Holy Cow Stampede 5k - Bringing home the Cow Bell

This is another race I do on a regular basis, and even though we had to go to Colorado Springs for Badminton State Games, I woke up early to do this run.

It starts at 8am, and is a nice trail course, I did see one guy do it barefoot, but as there is no shade, it was pretty hot.

I did pretty well in this race, 43 seconds faster than rogers river run, and came in at 22:27, finishing 9th overall out of 152.

Each mile was slower than the previous one, so still need to work on stamina, I didnt do that much running for the 2 weeks prior to the race, more bike and swim, so need to get back on the treadmill.

I did finish second in my division, so took home the Holy Cow Stampede 'Cow Bell', my first running trophy in some time

More house fun

This weekend the boys had another go at the house, this time with paint and of course under close supervision!!

Cody having a go with paint brush

The concentration

Having a squirt

What fun is there if there is no mess?

Tyler smearing paint

Hand prints!!

And according to the feeding therapist, all these dirty play encourages them to eat! I sure hope that's true! And don't worry, these paint actually do wash off very easily!! *phew!!*

357 Cokes !!

I keep track of the exercise I do on Runkeeper and this year I have burned just over 50,000 calories or in terms I and my friends can understand 357 cokes.. In real terms that means I have burned 14 lbs of fat, and as I weigh the same as the beginning of the year, I must really have drunk all those cokes!!

Hiking Anne U White trail

Summer is here and we're trying to get back into hiking. And after a phenomenal hiking effort at RMNP the week before by Tyler, we(including Tyler) were all excited to do another one. So, we picked a really gentle trail in Boulder, which is only 1 mile in and 1 mile out.

The hike was also to try to figure out our family hiking limits(time, distance etc). So, now we know how much hiking Tyler can actually do on his own and we'll try to build on to that this summer.

Tyler leading the group

Cody did some walking

Family pic

We crossed streams

We climbed trees

And dipped our feet in cold cold icy water at the end

Vero's Night Out

My friend Veronica is known for her vivaciousness in life. Nothing she does is half-assed. In fact, most people would consider her over-the-top, which is one quality i love about her. And to quote another one of my OTT friend - "this is not a dress rehearsal, you know!".

Anyways, to celebrate her birthday, Vero decided that she wanted a Girls Night Out. And in her usual flair, no expenses were spared. We went out in style in a stretch limo(stocked with champagne and wine), dined at one of Denver's hottest restaurant and hung out at one of funkiest bar.

That night i was surrounded by 9 super-fast-spanish-speaking hot Latinas, all talking about their kids and family(we're mothers, what else can we talk about??).

It was a super fun night for me and i feel blessed to have friends like her that makes my life so much more interesting to look back on! :)

Vero and I

Champagne in the Limo

The group that night

Hans who educated us that we're not cougars yet. Just pumas! So, here's our puma face.

What's the point of having a limo if nothing naughty goes on??

The 4th little pig...

built his house out of corrugate cardboard! (actually their mom did).

To encourage creativity and all that good stuff, i bought the boys a house that they can play and decorate. So, on Saturday morning, after they've cleaned up their toys, I finally assembled the house for them.

They weren't too interested in the building part but they definitely had fun checking out all the doors and windows.

And after a while, i broke out the marker pens and encouraged them to draw and write their names. Sadly to say, our kids also inherited our zero-talent sense of creativity!!

And since they were having such a good time, i decided that it was safe for me to cook lunch while keeping an eye on them. So, why was I not surprised when i stepped out 10 mins later to be greeted by a green-hand monster and an equally oranged-hand monster wannabe??

Look Mom, i painted my hands green!!!

It's actually quite spacious inside! :)

Big Brother

Tyler's been developing some Big Brother skills lately and have been looking out for Cody every now and then. They still fight every 5 mins, but i hear that's normal!!

And recently Cody's been testing our patience with his terrible-twos-came-early behavior. And as a result of that, I've been "leaving him behind" a few times. Tyler who still doesn't catch on, gets a little antsy when he sees his mother walk away without his brother. So, he tries to get me to stop and he goes and get him and surprisingly, Cody listens to him and even allows him to hold his hand! How about that?! (and i thought i caught a little sneaky smile from Cody)

It was terribly cute that i was so glad i had my camera with me!

Tyler telling his brother to keep up..

RMSG - 10 Years a commissioner

This year is the 10th year we have held the Rocky Mountain State Games Badminton Tournament, and the 10th year I have been commissioner.

At the last meeting before the event, I was given a 'long service award' for completing my 10 years..

Frog Boys

Here are the two boys with their Frog lunchbox pretending to be 'Frogs'

Tyler and Cody Float their boat

Grandma send over some old Lego from the UK, it must be 40 years old at least, but that didn't stop Tyler and Cody insisting on building and floating a boat..

We have finally perfected cloning and now you can see we have Cody 1 and Cody 2..

Cycling on the Expresso

I have been going to the gym this week to get back into some swimming and cycling. They have an expresso cycle machine that I have blogged about before, and I am already pretty close to my fastest time on 'Gut Buster' but today I thought I would knock off some of the basic courses and see if I could get the No 1 position for each of them at the local gym.

I did the first six basic courses today and did manage to take the number 1 spot (in a small field!!), I am already the fastest on Gut Buster.

Update1 - July 15 : knocked off three more today

Update2 - July 17: Knocked off all the basic ones Sunday

Update3 - July 21: Completed all the moderate courses as leader

For those interested, on Rabbit Run I am 62 across the world, I can probably improve on that if I just did one circuit at a time.

Honey I super-sized the kids!

Giant Tyler sitting on front porch

King Kong Cody

My kids are terrorizing Tiny Town!! Saturday morning, Alan took us all to Tiny Town for a quick look around. The kids got to walk amongst tiny buildings and rode a smelly coal train.



Rogers River Run 5k

I ran the Rogers River Run 5k Saturday morning. The original course was changed due to flooding and it seemed to be further than 3.1 miles but I managed to complete it 30 seconds faster than the last time I did this race.

Time to do some more serious distance training, as each mile was slower than the last !!

I finished 59th out of 534 and was home in time to take the family to TinyTown..

My first 4th of July cake

This is the first year we've celebrated July 4th as a family of all Americans(well, we were all citizens last year, but we didn't celebrate it as we were still in the Philippines) and to make it a little special, i decided that i'll bake my own July 4th cake!! :) (Sabrina's been good to bake mine for the last few years!! Thanks Sabrina!!)

Here is my cake:

My cake..

Superior Downhill Mile - July 4th 2011

I have run this once before in 2009, so was aiming to run this faster than the last time. This is a straight downhill run which does give you a faster time if you can handle the fast downhill parts.

I did manage to complete this in 5:39 (Official), my FR60 running watch said I ran 1.09 miles in the same time which would have given me a 5:09 time... At this pace it doesn't sound like much of a discrepancy, but it amounts to 452 feet and 30 seconds... I am sure the distance is correct if you run straightest line, so next year need to run straighter !!

There was a guy running with a camcorder of some description and so a lot of my race was captured by him (for those in the family who didn't get up to see my race...)

Next year I think the whole family can do this one, as it is only a mile !!