November is Gone Already?

Yet again, an overdue update, in reverse order. I know I have forgotten a lot... this is the stuff I had pictures of. I'll have to add in the rest when I remember it! And this has not been proof read...sorry for the inevitable mistakes!

DANICA IS 6!!!!! On December 12th we celebrated her birthday!! She doesn't have school on Mondays so I took her and Alyssa to a place called JJ Jumps that we heard about on Groupon. Some of her cousins met us there and then we all met up with Grandma Barb for lunch at Wendy's because Danica LOVES chicken sandwiches! Then for dinner she had her favorite food: Chicken and Broccoli Casserole.

Her favorite thing to do right now is to color with markers. She would do it all day. She loves art projects and any sort of craft. She loves to read, play with dolls and barbies, and have tea parties. She is very girly, still shy and very sensitive. A stern look or disapproving voice will leave her in tears. She's a great helper with doing her chores, is a master bed maker and fantastic at cleaning her room and taking care of her sister in every way. She goes out of her way to make sure that Alyssa is happy and well cared for. I don't think there has ever been a girl as lucky as Alyssa to have such an outstanding big sister.

She's such a funny kid. Over Thanksgiving she was sick with a stomach flu for several days and it has left her obsessed with washing her hands and not eating too much candy. She is very conscientious. She is such a responsible sick child that she is terrified to not have a bowl with her at all times if she feels like she might throw up. In fact, she had to sleep with it and I found her one night with her head literally using the bowl like a pillow...so sad!!

DECEMBER TO REMEMBER:
Last week we took Concert Fun to a whole new level during this amazing event where they have fantastic concerts every night! We managed to make it to three of them: Young the Giant, Awolnation and Group Love. It was a blast!


UTAH-- THANKSGIVING BREAK AND THE FIRST WEEK OF DECEMBER:

We spent our Thanksgiving day driving for 12 hours on the way to Utah. Eating options were scarce but the drive went well and we arrived as planned and prepared for a week of fun! I hadn't seen my younger brother in a couple of years and he was able to come to my parents house late that night and stay for the next week so we did the same. My brother that lives in Utah took time off work and pulled their son out of school as well so they could come up and spend the time with us as well. It all made for a fantastic week of vacation. I wish I had time to add more details but I need to get to addressing Christmas cards and making arrangements for a weekend trip so this short summary is all I can do. My summary looks very similar to the trip journal Hayden had to keep while he was happily out of school for a week!!
Friday: Hit some black Friday sales and then we played racquetball at the gym before enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner, just a day late! That night we rocked out to Karaoke! I hope someone will send the videos soon!
Saturday: Family pictures, a trip to the aquarium, then the adults went to a comical rendition of It's a Wonderful Life.






Sunday: We went to Temple Square after church- Tom's photography skills really show!





Monday: Matt, his wife Chelsea and Tom and I went skiing at Snowbird. My mom watched all the kids!! it was a great day although I went to bed that night with nightmares of skiing down the mountain and being unable to stop... I suppose I was little more scared then I wanted to admit! I haven't skied in years and years so it was a bit tricky!
Tuesday: Sledding!!

The kids had a blast, so much giggling!!! Alyssa couldn't believe there was so much snow. Growing up on a tropical island means that she had never seen real snow like that. It was fun to experience with her and watch her awe. Then we went bowling and my brother Ryan and his wife Amy made prizes for everyone. It was a huge hit! Then I had to take Tom to the airport to fly home to work.
Wednesday: Matt and Chelsea let me leave the girls with their new best friend- their cousin Isabel that they hadn't seen in years! I took Hayden up to the Natural History Museum at the U of U and had a nice time learning and exploring. Then we headed to Provo and spent the afternoon with my grandma. We took her to the Life Science Museum at BYU and Danica rode with her in her wheelchair. They loved it! That night we went to Ryan and Amy's house where they used their gourmet cooking skills to serve us authentic Phillie Cheesesteaks and homemade donuts. We also had a contest to make Turkey costumes. Hayden and I got to model them!!
Thursday: A low key day of packing and playing and celebrating Christmas with Grandma!!! The kids were all spoiled! Then we went to see Breaking Dawn while Matt watched all the kids (thank you again!)


