The Kids are Thankful

This year we did our thankful strips again. We also made Diarios de Gratitud I found on the Spanglish Schoolhouse website to practice writing as well as Spanish vocabulary during our school days. I had Carter write his in Spanish and I helped Elise with the Spanish terms for the words she added. I want to add the things they wrote on their strips as well as some of those in their books so their lists are longer this year. It's so much to see how their lists change each year as they grow and change themselves! I get so much joy each year reading over their previous lists, especially Elise's first year when she just yelled random words at me in anger. Read last year's list here, 2018 here, 2017 here, and 2016 here. 

Carter is thankful for:

• Elise
• colores (colors)
• Legos
• el sol (the sun)
• sabado (Saturday)
• domingo (Sunday)
• libros (books)
• calabazas (pumpkins)
• Dino Craft (a game he has on his tablet)
• Katie (his hamster)
• Lil Cutie (Elise's hamster)
• Mama
• Papa 
• Elise
• la nevera (the fridge)
• para soda (for soda)
• flores (flowers)
• Tesla
• yo mismo (myself)
• Skippy
• diarios (diaries, he really loves to read books that are written like diaries)
• Legos
• Pangato, el libro
• Big Al
• casas (houses)
• monopatin (scooter)
• burbujas (bubbles)  
• yogurt

Elise is thankful for:

• the trampoline
• all of the dogs
• my friends
• my brother
• yogurt
• trees
• my mom and my dad
• all the animals
• turkey
• all of the food
• that God made us
• the taste of food
• Hatchimas
• LOLs
• Scruff-a-Loves
• my brother
• my mom
• Carter
• my toys
• cranberry juice
• peas
• macaroni and cheese
• Charlee and Kyra
• cheese brats
• mommy and daddy
• fruit
• Pangato
• Puppy (her favorite stuffed animal)
• my family
• apples
• my hamster
• presents
• dinosaurs
• puppies
• Legos
• fall
• hearts
• markers

Wordless Wednesday

Jeremy had to deal with some construction on his race course during his Virtual Route 66 Marathon.  

Gorgeous view during my run at Lake Yahola within Mohawk Park.

Making turkey pudding cups for our Thanksgiving Feast with friends.

The kids didn't get to have a Thanksgiving Feast at school so we had our own little feast at home.  

Making turkey headbands for the feast.

The kids wearing their headbands. Carter wanted to hold his placemat. They each made a placemat too.

Building with Legos.

Carter showing off the truck and trailer they built.

Route 66 Virtual Marathon Relay

I've written about our long race history with the Route 66 Marathon, Half, and Relay in the past. Read that post here. It all started with Jeremy running his first marathon at the race's inaugural event in 2006. I ran my first marathon at the Route 66 in 2008. We love the event and have run it almost every year. This year was supposed to be the 15th anniversary of the race and they had big plans to make it even more special. When they had to switch to a virtual event, they decided to call it the 14 and 1/2 race so they can do all the special 15th anniversary stuff at the next in-person event (hopefully fall of 2021). Jeremy decided he wanted to run the full marathon even though it was virtual. Ty saw the race sweatshirts and really wanted to be on the relay so the rest of us (Ty, me, my mom, my dad, and Thomas) signed up for the virtual relay. We figured since it was virtual we could split the relay up however we wanted as long as we covered a total of 26.2 miles so mom, dad, and Ty all planned to run a 5k. There were 17 miles left for me and Thomas to split and we decided he'd do 6 and I'd run 11 with a mile warm up and a 10 mile tempo. Then the week of the race Thomas got really sick so we decided we'd use his 5 mile tempo from before he got sick and I'd cover 12 miles with a mile warm up, 10 mile tempo, and a mile cool down. Jeremy planned to start his marathon around 11am on Saturday morning so mom and dad drove up that morning to arrive in time for his start and we ran our relay after he finished.

Mom, Jeremy, and Dad after Jeremy finished his marathon.

