I have been a very bad girl! No posts for quite some time! So, I'm going to do some general catching up on the post tonight, but hopefully will fill in the blanks at a later date.
Yikes, I can't even remember what my last post was about! I'm assuming that it was while I was still in Texas helping Ashley and Justin with baby Vona.
It was a great trip, always a wonderful experience to spend time with a brand spanking new grand baby! Vona is a sweet and easy going baby.
A very happy little girl. I got to stay for 3 weeks and then returned home bringing Alex with me for 3 weeks. I need to post about the airline trip, I must not forget!!
What fun! That kid kept us in stitches! He's hilarious just like his Mommy was when she was little. He loves to talk, talk, talk! And Nana and Pops make a good listening audience.
Yakima's own 'Space Station'! I think Alex enjoyed this one more than the real one in Houston!
The surprise meeting with Mason at the Vintiques Car Show in Yakima:
Enjoying and exploring Tow Mater at Vintiques:
Check out this race car
Got to 'drive' some hot rods!
Everybody enjoys snack time (except maybe Mason! lol)
Look Ackex, here's one that's our size:
Enjoying the great weather and grass to play on:
Some of the things we did while Alex was here:
Chill-axed at Costco!
Had play dates at Mason's
Worked hard playing in the swimming pool
Had fun hanging out with Nana and Pops at the Bears games
Enjoyed some kettle corn
Got reacquainted with Boomer
Hob nobbing with Boomer!
Got his own bobblehead thanks to some nice Bears fans
Tia Osso dressed him up in his Mommy's old clothes and he seemed to like it! lol
He got to meet his happy little cousin Brooklyn
Potty training time, happy as a clam if he gets to watch tv or youtube!
Trying on the new 4 wheeler helmet and thinking he's pretty hot stuff
More best buds playing fun!
Evan keeping up with the big boys
As good as the big red boat!
Backyard play time
Love that happy face!
Enjoying the library in Yakima
Took a trip with his best friend Mason and Mason's family to the fire station across the street from Nana and Pops' house:
Got to get in the demo fire truck
Nana climbed up on the front of the truck to get the perfect shot:
Alex with our fireman tour guide
Come on in folks (his favorite vehicle, the firemen's aide truck)
Alex and Nana in the back of the aide truck
Posing on Big Red
Afterward Mason decided it was time for WWF on the front lawn of the fire station
Alex loved it!
Trip to the park to feed the ducks
Fun times with his best buddy:
Hard at work with Pops making a Tow Mater Monster truck for cousin Jackson!
Trip to the park for Evan's (Mason's brother) first birthday party
We didn't see the sign that said 'No wading, fishing, etc in the creek' until after we were in the creek...Oops!
Family trip to the mountains
Lunch time:
Enjoying the great outdoors
Alex and Pops took a 4 wheeler ride, this is serious business
Hold on!
Hanging on for dear life!
Alex had been apprehensive about riding the 4 wheeler, but by the time they returned back to the campsite he was fast asleep (lol)
I'm going to miss this beautiful countryside when we move to Texas!
Hanging with Nana
Alex enjoyed many a pancake for breakfast, lunch or dinner while he was here, apparently Nana spoiled him with her willingness to make pancakes on demand!
It seems like Mason was always in the driver's seat...except this time, and you can probably see why it's a good idea for Mason to continue to be in the driver's seat! lol Sorry for the poor video quality but I was laughing so hard I couldn't hold the camera still:
At hot rods and harley's we even scored some ice cream!
Nana and Pops' 32nd Anniversary dinner at Creekside West Bar and Grill
Enjoying a visit with Great Grandpa Clement
I LIKE Miss Kitty!
Showing us his pitching moves
Alex was twitter-pated by the Statler girls!
An early birthday at the Middleton's
One of my very favorite parts of Alex's visit was our night time routine. We would put Alex's jammies on him, read a book or two, brush his teeth, take him in to the bedroom where we'd say his prayer and then I'd sing him a few songs. The book chosen more often than not was The Friendly Duck book. It was read so often that I started having Alex 'read' it to me. It was the sweetest thing in the whole wide world! I even bought and had the book mailed to Alex in Texas so he could keep reading it! I keep pestering Briana to record Alex 'reading' it and send the recording to me as a birthday present. My favorite part of him telling the story is where the book reads: 'the boy hides behind the big willow tree' and Alex's version is 'the boy hides behind the big YELLOW tree' (well we DO talk about the yellow DUCK in the book quite often why not a yellow TREE as well! lol). The songs Alex always asked to be sung were, I Am Like A Star, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and I Am A Child of God. Such a beautiful and sweet night time routine!
After 3 weeks Alex returned with Pops and me to Texas where he was very happy to be home, he had a great time while he was visiting but missed his family, so it was a happy reunion. We talked and talked and talked in the weeks beforehand about how Daddy would be picking us up at the airport and then dropping us off at the car rental place. I was very afraid that we'd have one upset little boy if he thought he was going to be able to stay with Daddy for the rest of the day, when indeed Daddy had to get back to work! Alex did absolutely fine!
