June Running Totals

In June I have ran 134 miles. I started official training for the Chicago Marathon. Which I am doing the advanced program and it is rather intense -I am already up to a 13 mile long run. I am not sure what I am thinking- this is going to be hard. I am still going to speed training with Big river running on Tuesday nights . I really like it and was able to move up to a faster group ( under 22 min 5k). But, it is kind of intimidating as everyone there is in such good shape. I am like the worst. Oh well. maybe it could motivate me not to eat as much!!! I have a 1/2 marathon the 2nd week of July. I don't feel too ready for it- but we we see. I would love to get 1:51 as that would qualify me for preferred start in Chicago. But, I am not familiar with the race or course. I have never ran it before - I guess they only have about 2000 participates.

Cardinals Game

We don't have many pictures. Dad said I have been to so many games this year we don't need pics everytime. We had a great time ( except the Cards got slauthered). Dad parked in this lot that they have a streach golf cart to take us to the stadium. Then Dad asked him to stop at a BBQ place where we got too hot dogs, chips, and water to drink. Then at the game Dad got me a ice cream in a helmet ( I love food). It is so funny that I have wanted to eat food out of it all day today. Today I had yougurt in iut for breakfest and pasta saald in it for lunch. It was so nice to spend time with Dad. He has been busy a lot: He has been workign long hours, and taking two summer classes . Nothing like craming 16 weeks of work into 6 and two classes at the same time. But, the good thing is Daddy is done with MBA classes after this ( it has been a long time). i have not posted in awhile because it was so hot all we have been doing is swimming. I am getting real good. I can jump off the side and put my head under the water to swim. Mom said that if she could work with me (not be holding Amelia) that i could proabbly be swimmign in a month.

Baron

From Saturday. I guess this is why my sister is so tough. I am just not sure about her. Why she does not do things they way I want.

Baron's new dance.

The days do not usually go like this. I guess they were to wore out fromn swimming to fight over toys. They each played with there own toy and did not need Mom's help. But, Baron was doing this weird dance everytime this one music came on. It was so funny. He kept doing it all night. This is a toy he got when he was 1 from Oma and Opa and now he loves it again. After he is done playing with it he puts it ont he dresser so Amelia can't play with it.

Typical Baron

He wants to be nice. He just does nto have any finesse! Oh my this causes issues. Excuse the way we look..... We just got home fromn the pool

Baron is in control

When I had my hsake I got to sit in the drivers seat with Mom. I loved working all the controls. But, we were rocking out like a bunch of teenagers. Amelia and I were laughing so hard we could not stop. I love the radio. I would turn it up really loud then Mom would turn it down and we just keep doing it. It was so loud!

Gotta love that laugh!

Amelia was so tired tonight...

She kept giving me hugs!
After baths I get to go to Mommy and Daddy;s bed to unwind before bed. Amelia does not really undertand so she is nto that into it. She woudl rather be walking around. But, tonight she kept coming over to me. She is so sweet.

Ice Cream

I got to sit in the front seat and enjoy mine with Mom. Amelia got it in her cup

Hooiser Pool

Today we kept busy all day. Dad is out of town till tomorrow. So we went to the gym in the morning so Mom could run, then went to Old Navy, the grocery store ( to get stuff to make a special cake for Daddy for tomorrow). Then we came home for lunch and naps. After naps we played outside in a pool. We have a pool pass and both our neighbors have pools. But, Mom has a hand me down pool that she has never used and thought what the heck.. It was raining off and on and Mom did not want to pack us all up in case we could not stay long. We came inside and cleaned up and went out to dinner. Both Amelia and I ate our whole meal - so we got to finish up with a chocolate shake from Sonic. When we got home there was still some daylight so we rode bikes then off to take bath and go to bed! Wow I am wore out!

Swimming today

Don't worry no babies were harmed in making this video

Actually, Mom thought she was taking a picture but hit the video function on the camera. My sister had climbed into the bounce house. I was so excited to see her
I got way too carried away. This happens a lot to me and I don't want to hurt my sister. I just wanted to hug and play with her. Shows you how much my sister is used to this as she did not even cry after this happened. Mom just found the video tonight and said "wow that looks hard". Mom keeps telling me to be careful she is small and a girl.

