Girdwood adventure and an addition to our family

Sunday was a full day. Steve is back to working a ton of hours (a blessing but we miss him!) and Sundays are his only day off again. We had sooo much to do, which included a lot of driving, and I knew it was going to be tricky for the kids. 

We had to drive to Anchorage to drop off a vehicle Steve was selling. Then we were off to Girdwood to look at another vehicle, this time for me. We have the truck but I really miss having a little car to run around in. Plus Steve sold his commuter rig last week and so we needed another vehicle anyway since sharing once isn't the most practical when he's gone working so much, often over an hour away from home. 

While we were in Girdwood we decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine and get the kids out of their carseats for a bit before we had to make the drive home (about two hours after running a few more errands in town). We went up to the Resort and headed out on the cross country ski trails, which are great for walking in the summer. 

Girdwood is such a gorgeous little town, and I love how everything there basically centers around being outside and being active. I also just love tiny towns with character, and Girdwood definitely has a lot of that. It was a nice change of pace after driving through Anchorage earlier. Despite growing up in Anchorage, the older I get the less I enjoy spending time there. It's nice to be able to get shopping done, and to eat at all the amazing restaurants around town too. But it's just so so busy and crowded feeling. Even Palmer seems to be growing so fast, sometimes I just wish for an even slower pace and smaller community than we currently live in.

Anyway, back to Girdwood. It was a beautiful day to visit, and the Resort was bustling with activity from the Fiddlehead Music Festival going on that weekend. We avoided it all and went right out onto the trails, but we weren't in any kind of a hurry. Steve and I both felt so bad for Riggs having to be constantly shushed while we were trying to talk about our game plan for the day, and stuck in the car for hours, basically since first waking up. So we decided to just go at his pace, letting him explore every little detail, no matter how much that meant that we were just standing there waiting for him. 'Slow parenting' has been on my mind a lot lately, I've been trying to be really intentional about following his lead whenever it's feasible to do so, instead of constantly rushing him (here is a great article about it if you're curious).

Steve showed Riggs that when you toss a stick in on one side of the bridge you can run over
to watch it come out the other side. They did this together for nearly half an hour, so much simple, easy fun.

Riggs got knocked down by another dog on the trial (the poor thing didn't want to play with Tutka and was backing away
quickly and bumped right into Riggs) and needed some cuddle time after that. I had only brought the Ergo for Raina so I
just had Riggs sit on my purse and carried him that way. It worked great and I loved the extra snuggle time, which is a pretty
rare thing these days. He was back down and exploring mushrooms within 5 minutes, of course. 

After the walk, we headed home. I got to drive my 'new' car, and Riggs rode along with me. He was so excited to ride in mommy's new car, but then fell asleep about five minutes into the drive and slept all the way to Anchorage and then stayed asleep while Steve ran into a few stores to shop for some work stuff. I'm already loving having a small, economical car to run around in. We still need to dig out our old rocket box and get that put on the roof rack for extra storage, then it will be all set up for skiing this winter too.

2015 Twilight 12k race recap

The Twilight 12k is probably my favorite race of the year, and this year I was extra excited because it was a chance to PR after all the training I've been doing lately. 

Steve's been in-between work calls so Wednesday we went camping (I'll post about that later on this week) and of course, Thursday morning he got a work call so we had to pack up quick and head to Anchorage for him to take the call and run some errands for the new job. It's a great call and Steve is really happy about the job he'll be doing, so I'm happy of course too. But Steve had also just sold his commuter vehicle and we were planning on checking out another over the weekend, so we were down to one vehicle right when we needed to be in a lot of places in a short amount of time. 

Steve had to show up at his new call Friday morning, so we were up at 4:45am to get packed for our long day in Anchorage, then loaded both sleepy eyed kids up in the pjs and were on the road by 5:45. After we dropped him off around 6:45am, we went straight to Starbucks (of course) then ran some errands in the morning and hung out with my mom at her house for the rest of the day until it was time to pick Steve up at 5:30pm and head straight downtown for the race. I'm so thankful he didn't mind hanging out after his first day on a new job while I ran, it was so nice to have him and the kids there to cheer me on at the end.

picked up my tshirt and bib Thursday afternoon

at the starting line in front of Skinny Raven about half an hour before the race started

Me and Sarah before the race, just like two years ago

There are two events at this race, the 6k and the 12k. I was doing the 12k, which was supposed to start at 7:05 (five minutes after the 6k). Anyone who's been to a big race knows that the port-a-potty lines can be crazy right before the race starts. So I warmed up on the park strip one block over and used the port-a-potty there about 5 minutes before the race was supposed to start. I was starting to feel a little nervous about being back in time so I hurried over to the start line, getting there right at 7:05. I had my headphones in but could hear the announcer and saw other people with the blue bibs to signify the 12k, so when he said go about 20 seconds after I arrived, I went.

