Our Kindergarten Weekend....

We spent the weekend with Dan, Ton and the girls. Had scrumptious meals (pumpkin/sausage fettechini--sp-)pumpkin ice cream (like pumpkin pie!) and wonderful Sunday "roasted" dinner. The girls kept giggling when they'd go to bed, not believing that we weren't going home. It was so nice to wake up to their giggles too!

Julia has her first "big swing" experience. "I want the big swing Uncle Terry!"


A familiar sight: Above, Saturday night is about pumpkins.
below: Sunday, Uncle Terry reads the "comics".

Monday Morning--we are off for a morning of helping with Tonya in Jacqueline's Kindergarten classroom. Wow--those teachers earn their pay. After hopscotching patterns, making apple trees, listening centers, and doing a math lesson--we were exhausted and it was only 10:50. Her teacher is a wonderful, kind lady with lots of patience. And we both thought that teaching that age is delightful if you have lots of energy. They are full of "wonder" and "zeal"--excited for the next activity! She's ready for her day--excited to be going to school!

Of course teacher's wonderful--notice that Starbuck's cup!--no wonder she has energy!

Then on the way home we stop at a favorite spot in Woodinville. We could spend a week in there!



Terry's cousin Audrey comes to visit for a few days.

Last weekend:
We head to Goldendale for Lon's celebration. His new little guy is making Daddy pretty happy!
Most of the Myers clan-minus LB.--We went on to have a very nice weekend with them in Tri-Cities.

WE DID IT!!!

Yep, my first half-marathon (13 miles) and yes it was great. This is Jan and I at the finish. Below is the guy who got me motivated back in May when I was complaining about being "out of shape". I signed up in that weak moment, Jan became my personal trainer and here we are in Leavenworth with 1000 other excited people awaiting the start. I was excited for it to be OVER--and couldn't understand the hype. At the end of this blog I'll share my "post-race" thoughts. Here we are before the race. This was Justin's 2nd marathon in 7 days! The other in Akron, Ohio. That's on his blog.

Justin attaching my number. Below Susie who is so excited--you can just see it in her! I wasn't sharing her glee at this point! I think there were 15 or so of us.

Coming into the finish line. Jan said, "Ok--give it your final kick!"--I said, "I have NO kick left", but with all the clapping--you do get something to look a bit more heroic as you cross the finish line. If they'd seen you at mile 11- well nothing too glamorous about all that sweat! We ran
quite a bit of it--really surprised us both. Not that Jan couldn't--she's an old pro, but that I could. I think I wanted it to be over with sooner! It was actually easier for me than walking fast. It was awfully neat to see Terry there!



Melissa (middle, white shirt) was a great organizer of this event for the 16 of us. She planned our KOA accomodations, snacks, coffee and encouragement--thanks, Melissa!

A massage at the end--wow, bliss! Terry , Jan and I (Gary wasn't able to come) had wonderful brats/kraut and German potato salad at the Gypsy in Leavenworth--highly recommended!
Leavenworth's October Fest is not the time to try to park downtown.

A Starbucks stop, then a beautiful trip back across HWY 2. the colors were AMAZING.
Thoughts about "marathoning"
*the hype?--well that's all about the finish line(good spiritual lesson here)!
*having a personal trainer and encourager (like Jan)--makes it happen! Thanks Jan!
*training and getting ready is NOT overrated!
*slow and steady sure does work.
*there are people on the road who are annoyed with you but you don't care and you're not even upset with them.
*you'd better not talk about it all the time now or you'll have no friends!