It was so much fun driving around cheering for Jeremy. He planned his route as an out and back starting south on Riverside from the 41st Street parking area and then another out and back starting north and going over to the west side of the river. That meant we could drive down Riverside and park in different parking lots with trail access along the way, seeing him about every 1-2 miles for the most part. Many of the parking areas also had playgrounds so the kids got to play for a while before heading to the next spectating spot (but not very long since we were seeing him about every 2 miles!) When we stopped at one playground around the 4 mile mark I misjudged how far it was to the next park and let the kids play a little too long. So we missed him on the way out at the playground at 96th Street but caught him when he went back by. While waiting for him to come through at around the 13 mile mark I set up a pickup order at Panera for myself and the kids for lunch. We went from there to Panera and picked up our lunch, missing him at the next spot but catching him again around 4 miles later! He had an awesome race and finished in 3:44:09.

I wore my running clothes under some sweats so when Jeremy finished at 41st and Riverside I took off from there and ran home while my mom drove my car back to the house for me. With spectating Jeremy's race I ate lunch late around 1:30 and started running around 3:30 so I wasn't sure how my stomach would feel since I'm used to running either first thing in the morning without eating or in the evening, about 5 hours after lunch. My first mile was a warm up and I was glad for that so I could see how my stomach would do and it felt a bit off but ended up being fine. I was a little antsy to get going because I drank some Nuun with caffeine a little bit before starting so I was excited to start running faster. I ran my warm up mile in 8:03 which is faster than I'd normally run a warm up in but I was excited and it was still technically part of the race so I let myself go a bit faster. It felt great dropping to tempo pace and I ran the first 4 miles of it in 7:16, 7:15, 7:13, and 7:17. Toward the end of mile 5 I started up the hill at 71st Street. I knew it would slow me down significantly but I had really wanted to run home so I went ahead and ran that part of the trail. I told myself not to push up the hill since I would still have quite a few miles to go once I got up it. I hit mile 5 in 7:35 about halfway up the hill. Then made it up the top of the hill and past it with mile 6 in 7:38. I didn't let myself get discouraged because I had known that hill would slow me down. I felt fine going up it but it took quite a while to get my legs back after I leveled back out.

Ready to start my relay leg. I tried to make 2020 with my fingers, but like 2020 I screwed it up!

Mile 7 was 7:22 and I figured I'd get back down to 7:15ish pace which I had planned to shoot for during my tempo once my legs came back around. They never really did though. I felt okay and felt like I'd dropped my pace back down but I just couldn't get back to where I was. Mile 8 was 7:23 and I couldn't pull anything more out for mile 9 in 7:37. I had a couple choices on ways to get home and ended up going home a way that would mean I would finish uphill the last mile of my tempo. I don't know why I didn't just run a mile out and back on the trails so I could go the shorter way home that didn't involve a hill, but for some reason I thought my legs would be able to handle it. They could not and I struggle bused it up that hill like nothing else and hit mile 10 of my tempo right as I reached the top in 7:59! Oh my goodness! I averaged 7:27 pace for the 10 mile tempo which wasn't terrible but definitely wasn't close to the 7:15 pace I expected to be able to manage. I knew the hills would knock me off pace but I had expected to come back from them better than I had. My mile cool down was 8:51 for a total of 12 miles in 1:31:36, an average of 7:38 pace. 

Ty and my mom were done running when I got back. They decided to run together while I was gone so they could finish before it got dark. Dad took off on his leg of the relay when I returned. Thomas ran his 5 miles in 37:51. Ty and mom finished in 38:02 and 38:04. They finished together but Ty stopped his watch at 3.11 while mom stopped hers at 3.12. Dad finished in 27:24 and I finished in 1:31:36 so our overall finishing time was 3:52:57. When we went to enter our results we saw they had specific distances each relay member was supposed to run so we may not be able to use our relay legs for the results. We will see what happens. 