Except it was actually the start of the 6k, things were just running a little late. The blue bib people had only been in the back, waiting for the red bib 6k people to go so that they could move up to start. And it took me half a mile to notice. At which point I had to frantically turn around and run back towards the start. It was mortifying, like a run of shame, going back against the crowd like that. Such a stupid mistake. I was feeling a whole lot of things at during those moments, including the urge to just run to my truck crying. Even though I'm not ever going to be a super-fast runner I take races seriously as a chance to challenge myself and do the best that I can, so adding an extra mile to the race and messing up my chip time was extremely frustrating for me.

Luckily I made it back just in time to watch all the fastest runners going by and get into the pack that was running at my pace. And somehow my chip results are accurate, at least according to what my running app said. I just added about a mile onto my race at race pace in addition to the mile warmup I had already done, so ended up running 9.5 instead of the races 7.45. I guess it ended up being fine, because I beat my goal time by nearly two minutes and felt great the entire race, other than being more tired than I expected during the last mile, which was probably due to the crazy sprint at the beginning to get back to the start.

about to start the last couple of hills that lead to the finish.
don't let my smile fool you, I was feeling rough at this point, just
didn't want to be grimacing for the picture, haha.

done! yahoo!
I think you can tell from my face how happy I was to be crossing the finish.

Despite my completely idiotic mistake, it was a great race and I'm really happy with my results, and with how I felt during the race. I shaved off 8.5 minutes from my 2013 time, so that was great (read my 2013 race recap, here). Can't wait to add some more mileage over the next couple of weeks in preparation for the Her Tern Half Marathon (my first) in mid-July. 

first camping trip of the year!

Ok, so fair warning, this may be the longest camping post you've ever read. Or more accurately the most picture-filled camping post you've ever read. After you've gotten to the end (if you make it to the end) you'll probably feel cheated out of a whole five or ten minutes of your life that you'll never get back. But you know what? I'm going to post it anyway! 

Friday we went up to Chikaloon to camp with my parents for the night. Steve was actually in Homer for an archery clinic with his dad and brother, so he didn't get to come along. I can't wait to go together as a family in the near future when we get a chance, Riggs (and I, of course) really missed having Steve there. My parents couldn't meet us there until after work but I wanted to drive during afternoon nap time, so we headed out around 1:30.

The drive up north from Palmer on the Glenn Highway is just breathtaking, no matter how many times you've driven it. I swear I could just sit in one of those turnouts and stare at the view for hours and hours, it never gets old. We were camping at the King Mountain Campground, which is a really nice state campground with about 24 sites right alongside a stretch of the Matanuska River that boasts a wide expanse of beach for kids to play on. 

We got to the campground, picked out our site and got right to unloading the truck and setting up our temporary home. Raina wan't too sure about everything but once I got the snacks out she settled right in. We stayed at our site for a bit, me relaxing and reading, Raina exploring the tent, and Riggs getting fully acquainted with every inch of the site.

Last year we didn't get to go camping at all (other than meeting my parents for the day at their campsite) with Raina being a newborn and Steve being so busy at work. The year before that we went a few times but Riggs was so young that it wasn't really that exciting to him. This time? Different story completely. He loves loves loves camping. 

It was so much fun watching him do all the things I used to love doing as a kid, playing in the campsite, climbing every rock in sight, hand pumping the well, building a fire, and falling asleep long past his bedtime when he couldn't keep his eyes open one more second. 

We left the campground and walked over to the old King Mountain Lodge which is right next door to the campground. It was originally established in the 1940s and is closed now (and for sale too - a little history here). It made me a little sad to see the place abandoned, there are so many of these small 'roadhouses' in Alaska that are closing. As I walked around the old cabins and down through the lodge campsites I thought of how much potential there was, if someone with good management skills and a lot of money were to buy it. I hope someday it reopens again.

Enjoying the sunshine back at the campground before

my parents got here, also picked the site we want to get next time.

Ah peaceful silence, two sleeping babies. Riggs slept in the camper with my parents,

Raina was in the tent with me and slept better than she has been at home. Figures. 

Waking up in the tent next to this sweetie may was the best start to my day.

We sent the morning in the camper with my parents, my mom 

made orange cinnamon rolls, a camping tradition in our family. 

 We went on a hike on an abandoned portion of the old Glenn Highway 

so my dad could log some geocaches and benchmarks there.

Got a little run in while my parents geocached with the kids.

Back at the campsite we all needed some nap/quiet time, and I read 

in the tent while the kids slept and then fell asleep myself for thirty minutes.

Heavenly.

After a quick dinner together we packed up and it was time to head home.

Had to snap a picture of the kids in the site before we left; they had so much fun.

I cannot wait for the next camping trip, especially since Steve will get to come with us ♥