More pics from Friday

Amelia really wanted to get in a play too. We are a team and like to do stuff togther. I think it is bad for Mom as she does whatever I do. But, Mom said next time she is going to have to pay for Amelia so she can jump too. She elt kind of bad she had no idea that Amelia could of done it. And it turns out she could of donw ok and I would of enjoyed her company. Bounce U was really nice- but seems a little more younger then Monkey Joes. I stil think this was Monket Joes/

Friday

Amelia has a new hair do. We call it the Bam Bam. Mom got sick of her taking her barrettes out and did not like hair in her face. So she put it up out of her face. I guess in a few months it will be long enough to lay down. I guess this is why many little girls have bangs. I wanted to wear my gloves and hats in 105 degree weather. We went to Bounce U and played and swam at the rec center outside pool. Mom bought us a ice cream to share there. And Mom could not get over how good I was. I went all over the pool and would go through all the fountains. It was fun.

Swimming at Marcys

You may notice how big my sister looks. She got a wear water wings like me. She did nto quite understand- but did pretty well for 13 months. I was like 20 months when I started using them.

My sister really does like this.

She thought this was funny. But, it made Mom pretty nervous. We sure play weird togther.

Notice my sunglasses

I like to hook them to my shirt. I do this on my own. And told Mommy this is how Opa does it.

We have had such a fun week.

I don't even know where to start. WE had a blast all week. Mom had lots of errands like oil change, ect to get done. But, we still had time for fun. Plus we really enjoyed the oil change place. They love us and even let me look at the cars getting worked on. We went to the gym, magic house, Bounce U, Swimming and the rec center outside pool, and swimming at Marcy's. Plus Mom made us some special meals and we played outside even in this heat.You might notice that the pictures are getting worse.. As it is getting harder for Mom to take good pictures as we are always moving in 2 different directions. Her hands are full! At the magic house I made Mom pizza and Amelia got to play like a big girl. We did not stay long as it was too busy and there were big kids there.

Birthday Week

Mom's birthday is Thursday and we just wanted to thank Becky for getting it off to a great start. Mom saw her yesterday and she gave her a gift and some cookies from this bakery that makes awesome cookies by her house. By , the way we all ate them and loved them. Actually, between us all Mom only got a couple.

Mom's visit with Becky was bittersweat as they are moving to New Orleans. Andy is already down there. Mom might take me one last time to Jeff City to visit before they move. It is just like Becky to not forget Mom's birthday! On top of everything going on with her: Selling a house, packing a house, buying a house, finishing up her job, having a husband away, and dealing with 2 kids that are missing their Daddy bad.

Oma and Opa's Visit

We had such a fun time with Oma and Opa. We did so many thing. WE rode a real train out of town for the first time, played in a pool ( thanks to Miles, Jake, and Lucy for showing my grandparents their neat ones), Went to the mall, zoo, botical garden, and magic house. Can you believe we did that all in a week. We also got to eat at a lot of neat places. WE now really love the CheeseCake Factory. Opa is going to put all the pics on a disk and send to Mommy so she can post. But, you if you want you can view on their blog.

We were so good for Oma and Opa. That had tons of strangers coming up to us saying we were the best behaved children. Funny how good we act for other people!!!


Mom and Dad will not be leaving us again soon. They normally include on us trips....it was just this was not a real trip with Dad's work and it was not a kid kind of place. When Dad's conference goes to Disney we are coming!!! I have been real attached to my parents since they got home. I cry when they leave the room and say don't leave me. It is pretty sad- But, it is just going to take some time.


WE have the best Oma and Opa... Thanks for everything

Grand Canyon Photos

Nolan put some of the Grand Canyon photos on Flicker. They can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/39398539@N08

These are just a few of thw hundred or so......Hope you enjoy

More Pics..... To Come

I am having trouble with all the pictures and it is taking time to get on here.

We took pics with 2 cameras

We did not have the time set on one camera- so they are not in order

We took the pictures in high resolution and they are hard to download.

