Training for the 1/2...

I ran my first 1/2 marathon back in April in OKC - I am in the process of training for another 1/2 - this time in Tulsa.  There is a big group of people at work that run over the lunch hour and then meet up on weekends to do our long runs... I could never train on my own... I'm just not that motivated :-) but having people to go with makes a difference for me.  We have been doing some races lately to make some of our training runs a little more exciting :-)

Race for the Cure in Tulsa

Stephanie-Misty-Stan-Me-Nikki

Stephanie-Me-Misty-Nikki

(Misty, Nikki, and I ran the OKC 1/2 together and we recruited Stephanie to start running with us... this was her first 5K race and she did awesome!)

My little Polly Pocket - Misty!

Misty and I work with a lady that is undergoing chemo/radiation for breast cancer so we wore signs on our back saying we were running in honor of Deniese.  Deniese is such a strong woman and so incredibly nice! She is such an inspiration!!!  And she's almost done with radiation now... she's beat this disease... yeah!!!

Woolaroc Road Race - 8k

This race was through Woolaroc and I had heard it was quite hilly... but Misty and Shauna kept telling me that once I got past the 2k it would be fine... but there was a big hill that went to the 2k.  Ummmm They didn't not tell the full truth!!!  The hill leading up to the 2k was the biggest hill (an entire 1/2 mile up hill) but the ENTIRE race was up hill then down then up then down then up then up then up some more... it was aweful!!!  I actually finished in pretty good time (considering the hills) averaging around 9:30 min/miles... but only because I ran the whole thing with Misty... knowing if I dropped behind I would just walk up the hills.  We made it the whole way without walking once... normally that wouldn't be a problem on a flat course... but I hate hills so this was a big accomplishment for me :-)

Amy-Me

About to the finish line...

After the race

Amy-Misty-Me-Shauna

(We didn't even plan our blue shirts... we normally plan coordinating shirts but we actually didn't this time... 3 of us just already had the shirt from another race)

Amy-Misty-Kala-Me-Shauna

The 1/2 is November 22nd so less than a month away! I ran 9.5 last weekend, will do 9.3 this weekend in the Tulsa Run race, then hopefully 2 more weekends of long runs before the actual race!

Trip to the zoo

The first weekend in October we took Pierson to the zoo and it was so much fun! I ran in the Zoo Run 10k that morning and Pierson and Drew drove down and met me at the zoo afterwards.  Pierson absoluteley LOVED it!!! He loves to read books about animals and always makes the animal sounds so it was so neat to watch him as he saw each animal in real life! (we'd taken him before... but he was much younger)

Staring in amazement at the animals

I'm sure at this point Pierson was saying "Long Neck" as he pointed to his neck... instead of a sound for a giraffe he tells us it has a Long Neck!

It was so neat to see him stare in such amazement at some of the animals!

Getting a better view of some of the animals

Pierson loved to ROAR at the lion... although the lion just snoozed right through it :-)

Looking at the lion with daddy!

The "pink birds" that Pierson "tweet tweet"-ed at :-)

Grrrr!

This monkey pic cracked me up!

Woah! Tiger!

Trying to push through the fence... just wanting to get closer to some of those animals...

The last place we went before heading home was the children's zoo

Luckily they opened up the gates and we got to go inside and pet some of the animals...

I set him down and he just took off running towards the animals...

These sheep were eating and Pierson went to pet one and apparently Pierson startled it and it turned around and poked Pierson in the tummy with his nose... It was hilarious!!!  Drew and I were cracking up!

We had such a great time!  Pierson was so sad to leave... he loved seeing all the animals and making all their noises.  He would even say bye to each animal as we'd move on to the next one... "Bye bye buffalo"... "Bye bye lion Rrrroar"... "bye bye froggy   hop hop!"

I think one of the greatest joys of being a mom is watching your child learn or experience something new! There's nothing like it!!

Random September Pics

One of Pierson's favorite things to do is play with water... all summer long we'd come home at the end of the day and go immediately outside, turn the outside faucet on low, and Pierson would play in the water. I mean it was an EVERY day thing! He would fill up water bottles, lids, containers, buckets, anything he could find... fill them up and dump them out.

Filling up a water bottle lid

Dumping water on the mulch :-)

Just looking cute outside

Playing in mommy's car

Gotta get the right tunes on!

Helping daddy cook

Listening to daddy tell him how to cook... He's going to have to learn from him... cause I certainly don't have any pointers in that area!

As I've said before... Pierson is definitely in the stage where he wants to do ANYTHING Drew is doing! He LOVES his daddy! It's so fun to watch the two of them together... Drew is just an amazing dad!!

We got an OSU flag to put out on game day and Drew was installing it for the first time... any time he put down the drill Pierson had to check it out and make it spin

 

(We decided it was probably safer to take out the drill bit and let him play with hit that way... then we decided maybe the nice drill was just better off on daddy's work bench than being played with)

We went to Drew's parents' for dinner... Pierson was so distracted by all the toys we had a hard time getting him to look at the camera... but I think this one turned out pretty darn cute!!

Pierson also discovered that he can unlock the deadbolt on the back door if he pushes one of the kitchen table chairs up to the door, climbs up on it, and turns the dead bolt!

He has also discovered he can push that chair up to about anything that he can't reach and then magically reach it!  I hate that chair!!!  :-) hahaha

Pierson fertilizing the driveway... because it obviously needs it... of course!

My parents stopped by after work and Pierson played ring around the rosey with them

Ooops... he didn't "fall down"  :-)

Hanging out with the cousins

My cousin Gary, his wife Kim, and their two kiddos Max and Kyra came up to my parents to visit.  Pierson loves to play with Max and Kyra and watch everything they do.  Kyra also likes to show Pierson how to do things :-)  It's so fun to watch them all play!

Kyra pushing Pierson around on the Fire engine car

My mom got this cute pink flapper dress for Kyra to play in and she immediately put it on and wore it all day... She's just too cute!

The Golf Cart

Growing up my grandparents always had a golf cart at the lake house so my sister and I learned how to drive it at a very young age.  I like to think that's why we're such great drivers now... we learned at such a young age :-) Well my parents now have a golf cart out at their house and Max has always loved driving it around when he's out there.  Recently he started being allowed to drive it on his own and I can tell he loves that freedom just as much as I did when I was little.  He's in first grade this year and does a fantastic job driving it around!

Max cruising in the golf cart

Taking his little sister Kyra for a ride

Max got this new 2 wheeled skate board and did such a great job on it... I would have fallen flat on my face!

Pierson and Mimi swinging on the bench swing

Pierson loves to swing!

He was hollering while he was swinging... it was too funny!

I'm sure you all know by now that Pierson is a screamer... not the throwing a fit kind of way (although that occassionally rears it's head, too) but he just loves to scream to hear himself scream. He always turns his head to the side, though, when he screams... it just cracks Drew and I up!!

Kyra swinging

And of course going out to Mimi and Pops' wouldn't be complete without a ride on Pops' tractor.

Pops even lets him drive!  He loves it!