Staycation

I had some vacation time to use up, so I've been off work since August 27. It was nice to have some time off before and after Hood to Coast. Merrick went and stayed with Poppa and Grammy while Travis and I did Hood to Coast. Then on Sunday, August 31, I drove down to JC to hang out for a couple of days. We spent time picking blackberries, plums, apples and pears. I brought home lots of stuff to can and Becky and I made blackberry jam and plum jam.

I also knew that we were going to work on potty training Merrick. After a couple of days with just a few accidents, we've been accident free (when it comes to #1) since Wednesday. #2 is going to take a little more work. The good thing is it only happens once a day =)

During my time off we made a trip to the Zoo and had a picnic play date with the Zuckerman's. We made it to Sara Sitter's annual kickball party and were able to spend some time with the Alt family on Sunday. It's amazing how fast this summer has gone.

Showing off the big boy underwear

Superman!

Hood to Coast

Van 1 - Mulvanny G2 Team

(L-R - Jim, Brian, Ruthie, Anna, Travis, Brannon)

The last time I did Hood to Coast I was 8 weeks pregnant with Merrick. I had forgotten about all the craziness surrounding H2C and how hard running is on only a couple of hours of sleep. Travis and I ran on the Mulvanny G2 team, Trav running leg 2 and I ran leg 3. For those of you not familiar with H2C, it is a 197 mile relay race from Mt. Hood to Seaside. There are 12 runners on a team and over the course of 28+ hours, you run anywhere from 15 - 20 miles. I personally think it's almost harder than doing a marathon because you have 6 -7 hours rest in-between your legs, but you are cramped in a van, have very little sleep and not eating regular meals. I would much rather run all my miles at once and get it done with, but that's not an option unless you're crazy like the guy who ran the whole thing by himself.

Decorating the rig. Almost all teams decorate their vans, some go with a theme, as you'll see the Top Gun teams rig below.

Start of H2C, teams start in 15 minute waves starting at around 7 am. We had a 10:30 am start time. The earliest I've ever had.

Trav getting ready to start his first leg.

A trip to Seattle for Quin's birthday

Quin showing us how old he is

Merrick and I made a trip to Seattle with Poppa and Grammy to see Auntie Kira, Uncle Erik, and cousins Quin and Micah to celebrate Quin's 5th birthday. Merrick had a great time playing with his cousins and all of the boys wore Poppa out.

Merrick passing time in the car reading the yellow pages.

The boys hiding from Poppa
Pirates Quin & Merrick fighting off Poppa

Merrick & Poppa

Tillamook Burn

A group of us headed to the beach this weekend to escape the heat and to run in the Tillamook Burn. We rented a house in Pacific City and were able to visit family, including a feast at Kathy & Skip's on Saturday night including fresh Tuna, Salmon and Crab... delicious!

This morning Bob, Rebecca, Travis and I set out to run our first adventure race. None of us knew what we were getting ourselves into. All we knew was that the course was about 6 miles long and that we would be running up hills and through creeks. We showed up and could tell we were rookies compared to the regular crowd who does these types of races. Knowing there were some hard core runners, we decided to start out at the back of the pack. I guess there's a reason they call this the Tillamook Burn, after the first hill, which there is no way you could run up it, and your lungs and legs are burning you realize what you've gotten yourself into. We climbed several hills (aka mountains), crossed the creek at least 4 times and manuvered around 3 bee hives with each of us getting stung at least once, but we all escaped the run without injury and smiles on our faces.

My New Obsession

So I have to admit that I have a new obsession. It's coupon shopping. Travis and I have been trying to find new and creative ways to cut our monthly costs. My idea was to look at our grocery shopping and figure out where we could save some money. The first step was making a weekly menu, creating a grocery list and only buying what was on the list when I went to the store. This definitely helped with our spending, but I wanted to figure out what I could do to save even more. So I started doing some searching on coupons. It's amazing how much money you can save. I've added a few of the links of the blogs I follow. These women do all the work for me. They post links to coupons, they analyze the weekly ads from the stores and they tell you how to combine coupons and store specials to get the best deal.

Last week I was at Albertson's and bought $95 worth of groceries for $19. The women behind me in line were amazed at what I accomplished. I left the store a little giddy with the deals I had scored.

So, if you have any coupons that you aren't using, rather than putting them in the recycle bin, send them my way, or even better, maybe you'll join the crazy world of coupon shopping!

4th of July

We headed to Waldport to escape the heat and celebrate the 4th. When we got into town on Thursday afternoon, we found sunny skies, but lots of wind. We spent some time on the beach playing and then headed to Aunt Melanie, Uncle Ian and Cousin Kieran's house for dinner. They filled our bellies and sent us up the hill to grandpa's house. Friday morning we woke up to grey skies and cold weather. We spent some time walking on the beach and then Travis, Uncle Ian and Uncle Dean headed to Newport to take advantage of the sale at the Rogue Brewery. Friday afternoon Nana and Papa T came into town and we all set off fireworks at grandpa's house. Unfortunately because of the cold weather, we didn't make it down to the bay to see the big fireworks. Which is probably fine since Merrick did not like the fireworks at all. After the first "whistling pete" he asked to go inside, so he and Travis watched the show from the window.