First set of Pics

We stopped at a diner on route 66 on the way to the Canyon


Top of the Canyon

3 California Condors..Wish the camera zoomed more


Me at close to the top of the canyon

Nolan close to the top of the canyon

Race Report.....NO Hike Report ( Grand Canyon)

We left our house at 4:45 am on Saturday ( after 2 hours of sleep) flew to Las Vegas drove 5 hours to the Canyon and arrived there very tired at 5pm. First time I saw the canyon I thought no way am I going up and down that. Looked so steep and dangerous ( I don't like danger). All I could think about was how 250 people a year are recused from the Grand Canyon and like 20 die. I just kept telling myslef this really means a lot to Nolan and just need to be extra careful. We checked into out bare bones hotel room ( that is what they have there). I was laying around when Nolan went out to take some pictures. He came back after awhile and said Laura you need to come out. I did and there were 3 California Condors outside the hotel. There is only 300 in the world and they have 9 feet wingspan. After that I went to the gift shop to buy a condor animal for Baron and saw a nice book called DEATH IN THE CANYON.... Note not good to sit and read before you do the hike. Yes many people that have died there were being stupid ( we saw some of that). But, some were just freak accidents.

We got a sort of good night sleep then checked out are hotel and caught a shuttle to take us to the North Kaibab Trail. This is the steepest trail in the canyon and there is no water stops the whole way. There is a trail....But it is very narrow and if you slip and go off you are falling hundreds of feet. The funny thing is we were on this bus and we did NOT fit in. I insisted on wearing running clothes and running shoes. Nolan tried to talk me out of this but I knew they were comfy. Everyone had hiking clothes, hiking shoes, ect. And it was very cold on the top 40 degrees and 30 miles hour wind. Sometimes people get hypotherma and heat stroke on the same day. And all we had on were long sleeve t- shirts and shorts. People had jackets and hats. Everyone had 2 hiking poll... Nolan had one. And we only had one small back pack/camelback for both of us. Everyone had packs double our size and each person had one. Even a teenage girl that weighed about 100 lbs had a huge pack. People were probably looking at us like they are going to get resuced! We just explained we packed really light so it would be easier to hike. We did have some extras: first aid kit, flashlights, and a backpacking tent ( just no covers, pillows, sleeping pad, or sleeping bag)

We started the hike at 5:45 am. It took us 4:46 mins to make it 8.5 miles down. For an average of 34.01 per mile ( I had my Garmin). It was even hard going down as you really had to watch your footing and we stopped to take pictures. We arrived at the Colorado Rive aroung 10:30. We had to cross a suspension brige to get across the river. WOW that was hard. Then we went to the Phantom Ranch ( everything there comes down from mules). Were Nolan had arranged for us to have a sack lunch. It was a mix of a whole bunch of stuff. It had a bagel with cram cheese and we both don't like cream cheese. But, we decided this was one of the best things we had ever ate. We then layed under a shade tree by a creek. We had time to kill as we were not strating the hike up till 2pm ( the experts say stay off the trail from 10 am to 2 pm and don't hike it in one day).

At 1:45 we started the leg to our campground . We did 5 miles in 2:26 for a 29.25 average. This was the easier leg not as steep ( most of that would be on the second day). I gave Nolan a little break and carried the pack for about 2.5 miles. We arrived before 5 to Indian Garden- it is called that since it is a lush area in the middle of the canyon. We had a nice area to set up camp. After eating some trail mix for dinner. We only brought that and cliff bars for are meals ( less space). But, we had the worse night of sleep ever!!!! Horrible. It was so cold, the ground was so hard I swore it was brusing my body. Nolan gave me his long sleeve shirt and I put around my legs. Oh well we can sleep later.

We woke up the next morning ( did we even sleep) we packed up camp and left on the last hard journey at 6am. I carried the 40 lb pack almost the way this time. Nolan would of made it but he was having to stop for breaks every .20 of a mile it was taking him double me so he only carried if for 1/2 mile. We did this leg of 4.14 miles in 3:09 for an average of 45:43. This was tough I was breathing heavy the whole way out. And my legs are sore. But, we made it to the top.


A couple of funny thing on the trip.... We learned that everyone wanted to share with us. They were jealous of our small pack and wished the packed less. There is no trash or anything in the canyon so everything you carry in you have to carry out. So people were always offering us food, ect. They were like we took to much you want it. It was very funny.

We lost two things on the trip.... my glasses. We have no idea if they are on the trail or left in the hotel .. they just vanished. And Nolan's trekking poll he was going to hang it up in his bar. He made it to the top with it. But, I guess when we stopped to take pics at the top we left it.

