Seattle Marathon & Half 2010

Rychen's family - it was so awesome to set this goal and prepare for it together, keeping ourselves accountable. Great for me to join in with them (only my second race, they've been doing it for a year now) and be part of this! Landon, Courtney's husband, was also there to support us.

Here's the starting line...


The course was beautiful. Several miles along the lake here.
...and several miles though the city, both on the Express Lane, overpass, and through downtown. Rychen's race went over the long bridge to Mercer Island and further into the city.







Congratulations Rychen on this great achievement! 2 marathons in 22 days! Now it's rest time :)

Transit & Race Expo

Rychen and I at the race expo


...and riding the SoundTransit (my mom is with us, who came in from Las Vegas to take care of the kids while we ran)

Seattle Center

We went to Seattle Friday for the race expo and to see a bit of the city. Here we are having fun at Seattle Center...

Indian Beach

This was a beach at Ecola State Park, which by the way, is so fantastic!!
I want to go back to camp and run along the forest trails. There is also a beautiful grassy overlook area where you can picnic and get a panoramic view of several beaches, all the way to Cannon Beach, the surrounding rocks and wildlife, and the huuuuuge ocean! But I didn't get pictures of any of that....

Here are pictures from Indian Beach.

Elisabeth LOVED walking through the ocean! She was laughing and laughing, as each frigid wave came up and drenched her shorts.....(and then some!) as I held her hand. But she got too cold so we couldn't stay as long as we wanted. Of course she threw a huge tantrum when we had to leave the fun waves even though she was shivering like mad! Also, our camera took a nose dive into the Pacific, making our trip much more expensive than we had planned!

Cape Meares

While my mom is in town, we took a trip along the Northern Oregon Coast. There was a Merrill family reunion at Seaside in 2005 we weren't able to attend because Rychen Parker had just been born. But my mom really loved that area so we wanted to go see it. We drove to Tillamook and toured Cape Meares, and then followed highway 101 North to several look-out points, up to Ecola State Park (near Cannon Beach). Here are the photos from Cape Meares.

This is the hugest slug anybody has ever seen, I'm sure. Isn't it fantastic? I wanted to keep it for a pet! ha!! Here is Elisabeth waving "hello" to it.

For Love of Helmets

Last week Rychen P. was asking me if he could get a lacrosse helmet for his birthday. Could he just try playing in his bike helmet? No, he told us firmly, he needed a lacrosse helmet.

 

And then, we happened to find this Baseball helmet at a thrift store for 25 cents. Rychen P. just HAD to have it. It's been 4 days, and he has yet to wear it for baseball. But he has worn it for every other imaginable activity, and cries when we ask that he take it off for prayers!

 

Yeah, he can be obsessive sometimes. Wonder where he gets that from?

Trip to the coast

We had a fun weekend at the coast for Rychen's marathon. Friday after lunch we headed out so we could enjoy the beach and relax at Rychen's family's beachhouse for the night.

On our way to Newport I drove by this restaurant in Lincoln City and had to do a double take! I turned around and stopped the car so I could get a picture.

We got to Newport early so we went to the marina and learned about crab fishing, and got to ask a fisherman a few questions.

While we waited for Rychen to come in, the kids relaxed and ate cherries. Funny Elisabeth is so addicted to these things.

Rychen's Marathon #1

Rychen ran his first marathon in Newport this past weekend. It's so cool to say my husband did that (and will soon do more)! Check out his running blog for the full story.

 

I'm so proud of him! And now we're back into full swing, getting ready for Seattle Marathon & Half on the 26th. I'm excited! My knee finally feeling a lot better and I'm able to run at my normal pace for long miles.