We decided to head home early, knowing that it was sunny and 90 plus degrees at home, compared to grey skies and 60 degrees at the coast. We went home through Lincoln City to say hi to Grandma Kathy and were able to have lunch with Grandpa Brad and Grandma Karen. Unfortunately, we got stuck between two accidents on hwy 18 about 10 miles outside of Lincoln City. By the time we got rerouted, we had already been in the car 1 1/2 hours. The entire trip home took about 4 plus hours. Not the way we envisioned spending the day, but we were happy to be home safely.

A trip to Seaside

A couple weeks after we got back from Maui, we headed to Seaside for the weekend. Merrick quickly realized that we couldn't swim in the ocean like we had in Hawaii. We did find lots of other things to keep busy with, including a ride on the merry go round, bumper cars, arcade, a sand castle contest, a ride on the train and a visit from cousins. It was a busy fun weekend.

Summer Updates

I know I've been really bad about posting what we've been up to. We've been busy since the marathon, with the highlight being a trip to Hawaii. This was Merrick's first trip on a plane and he did awesome. He was so excited to get to the airport and see the planes and then when we were getting ready to take off, he got a huge grin on his face. The trip to Maui was pretty uneventful, we did a lot of hanging out on the beach and playing in the ocean. The first thing Merrick asked each morning was "Are we going to the beach?". We didn't do much sight seeing, but we did take a day long catamaran trip, where we got to see dolphins. It was my first time seeing them in the wild and it was amazing. Especially when we had one jumping right in front of our boat.

Eugene Marathon - Race Report

As many of you know, I've been training for the Eugene Marathon since the beginning of the year. I have been trying a new training schedule that only has me running 3 days a week and cross training two days. I wasn't sure how that would work out when it came to race day. The good thing is that I was able to train injury free and I'm not burnt out on running, which has happened in the past.

We headed down to Eugene on Saturday morning. I have learned my lesson that I cannot tell Merrick what we are doing ahead of time. He came into our room at 5:45 am and started asking when we were going to see Poppa and Grammy. So we left for Eugene earlier than we had planned to. We headed to packet pickup which was pretty well organized and wandered through the exhibits. I have to admit, I stopped by the booth with the cookies twice, with the excuse that I was carb loading =) The weather on Saturday was pretty cruddy, raining and windy so I was pretty nervous about what the weather would be like for the race. Bec aka Grammy made a wonderful prerace dinner of lasagna, salad and bread, to be topped off with cake and ice cream for Merrick's birthday.

Travis and I got up early Sunday morning to head into the Eugene Hilton to catch the shuttle to the start. We arrived at 6:20 am thinking we would have plenty of time since the shuttles were running every 10 minutes. Well... when we got there we realized there was a LONG line! We didn't get on a shuttle until 6:45 am. When the race starts at 7 am, this can make you really nervous. We arrived with 5 minutes to spare and quickly separated ways to head to our pace groups. I don't know how I did it, but I was able to find Rebecca at the start, which was a life saver in many ways. Having forgotten my watch, I was nervous about how I was going to pace myself. I haven't had much luck with the pace leaders in the past and I didn't want run with one if I didn't have to. Rebecca and I quickly got into a groove and started ticking the miles off. We both agreed that it was nice to run a course that we didn't know so everything was new to us. Rebecca's husband Corey and her dad Dennis were there to cheer us on at several points during the race and Poppa, Grammy and Merrick were at mile 17 and 24. It was great to see familiar faces, especially late in the race.

The new training program worked! I ran a Personal Record (PR) of 4 hours 1 minute and 26 seconds. This is about 18 minutes faster than my previous PR. I'm feeling great and fully recovered, I'm thinking about lacing up the shoes for a run tomorrow and I'm even contemplating signing up for the Foot Traffic Marathon on July 4th weekend... I'll keep you posted if that happens.

I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to my amazing husband who has not only put up with my marathon training for 4 months, but on top of that my studying for the SPHR exam which is this Saturday. Thankfully we get to relax in Hawaii in about 10 days!

Easter & Birthdays

So my girlfriends were harassing me a little about my lack of blogging lately. So here's a brief update on what we've been doing the last few weeks. Our lives have been extremely hectic and we're hoping that things will slow down after vacation.

Easter - We headed down South to JC to see Grammy and Poppa and Aunties and Cousins. Merrick had a wonderful time getting to play with Quin, Micah, Jaley and Genna. The weekend was full of craziness, which is typical when you get that many people together and kids hyped up on sugar and presents.

Merrick & Travis' birthdays - Because we have had such a crazy schedule, we ended up celebrating Merrick's birthday on Travis' birthday. Hey... he's 3... he'll never know the difference! Travis got to pick out the cake, while we got it decorated in Merrick's favorite things... signs! When I brought the cake home to show him, he said "Oh my gosh" and then started telling me which signs were on there. He then decided that he wanted to look at the cake even more, so he pushed his little stool over to the counter and stood for at least 30 minutes staring at his cake. I also made sign and train shaped cookies for his party. The things a mom does... 3 hours of decorating cookies and a numb hand from squeezing the icing container. I can only hope that one day he'll appreciate all my hard work =) His party was a huge success, he was so excited about the cones and signs I had brought from work to decorate the yard with. The weather cooperated and the kids were able to play outside. I still can't believe he's already 3 years old. Time sure does fly!

