October

At the beginning of this year I decided to aim for completing a half-marathon.  I accomplished that goal on October 14 by running the Prairie Fire half in downtown Wichita.  It was fun at time, hard at other times, but I finished and felt a great sense of accomplishment.  I finished just a minute over my goal, at 2:21:04.  I'm not fast (but not super slow) but I get it done. 

The other big October happening was being a part of Marc & Ellen's wedding on October 20.  I hosted the bachelorette party and houses 3 of the out-of-town wedding guests.  It was a busy & fun weekend.  Most importantly, they got married and are very happy!

Banff

It has been awhile since I posted.  In August I took a trip to Banff, Alberta, Canada with Mom.  I've avoided posting pictures because it means I have to choose a few out of a few hundred.  The scenery there was beautiful and overall we had a great time.  I got to go on a few hikes and we had a visit from an old friend.  We also went into British Columbia.  Found the hospital in Invermere that my sisters and I were born in. 
Lake Louise

On top of Sulphur Mountain looking down into the Bow River Valley and Banff.

Mom and I in downtown Banff.

Along the highway up to the Columbia Ice Fields

A herd of big horn sheep wander around Radium Hot Springs. 

A view from atop Sulphur Mountain

Tennessee

It was time for my annual trip to see Hannah's boys at their house.  We had fun playing trains...and playing trains...and petting their kittens. The boys are growing up too fast! But so much fun at each stage. 

Family time and the Color Run

Friday was Marshall's 6th birthday and since they were visiting Grandma & Grandpa, we got to have a family birthday party.  I loved getting to spend time with all 4 nephews.  We had dinner, a Thomas the Train cake, presents, and slip-n-slide time. I even got in on the slip-n-slide. It was lots of fun and the birthday boy said he'd never forget this birthday.

Hannah and her boys

Then I went to Kansas City to meet up with some friends to do the Color Run. It is a 5K where they douse you with a different color at each kilometer, so you end up multi-colored.  We had fun. Starting out clean...

Ending up a little colored.

Bits of June

June has been busy.  I finally have had time to tackle everything that got pushed to the side because of school.  I'm slowly progress.  In the midst of the chores, there have been fun moments.  There have been a few weddings and times with friends.  Runs and bike rides among all the yard work - I think I've finished all the big stuff! My front yard finally looks like someone who cares lives here.
Taking a tour of the Allen-Lambe House has been on my Wichita bucket list.  It's a house designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. We couldn't take pictures inside the house but here's one of the back garden.  I was excited I finally got to see it!  (Unfortunately I can't get it to load in rotated properly.)

Summer is beginning

Summer didn't officially start for me until this weekend since I took a two week presession class, but I got to head to my parents for part of Memorial Day weekend.  I had lot of play time with JT and Sam.  I love spending time with my nephews.  It was great to have a break from the intensive class and get family time.  JT is a goofball who is at an age that he likes to make funny faces for pictures. And Sam is just adroable.

And now this weekend signals the start of summer for me.  I finished my class. Yay! Two and a half months off from school.  RiverFest started this weekend. I ran the 10K River Run on Saturday morning.  It went well considering I didn't get a lot of consistent training in due to school.  My second 10K is under my belt. My roommate and I went down to RiverFest Sunday night to kayak on the river.  It was fun and relaxing. Now on to more summer fun.

 

The semester is over!

I have not posted much recently because all it would say is "reading & writing for my final papers."  I had two big final papers to end the semester and there was lots of work to do for each one.  But they were both turned in last week.  The semester has finally ended!  Two semesters down, four to go. 
I had some excitement this week.  I ran into a sharp tree branch while edging the yard and gashed the top of my head.  It bled like crazy.  I got 2 stitches.  My roommate took pictures while the doctor worked on me but I'll spare you them. 
This is what I'm doing now that the semester is over...

I love my new bike.  With school, I've only gotten in a few rides since I bought it but I put 2 rides on it this weekend.  Had a 17 mile ride with a friend and a 16 mile ride by myself.  I want to get out on it at least twice a week now.  I also got in a 4 mile run with a friend.  Having fun with being active and considering some long races for the fall. 

