Trip to Grandma and Grandpa's, 5K Race and Zoo

This week was a pretty big week. It started off slow as usual, but ended big with a trip to Ohio where I ran my first race, a 5K, since Soren was born and we also went to the Columbus Zoo.

Monday was low key as usual. We didn't do much at all. Keira went over to play with Nana for a few hours and she had a great time.

Keira was "getting" Soren. He was loving it.
Keira slipped out of this shot, but it was so cute of Soren I had to post it.

Tuesday was an interesting morning. We had some plans fall through, but I had also learned about a program called "No Worker Left Behind". It is a program intended for unemployed people in the state of Michigan to obtain funding to go to school to pursue specific careers where the state feels there are job openings, and it varies by region. I did a little digging online and found out that in Wayne County (not Oakland), there is a shortage of personal trainers. I hauled Keira and Soren to the Michigan Works Career Center (which is pretty close to our place) to get some information on how I can get some funds to go to school to be a personal trainer. They were unable to give me much information. Apparently the program has had so much interest that the orientation sessions are full at this office until September. They also weren't really sure if I was able to go to a session in Wayne County (where they need the personal trainers) to get in earlier. I didn't get signed up for an info session yet, because I am thinking I won't meet the criteria. It is intended for people to get an education for a career that they will jump right into once complete, and that is not me. It was also a little odd, but they had Mechanical Engineer on the list of openings on Oakland's list. Ryan and I would beg to differ, but I fear they would turn me away based on my master's degree in Automotive Engineering. It is something I am going to continue to look into. The nice thing is that the personal trainer program isn't super pricey or long, so it may be something that I could do anyway. This idea is on hold for now, though. Keira was very well behaved in the office, however I did learn that she shushed a row of people when I got up to ask a person a question. When I came back they said that she told them to be quiet. Funny, I am sure it is just because I kept trying to get her to be quiet. It did work a lot better than it did at church. Afterwards, we stopped at the mall so Keira could be a little kid. I was not the only one with children in the office, though.


I think Soren's cheeks looked so cute from below.

Wednesday was an action packed day. We started off at a presidency meeting so Keira could play with Lizzie and Elise. That wrapped up just in time for us to go to the library storytime. Soren showed us that he could sit! It wasn't pretty, he was in a little tripod for the most part, rather hunched over, but he sat on his own for a few minutes. Keira had a much better time this week because it was not so crowded. I am going to try to prioritize going on Wednesdays as much as I can, but I already can't go next Wednesday. Keira is being a teapot below.
Here she is reading a duck book to herself along with her teacher.
I thought it was cute that she held it out like she was showing the class.
Soren is sitting on his own. He is pretty scrunched up, but he is balanced by himself. I couldn't back too far away in case he toppled on the hard floor.

I got a run in as soon as Ryan got home, my first of the week in preparation for the race. It would have been nice to run at least once more, but the weather didn't allow it. We also went up to the mall in the evening to let Keira run around a bit, after checking out the Tom Holzer Ford's inventory of Escapes.

On Thursday, got up early enough to clown around before leaving.
We started off at free Kindermusik. Soren was actually able to get a bit involved. Emily and Brooklyn were there today, and it wasn't very crowded either. We stopped at the mall again to let Keira play until naptime.
Soren is trying to eat an egg shaker.

We played at home a bit with the trains. I was doing something with Soren and I heard Keira complain that her train was stuck. This is what I saw. Fortunately I did not need to disassemble her toy to get it out. I was wondering how long it would be until something went in there that wasn't supposed to be got stuck. She has had this toy since her first birthday, so I guess this isn't too bad.

Friday was pretty busy. We got up early and went out to the Tanner's home for a church playgroup. I didn't get any pictures, but there were several of Keira's friends from her nursery class and it was fun for me to hang out with some friends. Once we got back, I had to hurry and pack to leave to for Westerville. These are just some shots while keeping Keira and Soren amused while I packed up there things. Keira is really bad at unpacking her things while I try to pack, so I had to keep her busy.


Once Ryan got home, we packed up and got on the road. The drive went OK. I did crawl into the backseat after we stopped for dinner and sit between the two carseats because Soren was having trouble falling asleep in the car and crying quite a bit. Eventually he settled down and we arrived with little issue.


Saturday morning was the race. It probably would not have been the race I would have selected for my first race, except that several of my friends from college were meeting up in Columbus for it and I couldn't turn them down. It just wasn't a family friendly or spectator friendly race. Ryan, Mom, Keira, and Soren spent the majority of the race at Einstein's bagels and came over for the finish. I was pleased with my time, however, I started out too fast and had some trouble with about a half mile to go. I finished in 25:32. Not great, but not bad. There were no age group awards, but had there been I would have been 3rd, and I was the 13th female and 48th finisher listed in the results. I don't know that these are entirely accurate, because we did fill out a card with our info after finishing, and I thought mine had a 51 on it, for being the 51st person, so maybe some cards got lost or out of order.

I look pretty good in this picture right before the finish line. I always joke about running pictures because I feel like I never look fast in them, and have this goofy pose I do where I try to look fast, which I am not doing. I do, however, have both feet off the ground in this shot, which is what technically defines running from walking.
I don't look very fast here, even though I actually am. See, I am a bit blurry, but my stride doesn't look very "fast". For my fake pose, see this link
Here is my dad finishing up. He looks pretty fast.
Amanda, Sonia, Me, Steph, Lisa (her first 5K ever, and her youngest baby is younger than Soren), Michelle, and Elsa (26 weeks pregnant with #1).

After the race, we did a bit of shopping at Easton. We came back for Keira's nap and then Ryan, Soren and I went back to Easton to meet up with everyone from the race for dinner at PF Chang's. Keira, my parents, Sarah, and David went next door for a surprise 30th birthday party for Jason. After our dinner, we headed over there as well. Apparently Keira had no interest in anything other than playing with the toys over there until it was time to cut and serve the cake. Then she made a beeline through the house to it, but returned to the toys once she was done with her cake. It was a really full day.

This doll house was Sarah's. Keira LOVED it.

Ryan is doing a parlor trick with Soren having him stand on his hand.


On Sunday, we got up pretty slow. We finally were all cleaned up and packed up by lunchtime.

We grabbed a quick lunch at Fazoli's and then headed out to the Columbus Zoo. We had a great time. It was a beautiful day and my parents are members so we didn't feel like we had to see everything because we can come back again to see the rest. Some of the highlights from the zoo were seeing the lions and hearing them roar, the rhino playing in the mud, the aquarium and manatees, flamingoes, elephants, and the gorillas. There were also these smaller gorillas called bonobos. They were super active and played on jungle gym, swinging around all over the place. They were very entertaining and we could have watched them for hours, probably.

We finally left the zoo and headed back home. We stopped at Kris and Linda's quickly on the way back to swap cars and then we were home. It was such a busy fun weekend.

This next week has a lot of activities planned. We are having our taxes done, and I have enrichment, so our evenings will be pretty busy. Hopefully we will have some fun as well.