Woo-hoo!  Very glad that it’s over and that it went so well.  I finished just ahead of the 2:15 pacer!  I was expecting to finish around 2:30, so I’m happy with my time!  Thanks Pete for taking such great pictures at the Earth Day half marathon

Just 12 short hours before the gun goes off for the race tomorrow.  I’m running the Earth Day Half Marathon in the morning!  I have a love/hate relationship with these races.  I love having a goal, something to work towards, new t-shirts, finish lines, etc.  I hate being anxious and feeling like my legs will fail me after 10 miles.  Training was going fairly well for this one until my spring break when we all got sick.  Then Pete was traveling for awhile and I had to take up running on the treadmill again.  Easter weekend was the deciding weekend as to if I was even going to run this or not.  My dad brought my brother, sister and I out 11 miles and dropped us off in the middle of a field.  Erin had her bike and was the pace vehicle, equipped with water, snacks, her ipod, and speakers.  Steven was equipped with short shorts and killer dance moves.  Sadly, there are no pictures of this event.  All went well until about mile 9 when we had to take a right onto a gravel road and were running straight into the wind.  I may have hopped on the bike for a quarter mile or so!

So the decision was made to finish what I started and today we began the preparations.  Our daycare was closed today, so Pete and Andrew had the day together.  After swimming they were nice enough to go pick up my race packet!  All it held was my bib, time chip, and t-shirt.  That’s right, they ALREADY were handing out the T-shirts.  What’s the point of even running when I already have it?

Oh well, I’m looking forward to seeing the old stomping grounds regardless.

Tonight we carbo loaded.

The plan is to get to bed early…right after I finish watching Food Revolution and updating my playlist.  Check out Wendy’s blog for more half-marathon fun!

The last couple of weeks have been busy as usual.  We spent Easter in Cottonwood and enjoyed having everyone together at the same time.

Everyone wanted their turn to hold Amelia.

Andrew was very good with her and talked about her for days after.  “Mom, where baby Meelia?  Baby Meelia too yittoh to talk yet?”.

He also talked about the farm machinery for days.  I think Grandpa Dennis has a future summer helper.  He now points out corn fields and is on the lookout for a planter.

The warmer weather has allowed us to spend most of our evenings outside.  This evening was no different.

Andrew practiced his jumps and Pete challenged him to jump and catch.

After that, Andrew played in weeded my garden.  I told him that if he wants to help Grandpa Dennis he has to start practicing in our little piece of land.

He didn’t pull out a single weed, but found about 15 rocks to throw into the pond with Pete.

It will be nice to have a garden helper this summer!

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We just had a blast from the past.  THIS is what we posted in December of 2008.  Andrew started it on Tuesday.  I came down with it on Thursday and Pete started his turn on Saturday.  We’ve all had the same flu like symptoms.  Luckily, we were able to stagger ourselves and didn’t have to completely rely on Andrew to take care of us.  Also, it was my spring break last week, so no work was lost for anyone.  So, I guess looking back…it wasn’t that bad.

Despite the illness, we enjoyed having all 3 of us home during the day.  Andrew is growing and changing so fast.  He talks nonstop and is always asking questions and wanting his thoughts confirmed by one of us.  Here are a couple of recent conversations we’ve had with him:

(Last week)

Pete – “After lunch, I have to go run some errands.”

Andrew – “Oh.  You going running?  With Aunt Erin?”

Me – “No, he’s going to run some erranDDDS.”

Andrew – “The other Aaron?” (neighbor boy)

After a brief explanation of what an errand is and that Pete was going to drive instead of run, we moved on with the conversation.

(Tonight, we were all “running errands” in Maple Grove and drove by a Caribou Coffee sign)

Andrew – “I see coffee-boo.  Mom, I see coffee-boo.  Hey guys, coffee-boo, over there.”

Me (rolling my eyes) – “He means Caribou.  Andrew, you are such a city kid.”

Andrew – “Oh. Yeah.  City kid like Uncle Bill?  And Curious George?”

Pete (laughing) – “Yes, just like Uncle Bill and Curious George!”

We started the day out with Andy asking if he could wear “big boy” underwear.  This caught us a bit by surprise but we said “why not” since we really didn’t have much else going on.

Andy spent most of the morning on the potty reading books and playing toys…the other half he ran around semi-nude while Laura and I prayed that”pee pee” or “poh poh” wouldn’t find its way on to the carpet.

After a couple hours Laura decided to go for a run and left Andy and I to fend for ourselves.  We did quite well as you can see from the result in the following movie…

After nap (in a diaper) we decided to go straight to the big boy undies….after one minor accident success struck again with “poh poh” hitting the bottom of the potty!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring…

During a couple of our visits to Europe we noticed young children on interesting wooden bikes without pedals.  After doing a little research we found out that these bikes are called “balance bikes”.  Balance bikes allow children to start walking with the bike; proceed to an occasional balance and then to an all-out run and glide.  What a perfect match for a 2 year-old with extra energy….

Andy was up and riding in no time….

It looked so fun we all took a turn…

…even the Monkey rode it the next morning…

We took a walk outside this afternoon.   We sat in the sun for awhile and Andrew played in the snow and watched the melting snow drip off of the roof.  That’s when he informed me that, in fact “Our house is raining”.

After that he was asking me where Dad was.  I explained that he was in Canada for work.  Then, Andrew proceeded to shout “DAD, DAD, COME HOOOOME DAD”.

He was quiet for a few seconds, sighed, and then said “I want grapes”.  Grapes were served and all was well again.

Today we took a trip to Fargo to visit the Nelson’s and Baby Amelia.  We’re glad we were able to meet her and look forward to seeing them again next weekend!