Walka, Walka, Walka!

Sydney's 11-months now (as of 9-9-09) and she just seems to be getting so big! She's really tall and she's starting to stand independently. She's also getting good at taking steps, saying things like "bye-bye" and "dah-dah-dah-dah", and manipulating her mom and dad to get what she wants! :) She's really sweet though and we totally love her!

At the park, (sort of) drinking a juice box.

This Ronald McDonald is one of her favorite toys because she can hold it in her mouth while she manuevers around. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "She totally bit my head off!"






Here's an example of her walking and her "bye-bye." She's already getting even more stable since I took this video!

Four More Years! Four More Years!

Today Brian and I celebrated our 4-year anniversary. Yay!

We got a late-night dinner (8pm is pretty late for us, after all) of cheese and chocolate at The Melting Pot on Main Street in Ann Arbor. It was great to sit and chat without the kids. We kept it pretty low-key this year since we just got back from our Greece extravaganza.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Greece - Day 7 - August 29th

On Saturday, I woke up with a major stomach bug. After taking a bath, I ended up going back to bed for a 3 hour nap! Brian was so good to just hang out and read and watch a movie while I slept.

In the afternoon, we finally headed out. This is in front of our hotel. We got a great deal on a 5-star hotel thanks to Priceline.

We headed out to the Panathinaiko Stadium. This is where the Athens Marathon (that actually starts in the city of Marathon, Greece for which the Marathon was named) finishes so Brian took a picture of me "running".





This stadium was originally built in 329 BC and then it was renovated for use in the 1896 Summer Olympic Games.

On your mark, get set...

The track is long and skinny since the stadium was built before athletic stadiums were standardized. It is made entirely of white marble - even the seats. The track is black, which makes a cool contrast.

We then walked to the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

Brian was doing the "Zeus/Poseidon Pose". It was cool to see the fallen-down pillar and see how they were stacked (it fell during a storm in 1852).

It's pretty amazing to be so close to these old ruins.

This is Hadrian's Arch. You can see the Acropolis in the background through the arch.

I thought it was interesting to see the modern life of the cars mixed with the ancient world of the arch and the Acropolis.

Brian and me taking a little break near the site.

The restaurant on the top of our hotel had a great view of the Parthenon. Brian took some great night shots!

On Sunday morning, we headed to the Athens airport, had a layover in London and then flew into Chicago around 6:30pm. It was great to see the kids again! We drove back to Ann Arbor on Monday morning and have been trying to get back in the swing of things!

A big THANK YOU to Kevin, Naomi, Brooklyn, and Janna for watching our kiddos!!! We had an amazing trip!

Marathon Training - Week 11 + My 1st 30k!

Sorry the picture is blurry, but I used the camera timer and didn't want to take another picture because I kind of felt stupid taking a picture of myself. :) This is after I ran 18.6 miles. Woo-hoo! Go me!

I decided to do the Labor Day 30k in Milford, MI (about 40 minutes away) because it fit well into the timing of my training to get in my 18-miler. Brian was a lifesaver to stay home with the kids because I really needed to do this race. Seriously. Since I had been having some knee pain still and I had a low-running week in week 10, I decide my goal was simply to finish without feeling like I was going to die.

I ran the first 3 miles at a perfect 10-minute-mile pace. I let people pass me without concern. At mile 4 I took my first pack of Sport Beans and then I started to feel warmed up and really good. I tried to really enjoy the run and the scenery. This route was similar to my half marathon with about 45% being trail-running, but the trails were more like rocky-roads instead of actual hiking trails like in the half. There were also hills, but there weren't any that were as hard as the half hills either.

About a third of the way through, I was feeling really good and started passing people because I had decided to run with my body instead of worrying about my time. I was using the hills to my advantage to stretch out my ankle and gastrocnemius which, according to the physical therapist, relate to my knee pain. I did this by sort of squatting as I ran up the hills so I could get full range of motion in my ankle. By doing this, I was able to actually go a lot faster and easier up the hills and often passed people there.

At mile 8 I took another Sport Bean pack and had been drinking water or Gatorade at every water stop. Around mile 9 I decided to stop to go to the bathroom just to empty my bladder even though it wasn't crucial. I'll avoid this in the future. After I started going again, I felt like my legs had forgotten they were supposed to be running! I kind of like I was starting over again warming up for a few minutes.

