Carlsbad Half Marathon

Today Jason ran his first half marathon. I was so proud of him and my mom, who also ran in the marathon. My mom actually thought of the two of them running it together and purchased the entry as Jason's Father's Day gift. Here are some photos of the day.

5:30 A.M. Getting ready for the race.

8:24 A.M. We see them for the first time!

8:48 A.M. We begin our camp out on Carlsbad Blvd. It was coooold! Well, cold for Souther California sissies.

Pam joined us to watch the runners go by. It was fun to cheer on people that you didn't know. It really made me appreciate that each of these people got off of their butts to get out and run. And even though I wasn't running, I was out cheering for a bunch of folks I have never met. And that was doing more than I normally do.

Sarah and Adam.

Jason as he passed us by again. Good eye Ron to catch him. We were about 2 miles from the finish line.

Mom waves the Ethan as she passes us by. I almost missed her the 2nd time. I was walking down the street with Jillian when someone shouted, "there she is." I was looking around at all the runners and all I could see was this lady with brown hair like my mom and she was stumbling down the street (poor thing). And THAT was NOT my mom. So I thought they were either blind or kidding me. Thankfully I saw her and ran to catch up with her and the rest of the family.

Drinking chocolate milk. It's supposed to help with something after you run. Low blood sugar maybe???

And the real reason Jason ran - a celebratory beer. They sure deserved it.

Jason's Birthday

We celebrated Jason's birthday with family and friends at his mom's community clubhouse. It was a great space for a party and we kept thinking that we had to think of another party we could host there.

The theme was Beer. Yes, beer. I made Jason this cake after googling "Beer cake". The search actually yielded many great cakes and given I have zero cake decorating experience (or skill) I chose the design I thought I could handle. I was actually pretty proud of the results.

After lunch we headed to Green Flash Brewery in Vista. Little did I know two party buses beat us there. It was packed. Our group didn't let this daunt us and we pushed to the front to get our tasters. It ended up being a really fun time.

Go-Gurt

I am constantly on the hunt for portable, nutritious food for Jillian. Recently we discovered she can handle Go-gurts. Yippee! She does really well with the first half but usually needs some assistance with the second. I have a bunch frozen and take out a few every couple days. That reminds me, I should run out to the freezer right now...

We also found Brothers-All-Natural freeze dried fruit at Costco. She loves these! I highly recommend! They have a pack of apple, pear and strawberry-banana. And you can order more varieties online. They are just fruit sliced and freeze dried. No extra anything. At first Jason wasn't too sure about them but now he loves them too.

Jillian's Kitchen

Mima and Grandpa got Jillian a kitchen for Christmas. Jason got to learn the joys of "some assembly required."

Jillian got a big kick out of it. Everytime we come downstairs she hurries over to play with the kitchen.

She loves to check in the oven. She will even put the pots, and the silverware, and the food and whatever she can find in the oven.

The stove top burners light up and make noise. There are grooves in the bottom of the pot and frying pan that trigger separate noises. And when you put the lid on the pots it muffles the noise just like a lid on a real pot. It's pretty awesome. Once Jason had it put together I spent some decent time playing with the different features. It also has a phone that rings, a light that turns on, microwave buttons that make noise, and a clock. I think Jillian will love this for a long time!