My First 5K (from the archive)

Another noteworthy event I neglected to write about was my first 5K.

Yes, I ran a 5K race.  Back in November, 2 months before Cora was due.

Well, I didn't exactly run.  At least not the whole way. 

But I.  I, who spent the majority of my life scoffing at runners.  I, who couldn't imagine why anyone would want to run for fun--or even for exercise.  I, who was 7 months pregnant at the time.  I ran a 5K race.  And it was all my idea.  I blame Austin for convincing me that exercise is a good thing, but I was actually the one who talked him into doing this with me.

Sorry, but I think I'm awesome.  And even if I was literally dead last for the first 2/3 of the course, I still think I'm awesome. 

I figured, hey, I walk 3 miles most mornings for my regular exercise anyway, why shouldn't I do basically the same thing with a big group of people?  (It was organized by the MBA group, so I knew most of the people participating.)  I donned my goofy, electric-colored walking outfit (sometimes the hat is purple and my gloves are also lime green) and bundled Carson into the stroller just like I did nearly every other day.  Only this time I pinned a number to my back.

Austin took Seamus and ran ahead at his own pace while I pushed the stroller behind the pack.  He'd never run a 5K before either and wanted to know what time he could get if he really tried.  But he promised to bike back and find me after he finished so he could cross the finish line with me.

I'm not going to lie.  It's severely disheartening to find yourself not only falling behind everyone, but quickly falling behind--at a pace that, for you, seems fast.  But that's what happened.  It's a good thing I've heard so many inspiring stories in my life about people finishing against all odds and having it be more important to finish than to win blah blah blah.  And somebody has to come last, right?  But did it really have to be me?  And by so much?  There were small children and old people ahead of me!!!

Well, eventually the course started downhill, and I could still see the next bunch of people ahead of me each time they disappeared around a bend in the road.  So I decided to try jogging.  The belly was heavy and the bladder was weak, but I did the best I could.

Soon, I passed two older ladies.  Then I passed a couple groups with kids.  Then I met up with a group of parents and kids I knew, so I kept their pace and chatted for a bit.  Then I saw Austin headed back towards me, and I took that as a chance to excuse myself and speed up again.  Then I started passing people without children, and people who had never had children.  And at last, I crossed the finish line.  And I think, ultimately, I beat about 1/3 of the other racers!  (At least, according to Austin.)  (Thanks, Aust. :)  Austin finished in the top 5.  And maybe most of the people in this race were just non-runner MBA couples out to have a healthy morning, but I still feel good about that.

I wish I knew my finishing time off the top of my head. Unfortunately, I am in Seattle, and that information is written down and packed away in a box somewhere in Provo.  But it might just be embarassing to post if any of you real runners were to read it.   

Speaking of healthy living, I am currently disobeying my self-imposed 11:00 bedtime.  Cora, sweet as she is, is doing a number on me with her current sleep schedule, so I need every minute I can get.  Good night!

Bon Voyage, Tobias! (8 Months Later...)

While skimming thru my computer photo album this morning, I came across several important things about which I never wrote.  One of which is the departure of my youngest brother, Tobi, for the California Riverside LDS Mission.  This one's for you, Mom and Dad:

Tobi came to Provo to enter the Missionary Training Center just a week before Thanksgiving.  He was sad that he would be missing out on some McHardy family Thanksgiving traditions--namely yeast biscuits and Cheesecake--so we rounded up the local McHardy kids and had our own feast a week early.  (Actually, the feast was just beef consomme with macaroni noodles...but we did have yeast biscuits and cheesecake with it.  And that's all he needed, really.)

Tobi stayed with us for a few days before entering the MTC, and he used the time to catch up with some old friends from school and finalize some last minute preparations for his new missionary life ahead.  It was crazy to see my little brother so grown up.  I know, I know, it's cliche.  But I left for college when he was just 7.  And the last time I spent any large amount of time at home was when he was 10.  So in many ways, I still picture him as a funny little 10-year-old in my head:  dancing in front of the bathroom mirror, watching SpongeBob Squarepants, goofing off with his weird little friends, and doting on his favorite (ONLY) big sister.

Then, thanks to a missionary-friendly Fuddrucker's restaurant nearby, Tobi was able to stop in for a free lunch the afternoon he was scheduled to report.  When we called ahead to find out the details, they said he just needed to show up with his family and a big smile, and his lunch would be on the house.  He said he could handle that.

We were delighted that Rory was able to take time off from his day to come scavenge our lunch with us.  (He was free too...he ate our leftovers.  :) 

Carson was just as excited to see his Uncle Tobi as the rest of us.  Tobi spent a lot of time playing cars while he was with us.  He was a good sport.

Next stop:  Provo Missionary Training Center.

Families are no longer invited to come inside to drop off their young missionaries for tearful farewells.  Now it's more of a "first day of school"-style drop off.  There are advantages and disadvantages, I suppose.  But Tobi seemed just fine with it.  In fact, the missionary who came out to escort him in was a friend from his Freshman year at BYU.

