Success

"To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exltation; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived...this is to have succeeded." _Ralph Waldo Emerson_

Friday, May 8, 2009

Monterey 2009

We spent an elongated weekend in Monterey last weekend. We try to go every year, and this year we added a big new element to our trip.

Day 1: We took Isaiah to see the tide pools. What an adventure, poor little sea anemones...getting squished but producing a zillion laughs.

(Can you see the seals on the rocks behind us? So Cool!)

















Day 2: The Aquarium

We've been several times over the last couple years, but our favorite new discovery this time was this amazing sea horse! Yes, the next picture, although it appears to be fuzzy sea weed, is actually a sea horse. AMAZING. The variety of God's creatures is what keeps me coming back for more.















The children's play area was voted by far, the favorite place for Isaiah. What a kick. They really have an incredible place for toddlers and school age children to explore and let their imaginations take over. What a blast we all had. It was so fun to watch Isaiah learn, explore and just have fun with all the new things. It was much more fun coming with him than it would have been without him. You get to be excited all over again about the amazingness of our world.















Isaiah's "Baby Sea Water" that he got to pick out at the gift shop. He was hugging him and saying, "I wuv him." Ahhhhh, it made the outlandish amount of 6$ possibly worth it. Day 3: With Isaiah off with Mimi and Papa for the rest of the weekend, we got a little R&R to ourselves. This is the view just out from the place we stay at every year. This time of year was great for all the flowers, not so great for the weather. It was WAY to cold for me this weekend. I was a walking popsicle.


Our friends Steve and Darcy joined us for this portion of the weekend. We had a blast hanging out at Cannery Row, Carmel and just lounging around for the day.
Of coarse the big exciting news that prevailed the weekend for us, was the addition of Rob's new toy! The iphone....it is such an amazing gaget, it was tough to put it away sometimes, especially when there were sports stats and scores to look up...even while on the pier overlooking the water, the boys were hooked.





Day 4: The culmination of the weekend, and the big new event - The BIG SUR MARATHON! We relayed it of coarse with Steve and Darcy. The run took place on Hwy 1, which they shut down once a year for this race. It was pretty unique, being able to run on one of the most beautiful highways. We had to be at the bus at 4:15am and ready to go. Steve was leg one, and here I am coming up to Rob on leg 2, then Rob passed off to Darcy at the end. Our time was about 3 hours, 20 min (approx...i don't know our official time). I was absolutely freezing. I never run in a sweatshirt, but as you can see from this pic, I am the only one wearing one...and I didn't care how un-runner like I looked, I was COLD.

Once I finally caught my breath, I turned around to grab a pic of Rob taking off on his leg of the race. Behind him you can see the buses that they used to get all the runners to their appointed spots. It was quite the ordeal, and quite amazing when it was all said and done.


Okay, one of the best parts for me was the unexpected surprise of my friend Eunice. 2 teams of girls from my old job were formed and were participating in this race too. But the best part was that Eunice and I got to run the same leg. Then when we were done, we decided to keep walking just for kicks the next leg (which was 7 miles up hill). It was quite the adventure because at the last minute we realized that all the buses were leaving and we were minutes from being stranded on hwy 1. But we were saved by a short bus on the side of the road that had some extra seats. What a stinking blast riding back in that thing with some random people, and all the while everyone yelling out the window encouragements to the remaining runners.






This one's just for you Eunice, you silly girl.

A few pics of the view along the next 7 miles that I walked (and Rob ran).







Our killer relay team post-race and post-Chipotle!

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