I've been having a tough time with speedwork and tempos all fall season. I don't know for sure what is going on with me. I was in amazing shape in the spring before coming down with the flu. It took me a long time to bounce back from that but when I finally felt back to normal, I hadn't lost much speed and was still running tempos in 6:50 pace and speedwork in normal splits for me. Then the week before and the week of my July 4th virtual half-marathon, I started having weird dizzy spells where I'd fall getting out of bed and feel all weird walking and even more so while running. I tanked that half and decided to just do all easy running with no speedwork or tempos as I trained for the Virtual Boston Marathon as I wasn't interested in actually racing a virtual marathon. I'm hoping that between no speedwork for 3 months and then running the hilliest marathon I've ever run for my Virtual Boston in September, it's just taking a while to get back to myself speed-wise. I may also not have given myself enough down town after the marathon. Since I ran it at training pace and not race pace, I didn't think I'd really need much recovery time. Looking back I ran a couple 5ks after running my PR marathon but I didn't start back to speedwork until 8 weeks after the marathon. I was back to speedwork 3 weeks after Virtual Boston. That may just have not been enough down time for me. Part of me worries I had Covid along with the flu or something else that has caused damage and is screwing up my running, but I did have that good patch of running in May and June that leads me to believe I'm just not bouncing back from the marathon and lack of speedwork as quickly as I'd hoped I would. Whatever the case I can still run and whether I get back to myself or not, I'm thankful to get out there every day and enjoy my runs regardless of the paces!  

Wordless Thursday

This break for my sanity brought to you by Scholastic News Online! 

Carter and Elise both loved these books. It was so cute seeing them lay there reading together.

Carter painting a Christmas ornament from Dollar Tree.

The kids helping Ty install some cabinets in the garage he got from a scrapped job at work.

The kids chatting with Oma and Opa.

Carter at his Boy Scouts meeting.

Elise did such a great job making this pattern block turkey.

Side by side distance learning.

Elise's letra for the week was T. We made tiburon (shark) hats and made a backdrop to perform the  Tiburon Bebe (Baby Shark) song.

They have both done such a wonderful job with distance learning. It is hard some days, but it is worth it.

Kindness Fun Run

My mom signed us all up for a Kindness Virtual Run. I plan to do a 10k at some point. The kids wanted to do a fun run for theirs. November 1st I had to cut my run short so when I got home I suggested we do the mile fun run so I could make up my missed mile and they were really excited about it. It was perfect weather for it so we got shoes on and leashed Tesla up.

They picked our course and just ran randomly where they wanted to go. I told them at one point we probably needed to turn around soon so we would be home at a mile. They wanted to keep going so they could run down a big hill by our house. We ended up hitting a mile at the bottom of the hill and decided to walk home. Elise wanted to keep running and asked if she could run a longer mile sometime. We decided sometime she would run longer than a mile but we'd walk home this time. As we were walking up the hill a wasp landed on her and when Carter found out what happened he screamed and ran back down the hill. He apologized for running away later and I told him it was actually a good thing because I only had to worry about keeping the wasp away from Elise. I held her dress up and away from her skin so the wasp wouldn't sting her if it decided to sting and tried to convince it to fly away. It just wouldn't fly away so I had to kill it. The kids both ran the whole way and we finished the mile in 10:18. 

On our walk home Carter came up with a game to play called "Badder" which we changed to "Worse" since that would be the appropriate word for it. You had to come up with something bad and everyone else tried to think of something worse. Elise kept saying different things stabbed into your heart for her worse thing. At one point I said, "Not getting to eat macaroni and cheese again for the rest of your life." Elise just screamed and ran away which was hilarious! We also played "Better" but the kids didn't think that was as much fun. Our walk home was so much fun. I'm so glad my mom signed us up for these fun virtual runs because it's so much fun to go for a run with the kids but it's not something I would sign up for myself.

Talimena Scenic Drive Trip

A few years ago I saw pictures a friend posted of their trip on the Talimena Scenic Drive. The pictures were gorgeous but she said it took them 2 hours to get to the start of the drive and then about 2 hours to take the drive so I figured it would not be a trip to take with young children. This year I decided maybe the kids were old enough for the trip. They had the first week of November off school for the end of quarter intercession, something they did when adjusting the school calendar to include more breaks in the school year for the schools to be cleaned and prepped for a return to in-person learning. Ty took Friday off work and we used the day to travel out to Talimena State Park which is at the start of the drive. We poked around a bit there but it was one of the smallest state parks we've been to. Then we headed on to our campsite we reserved at Big Cedar RV and Camping. The entire area was so gorgeous. There was a little creek down the hill from our campsite and the kids had a blast playing and exploring in it. My parents got me a dutch oven and some other cooking gear for camping. That evening we cooked skillet lasagna over the campfire and it was delicious! We have only camped in the spring, summer, or early fall so this was the first time for the kids that it got dark so soon after dinner. They both got pretty spooked and wanted to go to bed. Starting at 6pm they were constantly asking if it was bedtime yet, the opposite of what we experience at home! We went to bed at 8:00 and Ty was snoring pretty much right away. The kids each made up a story to tell me. Then I hid under my sleeping bag and read with a flashlight until I was tired and went to sleep around 9:30. I ended up waking up at 5:30 since we went to bed so early!