We also met so many intersting nice people. There were people doing this hike that were really old and it was there dream to do this. One guy we met was by himself and was a judge from Indiana. He almost died 2 years ago and weighed 350 lbs and now weighs 200lbs and made a promise to his son and grandchildren to get in shape. And told his son he would hike Mt St. Helens with him. he did that. I asked if he trained for this ( still slightly overweight) he said he would run 5 miles with a 40 lb pack on him on gravel. I can not do that! It's amazing what people can do if they put there mind to it. I saw a 70 year old man at the campground with blisters all over his feet that was with a guide that wanted to do this before he died . He was almost done with a 5 day trip in the canyon.

We have also learned that if we wanted to we could of hike the Canyon in one full day. We saw some people doing this. It is not allowed as they say it is too dangerous. We did go pretty fast.

We had a really good time. Thanks to Oma and Opa for watching the kiddos. They our having a blast. I will have pictures from all their fun stuff next week. We are now in Las Vegas. Nolan is doing work and I am just entertaining myself.

Last Post For Awhile.....

Mom and Dad are leaving us. Yep you heard correct. It is funny how Mom's trip to Hawaii and this is so close togther after never going anywhere for 2 years. Mom and Dad leave very early on Saturday for a trip to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Dad has to go to Las Vegas for work and Mom is joining him and leaving early and they are hiking the Grand Canyon. This is a tough 2 day hike over 17 miles and tons of elevation in 115 degree heat. We hope they come back! The only other time they have both been gone was before Amelia was born and they went to Niagra Falls for 2 days and 1 night. This trip they won't be back till Friday. Mom says after the Grand Canyon she can be found lounging at the pool. Mom is very busy this week packing, cleaning , and she is fighting off a cold.

The best part of this is we get to spend the whole week with Oma and Opa. They have a full week of fun planned and we are so excited. We are going to the zoo, train ride, botanical garden, magic house, and I am sure we have some food in there. I really love my Oma and Opa and can't wait. I have been talking about it all week. I hope he brings his horse! We are lucky kids to have such a great Oma and Opa.

We will post tons of pics next week. From all our fun and Mom and Dad's trip. Take care.

Sprinkler

Dancing Queen

Amelia will dance when you ask her to or she sees other people. It is pretty funny and sometimes she goes so fast she falls down. We tried to get on video yesterday- but could not get a real good clip as she was chasing the camera. Looks like she dances about as good as Mom.

Water Play

Fun Busy Weekend

On Saturday night we got to go to Grant's Farm. SEMO night there and Dad really had to go for work. Mom enjoyed herself but kept herself busy as Amelia has got pretty fast and she was chasing us in two different directions. At least I understand what Mom says and to stay close. Not so much for Amelia. Dad was not much help as he ( had to for work) was off talking to people for work. Did you see our matching outfits? We got tons of people asking about them.

We got to ride a tram for a wilderness park. I was calling it a choo choo. I loved looking at the animals. But, Amelia was another story. Mom calls her a worm. She did not know about staying seated and looking for animals. So Mom and Dad had to hold her and she kept moving! Then we got to eat, look and animals. And the highlight was the Clydesdale that came out that we could even pet. I am kind of embarrassed as I got real scared and cried at it ( don't tell me friends). But, Amelia like the horse. The is the same horse in a lot of the commercials and the one the kicks the touchdown in the Superbowl add. And I have really taken a liking to horses.


On Sunday we stayed around the house and played outside. We love the outside. And can't ask for much more than water, bike, and tractor. Dad wanted to do his annual car wash ( hahaha) so he came up with a idea to get us involved. He made Amelia and I special smoothies. Then we got to play int he water and after the car was washed Mom had some kind of sprinkler ball we got to play in. What a blast.

May Running Totals

May is over and I ran 134 miles this month. I signed up for two new races ( both half marathons). Jokers Wild is July and Lewis and Clark in September. On top of the Chicago Marathon which the training starts in a week. I have also started to do speedwork with Big River Running on Tuesday nights. I have been doing speedwork for sometime. But, never with a team. Thanks to my friend Mandi for dragging me there and saying I would have fun. She was correct and Nolan saying house stuff can wait till I got home. I was laughing inside after the last workout saying I had a great time. But, then I thought...... Can you imagine anyone would think it would be fun to run so hard you think you are going to throw up. I guess I am a running dork.