Saturday

My day started at 4:30 A.M.
I knew it was going to be a packed day, but it was a day I'd been looking forward to, a day that was filled with fun family activities.

Not everyone would describe running a half marathon as fun, but I love running and running a big race with over 22,000 other runners is pretty amazing!  The course for the Rock and Roll Marathon was different this year.  We started and finished right in downtown Seattle.

Here I am with my two running buddies just before the race.

 

I was nervous about the weather.
Really nervous.
It was amazing though, not a drop of rain - just cool, crisp morning air.  It was absolutely perfect.

 

I finished in 1 hour 46 minutes and 19 seconds.

My average pace was 8:07.

I finished 39th in my division.

I felt great!

It was fun to see family and friends cheering along the way!

At the end of the race, we met up near this fountain. 

It was not warm, you can see the kids are all wearing long pants and jackets, but that didn't stop them from getting wet.

 

I'm grateful my family got up early and fought the crowds to come out and support me.

We didn't stay too long in Seattle because we had to race home and transform little Emma....

...into a ballerina.

We enjoyed watching Emma in her dance recital. 
Here she is at the front doing her little twirl. 

Such cute girls!

We left right from the recital and headed back to Seattle for cousin Dylan's 4th Birthday party.  It was planned to be a beach party (they live just steps from Alki beach), but the weather was cool, overcast, and rainy so we met at their house instead.

To our surprise, the gray skies cleared and the rain stopped.  We made our way down to the beach after all and played til dark.

I packed umbrellas, but never imagined I should have brought swimsuits for my kids.

I think Hunter took every little cousin out in the inflatable kayak. 

Here is the birthday boy, Dylan!

This picture is hilarious to me.  I tried to get the boys to pose for a picture-Austin gave me a big smile, but the other two boys were way too interested in the wagon wheels to even look my direction. 

What a lovely day it turned out to be!

Exhausting, but FUN!