Toy Swap

Yesterday, we had a KIP toy swap. Mine is the big blue monster and I got to take home the cute little doggie on the right. There were cookies, an ice cream cone, a llama, and a dolphin. I love swaps, it's so fun to open up the bag and see what someone knit for you.

A few other random things:

Only 4 more days of summer school left, thank goodness.

My dryer is broken, I hope that it is the last thing that will break this summer.

I have finished the first week of 4 months to a 4 hour marathon. A couple of jogs , speedwork, and a 7 mile long run.

It has been ridiculously hot this week, in the 100's everyday.

4 month countdown

Today is my first day of training using the 4 months to a 4 hour marathon. I will be running the KC Full Marathon is year. I am so lucky that some of my Twist friends will be joining me as a relay team.

My goal for this race is to finish in less than 5 hours.

Last set of Camping Pictures

We went on this wonderful camping adventure with our family friends from school. This family has a daughter the same age as S and a son one year older than T. Also, I have worked on PTO with the mom for almost 6 years. It's really nice to have friends that everyone in the family likes and gets along with.

One of the kids (and adults) favorite activities was ladder golf. I am going to make a couple of these games for my PE classes, they are simply constructed from PVC pipes, old golf balls, and nylon rope.

The Girl Scouts owns 500 acres for this camp but lease some of the land out to a farmer who has cattle. In order to go on the hike, we had to use this ladder to climb over some barred wire.

More Camping

I like this picture of S and I. The kids are really good campers, they love sitting around the camp fire and running around the camp site catching fireflies and naming them.

I don't have any really good pictures from the waterfront because we were all in the water but if you look closely you can see D and the boys in the canoe. On the left you can see the kind of kayak that the kids used.

More Camping

We were camping at Four Winds Girl Scout Camp near Leon. This was a family camp and had some great perks: the staff cooked at the food, planned the activities, and provided instruction and supplies. We could chose the activities we wanted to do and when we wanted to do them.

I am a big fan of flag ceremonies.


We went on a 45 min hike around the 500 acres. The boys found shell fossils in an especially rocky area on the property.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of me windsurfing. The hubby was not thinking and didn't get the camera out (insert eye rolling.)

Camping Trip

I am super busy with summer school right now but I will be putting up a few of the pictures from our camping trip this past weekend. We had a great time. We did archery, hiked, played ladder golf, the kids learned to kayak and I tried windsurfing.


I have over 100 pictures so I will try to put a few up everyday this week.

Hospital Hill Run

Race Recap

I left home on Friday about 11am and had an uneventful drive. The GPS helped me get to the Backwoods in Overland Park (I was less than impressed with the staff, they were not very helpful.) Then I stopped at my favorite over-priced sportswear store, Lucy. I bought a couple of shirts and some pants.

From there, I went to Crown Center to pick up my race packet. I love goody bags and I was not disappointed. The bag was a large nylon bag and contained running socks and a very nice running shirt.

I stopped by The Studio on my way to my friend's house but didn't buy anything. We had dinner at Tomfoolery and then ice cream from Cold Stone. On the way back to my friend's house her car exploded. There was a loud bang and smoke came from the exhaust; when we opened the hood there was green fluid all over. We think the radiator was overfilled at the garage last week but she has to take it in this week. We decided that we should stay in for the night so I was able to go to sleep at 9pm.

Race Day:
I woke up at 5am, had cheerios for breakfast and put on my lucky race outfit. We arrived at Crown Center at 6:30 and were able to easily find a parking place in the garage. The start line was a buzz with people. The wheelchairs started at 6:55, then Half-Marathon at 7am, and then me in the 10K, at 7:15. The first 2 miles had rolling hills, a little up and then a little down. Along the rest of the course there were a some big hills and it felt like I was going up and up and never coming down. I saw lots of people who just walked up the hills and then started running again at the top. There was also a strong wind through the course. Before I got to KC, I was thinking that I would finish in less than an hour but once I got there and saw the hills I realized there would be no personal best for me. After a few miles my goal became just running the whole thing without stopping. I was successful in that and finished in 1:06:12 which was a minute and a half less than my OKC time. I enjoyed the energy of the race - there were lots of runners and volunteers. The course was clearly marked and had enough water/gatorade stations. After the run, I got my picture taken, had some chocolate milk and bananas, and picked up my finisher flip flops; then we went to Panera for bagels. They had pancakes and sausages for finishers but I ready felt like a bagel.

Back at the house, I took a little nap and then we went to Hammerpress. D loves that place and I got him a great print and a little book. We had yummy Mexican food before I left for home. It was a long drive home because the A/C in the van was blowing hot air so I had to drive home with the windows down. (Never buy a Ford, my van has been a piece of junk from the day I bought it.)

Things I liked:

• cool weather
• beautiful course
• lots of great spectators and volunteers
• the hills (even though they were grueling)
• the goody bag
  
• finisher flip flops (awesome)
• running socks
• great tech shirt
  

Summer Baseball

TT is playing baseball at the Ymca. He has one practice and one game a week. This is his first time playing and his coaches are very nice and encourages all the boys to do their best. TT has a great batting stance and has hit the ball everytime he has come to bat, last game he had 2 singles and this game an RBI.

Zoo Sunday

Sunday morning we went to check out the new Tiger Trek exhibit at the zoo. The tigers were nice but my favorite part was the Red Panda. He was quite a busy little animal, exploring his habitat and looking at the visitors.