Ft. Stevens Yurting Trip

Thanks to LaSandra Rodriguez for planning so far in advance, we had a group yurting trip planned for the past weekend to Ft. Stevens State Park. There were 4 families planning on going. Us and the Alt's arrived on Friday afternoon. We got unpacked and then went out exploring. Initially we thought we would walk all the way to the beach, but before we were even half way there, Merrick was asking to be carried, so we only made it to the lake. Once back at the yurts, we decided to start dinner. We had noticed the raccoons while unpacking, but didn't know how brave they were. We soon found out! As we were sitting around the fire, trying to keep warm and eat our dinner, one of them came right up to our picnic table and took an entire bag of hamburger buns. We quickly learned that once we were done with the food, we needed to put it in the yurt. It was pretty cold out, so we all decided to call it an early night and go back to our own yurts. Travis and I forgot our pillows, so it wasn't the most comfortable nights sleep.

The next morning, Travis, Merrick and I got up and headed to the beach. We checked out the shipwreck and followed some car tracks (one of Merrick's favorite things to do). It was still really cold out, so we decided to get in the car and drive into town to get a few things we had forgotten at the store, including pillows. While we were at the store, the Alt's called us. They had ventured into Astoria in search of the Goonies house. Being a huge fan of the movie, I told Travis that needed to be our next stop. So we headed that direction and successfully found the house, although we just drove by it. Next we headed to Ft. Columbia to check it out, which meant a drive over the huge bridge that takes you from Oregon to Washington. Merrick thought this was really cool. After exploring the fort, we headed back to the yurt to have some lunch and say goodbye to the Alts. Addie and Alyssa were sick and didn't feel up to staying another night. After lunch and naps for everyone, we headed out to the South Jetty. We got to see where the Columbia meets the ocean. Then we headed to the beach. Merrick thought it was cool to watch the cars drive on the beach and there were some people trying to do some sort of parasailing off of the dunes.

Following the tire tracks on the beach

Mmm... chocolate frosted donuts. Delicious!

Exploring Ft. Columbia

We headed back to the yurt to meet up with the Rodriguez family. We took all the boys to the park to burn off some energy and they played hard both at the park and when we returned to the yurt. I think they went non-stop until bed time. We enjoyed a nice dinner and then as I went to go grab marshmallows to roast, I discovered that the handle to our yurt was broken. Which meant we couldn't get in. As Travis tried to figure out a way to get it open, I headed to the ranger station to find help. A ranger came back to our site quickly and tried to pry the door open with a crow bar. He didn't have any luck, so then he and Travis decided to try and take the door off the hinges. This didn't work either, so he ended up having to break a piece of the door out to get the door open. Luckily we were still able to keep the door locked and the raccoons out! The Wujcik family arrive at around 8:30 pm, just in time for the rain, which caused all of us to have to retreat to our yurts.

Our broken yurt door.

Sunday morning we got up and we all met up to explore the park. We went to Russell Battery and then on to Fort Stevens. The kids had a blast exploring. We spent a few hours exploring and when it started raining, we decided it was time to head home. We had a great time and can't wait for our next trip!

Spring Fever

Merrick and I got a touch of Spring fever on Friday. We had sunny skies and comfortable temperatures, so we spent most of the afternoon playing outside. We made cookies and then went for a walk and delivered some to the Cavanagh's, then we came home and played outside with Deacon. We had some dinner and then decided to take Deacon for a walk. It was great to spend time outside, especially knowing that it was going to rain all weekend. We are hoping for more sunny, warm days very soon!

Swim Lessons

Merrick started swim lessons this week through Portland Parks & Rec. He and Travis are going to class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Merrick loves it! He talks about going in the pool all the time. We're hoping to get him comfortable with the water in preparation for our trip to Hawaii in May.

Playhouse Disney Live

We bought tickets back in October to take Merrick to Playhouse Disney Live. He loves all of the shows, Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny and the Super Sleuths.

Knowing that the show started at 6:30 pm, I knew that I needed to wear Merrick out so he would take a good nap and be well rested. For those of you who have babies and toddlers, you know the saying "the best laid plans often go awry" very well. I thought Merrick was taking a nap while I was catching up on some work, I came upstairs to grab something and heard him in his room talking. I spent over an hour trying to get him to nap, but had no luck. So we went to the show with no nap. We ran into our friends the Zuckerman's and Merrick and Zachary burned off some energy dancing to music before the show.

Merrick got excited when he saw Mickey and all his friends and Pooh and Tigger. He didn't care much for the characters that just looked like people. He did pretty good considering he didn't have a nap, but got antsy and wanted to leave during intermission. He spent the second half laying down in my lap. I don't think we'll be purchasing tickets to see Thomas & Friends next month.