Bringing the firewood we bought down to our campsite.

Cooking the skillet lasagna. I had swim shoes on because I got my shoes wet in the creek and was drying them out.

Carter ended up eating 3 helpings of the lasagna. Elise wanted to eat a hot dog instead.

The creek by our campsite.

Elise was so sweet, when she saw me crossing the creek, she came running and held out her hand to help me across.

We were up early Saturday morning and had breakfast over the campfire before heading out a little after 8:00 to start on the Talimena Scenic Drive. We drove up to the start at Talimena State Park and stopped at almost every vista to get out and look around. We even took short hikes at a couple of the spots. One was on Horse Thief Springs trail which led down to a little spring that came up out of the ground. We started chatting with a guy down at the spring who turned out to also be from Tulsa. He was out running the trail and sleeping along the trail. He had a survival straw to filter his water and the kids enjoyed watching him use it. We took along binoculars my grandparents sent for the kids and they enjoyed using them at a few spots along the way. At one vista we stopped for a snack and then took a short hike. While we were hiking we got the notification that Biden/Harris won the election. It was weird to be disconnected from things but still connected at the same time. We had a picnic lunch at one of the vistas and it was so nice to just sit and stare out at the view. 

Checking out the view at the first vista we stopped at.

Using the binoculars to check out the view.

Hiking on Horse Thief Springs trail.

Snack time at one of the vistas.

Picnic lunch with a view!

When we made it to the end of the Talimena Scenic Drive in Arkansas, we headed up to Heavenver to see the Heavener Runestone at Heavener State Park. We did the little hike around there, checked out the Runestone, and played on the playground. I was tempted to go from there to Poteau so I could run up Cavanal Hill, the "highest hill in the world" but there wouldn't be anything for Ty and the kids to do while I did that. So another time. That evening when we returned we had some nearby campers. The night before we were the only tent campers. The kids were thrilled that there were 2 boys at one of the campsites and they played with them rolling down the hill and exploring the creek. I went to a nearby trailhead to get a run in and the trail was no joke! I would have incorporated some walking or have run slower had I realized it was 2.5 miles of switchbacks up the side of a hill. Finally at 2 miles when I realized things were never going to level out, I decided to walk most of the way to my turn around. The run back down wasn't bad at all, haha! But the leaves did make it tricky going down hill because they would slip out from under me.

Sunday morning we broke camp and took our time getting around. We stopped off at Lake Wister State Park to check it out since it's in the passport book. Inside the gift shop the kids each picked something out to buy with their own money. The park employee heard Carter say snakes were his favorite animal so he took the kids in the back to see a couple snakes they have. He told the kids they could pet the snake but only Elise did. We saw they were decorating the main drive with Christmas lights and found out the light display would open the following weekend. That would be something fun to go see at some point. The kids were super tired so we didn't do any hiking. We played miniture golf which was only $3 per person! Then the kids played on the playground for a bit and we walked down to look at the lake. We made lunch and ate it in the car on the way home. We were all tired but it was an awesome and perfect trip! I had planned to run an 11 mile trail run for my long run on Sunday morning but after experiencing 1,200 feet of elevation gain in just 2.5 miles of my run the day before I decided to run my long run on the flats when we got home!  

Elise was so tired she kept just laying down! If you know her, you know it is rare for her to ever slow down!

Down by the lake at Lake Wister State Park.

We timed our trip perfectly in the season. It was late enough that most the trees had changed color but not late enough that there were any completely bare trees. It was a wonderful trip and I'm once again looking forward to our next camping trip. Ty and I have talked about celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary with a backpacking trip just the two of us for a couple years now. During this trip we decided we want to do it out in this area through the Ouachita National Forest. And how perfect is it that we picked something to celebrate our anniversary so we don't have to worry about Covid messing up our plans? We can go backpacking regardless of what the situation looks like as the time rolls around! Hopefully the situation is better by then, but who the heck knows with how things are going now!