Wordless Wednesday: Smiles

If you look close, you can see his 2 bottom teeth!

You know something is wrong if he stops smiling for more than 30 seconds!

Picnic and a playground

Zach loved his first trip down the slide.

My hero:

Spoon

Ellie is a pro at picking up a spoon that already has food on it and feeding herself. Last week she decided it was time for her to master putting her food on the spoon herself.

She did pretty good and only got a few mashed potatoes in her hair!

It was a solid effort, but its just so much more fun by hand!

Take 2

Now that we've had some time to recover from the half marathon, we started talking about fall races. With Corries crazy work schedule, the only race she can squeeze in is the Towpath run in October. While the course lacks the spectators and excitement that the Cleveland marathon has, its primarily flat, its a limestone trail (good for the knees) and since its in October, I'm hoping it will be cooler than mid-May. All of those add up to me running another half marathon. I thought about doing the full for about a minute, but after such a rough race last week, I could use another (easier) half to boost my confidence and time. I signed up today (as did Corrie) and I'm excited to get to work. Who's with us?

My babies

I love these guys.

Comfy?

Zach loves to sleep with his legs crossed or up in the air. I don't know how thats comfortable!

Whatever helps him sleep!

A quick run

The after photos (minus a few people).

Today was the 35th annual Cleveland marathon, half and 10k. 5 of us have been training since January. We ended our (long) training runs last week with a 10 mile run. It went great. We had a great pace, no major aches and pains after, we had stamina, we could still carry on a conversation...I couldn't have asked for a better run. We tapered last week. We carbo loaded yesterday and today we ran 13.15miles. It SUCKED! The heat was the main problem. We've only had 1 long run in the heat and we just weren't used to the fatigue that comes with running in the heat. While it was only in the 70's, it was miserable for the runners. We were drenched by the end of the first mile. The sun was beating down on us the entire run. While they did a great job with adding some extra water stops and hoses and kids with buckets, it just wasn't enough. Runners were advised to slow down because of the heat. We saw an ambulance get called for a runner and after I crossed the finish line, someone from the medical team came over to check on me. I didn't think I looked that bad!

The other problem were the hills. When we ran this 2 years ago, our only complaint was that the course started going up hill at mile 10.5. They did some tweaking with the course and we started up hill this time. We also went up hill in mile 2 and 3. We were hoping that meant we would end flat, but that would have been way too easy. While we did have a decent stretch of very minor hills, we hit a big one at the end of mile 9 (it was at the corner of Columbus and Willey. Check it out and then explain to me how race officials thought that was a good route)! It was so big we stopped to walk as did every runner in front of us and behind us. It was kind of amusing and we were glad to know we weren't the only ones. We covered some bridges at the end, which meant more up hill and thats when the pain really kicked in. We were all feeling it and spent some time walking. It was enough of a break to recharge us and we were all able to run across the finish line--I think. We lost part of our group for most of the race!

It was actually one of my worst runs and at least in this moment, I'm swearing off all warm weather races from now on. However, I got to run with Corrie for her first half marathon, I met a new friend/running buddy, I reminisced with an old running buddy, I deepened friendships and because of all that, we are already looking forward to a fall race and (finally) a Chicago marathon next year--assuming we can get in before it closes out in record time again!

Up side down

Jon: aka daddy-gym

Wordless Wednesday: Its my mat!

Jelly bean

Ellie is starting to love the camera...when her brothers aren't around. She even says cheese!

Moms weekend

Happy Mothers Day! We've had a great weekend. It started Saturday with Tony and Maries baby shower. It was a sweet shower thrown by her sisters who thought of everything. People were everywhere and they got a lot of great gifts. I hope they have a big apartment!

Zach only cared about his toes!

Mommy and daddy to be:

While I was at the shower, Jon, the kids and Gram got busy landscaping. With our crazy hot summer last year, we lost most of our plants. They got new plants and flowers, dug up all the dead stuff and made the yard beautiful again all in just over 3 hours. It was an excellent present and a huge surprise!

We headed to church this morning for the annual Cross Point baby dedication. It was a slow year for the church with only 2 new babies.

Some of the big kids sang to us this morning. You can't see Ben very well, but Sam stole the show anyway!

I'm spending the day with the family. Jon is cooking. I'm relaxing and loving every minute of it!

This only took about 35 tries!

Semi Wordless Wednesday: Daniel food

Jon ended his 10 day Daniel fast yesterday. His breakfasts weren't very exciting, but he did pretty good for dinner. He got his Daniel fast recipes from here.

Photo shoot

I seriously have the cutest kids:

She's a Purdum

This is something for the Purdum side to appreciate:

Jons version

Ellies version

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Zach

I just can't get enough of that smile!