I kept going along and feeling really good. I was listening to my Ipod which definitely made a difference. I kept trying to pay attention to my surroundings, too. I passed what could have been Shrek's swamp. I also ran passed a cemetery which made me think of my mom (she loves cemeteries) and how I know she would be so glad she wasn't running a 30k. :)

At mile 12 I took another Sport Bean pack. Each time I took one, it seemed just about right when I needed it. My plan worked out really well. I took my last one at mile 16 to get me through to the end. When I passed the mile 17 marker, I got really excited that I had already run 17 miles and only had about a mile and a half to go! I was pretty amazed with myself, becacuse I felt like I had enough energy left to pick up the pace for the home stretch.

In the last half mile I was running around an 8:00 min/mi and I passed these two guys and I wanted to turn around and say, "How does it feel to get passed by a girl?" But I didn't. :)

I hadn't had a goal the entire race, but when I looked at the time on my watch and I saw how close I was to the end, I decided I wanted to come in under 3 hours. According to my watch I came in at 2:58:53! (The bathroom stop put me exactly 2 minutes behind that on the official clock.) Officially, my time was 3:00:53 and my pace was 9:43 min/mi.

Overall Place: 319 out of 500

Division Place: 16 out of 28

I was really proud of myself for sticking to my plan and not being totally wasted when I finished. It was great! I was definitely sore after, but that's a good feeling. It felt way cool to think that I ran 18.6 miles! And I really ran it.

Okay, so I didn't get all my training in again for the week, but I was actually still feeling sick until Tuesday. But I got my 18-miler in!

Wednesday: 5 miles

Saturday: 18.6 miles

Total for the week: 23.6 miles (181.2 miles to go! - I know the math doesn't add up, but I'm counting down based on what I was supposed to do and how many miles are left in my training schedule.)

P.S. Thanks to those who give me words of encouragement. It really helps!

Greece - Day 6 - August 28th

I've never seen so many dogs laying around and sleeping as I did in Greece. These dogs were all over the place in Santorini and Athens.

On Friday morning, we took a walking tour across Athens. We got to see the changing of the guard in front of Parliament, which is also where their Tomb of the Unknown is.

The soldiers have an interesting walk and goofy shoes.

On the tour we got a little more history on the Theater of Dionysos Eleuthereus. It's pretty amazing because the Grecians figured out just how to build the amphitheater on the hill so that if someone says something in the orchestra and it can be heard clear at the top.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but where the shadow is, is an under-the-stage entrance/exit. I thought that was pretty fascinating.

The front seats were reserved for the "higher-ups". They even had names engraved on them.

There were olive trees all over the place. Olives and olive oil are a big export for Greece.

There are these Happy Trains that run around Athens and take tourists from place to place (for a fee, of course!). I took the picture because we thought of Wes every time we saw them.

After our walking tour, Brian and I headed to the National Archaeological Museum.

A gold leaf crown.

They have about a zillion of these pots. Brian and I could not fathom finding all those little pieces of the pots in an excavation site, figuring out which pot they went to, and then figuring out where on the pot they were supposed to go. I mean, I like puzzles and all, but that's a little ridiculous! A lot of the pieces in the museum have had the old parts cast in clay so you can know what it was supposed to look like, like this pot.

Thousands-year-old shells. A-mazing.

I love mosaics. I think they look so cool. Even if they don't make a picture or anything, I really love the tiling.

Look at all that detailed tile work!

Greece - Day 5 - August 27th

On Thursday, we had breakfast at Mickey-D's because Brian was sorely missing American food after his week in Bulgaria. Plus, I love seeing what's different in McDonald's restaurants across the world. I had a McToast which is basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on hamburger buns. Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches are all over the place in Greece.

After breakfast, we made our way to the Acropolis.

The Temple of Nike was being restored but we thought we'd better get a picture with Brian's shoe anyway! :)

This is the Odeion of Herodes Atticos. It used to be a covered amphitheater and this is all that's left.

This is Brian and me with the Parthenon in the background (also being restored).

This is what is left of the theater of Dionysos Eleuthereus.

The Acropolis isn't the tallest hill, but it has a 360 degree view of the entire city, so that's why it was chosen for the Parthenon and the other various monuments.

Brian on the other side of the Parthenon.

You can see the wearing down of the roof on the porch of the Erechtheion.

I took this picture of Greek tractors for Wes. We were thinking about our kiddos! :)

This is another view of the Erechtheion. It's pretty amazing to see those statues still standing after thousands of years!

