Evergem Half Marathon

I ran my first official half marathon (2nd time running 13.1 miles).

I decided Friday that I was for sure going to do it.  It was up near Gent, but we had to leave early to pick-up Kherington's new bike (see separate post).  In the end we ended up arriving about 1.5 hours before I could even register and that was with a pit stop at a playground to let the kids get some wiggles out.

It was funny when I did register.  I paid my 10 Euros and then they handed me a slip of paper to fill out.  I then had to take it to a separate counter to get my number.  Well, I tried going 5 minutes early since the guys was just sitting there with everything already set up.  He pointed to the sign saying it would open at 1:15pm then sat there doing nothing until the time came.  Really?  Yes, that is typical Belgium customer service.

Well, I got my number and changed into my running clothes.  We watch the kid 1k run...kids have the funniest faces when they run.  As more and more people arrived, I kinda started second guessing myself.  Everyone seemed to be dressed down in hard core running gear.  A little intimidating. Here I am ready to go:

I put myself in the middle of the pack to start.  I wouldn't do that again.  More towards the front would have been nice.  The first mile or two I felt like I was going pretty slow moving in and out of people trying to get to a comfortable pace.  The run was out on country roads which was nice, however some roads really stunk of manure.  More motivation to run faster.  The roads were closed down so every now and again I'd end up with a car on my tail.  I wasn't a huge fan of that either.  AND there were a lot of bicyclist out for joy rides.  If I didn't have to run around them it would have been pretty cool...I mean how often do you see an old grandpa on a cruiser in a button up shirt and sweater tied around his neck.  Pretty awesome.

Back to the run.  I learned a couple other things: (1) I don't know how to drink water/Gatorade from a cup while running - the first drink stop I ended up with Gatorade splashed all over my face...very sticky, and (2) almonds are not a very good mid run snack - I usually eat a date ball but I didn't have any so I grabbed some almonds instead.  Well, they stuck to my teeth so I ended up trying to pick them out.

I felt fine during the run, but didn't think I'd break the 2h mark which was my goal.  The last 300m loop around and with 100m left I would see the clock was at 1h 57m.  Pretty exciting!  BUT the guy in front of my stopped running as soon as he crossed under the arch and the finish line was 100 feet or so ahead and were in the shoot so I couldn't comfortably go around him.  That made for an anticlimactic ending.  But I still finished in 1h 57m 43s.  That's a 9 minute mile pace for 13.1 miles and since the first 2 were slow I must have been running a good pace.

After the race you are supposed to turn in your number (they are made of rubber so they can reuse them year to year) they give you a treat back complete with sausage and beer (pretty sure it's not like that in the US).

Pretty n' Pink/Purple Wheels

Kherington loved riding the bike at Grandma's house and riding her friend's bike here so I decided to try and find a used one.  I put in a bid on ebay for 1.99 Euros not really expecting to get it and I WON!  It was an hour drive away so we grabbed it before heading to the half marathon.  Pretty sweet deal.  Now I need to find some training wheels.

While we waited for my race to start, she got to ride it around with a little steadying help from her daddy.  Then I had the bright idea to pump up the tires.  Well, I lost all the air in the front tire and learned that my bike pump won't work for her bike.  We had to put it away for then.

When we got back home while I took a bath, Ryan took the kiddos and filled it with air from the gas station.  When she got her helmet, Kevin really wanted on too, but we only have one so I got him one of his winter hats and he was good to go. Here they are having some fun in the backyard.

Freedom / Sibling Time

We took the side of the crib off of Kevin's bed. We wanted to do it before started climbing out. When they go to bed they play and fight then fall asleep. So far so good. The first night he didn't make it back to his bed...I was hoping he would since Kherington always did. I like that they have their own sibling play time.

Just Like My Sis

When we got back from Myrtle Beach, I decided to try my best to just let the kids enjoy themselves, play, fight, make a mess, watch cartoon, play at the park...and the rest of the fun carefree summer type activities.  Here is some of our fun:

On a cousins blog I saw that her little girl paints her nails herself.  It had never crossed my mind to let Kherington give it a try. So I went for.  She loved it. She did it herself and then I helped her finish it up.  I'm not saying we'll do it this way all the time but probably try to while the weather is still nice.

We got both the kids electronic toothbrushes in Myrtle Beach (Kherington already had one, but the head was pretty worn down...it was time for a new one).  They both love brushing their teeth at all time of the day.

Kevin continue to be a little character.  He is still a climber and loves to squeeze his tiny self into any small space...like back between the computer table and the wall where all the wires are.  He also can open the snack drawer and fruit snack package be himself...plus he has this little grin when he does something he's not supposed to and I catch him.