Friday: Got up at 6am and drove all day. Kids were good and I enjoyed an audio book.
Saturday: Got up early and drove to Salem to run a 7 mile trail run with Tom's sister Anne and her husband Peter. Tough run. Very tiring after spending a week on vacation...although it may be tough any time!!!

There is much more to add and hopefully I'll get to it. But for today, this is enough!!

Happy Halloween 2011

Our festivities were abundant and I was so sick of the kids eating candy before we even got to Halloween but they were loving it!!
It started two weeks ago when some of our Oki Family, the Balls, drove down from Seattle to spend the day with us! It was so nice to be with friends and we are so grateful they made the drive!! We went to pumpkin patch and the kids loved it. Alyssa kept saying how it was so great it was her first time going to a farm! We did all the standards with corn mazes, picking pumpkins, petting zoo, etc. But they also had this pumpkin sling shot where you tried to land them in a bucket. We didn't see anyone do it in all the time we were waiting in line but when it was Danica's turn they got it in. Everyone was cheering! Danica loved it!

We had a ward trunk or treat Friday night (I took the kids while Tom watched game 7 of the World Series...there will be other trunk or treats after all!) Saturday night we had attended the annual Stinchfield Halloween Party! We've heard about it for years but never attended and we were so excited to do it this year! We stressed about our costumes but never came up with anything amazing so the kids just chose their own. Tom and I tried to coordinate... it sounded better on paper: He was Steve Jobs and I was the dancing shadow from the iTunes ads.

Look closely and you can see Hayden in the middle...he is something dark and hooded every year...the girls were dying to be super heroes again... sounded good to me because I love the costumes and they cost a lot!!!

Some great food from the Stinchfield party:


Hayden made this and named it "Skello Jello" He thought he was pretty clever... I had to agree!

Sunday night we carved pumpkins. Can you guess which child designed and drew their own?

Monday we went to the Halloween parade for Hayden at school. Then I stayed to help with the class party and helped the kids all make carmel apples. That night we hit the streets and the kids got their loot. We went out with some cousins, Taylor, Parker and Morgan. When the little girls got cold and tired we came home and the big kids got to keep going. Hayden was loving it!!! All around a great year!




These are from back when we were in Leavenworth, we went on a beautiful hike. We had to cut it short due to the cold but we enjoyed it while we could!

The Leavenworth Marathon

(Front: Adina- half, Barb-half, Tracey-full. Back: Dave S.- full, Tom- full, Peter- half, Dave O.- half)
Last weekend we set out on a great adventure to participate in the Leavenworth Marathon and Half Marathon. I wasn’t sure I would ever do another marathon after my first disaster but some how while we were still in Japan we decided this would be a good idea. The rest of the family was running it so we just tagged along. There were three of us running the full marathon and four running the half plus the amazing support staff who watched the kids making it possible for us to run! I am sure that everyone has their own unique experience to share but this is my blog post so you get to hear my experience.

It started Friday night when we drove the 5 hours to Leavenworth Washington after Tom got off work. We didn’t want to waste anytime or fill up on on hamburgers so I made a pan of homemade mac ‘n cheese, salad and some smoothies to eat for dinner on the way. It was great. Then we met up with everyone at the RV park, said hello and headed off to our hotel to try to get some sleep. Originally we had planned to get an RV as well but the price scared us off and luckily Dave found a hotel room at the last minute. At the hotel we laid out our gear for the morning, coordinated wake up and shower schedules, set alarms and then tried to sleep. It’s always hard to sleep before a race, add 4 adults and two little girls in one hotel room with loud drunk oktoberfest guests all around and it gets a little worse. But none the less, the three of us marathoners arose around 5:00 and headed off to catch the school bus to the starting line. (Big thank you to Adina who let the girls stay asleep at the hotel with her, she got them up and dropped them off to Anne at the RV park when she picked up the other half marathoners...the support was amazing!!! Never could have done it with out them!! Big thank you to Anne as well!!)