We were able to stay for another week in Texas. Ashley and Justin graciously lent us their home as they were already at the beach house in Crystal Beach before the wedding vow ceremony. We tried very hard to do things each day with Briana and Erin's families. We had fun going to the Dallas zoo one day.
The petting zoo was the favorite stop
Jackson enjoying the company of a friend
Pops and Bryn
Bryn
Emmett
Hello Billy Goat!
Alex loving on cousin Bryn
Emmett comforting cousin Bryn
She finally gave up and CRASHED
Alex is driving...watch out!
Uh, excuse me, Alex, you've got a passenger in the back of your jeep!
Mommy's along for the ride
Pascual family
Who is that masked giraffe?
The Whole Gang
Briana hosted a couple of get togethers including a 3rd birthday party for Alex.
Alex got his wish: A monster jam cake and matching cupcakes
Emmett enjoying the pool with Pops
Briana and 'the spread'
Apparently Emmett's getting hungry or he wants to try his hand at BBQing!
Looking for the perfect birthday shot
Bryn's ready for the pool
Jackson's prepared to swim!
Hey, Mommy wait for me!!
Watch out Jaxy, Alex is after you!
Huey said, "Let's play!"
Cousin Bethany
Dinner time
Hi Y'All
The master BBQ-er
Playing Monster Jam
Two Love Birds
and two more!
Grass is the BEST part!
MMMMMmmmm, licked the tires too and then played some more in the grass!
Opening gifts
On Friday we headed down south. The Pascual's caught up to us on our pit stop at Buc-ee's
Buc-ee's actually a pretty nice guy
and as we were getting ready to leave, the Chatwin's showed up as well!
We had planned to all go to the Space Center (Mission Control) in Houston on our way to Crystal Beach on Friday, but Erin and her family ended up not coming as they got stuck in traffic and the kids were tired by the time they arrived in Houston.
Checking out the electronics
Pascual's touring the lab
Pops enters the Space Shuttle
The boy's favorite part of the Space Center!
Couldn't we have done this for free at McDonald's playland? lol
Pops, the Pascual's and I headed to Crystal Beach after leaving the Space Center. We got to take a nice ferry ride
They made an announcement only to feed the seagulls from the back of the ferry! lol
Upon arriving at the beach house we were treated to a shrimp boil (don't know if this is the correct term) by Justin's brother Taylor. In fact Taylor was in charge of the bbq for the wedding dinner too. He did a great job and the food was all delicious! Some of Justin's family helped provide the rest of the food including wonderful sweet treats. Justin's mom Dolly made the wedding cake which was beautiful and delicious.
Pops meets Vona!
At the beach house there was karaoke Friday and Saturday which put a little damper on sleeping as our bedroom was right above the karaoke deck. ;^) So after not getting much sleep Friday night we decided to 'join em' on Saturday night and did a bit of karaoke ourselves! lol
The ceremony on Saturday was very nice.
Waiting for the bride
The beautiful bride
The bride and matron of honor
Exchanging rings
The kiss
Nana and baby Vona
The Chatwin's
The Pascual's
The Tovar's
It was great getting to meet Justin's family, they rolled out the Southern hospitality for us.
Some of the wedding party
We were able to have some Vona time (Pops' first introduction to another sweet little grand daughter!)
and some Linda time!
and also got to enjoy the beach a little bit with the Pascual's and Chatwin's.
Jackson wasn't super enthused about the waves!
The Pascual family
The Chatwin family
Playing in the sand
Hard at work
Emmett was fearless in the waves
Bryn's hair tells the wind story!
Pops watching Alex at work while Erin and Briana body surf in the background
Some nice neighbors let us borrow their ocean kayak and even took a picture of all of us
Our crab arena
Crabs for the crab arena
Keeping the crabs 'hydrated'
The weather was really windy most of the time we were there and there was a quick bit of wild, crazy rain too. But apparently this was a good thing otherwise we were told it would have been horrendously hot at this time of year.
Pops and I stayed until Sunday.
Most everyone had headed out by Sunday morning so I helped with some of the cleanup before we left to return to Plano.
The night before we were returning home to Washington Briana invited us, Margaret and Doug and Chatwin's over for dinner. Dad had some jalapeno dip from Buc-ee's earlier in the evening and then ate some spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. The combination really did a number on him! He ended up in the emergency room for most of the night. He felt that his esophagus was spasm-ing, which apparently was the case after they ran every test in the world to rule out other things. I shudder to see the rest of the bills, so far we have about $7,000 worth which the insurance company refused to pay because it was out of the HMA network. Fortunately, since we were out of state they should pay 80% after all. Thankfully there was no heart attack, they didn't find anything in the CT scan other than the deterioration in Dad's spine (which he already knew about) and some fatty liver tissue (which apparently is pretty normal for someone his age). About 1:30 or so in the morning we arrived at Erin's to spend the night so we could spend the last day in Texas with the Chatwin kids. It was fun having some time to play with Jackson and Bryn before we headed for home.
