The Bellingham Bay Half Marathon and a weekend of Crafting

Although Kelsey decided that running the half-marathon wasn't in her best interest due to lack of training, she still made the trip up from Seattle to cheer me on! The race was this past Sunday and my friend Marguerite was able to run in Kelsey's place. We picked up our race packets at the expo on Saturday and met up Sunday morning for the race. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, slightly foggy and perfect running weather! Kim and Elias dropped Marguerite and I off at the Depot Square downtown for the start of the race. Mom, Dad, and Kelsey came shortly after with the rest of the kiddos. They were a great cheering team! My goal was to run the race in 2 hours and I came in at 1 hour and 51 minutes! I felt strong the whole time and can genuinely say that I had fun running!!

Auntie Kelsey was planning on staying here until Wednesday morning but ended up leaving Tuesday afternoon after Mallory had several rough nights where she was awake more than she slept. However, since we were all going to be together, we planned on doing some crafting. Kelsey brought along a few sewing projects, Kim brainstormed Christmas ornament ideas, and I started working on Haleigh's first homemade Christmas ornament. It was a successful few days!

 Haleigh and Mallory

Cousins!

 Auntie Kelsey sewing Mallory a pair of shoes

 Annaliese created all kinds of things out of playdoh!

 Figuring out how to sew a skirt

 Auntie Kelsey made Mallory the dress and shoes; Grandma made the headband!

Auntie Kelsey made the girls matching skirts!

Yesterday, after Auntie Kelsey and Mallory left, my mom and I took the girls to the park to get some fresh air. Annaliese didn't really want to play to play on the playground so we went for a walk past the fish hatchery and across the waterfall. She was running ahead of us and then she stopped, turned around and said, "My skirt is following me!" Yesterday is also the day that Annaliese has started to call my mom "Grandma" instead of "Mama." She makes it a three syllable word "Grr-and-ma" and it's pretty cute!