Marathon!

Yesterday I ran my first marathon.  I had done my training and was ready for the race.  We decided to sleep at my parent's house on Saturday night so that we would be a little closer to Newport for the drive in the morning and also so the kids could go to the race with my parents.  Since we had to leave the house by 5:15AM I did not want to have to get the kids up that early.  I packed all our stuff on Saturday which was very stressful for me as I kept feeling like I was going to forget something.  Thankfully I didn't forget anything.  I got up at 4:15AM on Sunday and got ready for the race....stuffed down two packets of oatmeal, showered and dressed.  Putting down two packets of oatmeal at 4:15AM is an accomplishment on its own!

Anyway, we headed off to the race in the pitch black of night.  We arrived at the parking lot by 6:30AM and got on one of the buses to the start line area.  Since there was no parking at the start/finish area we had to take shuttle buses from a designated parking lot.  We arrived at the start area and sat around in the rotunded on the beach (Easton's Beach/1st Beach in Newport) until it got close to race time.  I went to the bathroom and took all my extra layers off so that I was ready to race.  It was a little chilly to start but I stayed with my shorts and tank top since it was supposed to warm up.  I'm glad I did because once the sun came up it was blazing down on me for the entire race.  The first half of the race was fine except that I had to stop and use the porta-potty twice which is unusual for me.  Other than that my pace was fine, my legs were fine and I kept slowing myself down so that I didn't die on the second half of the race.  I kept thinking that the half marathon distance seems like nothing now which seems so strange since it seemed like a lot when I ran that distance before.  There was really not much wind to speak of on the first half of the race and I really enjoyed the section that ran along the ocean.  It was sunny and beautiful and the smell of the ocean air was awesome.  I completed the first half in two hours five minutes which was perfect for where I wanted to be and life was still good.  I continued past the finish line for the half marathoners and by mile fifteen I was looking for a potty again...not good.  I was meant to stop and stock up on powerade and power bar balls at mile fifteen when I saw Jason but all I could think about was a potty break so I just kept on to the next water station/porta-potty stop.  Thankfully that was the last time my stomach acted up.  After leaving the water station I started down a very looooong stretch.  OK, it was only about 1 1/2 to 2 miles but it was the windiest stretch of the race that it might as well have been ten miles long.  The sand was whipping off the beach and stinging my legs and I had to run at an angle into the wind so that I didn't get pushed sideways.  Fortunately I knew my family was waiting for me at the end of the wind tunnel so I kept pushing through and got some high fives, cow bell ringing, and pom pom shaking as I ran by my parents, kids, aunt, nephew, brother and sister in law.  Jason ran with me a few yards and stocked me up on power bar balls, gave me a pep talk and sent me on my way.  I rounded the bed and escaped the terrible wind.  I had six miles out and back with some big hills.  I did walk a little and had to fight my own mind telling me to quit.  I just kept thinking about what I have told Sofia with swimming her laps..."We don't quit! When we are tired we tell ourselves that we can do it and you push through to the end."  Her little face in my mind told me I could do it and I kept pushing myself.  I stopped to stretch out at one point because I could feel how stiff I was and my legs were like cement.  As I was stretching the EMT guy came over and asked me what hurt.  I  had to laugh because at mile 22 what didn't hurt.  He offered to spray my legs with what he said was a aerosol cold spray which acts like ice packs.  I said yes but I don't feel like it made anything better.  By that point I just kept telling myself, "two miles to Jason, two miles to Jason" since I knew he was waiting for me at mile 24 which was where there was a short but very steep hill.  Sure enough he was there and ran up the hill with me.  Oddly enough I am quite good at the steep hills and generally pick up my pace with shorter strides.  I powered through the hill and said bye to Jason as he took the short cut to the finish line.  I picked up my pace since I knew once I made it past mile 24 I was home free.  As I ran past a guy he said, "wooow where did you get that burst of energy?!".  I just said "don't ask. it might go away!" and I kept running picking up my pace for the final distance.  As I came near the finish I rocked it out and poured every last ounce of energy into my run.  They were annoucing people as they crossed the finish line but my name didn't get announced since they were annoucing the two girls in front of me as I blasted past them to the finish!  There is something about blasting past people near the end that is just fun.  The adrenaline of finishing before other people gives me the final burst to sprint to the finish.  Hopefully my finisher picture comes out better than my last race picture.  I always hope for a pretty finish picture but the mad dash to the end doesn't seem to lend itself to a nice pretty picture.  I'm ok with it though...a better finish time is better than a pretty picture!