 And there he is.  Elder McHardy.  The last moment before he donned the identity by which he would be known for the next two years.  What a handsome kid!

Tobi has now been in California for 8 months.  He just moved to his second area, and judging by the quantity of exclamation points in his letters, he is having a great time.

Arlington Fly-In

Last week I discovered there was an Air Show/Fly-in in the Seattle area.  I love Air Shows.  When I was a missionary in England, I had a dream to be up North in time for the Sunderland Air Show--watching planes fly in off the North Sea--but it didn't work out just quite right.  I actually was in Durham, not too far away when it happened, but I couldn't think of an excuse to legitimize the trip.  Oh well...

So when I found out about the Arlington Fly-in, I thought, "Shucks!  I've got a son.  He'll love it!  Let's go!"  I packed us a lunch and we headed out.

To be honest, it was a pretty small show.  Nearly all the planes on display were just little ones that people had flown in to get to the show.  Neat, but nothing special.  There were a few bigger ones around--like a B-25 bomber:

But mostly just little prop planes. 

The air show was still fun to watch tho.  The opening act was "The Flying Tenor", a man who sang the National Anthem whilst doing stunts in his little plane.  There were then several similar little stunt planes, a sail plane, and then two planes that flew together (a duet?).  They called themselves "Team Rocket," although I'm not sure whether they'd ever seen Pokemon.  Single stunt planes are cool to watch, but formation flying is definitely a-whole-nother world.  Sooooooo cool.  I wish there had been bigger groups, but I was happy with what I got.  The show ended with an "Alpha Jet" which, I think is a German plane, and anyway, it flew really fast.  Back and forth.  Several times.  We thought that was pretty cool too.

Carson had fun watching the planes, talking about their loud engines, and asking me lots of questions about things I didn't know anything about.  (I do really like planes.  But other than the P-51 Mustang and B-2 Stealth Bomber, I'm completely hopeless at names, dates, or details.)

One highlight of the afternoon was this little area with "flight simulation planes."  They were up on hydraulic stands and had a joystick which would actually move the wing flaps up and down as it turned the plane up and down and side to side.  I thought they were great, but the motion freaked Carson out a little.  He was happy to just sit and talk about the different dials on the instrument panels.

Cora, meanwhile, was busy entertaining the kids who were running the ride.

We did have a good time all around.  However, I realized on the way home that we went to the airshow for ME and not really for Carson.  (In fact, he was kinda grumpy in the car, and kept insisting that he "didn't have a fun time at the air show."  I was a little disheartened until he saw Austin and the first words out of his mouth were "We saw an Alpha Jet, Dad!")  If I'm honest, I think he was just as entertained--if not more so--by the Tractor-Tram that was pulling people around the airfield, or the Tesla car that parked next to us in the parking lot.  I should have guessed as much.  Carson is into wheeled-craft at this point in his life.  He is very appropriately named. 

We have a 3rd story corner apartment in Seattle, and there are several large windows overlooking the intersection below.  Carson loves to sit on the back of the couch and watch the cars out the window.  He has a little book we picked up in China with car brands and logos in it, so he even knows the names of most of the cars that he sees.  He'll just sit there, and you'll hear him:  "Honda...Audi...BMW! (he loves BMWs)...Chevy....Mercedes Benz....Mazda...Convertible (he calls all Fords convertibles for some reason)...Volvo...Mini...etc etc etc...  The kid is into cars.

So at the end of the day, we both got what we wanted, and had a nice adventure.

Oh, as an endnote, and completely unrelated to the above posting, if Austin does get a job in Seattle after he graduates next year, I will not live north of the city.  For at least the 40 miles that I was on the Interstate heading back into Seattle that evening, the entire freeway going the other direction, I am not kidding you, was completely bumper to bumper with cars.  It was ridiculous.  And I'm sure it's like that on all sides.  If we live here, I would rather live in a small apartment downtown than subject my husband to that kind of commute every day.  It's completely ridiculous!  I mean, I know people do that.  (Clearly, people do that, or there wouldn't have been thousands of cars on the freeway.)  And I know it's considered a pretty normal way of life.  But, wow.  I just can't imagine it.  I hope that doesn't sound snobbish of me.  Perhaps a bit naive, anyway?  Well, hopefully, one of these days, we can finagle a way to get ourselves back into a nice, quiet little place in the mountains or something.  (La Grande, OR!)  But then, isn't that everyone's dream in one way or another?

Happy Birthday, America!

This Monday we celebrated the birth of our nation with some of our friends here from BYU.

We're all living in posh downtown apartments.  This apartment has a back porch which looks out over Lake Union.  And that was where one of the city's fireworks shows was going on.

We spent the early part of the afternoon eating BBQ chicken, watermelon and other 4th of July fare while steeling the minds of our children for the noise of the evening.

Everytime someone set off a bottle rocket or a roman candle nearby, we made a big deal about how great and fun it was--hoping the two toddlers would begin to associate the loud noise with something happy instead of scary. 