Kherington hasn't been taking naps (just quite moving...without falling asleep).  So she is pretty tired by the end of the day.  Here she asleep at the dinner table again.

With the weather so nice, I've filled up the shells a couple times.  We don't have a hose so I have to cart water out from the sink but it's worth it.  The kids enjoy themselves.  We've also had some friends join us...and while they plan Kherington steal their toys (in the picture she's enjoying Alex's bike).

Kevin loves to be like his sister.  He does everything she does.  If Kherington is sitting in a chair, Kevin wants to also...then when she moves to the bench he needs to also.  If Kherington is drinking milk or eating a pepper, Kevin want to do the same thing and will hold on to them until he sees Kherington put them down (he doesn't care for milk or peppers).  And as you can see below, if Kherington is wearing a dress-up skirt, so is Kevin (same goes for hair clips and head bands).  What a little cutie :).

During snack time one day, Kherington got a knife and stuck it in the cucumber to make it a little less messy to eat (I think she got the idea from eating corn on the cob). She even helped Kevin get his cucumber setup too.

Kevin continues to eat everything in sight. I'm pretty sure he's had a big growth spurt to go with that. Some friends have us a bag of marshmallows which he LOVED. He played his own game of chubby bunny. He also likes to pull apart his sandwiches. I'll be spreading any spread a lot thinner from now on so he can't smear it around like he did in the picture below.

All About Erin

I turned 28, so I figured I should do a blog post about myself.  Here it goes...

Favorite Foods:
Granola w/ fresh fruit
Blueberry Smoothies
Ben & Jerry's Half Baked Ice Cream
Cafe Rio Pork Salad
Pei Wei's Pad Thai
Sandwich's - I could eat a sandwich every meal and be a happy girl
Pizza
Guacomole
Hummus with peppers and cucumber

Random Info:

1. I like water.  I don't really drink anything except water.  On rare occasion I'll have some lemonade but that's about it.
2. I like to workout.  I like the feeling after it's done and I like that it's 'me' time.
3. When I read I have a hard time putting books down.  I'm not so good at just reading a couple pages.  (I like fiction)
4. I don't know anything about music, movies/actors, cars, makeup or fashion.
5. I am not very patient and can sometimes be a little on the blunt side.
6. I don't know much about politics.
7. I don't like mustard, mayo, relish, ketchup, olives, or pickles.
8. My favorite colors are blue and purple.
9. I am a morning person.
10. I wash my hair twice a week.
11. I don't wear glasses or contacts on my short runs.
12. I don't like talking on the phone.
13. My least favorite chore is cleaning the bathroom.
14. I love mysteries.
15. I love to bake/cook.
16. I don't like seafood except fish.
17. I have a Bachelors and Masters in Information Systems from BYU.
18. At one point I was a CCNA, but that certification expired.
19. After graduating from college, I worked as a web analytics consultant for Omniture and then Adobe.
20. I am the worlds worst texter (send me an email instead).  I never have my phone on me...and if I do, chances are it is not charge.
21. Outside of web analytics and coding, I don't know much, but I do usually know enough to know what to Google to find the answer. 
22. I am not super social by nature.
23. I cut both my kids hair and my side sweep bangs.
24. I dye my eyebrows.
25. I don't like to spend money.  Definitely more of a saver...I like getting good deals.
26. I can build spreadsheets for just about anything....I like information organized and accessible.
27. I like square pictures (can you tell)
28. I am not very creative, but Ryan is and pinterest and google help out a lot.

Our Sunday's are not typically very relaxing days.  Ryan is gone to meetings before we wake up and stays after for more meetings.  It just didn't make sense to have him make my birthday dinner.  So I marinated the chicken (delicious recipe: coconut lime chicken) and Ryan cooked it up.  I also made my own cake (I went for a trifle this year).  I made a black bean cake (using kidney beans) for the cake part and layer it with pudding and spray whipping cream.  I definitely miss cool whip b/c it  holds up a lot better.  It wasn't amazing, but wasn't bad either.  It was fun to try something new...I figured I wouldn't try it any other time so why not now?

Gift wise, we have some awesome trips planned for November.  Then Kherington got me a cute key chain with family pictures on it and Kevin gave me an empty bag...her saw Kherington was putting stuff in the bag and wanted to be like his big sis.  Mr. creative (Ryan) printed off some 'Getting to Know You' questions for us answer each night....like 'what's the first outfit you remember wearing.'  I have an awesome family.  Life is pretty great :).

