Waikiki

Here's Kilee and I on our way to Waikiki!

We arrived at the hotel where Courtney and Delvin were to be wed!

We had dinner with Courtney, Lindsay, and Courtney's parents when we arrived.

One night we had a private cabana on the beach at Rum Fire:

 

And then the entire bridal party and friends in town took a catamaran ride by diamond head:

The pools at the Hilton were so beautiful, and we had so much fun having girl time and sneaking into the spa :)

I had so much fun with Courtney and the rest of the bridesmaids, but I was so happy when Brian came to join on Thursday!

Portland Marathon 2012

Here it is! The Portland Marathon 2012. It's been my year long goal, and I started my training in January of this year. I still get butterflies looking at the course. It was a huge challenge and a huge accomplishment, and I am so happy to have completed this goal.

In 2009 I ran my first marathon with my friend Anna while we were in nursing school. I wanted a personal goal that I could focus on while I was really wanting to get married, and Brian wasn't quite ready. So I made it my year goal to run a marathon. It was a great race and for this race we had so much time in our schedules to train with free afternoons, and  not much to get in our way. Such a great experience! AND... Brian and I ended up getting engaged after one of my long runs :) Feel free to read that story here.

This year I have had a little something else on my mind, that we are not quite ready for in our life plan (I wonder what that could be), so I decided to run another marathon! This time training was a little more challenging. I have longer hours at work, an hour commute each way- meaning less days to train, additionally, I did my runs pretty much solo just because we live so far. My mile time was about a minute slower throughout my training, but that was something I was OK with being that there are so many differences in my life at this time. Regardless of the fact that I have done it before, it was a great challenge and I felt very supported on the day of my race! Here are Brian, Dale and I before the race:

Mid race at mile 11, I stopped to fill up my water bottles from Brian and he snapped a quick pic. My brother Ian ran with me from about mile 10 to mile 12:

Here is mile 16, my brother Max ran with me from mile 12 to mile 16 right before the St John's bridge:

No un-registered runners are allowed on the bridge so Max spilt off at mile 16. Up to this bridge is 1/2 a mile of the Steepest. Hill. Ever. I ran all the way up :) Slow but Steady.

On the other side of the bridge my friend Wendy ran with me from mile 17-21. I was so happy to see her that I started crying while running. Maybe it had something to do with having just run 17 miles, but whatever :) She was a life saver. Totally brought up my morale and she talked the whole time to help take my mind off of the race. It was perfect, and exactly what I needed. Love that girl.

Mile 21 my friend Sarah jumped in and she and Wendy "passed the tourch." Again with the tears, but it was so great to have her with me the last 5+ miles. So necessary and so great. She split off right before the end, and she was so so so helpful. She's an amazing friend. Along the way I saw a few more friends from work and it was so heart warming. I felt so loved :)

Here I am after my finish! 26.2 miles in 5:07:07!! My summary of the race is: No walking, just a few tears.

I felt so happy, tired, supported, and loved... and I just kept crying. Don't ask me why!

Max, Windy, Ian, me, Brian, Dad and Mom  

Ashley completed the marathon as well, she's a champ and cheered me on during the last leg of the race. Again with the tears once I saw her...

After lunch in my new Finisher Shirt :)

Great race and a great day! My next one won't be for a few years :)

Dale: little and big!

When did he get so big??

July 2012



September 2012



August 2012



September 2012

Cabinet Corkboard

Thanks to Pinterest, there are lots of great crafty and organization ideas that I have fell in love with. One of them is a way to keep your invites organized. Our summers are full of fun activities, but sometimes it's easy to misplace the paper with directions to the venue, or where the couple is registered... you know, all the things that you don't program into you iphone calendar. Plus, people often spend a great deal of time and money on invites, and having been a bride and now a party planner, I cringe at the thought of just tossing the invite. That's were pinterest inspired me to help de-clutter and get crafty with a cabinet corkboard.

1- I got corkboard squares from Michael's

2- Measure, cut to size, and add double sided stickies

3- Prep the cabinet- get it clean and dry

 

4- Stick on the corkboards

5- Summer full of fun invites!

I have found due to the shallowness of the cork, it's great to use sewing pins at a steep angle to allow it to attach to more of the cork for added stability.

Also, when we don't have invites, it's great for directions to our house from the different places people get lost and there isn't enough cell service for GPS (yes, we live way out in the boonies), coupons we need to use soon, a recipe I want to use or any other sweet note or reminder I don't want cluttering up my counters.

Sun River Nursing Conference

In the beginning of September, a few of my nurse friends and I got to go to a nursing conference in beautiful Sun River. It was a great conference in a beautiful place and we learned a lot of great new information to incorporate into our practice. We got to spend some fun time together too :)

We all got matching "Nurse Themed" socks. How cute are my friends, and how cute are these socks!

Before going to the conference, I went to the Duck Game with Briand. Check out our seats this season! Fun day in the sun and a Duck win! Go Ducks!

Vegas!

Over labor day weekend Courtney's fellow bridesmaids and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate Courtney's Bachelorette. This is the Vegas crew on the rooftop over looking the strip:



Courtney, me, Lindsay & Courtney

Such a fun time, and definitely a weekend to remember! On the first night, the Courtneys and I went to Lavo and had an absolute blast:

We got into VIP right away and had drinks for free :) There was also a performance by LMFAO. So much stinkin' fun!

We had so much fun that, in fact, it was a little hard to come down the stairs in heels-

that's why I wear flats, ladies ;)

The next worning Lindsay came to join us, and we went to the pool!

That night we met up with the future family in law of Courtney for a night out on the town:

Saturday was a little rough, so we utilized the "Med Station" we set up in our hotel room:

Sunday we went to see the fountains and the shops:

The next night we went to Chippendales and then out to Pure, such a girly fun time:)

We all came out alive, with our livers still working :) Such a fun time, and I can't wait to see these ladies again at Courtney's wedding in Waikiki, Hawaii!