Gardner Villa: October 2011

Iron Girl Seattle 2011

Thursday, October 27, 2011 by Diana

About 15 months ago my friend LaRee challenged me to run the Iron Girl Seattle 5k with her.

Neither of us were runners but I felt up to the challenge and we had a blast running it last September 2010.

So this year I payed the challenge to my friend Monica who agreed and asked if we could have our daughters join us.

We did some training runs together and come race day we were all ready to go!

Click on any photos to view larger.

At packet pickup we bumped into the Holcombs who decided to run it at the last minute.

That was Sydney's request for her birthday.

Silly girls...
after the race they ended up LOVING it and talked about doing another one.

We grabbed a group shot of us all with our Iron Girl shirts on. Cute design but more of a manly color.

3 tin grins...

The race took place at Greenlake Park in Seattle which is a block away from my favorite running store:
Road Runner Sports!

We had our girls do the free running analysis to see what type of shoe they should be in.

Courtney didn't think the dog was too friendly :)

Monica ended up getting the same running shoes that I have.

The ones she had ordered previously were a little on the snug side.

After we were done we grabbed some grub at Southcenter Mall before heading to our hotel.

We couldn't quite figure out what these were... they were in our packets.
Okay, we do know what they are but sh'ant reveal ;)

We decided to use up the tattoos they handed out at packet pickup.
Courtney helped everyone adhere theirs.

The next morning we were ready to go!

And the race begins....

Finish line just in the distance...

Hooray! Finished! You girls rocked it! During our training runs our daughters had never been able to keep up with the running after 1.5 miles. During this race they ran all the way to the end. Proud Momma's!

Post race pose feeling strong!

Oh yeah!

We were able to snag a group pic with LaRee and Sydney after the race.

LOVED the medals!

Hunter Farms 2011

Monday, October 17, 2011 by Diana

The A's invited us to Hunter Farms on Columbus Day since there was no school. 'Twas a very rainy day!

We let the kids play in the hay maze which was indoors. Some huge pigs and little ponies along with emu's were in stalls eating and snorting.

By the time we hopped on for a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch it stopped raining and the sun broke through. Hallelujah!

Later we found 2' long zuchhinis for $1! Bargain of the day.

Good times were had by all.

Thanks for the invite A's!!!

Monica was the fab photographer of the day. Thanks so much!!

l-r: Noah (Sascha's buddy), Sascha, Apollo, me, Bri-Fri, Ashlyn, Courtney, Sarah, Baylee and her cute little friend (can't remember her name).

We had Apollo scrunch down close to his pumpkin to hide the evidence. Poor guy... we were out in the middle of the pumpkin patch when nature called. We tried to make it to the end where there was a forest but he couldn't hold it any longer. Luckily I had an extra pair of pants in the car since I knew he'd probably be muddy anyway.