weekend wrap-up

It was such an odd weekend here... odd as in... Christmas is 2 weeks away and it was over 80 degrees today. Bleck! From bottom to top, the pictures tell the story of a great weekend in spite of the heat...

Book Club Adult Party -- I am part of an awesome book club and we decided to have an adult holiday party this year... was so fun and festive... adults only, left the kids at home and did what we do best - gabbed, drank, ate and laughed! The pictures are very random because my battery died near the beginning of the night. :( Might have been a good thing. :)

On Saturday, after what very well could be my final workout at the Y, (this baby is coming in 2 weeks so having to pee every 5 minutes doesn't let me get such a great workout in anymore) we ran a ton of errands, stopped & saw Santa so Ben could specifically tell him that he wants a marble game (?), home for rest, Steve's bro & wife and kiddos came for an overnight. The purpose was to stay here and the guys were going to run the Santa to the Sea 1/2 Marathon early on Sunday morning together. We went to Pizza Guru (our new fave pizza joint) and enjoyed a fun night and slumber party together of lots of screaming kids and giggling.

Sunday morning, Mike & Steve hit the road at 5 am to get to the start in Ventura and the rest of us joined them at the finish line around 10 am. The heat was HORRIBLE and while no personal bests were set, the guys had a blast and it was a really fun event to watch. They even had a large pile of snow! Costumes were encouraged and while some were hilarious and creative, Mike's "Christmas Tree" costume took the cake!

Was so great to hang out with all of them - this is Steve's sixth & final 1/2 marathon of the year ~ with another kiddo on the way, he's unsure of what it'll look like next year, but my guess is that he'll be hitting a few races. We noted that this was our last time as just a 3-some -- next race, there will be 4 of us! ;)

Santa Barbara 1/2 Marathon

Steve's ran his fifth 1/2 marathon for 2010 on Saturday morning in Santa Barbara.... even though he's done this race before, the course was different and it ended up at Santa Barbara City College instead of down by the beach, which was SO much better for spectators (a.k.a pregnant moms with energetic toddlers) because there was seating and lots of room for the kids to run, jump and stomp through all of those bleachers!

We are so proud of you Papa! ;)

Pier to Peak

As is Steve's way... he felt that he needed more challenge when it came to his 1/2 marathon career, so today he completed the Santa Barbara Pier to Peak 1/2 Marathon. He left the house at 5:45 am, ran down to the start (about 1 mile from our house) at the famous dolphin fountain and started the race at 6:30 am. It was 13.1 miles straight up hill (with an elevation of 4,200 feet) and by the time they hit mile 4, it was 85 degrees on the mountain.

My friend, Rhonda (she had numerous friends in the race too) and her daughter Ella picked Ben and I up at 7:30 am and off we went to try to track down the runners and meet them at the finish. The last mile was literally straight uphill and as spectators we had to hike up part of it to see the finish line. I cannot imagine doing that last stretch after the first 12 miles... and they did it willingly!

Minimal pics, but the pride is there -- great job Steve-o! :)

San Diego 1/2 Marathon

Here's some "official" pictures and the "official" certificate with the "official" time. How cool is it that Kari Logan (sister to our good friend Lori Logan) is the race manager!? This is how Steve and Tim ended up with VIP passes at the race (and ended up meeting Melissa & Lance from this season's Biggest Loser)!

Weekend with Ben

Steve has some stiff goals this year with running a certain number of 1/2 marathons - bless his heart! He has done 2 already this year with an overall goal of 6 - not bad for someone that just took up running a year and a half ago! (see pics below from his last one up in Santa Ynez wine country in May).

This weekend he headed down to San Diego to run the Rock 'n Roll 1/2 Marathon - an amazing event where they have a band every mile! He did this one a bit faster than the last one and he met some people from the last season of The Biggest Loser - one of our favorite shows! Bebo saying bye to Papa! Steve's next goal - The Pier to Peak Race in Santa Barbara - these crazy people run from the end of the pier in Santa Barbara straight up a 4,000 foot mountain to the top. Um, can you say crazy?

With Steve gone, Ben and I had a really nice, mellow weekend together. We hit the Farmers Market early Saturday and found more berries than imaginable to make my famous Blackberry Cobbler for our Saturday Dinner Party with friends. We did chores, I had a baby shower for a friend, so our awesome sitter Tracy took him to the zoo, then nap, then pool @ the Miles and Dave's famous salsa for dinner. A delicious day!

Congrats Steve!

Steve has become quite the runner and has the body to prove it! :) He started running again last year, ran the SB 1/2 Marathon on Ben's first birthday (pushing Ben) and then ran another 1/2 marathon this summer in Minnesota... his 3rd 1/2 was this last weekend in Santa Barbara... he did it 25 minutes faster than last year!

Official stats: 2 hours 12 minutes!

Way to go Steve - sooo proud of you! :)

1/2 marathon

We had an awesome birthday weekend with Ben... there is so much to blog about, so I'll break it down because many special events happened this weekend... the first special event this weekend was Saturday morning.... Steve participated in his first 1/2 marathon. He has been training hard for many months and the goal was to push Ben on his birthday. Of course Steve had T-shirts made for the big day... :) He did great... it was a bit rainy at the start, but then the sun came out and both Ben & Steve did great. Steve finished 13.2 miles in 2 hours 25 minutes. Pretty darn great! Sooo proud of you honey!

7 am - pre-race!

back of the t-shirt he made

waiting for Daddy at mile 5 to be picked up!

mid-race - looking good!

the final home stretch!

post-race