First Days of School

The first days of school are over and done!

 

Gannon started back to his last year of preschool the week before the rest of the family.  Makes the first day of school for Mom a little easier!  He loves Montessori and had been missing his friends so he was excited to go back. 

 

Garrett started 1st grade at Chenoweth and was nervous about meeting his teacher the Friday before school started, but on the first day he did great.  He knew the routine of going to Chenoweth so he wasn't afraid like last year.  He had a great first day.  I couldn't convince him to get a new shirt for the first day, but was excited to wear his new shoes.

 

First day for Dad and Mom were great too!

 

YEAH, everyone has settled back into our school routines.  I didn't realize they both picked green shirts for the first day! 

 

Grandpa Bill's Giants Game

For my Dad's birthday or Father's Day (can't remember which) I got him a "Father/Daughter Date to the Giants game.  Actually it was a Father/Daughter Date + 1!!! I knew there was no way I could go to Garrett's favorite team's game without taking him with me. 

 

We picked up Grandpa in Modesto, rode the BART into the City to watch the Giants.  Garrett had a dentist appointment that morning and we had a little parking delay at the BART station so we missed part of the 1st inning which is when they scored all their runs! But, it was still fun to spend time with my Dad and Garrett at a beautiful day game at AT&T Park. And the Giants won.

 

Garrett's First 5K

Dave and I have tried to talk Garrett into running one of the 1k kids run that typically are the start of one of my runs, but he is always too afraid to do it on his own.  When I signed up for a local 10k Dave decided to sign him AND Garrett up for the 5k to see what Garrett could do.  He has "runner" in his blood and will soon wear out a stretch of carpet in our house!  At my 15k in Santa Monica Dave said he ran back and forth for at least 45 minutes while I was running.  He was very excited on the morning of his first race!  Dave got him all stretched and ready to go.  We all lined up together and took off!  Dave said he talked the entire first mile, pretty par for Garrett, and then was trying to run faster, but kept looking back to make sure Dad was still behind him.  At the end he took off without Dad and finished with a 34:21.  We are very proud of our little guy running the entire 3.1 miles.  He has requested that I run the next 5k with him so we'll see if we can beat that time!!!

 

 

 

 

Yep....another fair!

The boys love to ride the rides and Dave loves to check out the exhibits so off to another fair we go!  The Stanislaus Fair is much nicer than the Merced Fair and we picked a good night to go, nice weather and not too crowded.  We had bought the boys wristbands in advance, but I had to buy 1 ride worth of tickets to ride the BIG roller coaster with them.  I see myself in them, fearless and loving rides, so it's fun as they are getting older.  I'm not sure they knew how big this roller coaster would feel.  After the big climb, right before the drop, Garrett says "my tummy hurts" I was a little worried, but he was just a little scared.  They both loved it and I'm pretty sure Gannon would have gone again, not sure about Garrett!

 

They stuck to the smaller rides the rest of the evening and Gannon was screaming mad when it was time to go.  Exactly how I would have reacted as a kid!!!

 

 

Swim Lessons

We didn't do swim lessons last year with our big camping trip so this year we really wanted to make sure we were signed up.  We actually signed the boys us for two sessions which would last the 4 weeks, all of July.  The first day Garrett did great, but Gannon would not get in.  This is very unlike Gannon, but he's done great since that day.  I am fortunate to work with the director of the swim program at my high school so we were lucky and he assigned two teachers to our class allowing for more swim time per child.  Garrett and Gannon have come such a long way this summer with swimming at the gym pool and at Grandma's work pool that hopefully we can keep the learning alive all summer and possibly be swimming on our own.  I will remain hopeful! 

 

Santa Monica 15K

Thank goodness my family is supportive of my running habit.  5:45 wake ups when on a mini vacation take effort on their part!  When we planned our weekend in LA I started looking up races that were taking place in the area while we were there.  I have decided that I don't like to pay money for 5k's or 10k's unless they are in Merced and not quite being ready for a half marathon I found a 15K.  Works for me.  I had about 2 weeks to build up to 9.3 miles, better get running.  I am pretty solid up to 6 or 7 miles now as my base so I did a 5 and a 6.5 prior to running this 9.3.  My 6.5 was 4 days before this run at 6:30 in the morning in Merced = 90 degrees outside = not my favorite run:( I guess the burger from the Shack and the bloody Mary from the Harbor Room were a great pre-run meal because it was such an easy 9 that I'm pretty sure I could have done the half.  Next time.  Dave says I'm never even stressed or breathing heavy when I'm done so I don't like to call them races, they're all just runs to me.  I am consistent on my pace and this run was right there 1:28:30 for a finish.  Not bad for very little training.  Weather was perfect and how can you beat running along the ocean!  I had been bummed that this event didn't give our t-shirts, but to my surprise we all got finishing medals, which I'd prefer any day over another t-shirt!

 

Thanks to my support crew for the high fives as I ran by.  Dave's Dad even came out for the early morning run. 

 

 

 

Beach Time

One of my main goals of our trip to LA was to swim with the boys in the ocean.  When we are in Pismo/Shell Beach it's never warm enough to swim.  Dave took us to his old stompin' grounds from when his Dad lived in Playa Del Rey.  We found a good spot on the beach and set up our spot.  Gannon wasn't quite sure of playing by or in the water and just wanted to play in the sand.  It didn't take him long watching Garrett and I run from the waves and he was right there with us.  For at least an hour we ran from the water as it came in and walked back down to do it all over again.  Gannon was very brave after a bit and wanted to walk out far, not realizing that the water comes in very fast.  I had to keep a very close eye on this little crazy and even scoop him up a few times.  Both boys took a fall into the water and got all the way wet scaring them for a minute, but both recovered quickly and were back at it again.  It was tons of fun to play in the water and watch them get so excited and have the biggest smiles! 

 

We met up with Papa Dave and took the boys to the Shack, another one of Dave's favorites as a kid, and I went with Lisa around the corner to the Harbor Room for a bloody Mary.  The Harbor Room is the smallest bar in LA and full of locals that are all great pals.  Lisa said they call it God's Waiting Room!  It was tons of run to sit and have a drink with this crowd and listen to them all tease each other to no end.