Thank you to all my family who came to watch me in the race.  I know that it is a long race and means watch a lot of people that you don't know but it means a lot to me that you came and cheered me on.  The small amount of time it take to run past you gives a great emotional boost and kept me going.  It gave me goals to look forward to....just 4 miles to Uncle Joe and Aunt Joan, just 4 miles to Jason, oh look there is the rest of my family, just two miles and you will see the kids, mom and dad, Joe and Jen, Michael and Carlene again, 3 miles to Jason, 2 miles to Jason, you might see the family group again so don't walk now....they aren't there but at least you didn't walk, oh there is Jason, and the final stretch to the end!  I can't imagine running that distance without any friends and family along the route.  You all were my mile markers who kept me going.  THANK YOU!

The Fryeburg Fair

We left Sunday River at the end of the day on Saturday and headed to Jason's parent's house.  Jason had to work Saturday so he met us at his parent's house.  He didn't get to see the kids on Saturday since he didn't arrive until 10:30pm but at least he made it early than I had anticipated. 
We got up on Sunday and resumed our long weekend.  We took the kids to the Fryeburg Fair.  Jason and I hadn't been to the fair in years so we were also looking forward to seeing all the animals as well.  We spent about four to five hours at the fair.  We saw, dairy cows, beef cows, oxen, sheep, goats, draft horses, llamas, alpacas and pigs.  We watched some harness racing and the kids played one of the dart games where they each won a stuffed animal. 

We brought the kids into the little red school house. This was the school that was owned by Jason's family and used to be on their property. His grandmother went to school in this school house and donated it to the fair. They moved it from Jason's parent's property to the fairgrounds and restored it. It was nice for the kids to see it and there is a picture of Grammie in the school house. I got a little misty eyed myself since Grammie died while we were in Prague and it just kind of brought it home to me that she wasn't here anymore. I wanted to tell everyone in the school house that she wasn't just some random lady pictured on the wall and that she was an awesome woman who was caring and funny.  Before any tears slipped from my eyes though we moved on from the school house and watched some oxen plowing the land. 

We stopped in the alpaca barn and spoke with a guy there selling alpacas.  I was curious and asked how much they cost.  I'm amazed at the difference in price.  A non breeding male is only $300 whereas a breeding male can be around $20,000!  At $300 though I was curious and started asking more questions...how much does it cost to maintain them (a bale of hay every other week), what kind of house do they need (only a three sided structure year round), do they get along with dogs (depends on the dog).  By the time I got to "does it get along with dogs" question Jason was giving me a look and then told me that we aren't getting an Alpaca.  I know we aren't getting one but the idea is fun and they are such cute animals.  I guess I will just have to enjoy the one that lives down the road from us. The kids enjoyed seeing the alpacas and they even worked with the alpaca fur to prepare it for spinning.



Throughout the day we would stop and eat fair food...fried dough, fried snickers, fried Oreos, hot dogs, fries, lemonade and maple cotton candy.  I was excited to try the snickers and Oreo since it seems to be all the rage.  I can now say I don't get it.  They were not good.  I don't want a partially melted snickers with a greasy mess around it.  I would rather just have a snickers.  If I'm going to do anything with my snickers it is put it in the freezer.  The Oreo wasn't as bad as the snickers but again I would rather just have a plain Oreo.  I did not get the fried Twinkies that were for sale.  They are awful by themselves so I didn't think frying them was going to help their flavor at all.  I did however enjoy the fried dough and the maple cotton candy.  Rather then buy regular cotton candy we went into the sugar house at the fair where they were making maple syrup.  When we went in we realized that they were also making cotton candy made from maple sugar.  We couldn't pass that up and bought some.  It was good and had a maple flavor to it unlike regular cotton candy which just tastes like pure sugar. It was good day and after all that time we were ready to head back to the house and relax

Sunday River

This past weekend took some juggling to make happen but we managed to get away for the long weekend.  The girls and I drove up to Sunday River on Friday after school.  The trip should have been easy but there was an accident on the highway which extended our time int he car by about an hour and a half.  We did make it up to the condo and got the beds made and I put the kids to bed and read my book while I waited for my brother with his family and my parents to arrive.  They were also stuck in traffic and had a very long drive.  I gave up by 11pm and went to bed.  They arrived around 11:30 to find their beds all made.  I figured that was the least I could do after their 5 hour drive turned into 8 hours.  In the morning we got up and had breakfast together and then headed up to the mountain to watch the Wife carrying contest.  It is a very fun race to watch but I will not be a participant in that race. We went to the craft fair at the mountain and then stopped in one of the shops and got the kids ski helmets since they were 50% off so 2 helmets only cost $60. We had lunch and dropped my parents off at the condo since they wanted to rest and my brother, his wife, son and me and the girls went back to the mountain. We took the lift up to the top and hiked down the mountain. The kids really had fun doing that. It took us about an hour to hike our way down the mountain.  The trails seem much steeper without any snow.  By the time we were near the bottom my thighs were starting to burn!  We took the lift up again once we reached the bottom but took it back down again rather than hiking down a second time.  It was a lot of fun hiking with the kids.  I'm looking forward to doing some hikes next summer with them. 

