HOOAH!

Yesterday, Jen, Tammy, Trace Ann and I ran the Army 10 miler. This was my personal goal that I had set for myself and I have to see I'm proud of all four us - we kicked butt! This was by far the biggest race in distance and participation that I have run in to date - 26,000 partcipants ran in this race - so many that the start was in 2 waves. While I know my time was not fast enough to win any prizes (it was 2 hours and 9 minutes or 13 minutes a mile - includes a quick potty break after mile 6), I finished it and never stopped running!

There's so many things to share about this experience - the course was great for the most part - we ran by most all of the DC monuments, landmarks and the Capitol - with lots of water stops along the way to keep hydration. The many Army soldiers and other supporters along the course throwing out their support with "Way to Gos" and "You are Almost There". The Golden Knights and Canadien Army parachuting in before we sang the National Anthem. The 4 Blackhawk helicopters flying low and close to the Pentagon as we sang the National Anthem. The sheer number of runners from all over the US, many wearing tshirts with messages of love for those soldiers they were running for - some alive serving in Iraq or Afghanastan and some who have been killed in action. The soldiers running this race who have lost limbs in combat, but have the amazing fortitude to run a 10 mile race and serve as a reminder of what our soldiers give for our freedom everyday. It's something that I will remember for years.

I think the best part for me was turning that corner at the very end of the race, seeing the finish line and being able to sprint to the finish with Trace Ann. Personal accomplishment aside - it was great to share this with my girlfriends - we've pushed each other and supported each other to get to this race so I would not have wanted to experience this without them.

A tradition of sorts

Today, we are hunkered down waiting for Tropical Storm Hanna to move on out of the area. She's dumping buckets of rain over the entire Washington DC area. While Hanna has not done much damage other than getting everything a little wet, everyone is looking ahead to Hurricane Ike which has become a Category 3 and is projected to hit Cuba and South Florida by Monday. It seems to be a tradition of sorts for the "I" named hurricane to hit on or around Andrew's birthday. The year he was born (2003), Hurricane Isabel hit and came up the Atlantic coast, knocking out power for days in our area (which is not usually threatened by a Hurricane). Fortunately for us, we were all in the hospital with our new little bundle. The next year, Hurricane Ivan hit the west side of Florida around Destin leaving Colin's mom and her husband stranded in Destin and unable to come up to Virginia to celebrate Andrew's first birthday. We've been lucky since then - Irene in 2005 came in August headed up the Atlantic coast but moved out to sea before hitting any part of the US, Issac formed on September 18 (ironic huh?) in 2006 but did not hit any land. Last year, Tropical Storm Ingrid hit the Florida panhandle right around Andrew's birthday. So now here comes Ike and I'm wondering how he's going to help us celebrate this year's birthday?

Day with Daddy

Andrew and Colin had a "day with daddy" today. I think it was a great thing for the two of them to spend the day together doing "boy things" - they went to the golf course and hit golf balls, saw a movie, washed the car, ran around town together. However the food choices for the day were the thing that made me (and the things that Andrew pointed out to me when the returned). Here is the menu of food selections that were made during the day with Daddy.

BREAKFAST - Bowl of Golden Grahams and juice (I fed him breakfast before the two of them left)
LUNCH/SNACK - Smoothie from Robeks; kids meal from movie theatre (includes popcorn, skittles and soda); large root beer while they were hitting golf balls at the golf range; chocolate ice cream after the movie
DINNER - chicken tenders, french fries and root beer at Mimi's Cafe

Can we just say that tomorrow will be a day of detox for my little guy? Colin will probably need it too.

Cherries

Who knew Andrew would love cherries - pitting them and eating them??? The kitchen, Colin and Andrew were covered in cherry juice when Andrew finished pitting this basketful.

Happy 4th of July

We spent the early part of the 4th trying to finish up Andrew's birthday - we're trying to make it more of a big boy bathrooom which means red and blue with baseball theme versus the cute yellow with frogs and dragonflies that have been in the bathroom since he was born. Tonight we went to a friend's house for a party..wow, what a house! She and her husband have a beautiful house with an incredible backyard. We hit the door and Andrew could not put his bathing suit on fast enough and came out of their pool only two times - when it was time to have dinner and when he and Alexa went upstairs to play on the indoor swing set.

Last night night we went to the Sterling Golf Course "Night before the 4th" fireworks show. It's great fun for the adults and the kids. You bring blankets, chairs, coolers and stuff to entertain the kids and set it up on one of the fairways and then let the kids go play. Once it's dark enough, they set off a great fireworks show. Of course, the kids are at the age where there is always drama - someone's feelings were always getting hurt, but they were told to work it out and sometimes that involved a bit of "alone time" for each of them. They each had at least one incident, but I only managed to capture Olivia during her moment. And even though she was having a moment - this is just too cute of a picture not to share

But they all got over their moments and we had a great time - relaxing, enjoying our friends, and the great fireworks show.