80s in the mountains, 105 here in the valley). The kids LOVE playing out-of-doors all day. And we get to see things like this... Watching the sunset at Kings' Canyon Lookout on Friday night. Saturday morning we hiked to Buena Vista Point. The trail led us past some huge boulders, through beautiful flowers, some bushes filled with caterpillar cocoons, up to the granite top overlooking the south valley to the west, the canyon and Sierras to the east. One more view to the north. On the trail back down. And what's a camping trip without s'mores? This camping trip we also took along another special guest, Andy Mouse, as in "If you give A. Mouse a cookie." He was one busy beaver, er, uh, mouse I mean. He insisted he have his own chair at the campfire, made a trip to the Indian grinding holes with Violet, played on the logs in our campsite with Audrey, ate donuts right out of our hands, and even wanted his turn with the camera. Sunday morning we relaxed around the campsite and eventually packed up to head back down into the heat. This week was Audrey's last week of swim team (final meet tomorrow...pictures to follow), and Sunday morning is Randy's first marathon is San Francisco! I am so excited to, once again, get out of this heat and go see Randy run. Although with 25,000 people participating I'm not sure how much of Randy I'll actually see. Hopefully I'll get at least one picture to document it! Wish him luck!

Birds & Books-on-tape

Since we tend to only get the camera out for vacations or holidays, that leaves a lot of time not captured in pictures. What have we been up to? Well, as mentioned in a previous post, Randy is into bird-watching these days. He's also into running (only 12 days 'til his marathon). While running and birdwatching the other day he noticed an owl box up in O'Neil Park (in the middle of Fresno State). So at sundown last night he took the kids for an hour to see if they could spot an owl. No luck, but fun time with Dad!

We've also enjoyed quite a bit of baseball. We bought a group of tickets for a great deal at the beginning of the season and are having a great time going to Grizzlies' games. Randy took the older two last week and they had a great time...barely missed a foul ball, saw a good game, and even got to sit in the VERY front row for the last inning while saying hi to one of Randy's friends (a local sportscaster).

A good chunk of my time this summer seems to be driving my kids around, be it swim team, karate lessons, play-dates, library shows, etc. I decided to make good use of all this time in the car by branching out into books-on-tape. At the insistence of many of my friends (that are also prolific readers) I tried to listen to books for my own pleasure on my commute to and from work (back when I drove 20 minutes to and from Central every day). I never enjoyed it quite as much as holding the thick stacks of bound paper in my lap. Since my kids are a perfect age for listening to novels now, yet not as interested in sitting for the time it takes to read an entire one, I decided to try again. I mean, they're already strapped in for the ride, right? It's been great! We've listened to Sideways Stories at Wayside School, More Stories from Wayside School, and Wayside School is Falling Down (all by Louis Sachar), A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck, some Tall Tales, and now Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary. Add those to all the other books the kids have checked out and read from the library and that equals a lot of good literature for the summer.

Any of you have suggestions for good read-aloud novels for the kids? Summer's not even half over!

More camping

I'd venture to say that half of the pictures we take are outdoors, in some national park, usually camping! For fourth of July weekend our family decided to beat the heat and head up to Kings' Canyon. This time we stayed 3 nights and were joined by the Wiens family and the Nolan family! Our kids played and got EXTREMELY dirty (I thought Isaac had grown out of that, but he was almost as dirty as Levi, age 2, each night), loving it the whole time! In order to make sure we could find 2 campsites together for our group of 12, Christa and I went up with the kids on Friday morning since Randy and Aaron were both working. We did a great job, if I must say so myself. Found 2 sites, set up our kitchens, our bear-boxes, our EZ-Up, our tents, even made dinner. The boys arrived in time to start our evening campfire, but I bet we could have even done that too! Randy and I took the kids to the campfire program to hear Ranger Frank give his John Muir talk, but the kids only lasted a bit past nine (it starts at 8:30 and last an hour). Audrey did enjoy being able to go on stage and lead a song along with all the other Jr. Rangers. She felt really special (too bad I didn't bring my camera). Saturday was spent relaxing (Auntie Christa painted the girls' nails), playing, taking a hike through the picnic area to pick up trash (to earn their Jr. Ranger badges), attending a "Budding Naturalist" ranger program (a fun, kid-centered program that played games to help kids learn how to identify the trees in the area) and earning their Jr. Ranger badges! Congratulations to all our Jr. Rangers! Goofy Vi! That's not how you play ladderball! On Sunday morning we started our Independence Day celebration with a parade! Every year in front of the Ranger Station the town of Wilsonia has a parade. Here the kids waiting for the parade to start. Isaac watching the parade go by. Vi caught some candy being thrown from one of the trucks! Smokey the Bear rode in the parade and then stopped by the Ranger Station for pictures! The Nolan family joined us that afternoon and we had a great time hiking to the Big Trees, enjoying a yummy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, and then another hike at sundown. Christa and I bought a bunch of glow necklaces and bracelets for the kids to wear on the hike...kinda like their own fireworks! We got back to camp, started a campfire for some s'mores, then put the kids to bed with the glow-lights before sitting around the campfire for awhile longer! Monday we took our time packing up, playing with kids, exploring around our campsite, and walking down to the creek before heading back down to the heat. Thanks Wiens and Nolan families for such a great weekend! Happy Birthday USA! Kinnedy and Violet enjoying a snack of yogurt. Vi and Uncle Aaron watching things float in the creek. Isaac brought up his ship from VBS and it floated very well! Levi just wanted to throw rocks in...what a boy! Charlotte and Vi decided to take their shoes and socks off and put their toes in! My big girl! All of us. Front row, Charlotte, Levi, Violet, Audrey, Kinnedy, and Isaac. Back row, Jamie, Randy, Christa, Aaron, Kristina and Terron.