A cool view.

After our visit to the Acropolis, we went to the new Acropolis Museum which just opened in July. It was built over an excavation site that they are working to open to the public in the future. Pretty amazing!








Later that night (after naps, of course!) we took the metro out to watch a movie at the open air cinema. It was subtitled in Greek, so the movie was technically in English, but unfortunately a lot of the movie we chose was also in French and German which we didn't understand. We ended up leaving early, but it was still fun to be out with the Greeks!

Greece - Day 4 - August 26th

On Wednesday morning, we slept in, went for a 2 mile jog (that was all we were up for with our being sick and all - but I still think people thought we were weird), had breakfast, returned the ATV, got organized and then strolled Kamari Beach to do some souvenir shopping.

We had lunch a great little Greek place where the guy spoke amazing English; he almost sounded Australian instead of Greek. He kindly brought us Irish Coffee at the end of our meal and when we declined, we explained that we were indeed Mormon, which was not the same as Amish. :)

In the afternoon, our hotel proprietor (who was awesome, by the way) gave us a ride to the port so we could catch our ferry back to Athens. Brian was sleepy and read some, while I had a great time people-watching. I was trying to figure out the deal of a group of people - mostly good-looking - who were with a camera crew (not filming at the moment). We figured they were probably from a British reality TV show or something. We never actually asked though. I really enjoyed the trying-to-figure-it-out part.

Around 4pm we hopped on the "speed" ferry (it takes 5 hours from port to port versus our overnight ferry which took 7 hours). I don't think Brian or I will ever take that ferry again! They crowded us into the inside of this medium-sized boat in airplane-esque seats.

When we started to go, we were both reading and it was fine, but then as the boat began speeding up it wasn't fun at all. The water was choppy anyway, from the wind, but it was like this boat was on two pontoons making it bounce up and down a ton. Essentially, I felt like I was in my first trimester of pregnancy, but without any relief. I wasn't throwing up (I don't when I'm pregnant either), but I just felt like my stomach was constantly turning circles. You can imagine my dismay when I realized I had 5 hours ahead of me of this.

I tried just laying against the window to my side while Brian read. Luckily, he was doing a lot better than I was. I fell asleep for about an hour and that helped pass a little bit of time. We met some people from Toronto whom we chatted with for the second half of the trip which helped, but I basically had to lay down as much as I could manage as we talked with them.

It was a little bit of a bummer that the ride was a little miserable, but we finally made it to the port! By the time we got to our hotel in Athens it was around 11:30pm. Time for a good, motionless night's sleep!

Greece - Day 3 - August 25th

On Tuesday, we were starting to adjust to Greece time, but we were still up before breakfast started. (At our hotel it didn't start until at least 8:30am...which is sleeping in for us!) We headed out for another day of exploring right after breakfast.

We ended up taking the ATV up these back-and-forth roads uphill (another Dumb and Dumber moment). We weren't exactly sure where we were going, but we had great views along the way!

We ended up at an excavation site. It was quite a trek up to this point! Luckily, we were on the side of the cliff with a road. Under where Brian is standing, there was a path up the cliff that people were walking up.

Brian and I got back on the ATV and headed in a different direction on the island. We stopped at a cool lookout point.

It was a really windy day to begin with, but this lookout point was exceptionally windy. It reminded us of that really windy spot on O'ahu (if you've been there, you know what I'm talking about). It wasn't quite that windy, but close.

Amidst the wind and picture taking, Brian's sunglasses went missing. Seriously, the wind must have knocked them off his shirt. (Did I mention it was windy?) Brian's out there looking for them.

After that we went to check out Red Beach. It wasn't quite as red as Moab, but it was still pretty cool.

Then we went to check out Black Beach. A lot of the beaches are a little more rocky than sandy because they were created from a volcanic eruption. It's cool to see the dark sand against the blue water.

After a dip in the chilly Aegean Sea and a rest at our hotel, we headed back out to Oia. We stopped at our favorite little bakery again for a snack. I thought the walls looked liked they'd be great for a senior picture or something so Brian snapped some pictures of me. :)

They have these gorgeous pink flowers all over Santorini. It really adds to the beauty of the island and the contrast of colors.

Oia is known for its sunset. In the background, you can see people lining up to catch the view.






There she goes!






Oia at night - still a great sight! (Hey! That rhymed!)