Friends and candy

The girls have really started making friends which I'm happy about.  Two of their friends they met during their tennis lesson in the summer.  The friends, Emma and Kyra, are sisters and they are also 7 and 6 years old so it makes a perfect pairing.  You never know which kids will hit it off with each but these four have really clicked.  They crack me up when they see each other they yell out names and run to each other and give big hugs.  What makes it even funnier is that they have made up candy nicknames for each other.  Sofia is Skittles, Emma is M&M, Kyra is KitKat, and the best one is Ali as Almond joy!  If you notice all the candy names start with the same letter as their first names so I guess they couldn't think of any other candy that started with an A so Ali got Almond Joy.  It is fun to watch them together.

A Birthday Party

Ali was invited to her first birthday party of the school year.  When the e-vite came through on my email I had to ask the girls who knew a boy names Owen.  This didn't help since they apparently both have boys named Owen in their classes.  I moved onto the last name and found a winner.  The invite was for Ali to go to a Super Hero party.  The day came for the party and since Ali doesn't know who the superheros are and does not have any superhero gear I put her into a dress that had butterflies on it and told her if anybody asked her superhero power was to turn into a butterfly.  She was fine with them.  We arrived at the party and the mom was ready for kids who were not in costume.  She had capes ready for kids who needed them and then everybody sat down to decorate their superhero wrist bands.  After decorating the wristbands the kids put them on and then headed into the gymnasium (the party was held at the Boston Sports Club) for Superhero training school.  The mom went for about 45 minutes keeping the kids engaged in superhero exercises.  I was exhausted watching her!  The dad came in at the end as the evil clown and dropped plastic balls all over the floor and then he climbed into a box that came below his waist and the kids all picked up the balls and threw them at him.  He was a good sport because he must have gotten hit in the face with plastic balls at least five times.  After getting all the balls back in the box the kids lined up and filed back to the party room for cake and ice cream.  Ali had fun at the party.  It was nice to see her interact with her new friends.  She was ready to go home though by the end of the party.  I guess that is a sign of a good party...all the kids exhausted!

Chalkboard

Ever since seeing my friend's house in Prague with a chalkboard painted onto the wall I have wanted to do the same.  I thought it was such a brilliant idea.  The kids can draw on the wall, they can do homework, I can write grocery lists and keep track of schedules.  Once we moved into our new home I had discussed the idea with Jason.  He wasn't sold on the idea and he couldn't remember ever seeing the chalkboard in our friend's house.  I kept mentioning it and then finally I went and bought black poster board and taped it to the wall so that he could get a sense of what it would look like.  He finally agreed that we should paint the wall.  There is a company in a nearby town that sells magnetic chalkboard paint so rather than wait for delivery I drove over and picked up the paint.  I then headed to home depot for the correct roller and brush and tape to form the chalkboard rectangular shape.  It took me one afternoon to complete the painting and then we let it stand for a week without using it.  We have now been using the chalkboard for a couple weeks and it has been great.  I put the calendar up for the week so everyone can see the schedules.  The kids know when they have library, P.E., soccer, swimming, and tennis.  We all know what days Jason is going into work early.  We also list any oddities like when the sprinkler guy is coming or book fairs etc.  On the bottom half of the board the girls practice their spelling and math and when we aren't doing homework they draw fun pictures.  Most of our time is spent in our kitchen and having the chalkboard in the kitchen just adds to the fun we can have in the heart of our home.

Apple Picking

Every year in Prague I wanted to go apple picking.  It just seemed to me to be an integral part of fall.  Having lived in a town in New Hampshire with five apple orchards we had our choice of places to go.  I looked and looked but could not find any place in or around Prague that had pick your own apples.  People have apple trees in their yards and that is it.  Last fall we lived next to an old apple orchard that produced tiny apples.  They were quite tasty and we did pick enough to eat as well as make an apple crisp but they were too small to make large quantities of apple sauce.  This year I couldn't wait to go apple picking.  One of the benefits of moving back to the states is that i could continue my fall activity of apple picking.  I was excited to bring the kids since they don't remember going apple picking.  We went to an orchard pretty close to our house and it was packed with people.  I have never been to an orchard that was so busy.  Once you were out in the trees though it didn't seem crowded and we had a lot of fun picking apples. 
Jason put the girls on his shoulders to pick some apples up high in the trees.  When we finished picking our bushel of apples we headed back to the little hut selling cider donuts.  There were so many people at the orchard this weekend that they limited the number if cider donuts to 6 per group.  It is a good thing they limited it because we definitely would have eaten more than we should have.  The donuts were so fresh that they were still warm!  By far the best cider donuts I've ever had.  Since the main store was so crowded and they ran out of cider we called it a day at the orchard and headed home.  We stopped at a farm stand on the way home to pick up some apple cider to make the day complete.