Myrtle Beach (part 3)

Both Ryan and Jason came into town for the last week of the vacation making it the first time in over 2 years that we were all together again.

Boy do the kids love their daddy's.   The kids had a blast showing them the ropes of the beach.  We continued to get some awesome weather.  At the beach instead of tons of small pools of water there was a little river type thing at low tide which worked out perfectly for 'boating/boogie boarding'.  The kids each held on and we towed them around like a speed boat.  I must say, Eli was definitely the most skilled at this.  They would hold, go skimming across the water until they couldn't hold on and flew off the board into the shallow water.  Good times :).  After playing at the beach, we'd take the kids home and strip them and use the outside shower to clean them off. 

Our game playing as definitely lacking this trip.  Between kids and the Olympics we didn't play many nights.  So here's us 'watching' the Olympics with a little technology...just makes me wonder what technology out kids will be playing on in 20 years.

When we go back to the States, I buy a lot (since aside from food and travel I don't really spend money in Belgium).  This time I bought Kevin and Kherington's Halloween Costumes.  Kherington picked out Rapunzel for herself and Tiger for Kevin (from Costco)...so here's a little sneak peak of what they'll look like on Halloween...uh...assuming we can find something for them to do to celebrate this year.

One afternoon we went over the to playground.  The kids had a blast and enjoyed watching the geese.  I on the other hand was trying to finish the book I was reading before I lost it that evening.  I had started in the night before and got half way through, but it was a library book that was about to expire...so I missed out on some of the fun, but did finish the book :).

With everyone home, the boys setup a time to play some 2 on 2 basketball.  They had only been playing for a couple minutes when Adam came in with blood gushing from his forehead.  He had collided with Ryan's defense.  He ended up going to get stitches (game over).  While he was gone, Ryan was outside watching Kevin and Kevin fell down the garage stairs and got a big bonk for himself.  We didn't get stitches for it, I'm sure there will be a scar.  Moral of the story: Ryan's bad luck.  No...I was really ready to have daddy around again.  The kiddos like him better than me and whine less when he's around to play with.

Speaking of playing.  Well, Kheirngton and I went to the store to get some fun toys to send to family and I found this foam ball of the world.  Some day I want a nice globe (not until I have a place to store it though), but I figured this would be fun to play games with and teach the kids a little geography.  Less than 24 hours later, Kevin had found and eaten it.  Yummy.  Don't worry, he didn't actually eat the foam, but he did bit it off chunk by chunk.  So much for that (and not to self, no more foam ball purchasing).

I kept up my running.  I had only planning on doing 6 on Saturday's for my long run, but Jason wanted to do 10 so I mapped up a course to run the following day.  We didn't end up running together as planned but I still did it.  It felt pretty good.  Later that day Grandma, Tiffany and I went and got pedicures.  That foot message felt pretty awesome.  The only downside was that they used the pumice stone to remove my hard earned calluses.  When I ran on Monday my entire pink toes turned into a big white blister.  Kinda gross.  It didn't really hurt though so I guess that's good.

The good food continued.  My favorite thing was the homemade granola, peaches from the farm, blueberries and chobani.  So so good!  What else did we have?  Grilled pizza, turkey burgers, spinach/feta crescent rolls, fettuccine Alfredo bar, ham & Swiss sliders, corn on the cob and more.  So much good food.  Well, we weren't very good about eating through the leftovers...then Ryan came...and he's now teaching Kevin (pizza for breakfast anyone?). We also picked up some donuts one morning for breakfast and were able to find a pink frosted one for Kherington.  Note: the Bavarian creme donut is the favorite.

I don't know who figured it out, but it finally came to light that having Kevin and Eli run around together is basically the same as having Ryan and Jason run around together when they were little.  They are roughly the same age difference.  I cannot even imagine having all boys.  I've always through Kherington was a busy body, but I do feel like boys take it to the next level.  Kevin has so much fun playing with his cousin.

Kyah is pretty much the most awesome baby ever.  She has the cutest smile and seems so content most of the time.  The kids love the bubble bath party's in grandma's bath tub.  The night before we left, Kevin and Kherington took one.  To wash the bubble off, Grandma let Kevin in the shower.  He was just playing with the squeegee and having a fun time.  No big deal.  Well, I open the shower door to find him squatting and pooing on the grandma's shower floor.  Not cool.

We were able to snag a couple family shots before everyone headed off.  The consecutive function on the camera is pretty much awesome!  Hold it down and snap, snap, snap.  I think they turned out pretty good for 5-10 minutes of picture taking.