Race for the Cure 2012

I've done Race for the Cure a couple times before, but this year's was definitely the most memorable one yet. It was back at the end of October but I realized I hadn't posted on it yet and the pics are just too funny to forget. This year Mom and Dad walked it with Jackie and I. And Jackie's friend Liz walked with us too. And it is thanks to Liz and her infectious passion for the race that this year was so memorable!

Can't wait for next year and some more wacky costumes!

Christmas Card Love/Hate Relationship

Hands down – my favorite Christmas tradition is receiving Christmas cards. Ever since I can remember Mom has gathered us up for a family picture, written a letter and then mailed that out to all our family and friends. And since she was always so good about it – we always received loads of Christmas cards in return. Even now I love going home and going through the basket of letters and pictures.

After Matt and I got married I decided we should start our own Christmas letter tradition. I couldn’t expect others to send me cards if we weren’t willing to put in the time time to send out our own. Our first Christmas we were still wrapping up our thank you notes from our wedding and everyone that we would have sent a Christmas card to was already receiving a thank you (which included a wedding pic) so there was no need to do an additional Christmas card. In 2010 we wrote our first official Christmas card – we posted it on the blog here. And when I saw "we" I mean, Matt wrote it and I mailed them out. Last year we did our second one, but we were a little late getting it sent out. And it appears I didn’t post it at all since I had a gap in posts from October to March.
We haven’t started writing this years but we most definitely have plenty to write about. My biggest concern though is the picture. We went a lot of cool places and did a lot of fun things, but I can’t find any pictures of Matt and I that I really love. This is where the HATE part of the relationship comes in. Not only is it stressful going through the hundreds (maybe thousands) of pictures I took this year to find no suitable ones for the card, but now I have to convince Matt that we need to take a Christmas picture. And if you know Matt, you know that he HATES pictures. Oh man – this is not going to be fun. Wish me luck!

A note for next year...

If you think you missed seeing Matt run by, you probably did.

Today was the Living History Farms 7 mile cross country run. It was Matt's first time running, and my first time watching. Before the race started Matt and I picked out a meeting spot - the law office in the old town. Very responsible of us. However, I wanted to watch him race too. So I found a spot not to far from the start line to watch the masses run by and hopefully get a glimpse of Matt. No luck.

Then I followed a bunch of other bystanders out into the woods to one of the creek crossings on the course. I got a good spot and was there plenty early because it was 10-15 minutes before the first runner came by. I continued to watch every runner go by and even cheered on random people. After awhile I started wondering where Matt was - but I hadn't seen any of the other girls I knew that were also running so I didn't worry about. More runners went by and then I saw some of the girls but no Matt. More runners. No Matt. Other friends I knew. No Matt. Finally I just decided I should head back to our designated spot.

On my walk back I got a call from a random Illinois number. It was Matt. He was done and worried about where I was at. Oops. He'd been done with the race for over a half hour. I had COMPLETELY missed him. I was so bummed. He ran it in 1:19. So fast! So next race when I start to get nervous that I missed him - I probably did and I should head to the finish line.


I was planning on posting a really fabulous running-through-the-mud picture of Matt but since I didn't get that shot, here's a pre-race pic.

Too funny for words

Gable and Max...after their nap.

 

IMT (Half) Marathon

I'm such a proud wife! Matt ran his first half marathon last weekend and he did awesome! Becky and Stacey ran it with him and they did great too but this wasn't their first. It was fun but a bit chaotic trying to figure out where to cheer them on. We missed seeing them cross the finish line but got to see them at the start and at mile 9 and 11.

Aunt Peggy flew in from New Jersey and it was so great spending the weekend with her too. On Sunday after the race, Mike & Kathy and Courtney all came over for a holiday-like dinner (lunch). Both Kathy and Peggy turn 60 this fall so we celebrated their special birthday. And Mike got a little shout out too since his 62nd bday happened last week. It was a bummer that Conley and Kelly weren't able to come but it was still a really great celebration.

Deer Sticks and Home Furnishings

So you may be wondering what can deer sticks and home furnishings possibly have to do with one another? The answer: Minneapolis.

A little over a week ago Matt and I took a road trip up to Minneapolis to pick up our finished batch of maple deer sticks. Yum!!! To make the road trip even more fun we stopped at Ikea. We didn't really have a list going in - although I had in mind a few things that we should check into in case we found something we liked. But really why I love Ikea is because of the showroom. It's hard for me to visualize how fun (or lame) or how big (or small) something will look when incorporated into a room so Ikea is able to take a lot of those doubts away. I feel more comfortable that I can make it work in my house and thus have more fun during the shopping process.

We easily dropped two grand... just kidding - it was only two hundred, on some cool new items. I think Matt's favorite is a new kitchen pot with a strainer insert. (We used it right away to make some pasta.) And my favorite is a new comforter and duvet cover. It is amazing how much difference a new comforter can make. Not only does it completely change the look of a room but it feels like I'm sleeping in a brand new bed!

And I'm pretty sure Gable loves it too!

Color Run Fun!

It seems like ages ago when we first heard that the Color Run - the world's happiest 5k was coming to Des Moines. So when the much anticipated event finally arrived on Saturday it had some pretty high expectations to meet. Unfortunately it was the coldest day of the fall so far - the high was only 45 degrees. But 27,000 people got all bundled up (well some were dumb and didn't) in as much white clothing as possible and headed down to the Capital to spend the afternoon going crazy!

Since there were so many people there plus because it was so cold, I was a little bit miserable waiting to get started. They were only releasing 1000 participants at a time onto the course and by they time we made it to the front of the line we were group 14 or 15. So yeah... we had to wait awhile. Once we got onto the course there were 4 stations spread out over the 3 miles and each station was a different color. Volunteers squirted a colored corn starch substance at the participants as they passed through each area.

We decided it would be more fun to walk the 5k and we also decided to make a small stop on the final stretch at Capital Pub and Hot Dogs. We were really hoping we could all get hot dogs but apparently they were out so we purchased a beer instead. We eventually made it to the finish line where they were through a huge color party.

And this is where it really got fun....When we picked up our race packets everyone was given a packet of color. They promised it was well worth it to hold on the packet until the end. It was a little difficult to be so patient (especially when we were just standing in the cold waiting to start) but it did end up being worth it. Everyone was standing in a big crowd and every 5-10 minutes they did a count down to release your color into the air. We all got completely drenched in color! It was great! Definitely the best part. We danced and went crazy and even did a conga line. Our group consensus is that instead of a 5k it would be more fun as a 1 mile fun run. That way it would be a constant color explosion. But overall we had a great time and can't wait for next year!

Here are my amateur photos from the event. Once the professional ones are posted I can share those too.



BEFORE...