Mother's Day 5K

Before the race

Slugger & his Mom

My mom and I successfully completed the Seadogs Mother's Day 5k race in Portland!  The main goal for both of us was to run the entire race, which we both accomplished!  As a result our times were much better than the first race we did (in September) and we felt much better after this race.  It was also helpful to have Jon, Mike & Braden along the route to cheer us on.  They were able to make it to two different locations.  

The great thing about this particular race was that they had photographers in different locations, so we enjoyed searching through the photos!  I had fun celebrating my first Mother's day by accomplishing this goal with my mom.  We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home enjoying some lunch, playing games & taking Braden on a wagon ride.  Now, I just need to get back out there and keep up the running routine.  I might just have to sign up for another race to keep up the motivation...

The starting line - the two of us together!

Mile 2

The finish line

My Finish line video @ 5:30

Mom's Finish Line video @ 2:00

Sharon's Mile 2 video @ 14:33

Mom's Mile 2 video @ 4:21

Nursery Fun Has Begun

     As I mentioned in my previous post mom helped take down the old border in the nursery.  The hope was that it would come off easily, so that we did not have to repaint the room, because it was already a nice neutral yellow.  The project was a success not only because we don't have to repaint, but because it was much easier than expected.  This was a pleasant surprise, because it was not so easy last fall taking down the border in our bedroom.

     Here are a few pictures of the room before & after.  I also bought a crib set that I had found earlier in the week.  I had waited to see if the yellow paint was going to work and to see if Mike would approve.  So, the safari/jungle theme is a go - now I just need to figure out what to do with the walls and decorations now that the border is gone.   

 Media Storage turned Changing Table:

What once stored school supplies - now has childrens books!

Goodbye scrapbooking corner & supply closet...

 

Just enough space left for a crib & dresser!

Safari Crib Set

Katie's aunt works for an eye doctor, so she got us the cutest little baby sunglasses.

Happy Birthday Mom!

     Last weekend Mom came down to Scarborough to help get the nursery started and to celebrate her birthday.  On Saturday we worked on taking down the Noah's Ark border, which ended up being easier than expected.  I will put updated photos in a separate post.  Then we had some down time, so I worked on her birthday cake (using my newly learned decorating skills) and then played a few games.  That night we tried Famous Dave's BBQ restaurant for dinner and it ended up being worth the wait!  But, we were a little too full to enjoy the cake so we decided to wait until Sunday afternoon.

      Sunday morning I had the Scentsy party and brunch.  We had visitors stop by through out the day, so it ended up being pretty successful.  Then we had some cake and opened presents before Mom headed North.  So, here are a few pictures of the fully decorated birthday cake.  It actually worked out nicely, because I had parent teacher conferences on the Tuesday of the last cake decorating class, so this would have to count for my final project.  It was a vanilla cake with vanilla pudding in the middle and then the usual butter cream frosting.  

 Happy Birthday Mom - thanks for your help!

Bright Lights, Big City

     Mom, Jon and I took a quick trip to New York City at the end of July.  We left early Monday morning and made it just in time for check in.  We dropped our things off and then headed into the city, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then boarded the CitySights bus for the night tour.  

Times Square

M&M World (YUM)

Statue of Liberty in the distance

     On Tuesday we took our time getting up and into the city.  We started off in Central Park and walked around for a bit.  We did not have very much luck with CitySights (the buses did not come as frequently as they should have).  We ended up changing or plans and walking A TON to get to the Harbor Cruise.  It was nice to hear some of the information and history both on the cruise and from the bus tours.  After lunch we took the Uptown bus tour: Central Park, Apollo Theatre, Museums & Harlem.  We ended the day at Rockefeller Center and just before sunset we took a ride to the "Top of the Rock" to get some amazing photos of the city.

A few of the sights before the cruise.

The Plaza

On the Harbor Cruise

Freedom Tower being built

Top of the Rock

Central Park

Finally found a comfortable seat to wait for the sun to set, but then I was told to get down.

     After sleeping in on Wednesday we headed back to the city and started the day with the Downtown Tour: Times Square, Broadway, Financial District, and Battery Park.  We enjoyed some of the tour and stopped at Battery Park to catch the ferry over to Liberty Island.  It took a lot longer than we thought to go through the line and get over to the Statue of Liberty.  It had to be a quick trip and we did not get to see Ellis Island, because we had to get back for our NBC Studios tour in the afternoon.  We couldn't take any photos, but we got to see the studios of Dr.   Oz, Sunday Night Football, and SNL.  Afterwards we grabbed some dinner before taking the subway over to the Financial District and Ground Zero.  Finally, we headed back to Times Square for the 8:00 showing of the Lion King on Broadway!  It was AMAZING!

A few sights on the Downtown Tour

Structure originally in front of the World Trade Center

Tiles created by students to remember September 11th

Liberty Island

NBC

Freedom Tower being built & Ground Zero

Winter Gardens

     It was a quick and BUSY trip, and we fit in as much as we could.  Thursday morning we slept in, packed up and headed home!