Not so fun news

After last Saturday's run, my left foot hurt badly.  I'd had tweaks for a month or so but just thought it was a tendon I pulled last year.  However, this was different and kept hurting.  I was able to get a doctor's appointment on Tuesday afternoon.  That was when I learned I had a stress fracture.  I have to lay off running & biking for two weeks.  The foot is feeling better but still hurts a little in the spot.  I have been obeying doctor's orders.  I was also told I needed to get new running shoes.  I went to First Gear and got fitted for some schmancy running shoes.  I like the grey & yellow color and offset laces.  And as always, I got Asics.

More not fun news this week was that I have to replace this old beast.  New air conditioner and furnace will be installed in 2 weeks and my savings account will take a hit.

But one nice thing is the daisies started blooming.

Nephew time!

I had internet issues for over a week so I'm just now able to get to last week's blog post.  I took a trip to Tennessee to visit two of my precious nephews.  We had lots of play time and enjoyed hanging out. They are growing up. I love getting time with them.  I even took them to the store by myself and drove back from town with them in my car

"I always dress like my daddy!"

River Festing

I admit I love the Wichita River Festival.  It's celebrating it's 40th year.  I spent some time RiverFesting on the big opening weekend.  I met a friend from biblestudy at the Sundown Parade on Friday night.  I had never been to the parade and it was kind of lame but the Windwagon made it's appearance with Admiral Windwagon Smith aboard (the Festival Grand Marshal). 

The Wichita Fire Department debuted their pink firetruck during the parade.

Lyndi and I hung out on the river bank waiting for the fireworks.  We listened to the Wichita Symphony's pops concert and watched the sun set over Exploration Place and The Keeper of the Plains. 

Just before the pops concert started, a KC-135R refueling tanker from McConnell Air Force Base did a flyover with the refueling boom down. The flyovers were cooler when the B-1 Bombers were at McConnell, but we're still proud of the Refueling Wing that is stationed there.

And the last big event for the evening was the fireworks show.  A great evening!

Saturday morning I was excited to participate in the River Run for the first time.  I ran the 2 mile - there was also a 10K race. I was lucky enough to see a lady from church who had just run the 10K and was doing the 2 mile as well.  She is training for a marathon.  We ran the 2 mile together and having her there helped push me to run a little faster.  It was hot for 9:30 AM.  I was pleased with my time of 19:27.  I don't claim to be fast, but I'll finish.  There were ~2400 runners in the 2 mile.  We were closer to the front but we still had a lot of people to weave in & out of through out the race.

Sunday I decided to take Diesel to explore a park we'd never been to before.  It's an awesome park.  Very wooded paths.  It was a sniffer's paradise (i.e. D loved it).  We will definitely be going there again.



Retreat

The Pathways Retreat was this weekend at Camp Horizon near Arkansas City.  The scenery is amazing there.  And we had a great speaker and fellowship time.

Los Angeles

I had the opportunity to spend a long weekend in Los Angeles.  I have been there a few times but have never done a lot of the tourist stuff.  My friend Hillary lives there now and offered to be my tour guide.  It was a great weekend and I got to see a lot of LA.
On Friday, I went straight from the airport to Disneyland.  I hadn't been there since 1980 when we went with Grandma and Grandpa Marshall.  It was crowded but we got to ride everything I wanted to and saw the fireworks show. 

On Saturday we started out by going to Griffith Park.  Went to the observatory where you can see the Hollywood sign.

Then down to Hollywood Boulevard at the Chinese Mann Theatre and the Walk of Fame.

Lunch was In-N-Out Burgers.  Yum!



Then on to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive where we saw a Bucati hanging on.

Then to the Santa Monica Pier.

After dinner in Little Ethiopia, we went by the La Brea Tar Pits and the art museum which has this cool lamp post installation outside.

 On Sunday I went to Huntington Gardens.  Beautiful! The Japanese Garden, the Rose Garden, and the Cactus Garden.

I got to have a Sunday dinner with Aunt Sharon & Uncle Ted as well as some cousins & their kids. 

Then Hillary and I went to downtown LA for a little more sight seeing before I left.  We rode Angels Flight - the world's shortest railway - up the hill.  It was a great, full weekend!

5K and flowers

I have been waiting for an opportunity to make this dessert in my Domestic Goddess cookbook - Torta alla Gianduia or chocolate hazelnut torte.  I had a dessert with our senior pastor to attend at a friend's home and offered to bring it.  It was yummy!

Saturday I ran a 5K.  I didn't do as well as I wanted to but I ran the entire time and bettered my training time.  My time was 31:57.  I am confident I can get to 30:00 by my sprint triathlon in August. The interesting thing about this race was it was for women only put on by Girls On The Run.  It started & ended at The Boathouse downtown.

This week the irises and clematis bloomed. 

And Sunday while I was doing yardwork, Diesel found a baby bluejay that had fallen out of it's nest.  He was very protective of it which kind of surprised me.  Wildlife Services told me to leave it where I found it and hope the mama would come back for it.  Sadly, that did not happen.

LOVE Wichita

Our biblestudy had a surprise engagement party for Gayle (center) who got engaged over the weekend. We are so excited for her & Shaun!

 I made some special wedding cake shaped sugar cookies for her.

Friday night, my roommate and I ate at Tanya's Soup Kitchen.  It had been an Wichita institution but I never ate there.  It ws closed for several years and recently reopened.  We went to check it out. 

 Liz had the tomato basil and I had a pesto minestrone.  Delicious! Definitely going again.

 LOVE Wichita was this Saturday. It is a once a year day of service that the churches get together to love on our community.  This year 40 churches and 4000 people participated.  Pathways had a project to ourselves.  We scraped and painted this house and did some landscape clean up.

 The finished product.  It was a long day but well worth it.  The homeowner was so blessed.