So Tom, Dave and I loaded the school bus and made the long dark drive up the canyon. We got off the buses and noticed two problems right off, it was freezing and there were only 4 port-a-potties...we got in line and hoped to make it through before the start. With only 4 minutes left before the start I gave up on the line and went to meet Tom and Dave at the start. I reluctantly peeled off my sweats and made then made the worst decision of the day. I took off my running gloves because I figured I would get too hot and then what would I do with them? Needless to say, I never got too hot. Lucky for my bladder the official announced a 10 minute delay for the start, the friends I had made while waiting in line for the bathroom were still there and they let me back in line. Phew. So now I was really ready. Ready for a marathon. It was still dark and cold, 7am and about 32 degrees. They yelled start and off we went. Tom and I pulled to the front fairly quickly, so excited and having a great time. Our hands and noses were so cold we wanted to cry but we pushed ahead. A mile or two into it was pretty light out and my nose had thawed. My hands were still aching though. Nonetheless, we were enjoying flying down the mountain with beautiful scenery all around. The runners had thinned out and we were just coasting along. Tom’s hands warmed up but mine still hurt really badly and at one point he took a hold of my hand and warmed it with his while we ran. I wish I had a picture of that. It was a great moment.

We both felt great and just kept going and going, enjoying it all the time. About 10 miles in we came out of the canyon and ran through the city until we caught up to the trails by the fish hatchery. Then we looped around on this dirt horse trail for a few miles and it was really killer. It was impossible to get solid footing and we had to slow down and it just hurt all our joints. I kept reminding myself it was pretty and nice to do something different...it sort of worked. Eventually we came out and ran past the starting line where the half marathon runners were getting ready to start. Kenn was able to get our picture as we ran by! This meant we were half way and now just had to run the half marathon course. We still felt great and were really excited to reach this point.


As the miles passed under our feet we just kept up our fast pace and talked while enjoying the scenery. I’m so glad I was running with Tom, it made the whole experience so much more enjoyable! At mile 16 we again passed a guy in a yellow shirt that we had gone back forth with the entire run. We chatted again briefly and then cheered when I saw the mile 16 marker. He murmured something about still having a long way to go and we started to agree but then stopped ourselves. Quickly we changed our out look and said, “Oh no, we’re doing great and we’ve only got 10 miles to go. How many times have you run 10 miles? We can do this!” And we took off. (Side note, turns out that guy was one of my best friends brother-in-law, they somehow made the connection after the race and she called me. Small world.)

The next 4 miles were still good, we nearly missed a turn but luckily caught it and enjoyed running through a river side park. Tom’s knee was starting to bother him more and he was beginning to feel the 20 mile "wall" coming. Our training program was not conventional and a little less than ideal. His knee had been causing him pain so he hadn't been able to finish training the way he had hoped and it was catching up to him. At that moment in my mind I was about the reach a great point in the race. I had told myself I was running miles in sets of 10/10/6. This summer I made a decision to change my short runs to being at least 6 miles, so I knew I could easily hammer out 6 miles, I just had to reach 20 first. I’m not sure what Tom was thinking but he was not getting the adrenaline rush I was getting. He began to lag behind a bit and I wanted to be with him but he told me to just go, to push it as hard as I could and to just do it. I looked down at my Garmin and saw that I was still well under 3 hours and the 20 mile mark was just up ahead. I swallowed my last gel chew, gulped some water and powered up the only hill on the course.

