Camping at Grandma and Grandpa's

While Kyle and I were on Whidbey Island for the half marathon, Annaliese and Haleigh were having fun with Grandma and Grandpa!

Friday night they went camping in the living room. The last time they spent the night there, Grandma ended up sleeping in the bed with them...apparently Haleigh had a hard time and didn't want to stay in bed. So they thought maybe everyone sleeping in the tent together would go better! It sounds like it went pretty well, although Haleigh still woke up fairly early which seems to be her new normal.

Saturday morning they took a walk to Lafeen's Donuts and some play time at Whatcom Falls Park. They got home just in time for Uncle Ben to come over with Mallory and Uncle Thane, Auntie Kim, Elias and Malachi to arrive. Uncle Ben headed out on a mountain bike ride, and Uncle Thane and Auntie Kim left to do a blessing event with their church, leaving Grandpa and Grandma with all five grandkids! I think they loved it!!

'Baking' with flour and water

When we returned to my parent's house mid-afternoon on Saturday, it appeared that everyone had had a good time and was ready for a nap! Grandpa was on the couch with three of the kiddos and everyone was watching a movie and eating snacks. Annaliese and Haleigh both fell asleep on the drive home and then slept for another hour or so once we were home! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for letting them hang out with you! 

Whidbey Island Half Marathon

Last weekend I ran the Whidbey Island Half Marathon with Megan, a friend from work. We didn't get to train together as much as we had hoped and we both went into the race knowing that it was hilly and that we probably weren't in quite as good of shape as we should have been! That being said, I think we would both agree that the race went quite well and we were happy with how it went!

Kyle and I dropped the girls of with Grandma on Friday afternoon and headed down to Whidbey Island. We stopped for a few pictures at Deception Pass and then made it to our hotel in Oak Harbor. 

21 weeks pregnant and ready to run!

It's a beautiful view!

We walked from our hotel to the Expo where we picked up both my and Megan's race packets and sampled a few new flavors of Nuun Sports drink...there wasn't much else at the expo! For dinner, we found this cute little Italian restaurant, Rustica, where we had some delicious food. Then it was back to the hotel where we had an early-to-bed sort of night! 

Saturday morning Megan met us at the hotel at 6:15 and Megan and I hopped on the shuttle to take us to the starting line. It was a bit chilly, but it was clear and not raining so a beautiful day for a run! My hip has been bothering me for the past few weeks of training and when it started hurting at mile 0.5, I was a bit worried! But it didn't get much worse until about mile 7, and even then it remained at a tolerable level of pain for the rest of the run! Significantly better than the last few training runs I did!!

Kyle brought his road bike along and rode along both the Half-Marathon course and the full marathon course. He saw us around mile 5 and was able to take a few pictures and then headed off towards the finish. It was a bit hillier than he anticipated and we were running a bit faster than I had told him we would be doing, so we actually made it to the finish about 15 minutes before he did!

Around mile 5...still feeling pretty good!

At the finish line. 1 hr 59 min and 56 seconds!

Megan and I at the finish...with our medals to prove it!

Towards the end, I was definitely ready to be done running, but for being 21 weeks pregnant and not doing quite enough training, I was quite surprised that we were able to finish in 2 hours! It was a pretty course and I think it would be a fun one to do again! 

Happy Easter!

After going to church on Easter Sunday, we headed over to Grandpa and Grandma's house for lunch with Auntie Kelsey and Uncle Ben. The girls looked adorable in their cute Easter dresses...the pictures don't do them justice!

Before lunch, Auntie Kelsey and I were able to go for a run through Whatcom Falls Park while Kyle did my part of preparing lunch:) We enjoyed a delicious meal, relaxed for a short while while Annaliese and Haleigh played with Mallory and then headed home for rest of the afternoon. It was a good way to celebrate Easter!

Annaliese's Sunday School class spent several weeks talking about Easter and the events leading up to it; it was fun to hear her recount the story. It went something like this: "Jesus's friends really liked him and were so excited to see him. They waved tree branches and yelled 'Hosanna.' But then they didn't like him anymore and Jesus died on the cross...but then, He was alive again!!!" Even now, several weeks later, she will point out a cross when we see one and tell me that Jesus died on the cross but is now alive. It is so neat to hear her talk about what she is learning and watch her process it all! 

A Month of Birthdays!

Grandpa Glen, Grandma Tara and Malachi all have March birthdays in addition to Haleigh-bear. Since we celebrated hers early when Grandpa Jay and Grandma Kelley were here, we decided to have one big party day for the others.

We started by meeting up at the Bham Fam Fair, which was basically a place for local vendors to come and advertise, but they all set up a booth and have some sort of a game/activity for the kids to do. And since it was at the Sportsplex, there was also free ice skating.

Showing off their balloons...Elias has a sword and the girls all have flowers. 

Mallory in the bounce house. Annaliese is in the background.

Haleigh wasn't too sure she wanted to try it...she never made it in!

Grandpa helping her jump on the step on the outside!

I was impressed at how still Annaliese sat to have her face painted!

Elias' turn. Mallory also had a heart painted on her cheek; Haleigh didn't want one.

A little sword fighting/jousting

After we had walked through all of the vendors, we headed over to the ice skating rink to give that a try. Annaliese got her skates on and stepped onto the ice, only to decide it was too slippery to try. We had lots of tears, smeared face-painting, and more tears. She ended up watching from the bench, safely off the ice clinging to Grandpa.

Mallory giving it a try.

Auntie Kelsey and Uncle Ben

Uncle Thane, Auntie Kim and Elias

Kyle

We grabbed a bite to eat from one the local food trucks and found a picnic table by the baseball diamond where a local high school game was getting started. Annaliese and Elias wanted to watch and they were super intrigued by it!

From here, we headed back to Grandpa and Grandma's house. While Mallory and Malachi napped, Annaliese and Elias checked out the hot tub and played outside.

We then headed back inside and did an Easter Egg hunt. Kim and Thane were going to Thane's side of the family on Easter Sunday, but we thought it would be fun to do a little Easter egg hunt with all the kids together. They each had to find their own eggs, which were labeled with their initials. 

Malachi's eggs had Puffs in them!

Trying hard to open the chocolate

Lastly, we celebrated Malachi's birthday with cupcakes for the kids and Grandpa and Grandma's birthdays with salted caramel cheesecake and coconut creme pie.