Brooke is 4!!

Today is Brooke's 4th birthday!  It is always hard to believe that my babies are getting older!

Brooke got to have a very special day :)  We started by having the breakfast that she wanted.  Then we let her open a present before school.  We sent in cupcakes to school and Jack, Madeline and I, got to see her at school.  After school, a "special lunch", and nap she opened more presents.  When Hana got home, they got to watch her favorite, and new movie to the collection, The Lion King.  We ate dinner and then went to get her ears pierced. Whew! It was a very exciting day!  

She gets to have more fun tomorrow when we go to Chuck E Cheese with some of her friends!

early morning present :)

She looked So peaceful during their pre-snack prayer! love it!

snack at school! yummy cupcakes :)

Madeline and daddy with Brooke's birthday balloon

 Present time!

 

A little helping hand :)

getting ready for the earrings

 

Brooke looking SO cute with her NEW EARRINGS!

 

Happy 4th Birthday BROOKE!!

My second half! Better than my first!

Today I finished my second half.  This race was a little different than the first, but also similar.  We started at 6:30AM!  So I had to get up at 4:45AM to get there and make it to the starting line on time.  I felt really good for the first 10 miles.  The course was relatively flat (there were some small hills but nothing like the horrid on-ramp of the Battleship) and nice.  We started around the loop at the beach and saw the sun rise.  We ran about 6 miles inside of Landfall, I was afraid that those would be my hardest miles.  They were not.  My hardest miles were the last 2.  I think my lack of sleep was hurting me by this point.  I needed to dig deep to find some extra energy and I just didn't have it.  The 2 girls I was running with started to pull away from me in the last mile. They are both a couple of inches taller than me and their longer legs just ran a pace I couldn't keep up with.  That is ok, I just put on my music and ran it out.  

My official results were 2:07:24 (9:44 pace).  I was 386 out of 1016 women.

That is about a minute and a half faster than my first.  I was happy with that.  I had not been as motivated for this one so I hadn't trained quite as hard.

All 5 of us that trained together got matching shirts.  They were very cute if I say so myself! I put the design together (with their help of course!). Soon I should have a picture of us all at the start, one of the other girls took it.  Once I get it, I will add it!

This is the back of our shirts it says "I couldn't do this alone!"

Here are all of the girls I have been running with... PRE-race :) 

See how DARK it is!

 

This is what 24oo runners looks like! Wow!

(I borrowed this from one of the local Tv station's website)

The 3 of us at about mile 11

Can you see my determination to finish?! This is about mile 12.5
 
 In the home stretch!

 Waving to my family!

At this point I am not sure if I will do another half.  My leg hurts, I am tried, and my body is sore.  But I kind of liken it to childbirth... it may take me awhile to forget the pain so that I am ready to do it again!!

Madeline Madeline

We found a new love for Madeline... ranch!  I do not know where this child came from, she certainly could not be MY child!

Yuuuummmmyyyy ranch!

She also loves Brooke :)

Aren't my kids sooo adorable :)