Eric's seventh birthday

September 2013

 Eric asked me, "Is your birthday  always on the day you were born?" Yes Eric, your birthday http://bit.ly/157iAdo is always the day you were born and oh is it a special day for everyone.

Right now, turning seven years old, your birthday is about presents, cake, and fun times with family and friends, and oh yeah, more presents!

For your parents, grandparents, and close grown-up friends your birthday is MOST importantly about celebrating all the little and big steps to this day, your 7th birthday! It is day of reflection on your precious face and all those beautiful features that have grown from preemie, to baby, to boy. It is noting that you have grown from 14 inches long to 47 inches tall and that tomorrow you will be a fraction taller still. It is remembering every bottle, feeding, and meal between 1 pound 15 oz and 48 pounds. Its looking in those eyes and knowing those eyes are the very same eyes that opened to me for the first time seven years ago and the see the world so beautifully and have changed the way I see it.

September 2006

Same smile pre-teeth 2007

You are so excited to turn 7! Tonight you were talking about where the seven candles will be placed around your baseball diamond cake (one candle at first, one at second, and third, right field, left field, etc) . When I asked you what your favorite thing about being six was, you didn't say starting kindergarten, playing farm league baseball, getting a big bike,  changing from a car seat to a booster seat, or learning to read and write. You said "losing your teeth" top front and bottom front to be specific. You have lost 5 teeth to date and the 6th is hanging out. Losing your teeth for the first time is pretty cool, especially when it pays big dividends. By-the-way, I owe you money I borrowed to pay the babysitter. Don't worry, I'm good for it.

Curly hair 2008

Watching you grow and become even more of that special YOU that only you can be is blessed gift. You are so kind and considerate (yeah, you grab things out of other kids' hands' but were working it on and that excitement "just gets ya sometimes). You notice everything. Today you looked at my feet and said, " You got new shoes." Your sense of humor just gets better and better and hearing your deep-belly chuckle (the same one a heard for the first time 6 and a half years ago after giving you bath and drying you off)  to slap-stick comedy or the ridiculous idea of a driving cat ( yeah, Toonces is funny!) puts a smile on my face like nothing else.

Your birthday is a day for you and its significance is marked as it should be with birthday booty, bounce houses or, by playing pinball all day with your closest friends! For Momma and Dadda it's celebrating you growing and being blessed a million times over to be a part of it. Happy Birthday Eric. We love you.

Throwing rocks in the crick 2013

Smeers camping 2013

Quotes from Montana visits

Eric  "I have only seen pigeons, not ever a bald eagle."

Noah "this isnt soda. It's called pop"

Noah at Shakespeare in the Park "they talk funny"

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Ridge run fun approaches

I wrote this before the Ridge Run and didn't post it. I will recap the adventure but here's the before story!

In the tapering period of my training I told Noah I was heading out for a short run. He says, "No you're not. You will run far." He just couldn't believe that after all the long runs it was even possible to go for a short run. The miles are logged. The shoes a tried, tested, and trained in along with every other bit of even potential gear. I've read every blog at http://bridgerridgerun.wordpress.com/. I have studied the elevation and determined where I will walk to climb up rather than run, and where I can let'er cruise. I have written down the rogue directions given at http://winddrinkers.org/ridge-run/. I know what I will eat and drink, how I will arrive at the start by 6am, and exactly what socks I will wear. I have interviewed Ridge Run finishers with an obsessive amount of questions. Branch Brady has run this race twice already and happens to be my cross-town high school cross country coach from back in that day. After talking with him I know am as prepared as I can be (patting myself on the back right now). I also talked with LUNA sponsored athlete and friend http://teamlunachix.com/sponsored/athletes?athlete=797 who ran this rugged race with her untrained (what!) husband in 2012 after competing in the ITU Long Course Triathlon Championships in Vitoria, Spain (what!)the weekend prior to the Ridge Run! She filled me with confidence and assured me that "if I enjoy this kind of stuff"  I will have a blast! She also gave the advice of stopping, taking pictures, and looking behind me to see what I just ran.

After talking with these experts I determined that my estimated finish time might just be 5 hours and 30 minutes. This is with quite a few assumptions! First assumption is that we make it to the starting line without bottoming out the car on Fairy Lake Road. I ran 20 miles in 3hours 18 minutes so estimating this will take me nearly 2 hours longer than that rolling hill trail tells you a lot! My estimated time assumes I don't have to work more mountains than I thought, that I can handle the terrain, that I don't hang out for 20 minutes at a check point talking and enjoying the view, that I don't have to bandage a blister, bruise, or scrape, and that I don't have to take care of ...well, "girl stuff" that so conveniently coincides with the same point in the month as the run. Irritating, yes, but at least I am not pregnant!

I have been practicing my downhill running skills and tried different shoes with different approaches to tackling the technical stuff. Approach #1) nimble, small, flexible, support shoes, and #2) fat, thick, roller, support shoes. I am going with the fat. They oddly seem to help me run down hill better even though the take up more space. Running downhill on a trail is quite different from the road so I have learned. It's comparable to downhill mountain biking and downhill mogul skiing. You pick your line, you follow it, you bend your knees down low, and hold your arms out like you are holding ski polls. I have discovered this keeps you in the best control and you kind of "dance" tip-toe even down the hill. Notice I said hill! These are mountains and I am a nervous nelly coming down hills. So that is another assumption, that I am confident enough in my skills to not put on the breaks the entire 9500 feet net descent down the mountain.

And then there is the elevation. It must be respected and if it tells me to slow waaay down well, I slow way down. What more can I do? Nothing more than I have. I live at sea level and have had the added bonus of tapering for the past 10 days at 3500 feet so maybe I gained a few extra elevation points for that.

This is an adventure for me but keep in mind there are people who do this year after year. There is even someone running this rugged mountain race barefoot for, from what I can tell, the third time! I am looking forward to the adventure and the camaraderie with fellow Ridge Run enthusiasts and Montana natives. While my bib number says Alameda, California. I run this race to celebrate being  Montanan (almost born, and definitely raised). The sky will be as big as this race in the town of my alma mater. I am also so excited to run the same course as Branch Brady. My admiration for him as a runner and a coach make me feel honored to "hang" with him. His words of support and encouragement during my days of competition  still ring load and clear 23 years later!

In the words of Eric and Noah, Wee Haa!!