Gearing Up For A Long Run...

Today my friends Jony, Melody, Rob and myself geared up for along run.  The goal was to run 17 miles, I set it for 18.  We ran from our house, so our friends came over ready to put on the mileage.  Jony showed up with a bag full of running goodies- like energy bars, and GU gels.  She brought milk and chocolate syrup.  Thank you - you are so sweet!
We were all so excited and gathered around her goodies like little kids after Trick O' Treating.  It was so funny.  I had to take a picture of our childish behavior.  We were so cute!  Who would have ever thought that a bunch of adults would get so excited about power bars and power gels?  But we did!  This stuff works! 
We truly are able to run longer and feel energized after eating some of these goodies during our long runs!  I felt it today!  I ate a power bar (not very yummy, but it was not bad either) and I felt an extra burst of energy on my last five miles or so.  Rob totally swears by GU Gels!  He really thrives on those. (Call it "Runner's HIGH")
Anyhow, Jony ran her first 17 Miles EVER, CONGRATULATIONS!!  Rob ran alongside her, making it his first 17, too.  But then he caught up with me as I was finishing my last mile or so, making it 18 miles for the both of us.  CONGRATULATIONS Rob, you ran your very first 18 miles ever!!!  Thanks for your support!
Jony, Melody and Rob- you guys never cease to amaze me.  I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have such great friends, and especially running friends.  Your support, motivation and enthusiasm, INSPIRES ME!  You all are amazing people to know and run with. 
Melody-  I agree with you when you said that the best part of our run today was when we had that moment of silence and our tempo/rhythm was just right!  IT WAS WONDERFUL!  I'm glad we shared such a moment.
I'm also grateful for the power of prayer.  This morning it was raining snow.  It was a little discouraging, so I took the liberty of asking Heavenly Father in a prayer to please give us, if He wanted, a few hours of cleared weather to make our run happen.  Well, as you can see He more than answered my prayer, He gave us parted skies and even some sunshine.  I felt very loved and spoiled!  I'm so grateful to have a Heavenly Father that hears and answers prayers. 
Anyhow, it was a great day!! 

 

I know I shouldn't ...

I'm so proud of our son James.  He is probably not going to appreciate me blogging about his big accomplishments over the last 4 or 5 months in school.  But, he has worked so hard to keep a good GPA and has been an amazing student so far.  He came home today with 7 awards for several academic subjects and one for making the Shuksan Middle School Honor Roll.  YAY!  Great job my boy!!  Congratulations on all of your hard work and dedication.  We are so proud of you and so grateful to Heavenly Father to have blessed you with such a great mind!
He was really cute about letting us know.  He didn't want to boast or seem too proud of himself.  He was very funny about it too.  Had to be sarcastic...he said he had a terrible day, he is such a stinker for teasing us.  I just hugged him and kissed him and hugged him some more.  I thanked him for his hard work and for setting such a great example to his little sisters.
I'm honored to be called His Mother!

Happy Valentine's Day...

We hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's day!  We love you all! 
We started our day with our traditional ANNUAL Valentine's Day breakfast.  We made everything look pink.  The kids loved that.  They have requested we make AREPAS for dinner and I'm planning to make those pink too-  I know MOM, CRAZY stuff! 
Sophia made this day extra special by giving me this box filled with love notes.  She was so excited to watch me and Rob open all the cute cards she made.  I love her, she is the cutest five year old we ever had!
I was a bad wife and asked Rob not to give me anything for V-day, except something he would make for me (he makes the best cards ever).  So this morning he surprised me with the most simplest and most wonderful card ever.  On the front he glued a heart with my name written in glitter glue, then inside he put this half heart- one side his name and the other with mine with a plus sign in between and then the other side of the card with an equal sign and a 3-D whole heart, and under it said "Happy Valentine's Day!  I love you!  Rob".  Then on the back "robjamcreations" and "when quality doesn't matter".  He is so darn corney and funny!  I love him!   Thank you Rob for my sweet and simple card!
P.s  Rob was so cute- he made the girls' sandwiches in the shape of a heart!

 HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY- EVERYONE!



Olympia, WA...Part 2 of our Mini Vacation.

Sorry I took a ton of pictures.  I really enjoy capturing every moment of my life with my family on camera.