The firework show over the lake was really quite spectacular.  I was afraid after Chinese New Year last year (2 weeks of solid explosions literally right outside our windows) that I would be disappointed by any other fireworks exhibitions for the rest of my life.  I was wrong.  The New Year celebration was certainly more mind-blowing and in your face, but this was much more elegant.  I really enjoyed it, and we all had a really great time.

And this is what Cora had to say about the whole thing.

Happy Birthday, America!

Boats and Fish

Several of our most recent outings have revolved heavily around boats and fish.  This seems suitable given the strong maritime vibe of our location.

We visited the Chittenden Locks where boats come and go between the inland lakes Puget Sound.

There are also salmon ladders at the locks---man-made steps so the salmon can swim back upstream to spawn like they did before all the man-made contraptions interrupted their natural, biological processes. 

I guess the effectiveness of man-made salmon ladders is somewhat in dispute, but we sure saw a heckuva lotta salmon swimming around from the viewing area below.

Next, we visited the Seattle Aquarium.  Amazon held an Intern Social there, so we got to meet the people Austin is working with, and see the fish for free. 

It was nearly impossible to pry Carson away from the fish "petting" area.  He was totally enamored with the starfish.  It's actually pretty cool.  They have this big "wave pool" area where they pump water right in from the Sound so the oceanic creatures are in as close to their natural habitat as possible. 

They had sea cucumbers, starfish, sand dollars, coral, sea anemone, clams, snails, crabs, and all kinds of cool snorkelling-type fare. They also had a big tube-shaped tank with an octopus inside. I was a little creeped out that it was big enough to reach its tentacles up over the top of its tank, but was assured that even if it did, the water level was low enough that it wouldn't be able to reach me.

This little guy is called a dog-face puffer fish.  In addition to having an awesome name, it did have this really cute little dog-face.  I wish I had shot him straight on, but he turned at the last second.

Anyway, they also had seals and otters and other bigger things further on, but by that time I had gotten the video camera out, and I still haven't bothered to figure out how to post videos on here.  :)

 Just in case you were wondering where little Cora Mei was in all this, she was right here in the stroller.

On another adventure, we went to visit the Center for Wooden Boats.  We went a couple weeks ago for TugBoat StoryTime, and decided to come back for the Wooden Boat Festival this past weekend. 

There were tours of peoples' really cool houseboats--like, boats that they actually live on out in Lake Union.  Seriously, some nice boats.  One even had a hot tub on top. 

There were also old, historic boats that had been restored. 

And they also offered free sail boat rides.  We were lucky enough to sign up for a "private" 4-person sail boat ride. 

 Sadly, by the time if was our turn, the wind had died down quite a bit, so we spent most of our time drifting and tacking back and forth.  But we still enjoyed ourselves.

 

I told Carson to say "Argh" like a pirate for this shot.  This is what I got.  It's a little better than the standard cheesy grin he has adopted for picture-taking lately.

And just in case you've been wondering how we've been in Seattle for a month and you haven't seen any pictures of the Space Needle yet, here it is.  It's actually just 5 blocks from our house, and we go to it quite often.  There's a super cool fountain and a nice wading pool we intend to visit more often once it warms up a bit more.  (It is July, afterall.)

Woodland Park Zoo

Last week we took a trip with our MBA friends to the Zoo here in Seattle.  Like all good kids, Carson loves the Zoo.  When Austin asked him what we were going to do while he was at work, Carson said, "Go..to...the...ZOO!!!"  He was very excited.

 So we met up with our friends Sara and Lindsay and their little girls (all the other families here have only girls--Carson is a lone wolf) and ran around the Zoo for a good 3 hours or so.

This Zoo here seems to be much more geared towards the animals than the spectators.  Looking back on the day, I felt like we had just chased the kids thru a heavily wooded area, pausing occasionally to peer into various enclosed grassy places in search of the distant animals.  But I'm glad I took these pictures, because it seems we did get to see a fairly decent array of animals:

 (The [hideous] orangutans are eating star-shaped popsicles in honor of the Independance Day weekend.)

I guess I remember Zoos being a lot cooler when I was a kid.  My parents took me to the Phoenix Zoo for my...8th? 9th? birthday and I was SUPER excited.  I don't know if that's because the Phoenix Zoo is particularly cool, because I usually went there on school field trips, so they had things organized for us to see, or if it's just the wonder and amazement that kids see in everything.  Or maybe it's a combination of all of that.  I still like the Zoo, but sometimes I like them better than others. 

 Carson and the kids didn't mind much that there weren't very many animals visible. There were plenty of things to do on the grounds.

Cora was mainly concerned with staying out of the sun. 

 This is Carson's new best buddy, Giselle.  She's 4 and from England.  He's friends with all the girls here, and it's fun to watch them all play together, but it's Giselle's hand he wants to hold when we're walking, and it's he and Giselle that chatter together the most--and boss each other around the most.  It's quite cute.