Walking on Broken Glass

Well, maybe not quite that dramatic.

About 2 months ago there was a group of us from work who thought it would be a good idea to walk a Half-Marathon. We usually walk during lunch or something and we thought it would fun. As the day drew closer we were getting a little more nervous. However, when the day finally came we were in pretty good spirits.

We walked the "Lacamas Lake 1/2 Marathon" up in Camas, Washington, the weather cooperated and it was only up to about 80 when we finished. Unfortunately, since Andrea is pretty darn pregnant, she didn't make the trip up there with us.

Walking 13 miles tends to take a little while. I was able to finish in 3 hours and 18 minutes. It was a blast! I actually won a certificate for the top male finisher in my age group 30-39! Before getting too excited, it may be important to know that I was the ONLY MALE PERSON IN MY AGE GROUP! Oh well, at least I had something to show for it.

I've never been much of a runner, and now I have some ankle issues that more or less prevent me from running. I could get into this walking thing though.

Kind of a quick post - thought I would get this in there though.

READ THIS ONE - QUICKLY - IT WON'T LAST!!!

Andrea and I (and Payton) went and had our pictures taken on Saturday, July 18th. It was with a new girl, Kim Harris. She did a great job and was really nice. Since Mindy Strauss was busy with a brand new baby we had to venture out and find someone else.

We had a great time at the NIke Campus in Beaverton. Our growing family took a lot of pictures. Payton did especially well, especially after just having extensive mouth surgery and other stuff the day before.

Here is the website that a sample of our pictures is on. It's kind of a sneak peek. We really lile how they came out and are a little worried that the rest of them look this good. We may go broke buying all of the pictures from Kim.

Here is the website: www.blubelstudio.com . They likely won't be on there for long.

Our poor poor Payton!

So our little pup Payton had some pretty extensive work done at the vet today. I took him into the vet about a month ago and they recommended that we do a pretty serious dental cleaning. His mouth was pretty bad and they said they would likely have to pull 2 or 3 teeth. He also had two fatty masses on himself. One was on his rear right leg, the other was in the middle of his chest.

I took him back in this morning and dropped the little guy off. Knowing that he was going to have a bad day, we gave him some really good "wet" dog food last night instead if the same old "Dry" stuff. If he only knew what was in store for him.

I dropped him off at about 8am this morning. At about 9:30am, I had a message from the vet that his mouth had gotten much worse in the last month and she would have to do "multiple" extractions. I figured, okay, at least he'll have a healthy mouth again. Truthfully, his breath had gotten horrid in the last few weeks.

Well, at about 11am I get a call from the vet. She lets me know that Payton is fine and he is in recovery. She then goes on to let me know that he had to have multiple extractions. I figured, that stinks but now he's better.

I then ask the question, "So how many is multiple?"

The vet then thinks a moment and starts counting more to herself than to me..."12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18..." I'm thinking to myself. "Whaaaaa?!" She ends up saying that he had 29, that's right, 29! One more time - - - 29 teeth were pulled!!!

On top of that - he had the two masses removed. So this evening he is a hurtin' unit and he seems to be just miserable. Poor little thing.

"There are other things to do in Seattle than Football?"

Until the 4th of July weekend, I had only gone up to Seattle to watch NFL games. I would drive up there with friends, park the car, walk to the stadium, watch the game, walk back to the car, and drive back home. I had always heard that there were fun things to do in Seattle but never believed it. So Andrea and I decided to give it a shot and become tourists in Seattle for the weekend. We spent quite a bit of time up there, from Thursday, July 2nd thru Sunday, July 5th. It was a lot of fun. We were able to see many many attractions.

Andrea was a trooper. Our hotel was in the heart of downtown, we stayed at the Hyatt on 8th and Olive. We were able to walk to the majority of the places and attractions we wanted to see, unfortunately for Andrea. She did a great job though - we did have to walk MUCH slower than our well established "Disneyland" pace which was a little brutal for me. I'm sort of the type to get to the next place as quickly as possible. My thinking is that whenever we get to where we're going, there will likely be a line, so the faster we get there - the shorter the line. I'm a little bit crazy when it comes to things like that. However, we walked pretty darn slow and Andrea was quick to remind me that I needed to get used to it with the little one on the way. I just had to keep telling myself, "We're not in a hurry. We're not in a hurry. We're not in a hurry." We persevered and Andrea had the aching feet and back to prove it. Poor thing.

We left work at 3pm on Thursday and after battling through Portland traffic got to Seattle at about 7:15 or so. We checked in and then took the monorail to the Space Needle. Being on a monorail and not headed for The Happiest Place on Earth, or Tomorrowland, or California Adventure just seemed wrong and a little confusing, but we got through it alright. We had reservations for dinner at the Space Needle and got there just in time for sunset. It was a great time. Luckily, we had a family about 3 tables away from us to keep our future in perspective. They had a number of small children with them who were at different times during the dinner, excited, angry, sad, really-really angry, and just plain loud. And they didn't have any trouble letting our side of the restaurant know about it. You would have thought they were trying to warn incoming planes not to hit the Space Needle itself. With that said, it was still a great time and a great way to start off the Seattle weekend.

On Friday, we had breakfast at Pike's Place Market at a restaurant called Lowell's. We could look over the water and just relax. On the way we saw the "Inn at the Market", and also the "Athenian Inn". Both places can be seen in the "Sleepless in Seattle" movie. It was pretty cool. From there we walked down to the ferry. We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island where we walked and shopped for the better part of the day. By the time we got back to "mainland" we (Andrea) were pooped. So we had some dinner and turned in for the night.

On Saturday, we were able to do the Seattle Underground tour. This was really interesting to see. There was an original Seattle that was built about 10-16 feet below the Seattle we know today. We were able to go underground and see what it was like back in the day. Andrea was making the tour guide a little nervous. Everytime we stopped, Andrea would do what she could to alleviate some of the pain in her back (no, not me) and start stretching, or leaning on the railing, or squat down. I'm pretty sure that the tour guide was thinking she was going to faint on his tour. He kept looking at her to make sure she was still "with it". Anyway, that was a really good time. Again, Andrea was a trooper for walking around underground on the 90 minute tour.

After the underground tour we went to the "Experience Music Project" next to the Space Needle. This was a good time. There was a huge concrete open area before the entrance and there were hundreds of chalk sentiments in tribute to the late Michael Jackson. We took a picture of an especially memorable one. "I will grab my crotch and spin everyday in your honor". We were also able to play some intstruments and learn about the history of music in Seattle and elsewhere.

Saturday evening, we shopped around a little and had some dinner and then called it a day. We did however, visit the hot tub at the hotel. It was a very long day of walking around and it was so HOT in Seattle. A good soak is what both of us needed. I was a little afraid that we would boil the baby, but after questioning some friends I was assured that it would be okay for Andrea to sit in the hot tub for a few minutes.

On the last day, Sunday, we didn't do a whole lot. We went to breakfast at a nice little place called CJ's. Then we walked down to an Olympic Sculpture park or something like that. Walked back along the waterfront, and then grabbed a cab for the rest of the trip to the hotel. Andrea had clearly had enough of walking for the weekend, I can't say that I blame her.

Now we're back in Sherwood and the Seattle trip was just one of many, many busy weekends we have for about the next 2 months. Yikes! It was a good time though. If you're still reading this crazy long post - thanks!