After lunch, we went to the park and played Sand Volleyball. Each kid had a red or green number written on their hand at the start of the day. The first volleyball game was red v. green. The second game was odd numbers v. evens. The third game was girls v. boys. Jered played in all three games but I limited my involvement to just the last. Those girls needed help!
After volleyball, we went to the pool (to cool off!), bowled a couple hours, then had dinner at I-Hop. When we got back around 9:30, that's when the real lock-in began complete with bball, Wii, Hand Painting (and self, as you can tell), and other various activities.
The boys slept in the sanctuary on pews. The girls were in the children's nursery. Girls brought sleeping bags. The boys needed no such convenience. . .
I personally forced myself to sleep on the couch in the youth room at 2am. It wasn't the best sleep ever but it was enough. Friday brought a long day of rest & Bridal shoot in the evening for me. That was a trip and a half! Let's just say that I really should've remembered that Buzz Under the Stars was Friday @ Rivermarket *before* I led the caravan down there for Bridal photos. Let's just say that we wound up driving up to 39th st for our "urban" shoot after all. At least we did get some really, really nice photos at Union Station first. Plus, 39th st has some absolutely stunning locations if you have a good eye and creative spirit-- which thankfully my bride that evening also shared :)
Here's a photo I shot in the bathroom while Tracy was getting dressed in her bridal gown & I was testing my flash.
Saturday morning dawned bright and warm as Jered and I awoke at 5:50am and hurried down to Crown Center for the Hospital Hill run. We parked at some random lot on Broadway about half a block south of Pershing. Not a bad spot, really. We walked to Pershing & Grand and really only had about five minutes before the race actually began. My heart was pounding but I was all In The Zone and as the crowd of 7,000 surged forward and my walk toward the Start line turned into a brisk walk and then a jog and then finally, a run, I felt good. No side splits. No cramping. Just a good solid flow of people, some running and some walking, all heading in one long surging force down Grand blvd toward Power & Light. Boy, that first hill lasts FOREVER. It's a good thing I'd been training on hills and it's actually a good thing that I'd done a lot of my running in the afternoon when it was a little hotter than usual because it got hot. Fast. We weren't supposed to wear headphones since we were running on the street & all, but really, I didn't notice the silence because there were just so darn many people, it kept my mind occupied.
I only slowed to a walk once to get a gulp of water and the second time during a 45-second or so moment of despair when we passed the 2 mile marker and I realized I wasn't as close to the finish line as I'd thought. With no music to mark my time, the course seemed longer & also shorter than it was at different times. At mile 2, it definitely seemed to last forever. This was just before the last long hill and the long downhill that looped to the end of the 5 K race. When I turned that corner that took me off the 10k & half marathon course, I thought to myself, Thank You, God that I'm only running the 5k. When I saw the finish line in sight, everybody around me (including myself) picked up our pace and pushed ourselves faster towards and over the line. As soon as I crossed that line, I slowed to a walk, braced my arms behind my back and saw my vision swim a bit as my stomach turned. Puke factor. I'd heard of this. Jered was there with camera in hand as I picked up a towel to wet, water to drink and a medal to wear. They gave the runners bananas and power bars and pretzels and flip flops. I also got a bbq sandwich that before the race I thought I would certainly never eat at 7:45 in the morning. I'm here to say that I sure did.
My time was 34 minutes and that was almost exactly my training time had been up to that point. So taking into account my lack of restful sleep, the 80 degree heat at 7:30 in the morning and the incredible hills that give this run it's name, I was pretty darn proud of my time & my run. And of course, we'd barely walked back to the car before we were plotting the next run in the fall and Jered was making plans to train with me. He picked up a post-card for a 15k and my first thought was, No Way. My second thought was, Why Not? We'll see, I guess.
Not to forget that 2 1/2 hours after we left Crown Center, I left the house to go photograph a wedding. I haven't touched the photos from that wedding yet except for one and I thought I'd share that one real quick as the photographic representation of a large chunk of my weekend. This wedding was pretty laid back. Mom met me there and assisted me. I was very grateful for her help because I couldn't keep myself from yawning several times throughout the day. She was great at rounding up the various family members who kept slipping away from pictures because I simply didn't have the energy to want to do such things. Brittany & Cody were a great couple, though, and were quite appreciative. Plus, I was home by 5pm and when does that ever happen on a Wedding Shoot? It was a blessing for me for sure!
Today was a pretty relaxing day, thankfully. I was in a good mood. Our airconditioning which hadn't been working the past three days finally kicked in last night and I got to help out with the 2s & 3s today during service. This meant we put stickers on things and listened to a bible story then played with Play-Dough for a half hour. Then after church, Jered and I had lunch with Jami & Michael and we wound up hanging out at Wendy's for like 2 1/2 hours. They're a great couple. We definitely enjoy our time with them.
So that was our past four days. Tomorrow we're going to Dad & Lisa's to swim and see Aunt Charlotte, Rachel & Kennedy (our littlest second cousin) who are in town. I'm looking forward to getting off work at 12:30 and then just chillin' the entire rest of the day. True That!
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