Spring excitment

I forgot to post last week.  I ran my first 10K race on Saturday at the Easter Sun Run.  I won't post the blurry picture but I did finish 10 seconds faster than my goal.  I did it in 1:02:50.  The first one was a learning experience.  Glad I did it.

This weekend has been full of excitement.  Thursday night I went with friends to a cookbook signing by The Pioneer Woman.  If you haven't heard of her, she blogs and has a show on Food Network.  Several of my friends are fans.  We got into her presentation and then waited a LONG time for our turn in line. 

But our wait was rewarded because we also go to meet her husband, Marlboro Man.

And one of their ranch hands, Cowboy Josh.

Then Friday, a group of biblestudy girls headed to Kansas City to see Beth Moore live.  We have done several of her studies and I always get a lot out of them.  Plus she's very entertaining.  It was a great treat to get to see her live!  And worship with 9800 women was incredible.

And the weekend ended with some Kansas weather excitment. There was a major tornadic, life threatening event forecasted.  My roommate and I gathered supplies and hid out in the basement Saturday night with the dogs.  One was barreling our way that then dissipated.  We only had high winds and rain at my house.  I didn't even had tree limbs down.  The south and southeast parts of town got hit by another tornado.  My work place is heavily damaged.  Praising God that so far, no reports of deaths in Wichita. 
Liz and I were very prepared. (Bike helmets to protect from flyng debris.) 

Nephews & more

I had the unexpected opportunity to spend last Sunday with my nephews.  I loved them so much.  It was a great day and a much needed break in the midst of my schedule that has been overwhelming and crazy.  Hannah and her boys came to spend spring break at Grandpa & Grandma's.

 Our dapper Jack

 Marshall loves being silly for pictures.

 JT & Sam

 This was as good as we could get of all four.  It's very difficult to get 4 little active boys to sit still for a picture and look at the camera all at the same time.

 After lunch I took Marshall and JT on an adventure in the park behind Grandma & Grandpa's house.  Logs, hikes in the trees, throwing rocks & sticks in the creek, wading in the creek and mud.  What fun!

 Mom's redbud tree is in full bloom and beautiful!

 These are the wonderful ladies I spend Tuesday nights with.  We took a life group picture for a scrapbook this week.  I love learning and sharing life with these women.

Skiing

I went skiing with some friends in Winter Park, Colorado two weeks ago.  I hadn't been skiing in 3 years.  It was great to get back out on the slopes.  I had never skied at Winter Park before.  It was fun, despite the high winds.  We skied for 3 days and the last 2 it was so windy they closed a number of lifts. I was glad I made it all the way to the top of the mountain (12000+ feet) the 2nd morning before lifts were closed.  Views went on forever.

It was a fun little trip!  Lots of beautiful views and good friends and food.

New stuff

As you know, I did a sprint triathlon last fall.  Afterwards my schedule got crazy and I dropped off significantly on my workouts.  But as the new year approached I decided to kick it into gear again.  I did an indoor triathlon at the Y on Jan 15.  I finished a little better than I expected, in 1:02.  A friend did it with me and convinced me to do indoor tri's in Feb & March too.  But my biggest goal for this spring is to run the 10K for the Easter Sun Run.
I spent a lot of money last weekend in pursuit of these goals. I had to get new running shoes and love my new Mizunos.  So much lighter than my old shoes.

But the biggest and long contemplated purchase was a new bike.  I trained last year on my 1983 Schwinn 10-speed. When we first moved to Kansas, Mom saved her first few paychecks and bought us each a bike. It has served me well over the years.  I didn't want to buy a new bike until I was sure I was going to stick with this.  But by the time my triathlon came along, the bike was pretty much worn out for anything but a leisurely ride.  The gears started popping the week before the race.  I had it serviced but in the middle of the race it started acting up again and I just prayed the chain would stay on for me to finish.
So as a friend was sharing research when he was looking for a new bike recently, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge.  I invested in a new bike and it is so sweet!  A 2011 Trek Lexa S. I took it for a ride and the gears are so smooth and effortless. I'm loving it.

Birthday

My birthday was on Friday this year - Friday the 13th that is.  Since it's a rare occasion, I couldn't let it go by so I threw a big party.  I had a number of friends who helped and it was a great time.  Cleared the furniture out, hired a band, a friend dj'd, and lots of friends came to hang out.