31AUG14

The half marathon.  It's not my favorite distance (my favorite is a 10k 6.2 miles.) but I do actually love it.  I love training for it and I love that I can now say I have done a COUPLE half marathons.  I will definitely be doing more. 

 

 My training went well.  REALLY well.  My average pace on my long runs was a 10:40 which is almost a minute faster per mile than my first half.  I felt good.  I felt strong.  Unfortuntately, when the race day came it didn't go as well as my training.  I know this is normal but it's my first race that went bad.  At about mile 6 my hip started hurting.  This has happened off and on since I first started running but this was bad.  By mile 8 I had to slow down.  I was worried I wasn't even going to finish.  I had blisters which I hadn't gotten at all during training runs and I can only assume it was because I was running differently to try to make my hip feel better... 

 

 Around mile 8 I had to tell my wonderful running partner, Ashley, to keep going.  I knew I was going to slow her down.  I knew she wasn't going to leave me unless I made her.  (FYI she finished her first half with an incredible time I was super proud/excited for her!)  So the next 5 miles were rough.  I ended up walking a bit, which was one of my biggest things I didn't want to do...  I was happy to run into a couple of friends from Georgia, Violet and Jordan (wish we thought to take a picture together guys!) so I actually ran a little of it with them and that was helpful when I was feeling pretty bad! I will say I my finishing time was 2:31:16 which is only 13 seconds slower than my first so I KNOW I will do better next time.  I am such a stronger runner it was just not a good race for me. 

 

Having said that, I am proud.  Super proud I finished when I was hurting physically and mentally.  Proud I kept training even though Travis was gone (THANK YOU to those who helped babysit and thowe who encouraged me to do it even when I said I wasn't going to!)  And proud that I can now say I have run 2 half marathons with more in my future!

 

 

 

Ashley, me, Brooke and Lindsay (great job to all 3 of these ladies who ran their first half marathons and rocked it out!!) This was before the race and it was still dark so not a great pic...

We are so cute with our medals!

FINISHERS!!! 2014 Hibiscus Half Marathon!

25AUG14

 David was sick on Easter but Lexi decided she really wanted to still go to church so she got all ready and I drove her down to church.  She sat with a family in the ward and stayed all 3 hours.  I was so proud.  The next week we all got dressed up and while sometimes my photo shoots don't go so well with the kids because at least on of them is not cooperative, sometimes they are all 3 so dang cute I have to post a hundred pictures.  So here are a hundred pictures with no captions needed.  They are just the cutest kids EVER!

 

 

24AUG14

I love Holidays with these kids.  I just love making them smile and having an excuse to do it makes me love it extra.  Our Easter morning we had a sick kid (David) but we tried to make the most of it and at least got to find Easter baskets.  Our tradition is the Easter Bunny hides the baskets and the kids find them.  They girls loved helping David find his.  It was a great morning.

 

 

 

They were ready to go so Lex helped speed the process up a bit.

Showing off their finds.

Just love how happy Ryan makes David!

Let's see the first thing they decide do when I tell them they can get the stuff out of their baskets.  Oh huh Lex decides to read her book right away.  Shocked.

Ryan and David both go for the eggs with candy.  Shocked again. ;)

Cute buddy!

24AUG14

 

We got a flier from the kids school about this Easter Egg Hunt that was at the nearby high school and put on by a local Christian church.  The kids and I decided to check it out and it was the perfect hunt for us!  Small, with different age groups all going at the same time.  Short little program and then it was done!  The kids LOVED the little program that had not only the Easter bunny but a few other random animals as well.  It was the perfect amount of cheesiness for the kids! ;)  I would absolutely go again!

 

 

Loving the show!

So cute.  They did a cute little skit.

I could only watch one kid at a time so obviously I had to go with David.  The girls were close by but they can hunt for their own eggs.  David got the hang of it pretty quickly!

Although I had to keep telling him to wait to get the candy till after he was done getting all his eggs!

The best part was running into one of Ryan's best friends from school Merri and her little sister!  This is the sweetest family EVER!! And Ryan just loves Merri!

David had no idea the bunny was back there!

On the way home Ryan did this and said, "look mom new hair accessories!"  Love her!

19AUG14

My 3 sweet kids coloring Easter Eggs.  I had to boil 2.5 dozen eggs and I'm pretty sure they would have done more if I had more!  Even David enjoyed it this year.  Especially the eating of the cracked one (or two!)  These kids live for these activities!

 

 

Lex made this special I love Dad one.  She sure misses him and I love how she shows that!

19AUG14

Cristine's mom came to visit in April and she invited me to go to the lighthouse at Makapu'u to hike again.  You know I'm in for some hiking!  It's a paved easy trail so I can take David in the stroller and the views are always incredible.  Of course we had the most fun goofing around!!

 

Suns out Guns out. :)

It's just the 3 of us a LOT when all the big kids are at school!

Shaka!

18AUG14

I've posted about Na Kama Kai before and their awesome (all volunteer completely free) kids program before.  I try to go to as many of these as we can and I always get giddy for my kids and the experiences they are having while here in Hawaii!  David has been too young everytime (they say not till 2) but the last one we went to they told me if he will get in the water they will take him!  He has no fear of water so I had to sign him up!  Oh my gosh he was so adorable out on that paddlle board!  He had so much fun and he had plenty of older kids out on the water being encouraging and excited for him.  We are so blessed!

Sanding a surfboard.

The volunteers are absolutely amazing!  She just took David and left.  He whined for like a second and then was thrilled to be out on the water!



Heading out!

Look at him paddle!

I had to put a pic of Lex in there.  She is getting better and better!

Of course also one of Ryan who is perfectly content letting her volunteer just paddle her around!!

Getting ready to head out on the boat (no pics because they went so far out!)