Lookie!

Lest you think it's all about running and homeschooling around here, look what I did this morning!

I'm still no where near as good or consistent as the boys, but I'm making progress... ;) 

Yesterday's field trip.

Together with about 30 others with our homeschool group, the boys and I toured the Rawhide Energy Station north of Fort Collins yesterday. It was pretty cool actually. I had no idea the plant was even there, let alone how efficiently the plant operates. We started out with a very thorough presentation and Q&A session then divided into two groups to tour the facility. The boys were rather impressed by the sheer size of things and by the fact that they got to wear headsets under their hard hats so that they could hear the tour leader speak. 

Though my boys apparently already knew how coal turbines work, they still found the field trip educational. They were particularly fascinated by:

• the fish living in the reservoir that they use for cooling the purified water that runs through the turbine process. Apparently, they stocked the reservoir with some sort of algae-eating carp about 30 years ago. They're still there and are now about 5 feet long. (They're hybrids, so don't reproduce.)...
• the method of dumping the coal from the train cars. The cars actually stay coupled to the train and just get rotated about 160 degrees to dump the coal. Micah informed me that this is just like how lego train couplings work, lol...
• the process for cleaning the air before re-released into the atmosphere. The engineer leading our group went into detail about the processes for removing both sulphur and mercury...and,
• the fact that this one plant provides most of the power for the cities of Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Estes Park. This, Noah realized, means that this plant provides the power to charge his iPod. He therefore loves it. ;)

For security reasons, I wasn't allowed to take any pictures, but I stopped on our way out to snap this one by the entrance:

Yup, another beautiful homeschooling day here in Fort Collins... 

Other stuff.

1. Last Saturday, Asher tried out for his karate school's Demo Team. They perform at promotion nights and a few other events throughout the year. They do routines set to music and get to use weapons. He was stoked. ;) After the hour or so of try outs, Asher was invited to join the team and will now have Demo Team practices once a week on top of his normal twice a week karate classes. (I'm sure it didn't hurt that the team leader is thrilled to have someone who can do the splits, lol!) He'll also become a member of the Black Belt Club, which entitles him to participate in special weekly classes like specific weapon and form training. And, he'll get more specific instruction on the stuff he currently knows (more attention to detail). He's pretty darn excited and we think it'll be a great experience for him. 

2. On Sunday, after my half marathon, Noah and Asher participated in their first fun run of the summer. They both did great but got past me toward the finish line. ;) (I didn't see them until Micah shouted "there went Asher!" and the like. So. I saw them cross the finish line but didn't get any good pictures.) Micah chose not to run but still managed to snag a cookie at the finish line:

(Yes, you're seeing that photo correctly. Noah ran in his blue jeans. We tried to talk him out of it, but the boy is stubborn, lol.)

3. Monday, while the boys were at their second to last day of Options, I went and got a haircut:

4. That night, the boys had their spring program at Options. Noah and Asher played the chimes:

Asher also performed with his keyboarding/piano class, and Micah took the stage with his Great Pretenders class:

Yup, that's Micah behind the Darth Vader mask. They were demonstrating one of the ways they've worked on telling stories throughout the year...in this case, using masks. ;)

5. Oh, and here's a closer look at my cool half marathon medal:

(And, yes, I still haven't quite gotten the hang of styling my new haircut, lol. Regardless, loving the shorter length and think it's just in time for summer!)

6. Speaking of summer, our darn AC system died. Drat. It's not unexpected or anything, considering that it's original to the house, so is over 20 years old. Sigh. So, we've spent time over the past week getting bids and doing our research. Should start replacement stuff this week or next. Awesome. Guess it's a good thing we dodged the braces bullet for this year, lol.

7. Micah earned his next karate belt on Tuesday. He's now up to orange belt with blue stripe and is pretty pleased with himself:

He's also pretty darn sweaty, lol. 

And I think that mostly catches us up for now. :) Happy middle of the week to you!

HALF!

Well. I did it. I ran my first half marathon on Sunday! All in all, things went pretty darn well. I woke up before the sun and drove up to Old Town to catch the 5:30 bus to the starting line. (All runners except the 10K-ers had to catch busses to the various starting lines for logistical reasons.) After huddling in the cold and wind for an hour-ish, the 1315 half marathoners lined up (after ditching our blankets and jackets and such with the bag check folks) and began the race at 7:00 am. Just before that, I found my good friend Marti and her husband among the throng:

We snapped this picture just before all taking off at our own paces. Marti's husband rocked the half, and Marti persevered through her bronchitis in an amazing show of determination and optimism. ;)

Fortunately, the weather cooperated marvelously and I was over my shivering by the end of mile one. Things felt great for the first 7 or 8 miles, though I know I slowed down after that. ;) Nothing exciting to report...the run was pretty uneventful, though full of fun people watching, lol. Still. I finished in 2:24 and am feeling pretty darn happy with that time for my first half. 

Nathan snapped this picture as I was approaching the finish line. :) So thankful to have had my small but loud cheering section, too...Nathan and the boys and then also my pal Molly and her significant other, Mark. Molly had run the 5K that morning as well, so was done with her run and waiting at the finish line:

After I'd stretched a bit, we all headed back home for showers before driving back up to Old Town for the boys' first fun run of the season. I'll talk about that more in another post...

So. Whew. Not feeling too bad at all, which makes me thankful for the training that I did. ;) Of course, now Molly's trying to talk me into signing up for another half with her later this summer. Do you suppose that if I run two half's in a year that counts as a full marathon? ;)

Almost time...

My first ever half marathon is coming up...tomorrow! In preparation for that, Nathan and I hit the race expo/packet pick-up last night and browsed all the booths. We had the most fun at this one, though:

The Brooks Cavalcade is cool. It's a double decker type bus that's just plain fun. Nathan enjoyed playing with the "Brooks DNA" and he even won a free tee shirt (which I promptly convinced him to give to me, lol). 

So. I think I'm ready. Here's hoping... ;)