Grandma's Marathon

After getting a stress fracture last year I was determined to run a marathon this year. In Northern Minnesota there is a popular marathon called Grandma's Marathon. It runs along the shore of Lake Superior from Two Harbors to Duluth. My past training partner wanted to sit out training for this race, but my husband decided he would train with me! I later found out that he only agreed to it because he thought we would not actually do it. After a while we both enjoyed running together and we were both excited for our big race. 

Now for a funny story: All of the hotels within 50 miles of Duluth were sold out. This left college dorms as being the only option to have a place to spend the night. Shirley was awesome enough to come out and watch the kids. So back to the dorm. One of the beds was set up really high and Ryan wanted it lower. So he attempted to lower it and broke the bed. After my stomach hurt from laughing at him trying to fix it he ended up throwing the mattress on the floor. 

The race itself was a lot of fun. At the start of the race it was 44 degrees and foggy. The fog stuck around for most of the race, which was nice because we could only see about half a mile ahead of us. 26.2 miles is a long way to run, but it was totally worth it. Ryan and I ran with each other for most of the race, but eventually we got separated and I kicked his trash by 2 minutes. We have already decided that we will be running this one again next year if possible.

Here we are surrounded by people and tons of porto-potties. I guess runners pee a lot.

A few minutes before the start and we were feeling good.

We survived. It felt great to accomplish this together. My husband is such a hunk. ;)

After the race most runners would relax and recover. Shirley brought the kids up to see the end of the race, so we needed to have some fun after the 3 hour drive they made. We had lots of fun with seagulls that would take food out of our hands.

We had fun hiking a little bit around the lake and throwing rocks in. The fog was still sticking around so the view was not the best, but it was still beautiful.

We even went to an awesome waterfall that required Ryan and me to walk down too many steps, but it was worth it to see our kids smile.

Kickin' it with a soccer ball and some grandparents

I checked out the definition of soccer mom on Wikipedia and found this gem:

The phrase soccer mom generally refers to a married middle-class woman who lives in the suburbs and has school age children. She is sometimes portrayed in the media as busy or overburdened and driving a minivan or SUV. She is also portrayed as putting the interests of her family, and most importantly her children, ahead of her own. The phrase derives from the literal, specific description of a mother who transports and watches her children play soccer.

Well then it is official that I am a soccer mom. My two soccer stars loved to get out there and run around. This was our first attempt at competitive sports and found that our boys are quite different when it comes to being aggressive. Either way our boys had a ton of fun.

To keep up with tradition Grandma and Grandpa White took a trip out to see our family after the tax deadline had passed. We had lots of fun visiting the aquarium at the Mall of America, riding a surrey, and playing in a flooding river. We did a lot more, but sometimes we forget to pull out a camera to capture the moments. It is always a blast to have them come even though our kids go through detox afterwards.

Saren was a little reluctant to walk in the river. In her defense it was really cold water from the snow melting.

How to dye eggs and your skin

Easter is always a fun morning with our children. Saren is still figuring it out, but did find a box of crackers she carried around most of the morning. Her big brothers were good teachers to get her on an egg hunt. 

Ryan wanted to spend hours in the kitchen so he made a carrot cake cheesecake. It was delicious!!! 

To kick off the spring running season I joined a few gals from my ward to run a 5K that gets you rather colorful. It was freezing that day, but lots of fun. It was fun to be there with my family and see the smiles on Cambridge and Brody as they added more color to my outfit. They did get some on them, which Cambridge thought was cool... Brody he was a little unsure.

The end of a long winter

Sorry for the very slow posting rate. I have wanted to sit down and get these up, but life goes on. I now have committed to get caught up over the next few days, so there will be an overload of postings coming.

This past winter here was quite chilly. There was one day that had a balmy high of -12F with a low that day of -23 not factoring in wind, which never seems to end. So lets just say we were glad when the snow finally started to leave.

When the cold has you worn out the best thing to do is to go to an indoor water park. We went last year and we really needed to go again this year.

Cambridge showing us how sad he was to be there

There is no drink too big for our little chick

Brody even went into the deep end for the first time

When we went last year Saren was only a few months old, but this time we were able to see our little fish in action

Brody wanted to beat mom so bad, but was a little slower than her. We were just so proud of him for going on a really big slide that makes you go head first.

The happy racer

Saren - daddy's girl

I also had another year tick by. I won't point out my new age, but wanted to show off the lovely cake that my darling husband made for me.

These next to pictures were taken on March 29th and yes there is way too much snow still on the ground. Our poor boys after being stuck inside for the long winter needed to get out and explore. Their powerwheel seemed like a good idea at the time, but the snow had other ideas. At least the snow could not hinder the swingset and they could burn some energy.

I don't remember when the last snow finally melted, but I can honestly say that I am glad I don't have to shovel it for a while.