After arriving home I've been somewhat consumed trying to get the house ready to put on the market. Consequently my training for the 1/2 marathon was put on the back burner. I didn't do a single workout! Pathetic. But at least I didn't change my mind about running the 1/2 marathon.
Lindsey, Thomas and Brooklyn came last Friday night (September 14th) to attend Thomas's best friend's wedding on the 15th. Thomas had to head for home on Sunday the 16th to get back to work and school but we are blessed with a visit from Lindsey and Brooklyn for two weeks. Grandparent heaven again!!! Brooklyn is the spitting image of her Mommy when Lindsey was Brooklyn's age. The resemblance is uncanny! Especially Brooklyn's great big smile where her eyes light up and turn in to little moonbeams. It's been such a joy to be able to play with her and love on her. It will be hard to let her go home.
I feel bad that I hardly got a picture of Brooklyn while they were here the two weeks. I was so busy working on the house and playing with her in my spare time that I didn't take the time to take pictures! Boo!! Will definitely have to make up for it when they come for Christmas!
Today was the big day. It was the Indian Summer Half Marathon in Richland.
Beautiful race morning
Dad, Lindsey, Brooklyn and I drove over last night and stayed at the Shilo Inn which was only a mile from the start of the race, perfect distance for a warm up walk to the race!
First half marathon packet pick up!
Happy Nana and Brooklyn at packet pick up
We went and picked up our race packets and then went back to the hotel where Lindsey got Brooklyn down for the night (sort of! lol) while Dad and I went to Famous Dave's for some carb loading! Took some ribs and such back to Lindsey at the hotel room.
Shilo had a really great breakfast at the hotel the next morning, ham, biscuits and gravy, eggs and muffins. Unfortunately before a run I can't eat much and didn't want to make myself sick, so Lindsey and I each ate a 1/2 muffin! We did take a plate of food back to Dad so someone could enjoy it! lol
Me and Lindsey pre-race pic!
Not only did I get a wing man to encourage me along for all "13 point freaking 1 miles" (thanks for the quote Molly!) but I got a personal photographer as well! lol Lindsey was awesome about taking pictures along the way so I'd have lots of great memories of my first half marathon.
Lindsey thought it highly appropriate to take the pic on the right showing Nana messing with her technology at the start of the race, couldn't get the darn Garmin started at the beginning! Other pics are the half way point turn around cone, still plugging along!
My goals were to finish the race and not to come in last. Well Lindsey and I had talked about finishing the race in under 3 hours which I thought was totally do-able, so we decided to make it a goal to run it in under 2:40 which didn't happen, although we WERE under 2:50. Still waiting to get the official time as I couldn't get my Garmin going until after we started the race and Lindsey forgot to stop her Garmin at the end of the race because she was worrying about making sure we got some pictures! But I will say that I did meet my 2 original goals!
There was one lady that we kept up with for a while and talked to part of the way. She was super nice but in better shape than me so she didn't slow down like I did. But the awesome thing was that she was at the finish line waiting for us and gave me a high five, super awesome! (Can you see her there under the time clock?)
Dad was waiting at the finish line for us with baby Brooklyn. Apparently on the way from the hotel to the finish area Brooklyn had a near blow out disaster caught just in time! lol Dad got the pictures of Lindsey and I crossing the finish line together (thanks Pops, for baby duty NS being the team photographer!).
Lindsey and Brooklyn after the race, Lindsey doesn't even look like she just finished a half marathon!
There was another lady that had been behind us and passed us by, but we'd kept her in our sights for most of the race. Lindsey had suggested that we catch up with her and try to run together. She was a wogger as well, but it seemed like I just didn't quite have the energy to run longer than she did. We stayed pretty consistently at the same place behind her. On the 2nd half we started gaining a little on her and she ended up stopping at a restroom so we were finally able to pass her. I thought I heard her come out of the restroom, but when Lindsey turned around to look for her she was nowhere in site. Lindsey kept looking back for her but for the rest of the race didn't see her. She crossed the finish line quite a bit after we did and said that she just got exhausted from the waist down about the time she stopped for the bathroom and just couldn't get herself going again.
It was kind of fun that we passed a group of ladies within about the last mile that I hadn't even seen the whole race. I guess they just ran out of steam at the end too. Well, who's talking actually! Lindsey told me we needed to run the last quarter mile, we started to and then I started walking again. She kept encouraging me and finally I started giving it my all! Had to go up one last hill (at which point I think I was finally back to 'running' again) and then we could physically see the finish line. At that point she saw the time and said "Mom we need to make it our goal to finish this in under 2:50, you can do this" so I laid on the gas (what little there was left in the tank) and off we went. I believe the time was a few seconds over 2:50 when we crossed, but we'd started way in the back of the pack at the beginning, so I'm expecting us to be a little under 2:50 when we finally get our times. One item off the bucket list: finish a half marathon before you turn 50. My 50th birthday is in about 2 weeks and my goal was formulated earlier this year, so not bad for a grandma! lol (EDITOR'S UPDATE: Official time was 2:49:26)
It's after 11 p.m., I'm sore and absolutely exhausted, so I'm going to sign off and take a nice hot epsom salt bath!