With just 6 miles to go I put my music on and forged ahead. I couldn’t believe I was really going to make it at my goal pace. I couldn’t believe I still felt good. I couldn’t believe that people on the sidelines were shouting to me that I was the first woman! This just made me want to run faster! So I went. The last two miles caught up to the sand trail again and it was agony. My hip flexor was over tired and the unsteadiness of the sand nearly did me in but I was so close I just kept thinking of my running friends that would be so happy for me. I wanted to so badly to finish and go call them so we could rejoice together! Thankfully I survived the sand, kept up my pace and crossed the finish line while the clock read 3:14:40. Faster than I had ever dreamed of running. The crowd was actually all cheering. I’ve never finished a race and had the crowd cheering. It was awesome. (There was a minor error in the course so my actual finish pace was 7:35, time of 3:20, still plenty fast to qualify for Boston's new time requirement of 3:35!)

I waited at the finish line and just 5 minutes later Tom came powering through with a time of 3:20. So amazing!!!! His knee gave him grief but he managed to push through it anyway and didn’t give up. He just kept going and going, dragging his leg along and PR’d by nearly 40 minutes!!! Outstanding! No one was at the finish line so we just hobbled around and got some snacks and such. My hip flexor was killing me and I was dragging my leg around but we made it back to the finish line in time to cheer for Adina, Peter and Dave O. as they ran in from the half marathon!

The stats were posted and we were able to see that in fact I actually was the first woman to finish the marathon! There were
only 9 men ahead of me. Tom came in close at number 14. He took second place in his age division! What an accomplishment!!! We waited around for the awards ceremony and it’s a good thing we did because we both got nice pint glasses for winning in our age divisions and I got a glass boot and a beer stein for being the first place finisher!!!



You can check out the race results here: http://www.accustatsportstiming.com/results3.asp?ei=108

After finally sitting down and taking a brief rest my hip felt better and I was just so happy and excited. The race was actually fun, enjoyable thanks to having Tom’s company and exciting in the end to actually win! Calling my friends and family was as fun as I had hoped it would be. It’s great to have friends who love you so much they are so happy for your success. All around a great race. We spent the rest of the day in Leavenworth but I was too tired to remember much of it. I do remember my favorite part was sitting around the fire eating delicious tri-tip. Thank you everyone. The list is long including the help with getting the hotel, the food, watching the kids, encouraging me to run, pushing me to run fast, and simply cheering from the side lines. For being such an individual sport it sure does take a whole team to make it happen!

Life in Washougal

Life has been a bit crazy and stressful lately and I obviously haven’t taken the time to write but there is much to be grateful for and many happy memories to preserve so I need to take a moment to record them. This is in no way all inclusive but just a few snippets that come to mind. (We have misplaced a bunch of pictures, like the first day of school and such... so those will have to come later as well.)

The House: We all love the new house and are constantly busy trying to keep it clean while decorating and finishing the unpacking. It was quite the saga getting our stuff from storage in San Diego but after several months it finally came. I will post pictures as things get put together, if they ever do...

Washougal: I like the town we live in. It’s pretty and within 1/2 a mile of my house you are on beautiful country roads with deer, rabbits and so many other beautiful sights. Yesterday Tom and I went on a trail run that is just three miles from our house and went around a beautiful creek and some waterfalls. We can go to the beach of the Columbia River just 2 miles from our house and it is beautiful, with sand to dig in and water to play in. It’s not Okinawa but helps us get our beach fix!

Portland: Living near a big city is great, we’ve been to lots of great places to eat and are hitting the concert scene! We’ve seen The Naked and Famous and Andrew Belle. We’ve got tickets to several more coming up!

Hood to Coast: We were fortunate enough to run Hood to Coast on a team with Tom’s brother Dave, his wife Adina, their friends and Tom’s sister Anne and her husband Peter. It was so much fun. It deserves a post all on it’s own but somehow it didn’t get done. The runs were great, the company awesome and we felt great (except when we lost our beloved inflatable shark decoration off the top of the car..so sad...)










Tom: Aside from being a super triathlete and participating in a Tough Mudder he is busy getting settled in at work. He works Wed, Thurs and Friday with his brother at Discovery Dental. They got a new sign with Tom’s name on it and it looks great. He loves being there and is getting adjusted to the new staff and the different way things are done. Now he just keeps hoping for more patients. Is it okay that I pray for people to break their teeth?

