First Times and Sixth Times...

This past weekend was a busy weekend - my friend, Haley hosted her daughter's first birthday party (see Gardiner Family of Four blog) and Kelsey and I ran a half marathon.

I took pictures of Haley's daughter's birthday party but her blog is much better. Needless to say it was a pink heaven - pink everything - balloons, desserts, candy, lemonade, bubbly - and it was a big hit!

This little girl is so loved and I had fun shopping for her first birthday gift, which was found on pinterest thanks to Haley's bountiful pinning of all things she wants to buy for Anne.

Of note - if Carl approaches you to see what I may want or need for a gift please feel free to direct him to my pinterest boards.

On Sunday morning Kelsey and I ran the LIVESTRONG half marathon.  It was my 6th (coincidentally her 6th as well) and our 4th in a row together!

It's so meaningful to me that we have done this for so many years together!  I have no doubt Kelsey could run faster than I do but she is patient enough to let me set the pace (in my old age) and we do a good job of taking care of and checking in with each other.

The weather was pretty amazing but the course is, as always, tough. It's about 6 total miles of hills, which certainly makes me feel like more of a bad ass but it's hard!  Overall I feel pretty accomplished with how we did. My goal is always to run the entire thing and we did that (except for some small walks when drinking water).

Today my much awaited massage was scheduled and despite some scheduling issues I managed to get one later in the afternoon.

Kelsey and I have also decided to train for the London Marathon in 2014 - assuming we get into the lottery. If not, we'll reevaluate and decide if we want to fundraise for it or pick a different one.  For now I think we'll just enjoy running for the sake of running before it's too hot and not enjoyable.

Tomorrow it's back to work after a holiday weekend.  I'm pretty sure I'll be squeezing in a full week of work in just 4 days since I'm on the road all of next week but I have another fun weekend to look forward to.