SLC 5K Race Day

We did it! Gary, Ellen, and I ran the Salt Lake City 5K today. We woke up in the early wee hours this morning to be on time for the 7:30am start time. We met up with Brigitte, Roxanne, Charie, and the lovely Davis sisters (Charie and Rox’s Mom and Aunts) just in time to have a quick chat and good luck pep talk and then it was off to the races. Ellie was all decked out in the trusty B.O.B jogging stroller. She was a little unsure about being in a crowd of people and the crowded shuttle ride to the start line was uncomfortable for us all to say the least. But once we got going and found our pace she seemed to enjoy the ride. She was talking our ears off the whole way. I’ve never participated in a organized sporting event like that and I must say I really enjoyed myself. I think the energy of the crowd helped give me and extra boost because I felt great the whole run no stopping necessary except once to help Ellie get the bunches out of her jacket. We finished just under 40 minutes. I think we did pretty well considering our lack of discipline on the training, pushing a stroller, and having to start in the way back thus causing a few traffic jams and hang ups.

The best part of the whole event was having my husband and baby by my side and reuniting with some good friends. Gary was a good sport all day. He is not a fan of big crowds and he dealt with it well all day. Gary and Roxanne’s husband Ryan were also very good to patiently wait for us and watch over the kiddos while all the ladies gabbed and laughed about the good old times we shared in the various houses we rented in college together. I had not seen Charie since our wedding and I can’t remember the last time Roxanne and I got together. All the ladies got together the afternoon before race day for some catching up. Another good friend Sara came down to join us for dinner. With a group of 9 adults and 7 children ( 4 months, 8 months, 1 yr old twins, another 1 yr old, 2 yr old, and a 4 yr old I think I have it right?). It was a symphony of baby cries, grunts, screams, coos, and gabbing ladies. CRaZy to say the least but oh so much fun. I have truly missed having these ladies in my life and am so grateful that we have rekindled our friendships through our blogs. So glad I got to talk, laugh, run, and just be with you all the last two days. Thank you and I love you girls!

THPPPT…

…a conversation with Ellie.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t74aU2L3nzM[/youtube]

An Evening with the Cousins

My brother and his family came over last night to visit and watch the Jazz game of course. We had a good time playing with the cousins. The boys were fascinated with Ellie and she was equally fascinated and entertained by them. It was a wild night for her she watched them with big eyes and tried to join in with the play and noise. Needless to say Ellie was wiped out she slept better than she has in a long time we didn’t wake up to nurse until 4:30 am. She is even seems a little tired this morning too.

Saturday Morning

An array of Saturday morning entertainment…

After a long week of dealing with a nasty cold that has victimized all three of us I decided we could use a treat. I didn’t have the time or energy to make Grandma McKenney’s cinnamon rolls so I improvised and made cinnamon biscuits instead. They turned out quite good actually, but you really can’t go wrong with anything that contains butter and sugar, right? They brought up a flood of memories for me. Whenever I had the opportunity to stay with my aunt Laurel as a youngster she would make a stop almost every morning at the Hardee’s down the road for their yummy cinnamon biscuits and coffee before we headed up the canyon to Alta. I’m so excited because I nailed it. They taste exactly like what I remember.

Cinnamon Biscuits

2 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

6 tbsp unsalted butter (cut into pieces)

3/4 cup milk

Set your oven temp at 425. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients. Stir in milk. Don’t over mix or you will end up with a tough dough instead of a nice flaky dough. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes. Also, you can get ahead of the game by mixing everything but the milk the night before and just add the milk the next morning. If your like me this helps prevent mistakes due to the pre-coffee “morning fog”. Finally mix up a bit of powdered sugar with some milk for a tasty frosting. Wala!

On another topic but relevant to our Saturday morning: Gary informed me that he added the Neil Young “Living With War Today” link to the site. I was going to try to avoid political commentary on this blog but Gary is so passionate about wanting a change I guess we should share what we are doing and talking about. Besides I am a big Neil Young fan, and Harvest Moon is my all time favorite song.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQXnvNwGTAY[/youtube]

We just got done watching all the video of his recording sessions. In case you haven’t heard about Living With War (LWW), this is Neil Young’s documentary recording series focused on the part of the war you WILL NOT see on the main stream news, and protesting the war in Iraq. Neil is still at it. Bless this man! If you’re interested, here are some links:

• Living With War Today Videos (All videos are included in the “Living With War: In The Beginning” CD/DVD set.)
• This video is particularly touching. Neil talks about how when he finished and was reciting the lyrics to his wife, he broke down crying: Flags of Freedom

Finally something so wonderful to post about. Ellen is starting to sit up on her own! She is also starting to say mama in her babble mostly when she is complaining or on the verge of crying (not sure how I should feel about this). She doesn’t associate mama with me yet but its exciting none the less. Needless to say our hearts are soaring.

Adirondack Packbasket

For Christmas Grandma and Grandpa Marcoccia gave all of us an Adirondack Packbasket kit. Sarah discovered these excellent little Adirondack Mountain treasure while attending school at Paul Smiths. She took a class and got to be good friends with the women (Tracy) who puts these together. Since the winter weather has us cozied up in our little cabin I decided to finish the job, wasn’t that difficult really. It feels really good to get a project done seems as though I have many unfinished projects building up (sigh).

We started our baskets together while we were in NY but ran out of time to finish them. The hardest part was weaving but that was just more time consuming than anything. Once the basket was done putting on the rim and skids and then lashing them seemed to go by fast. (Ahem, Danielle and Jill)

Sarah finished hers first before she went on to her adventures in Asheville. Honestly, she could be the packbasket poster girl don’t you think?

And here is our little Ellie enjoying the finished product. I can’t wait to take her out in it once she can stand up. We will look like true Mountain Folk carrying our wee one around Adirondack style. The Farmer’s Market is going to be so much fun this summer now that we have a special basket for our goods.

An Excellent Weekend

Grandma and Grandpa McKenney came up for a visit on Friday. Gary and my Dad had a good time breaking in the snowmobile. Gary dug it out in the front yard a few times and my Dad tested the speed out on the road. Mom and I had a good time catching up and playing with Ellie. It was good to see the folks. They came with special treats from Germany from their recent trip to see my sister. And they also are bailing us out this winter by letting us borrow Dad’s high powered snow blower. Whew, life will be much easier now that we can clear our driveway ourselves. Thanks Mom and Dad!