Tracey: I have been running to stay sane and enjoy the variety of places to run here after running around Camp Foster for three years. I miss Okinawa dearly and miss my friends so much but have really enjoyed the chance to be closer to family. Although I have a million different places I could shop I find that old habits are hard to break and I always go to the Safeway down the street and want to do the rest online. I’m busy trying to get the kids settled in, helping them make friends and get involved. I am Hayden’s cub scout leader which is fun and challenging. I look forward to making some more friends here and having game nights again!
My parents came to visit in September and we had a great time! I have been trying to convince them that it doesn’t rain here all the time like they think it does and it was great weather leading up to their visit but then of course it had to start raining the day after they arrived. We still braved it and went up to Mt. St. Helen’s and luckily the clouds parted just in time for us to see the volcano. It was freezing outside, we nearly ran out of gas and the visitors center we went to was closed for the season but somehow it was just fun to be together and we found a nice lake to walk around. It was so fun to have them here, we picked wild blackberries and made a cobbler and my awesome dad even painted our living room for us!!





Hayden: Loves living close to his cousins and wishes he could just move in with them. We are one mile away from Dave and Adina and Morgan is actually in his class at school. School started off a bit slow but Hayden understood he was the “new kid” and it would take some time. Things are going well now and he’s got some friends in his class and we found two boys his age down on the end of our court that he is working on getting to know them. One advantage to not having many friends is that he plays with his sisters a lot. He’s even been training them on how to play the Wii and they all love it. But mostly he wishes he could just play x-box all day and gets mad when I force him outside on the days it’s not raining! I’m sure he’ll have plenty of inside days in the months to come! He's been enjoying reading the Harry Potter series lately and comparing the books to the movies. He's now on book 5 and just keeps finding more differences!

Danica: Has grown up a ton since starting kindergarten. She loves school and has made lots of friends. As usual it’s been funny to watch how her and Hayden are such opposites. Hayden and Danica usually sit together on the bus. But, one day she got off the school bus laughing and smiling talking non stop about the funny boy she sat with on the way home. Hayden got off that day crying because the bus driver made him sit with someone else and he didn’t like it. Hayden’s favorite class at school is P.E. Danica hates P.E. so much that she constantly asks me if it’s Tuesday and begs me to not make her go. The teacher lets her go and just sit and watch but that’s not enough, she still stresses non stop. I finally agreed to go with her today and it seems that she is afraid of the teacher who is a giant of a man...we’ll have to work on that. She still loves gymnastics and has been going to a gym here. Last week they approached us and said that Danica is doing so well they want her to try out for the advanced group. She tried out yesterday, did well and enjoyed it although it was 2 hours long and she got tired. Now we just have to decide whether to take on one more big thing. When we are home her favorite thing to do is ride her bike, she always says "I just love it mom, I just love it!!"

Alyssa: I don’t know where to start with her. She is my smiley little buddy. Quick to give hugs and wants to make sure that I am always happy. If she sees me sad she rushes in to assure me that I will be okay soon. She goes to preschool two mornings a week and goes to ballet on another morning. It’s perfect for her. Some days she wishes she were 5 and could just do everything Danica does but she enjoys our one on one time as well. But no matter how much fun we’re having she still loves to go to the bus stop to wait for the kids to get home. She is learning to read and loves being big like every one else. Her goal in life is to make everyone laugh. The first weeks of ballet she kept acting silly and not following directions and I kept talking to her about it until finally she said “But mom, I have to make them all laugh!” I now see this in so many parts of her life, it makes all of her behavior so much easier to understand. She was the first kid to make a new friend here and loved to go around talking about “my friend” this and “my friend” that. She didn't know her name. There are little kids in our cul-de-sac and she just loves to go out and ride her scooter and bike with them.

Okay, I”m sure I have a ton more things to add but they will have to trickle in... I need this post up there. House pictures coming soon... honest... I am lucky enough to have guests coming this weekend so I’ll have to clean! :)