Pat's Run

Every year, our friend Derrick Karner does Pat's Run with his brother, Chris.  Sometimes Melanie (Derrick's wife) does it, too.  The "Pat" of Pat's Run is Pat Tillman, the NFL player who gave up a multimillion-dollar contract and said goodbye to his wife (his high school sweetheart, to whom he was utterly devoted) to enlist with the Army Rangers after 9/11.  Pat was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan while he was going back to help the other group in their convoy, which included his brother.  Derrick went to high school with Pat in San Jose and has friends who are friends with Pat's wife, Marie, so he feels a special connection. 

The 4.2-mile race (Pat's football number in high school and college was 42) takes place in April in Tempe, Arizona, where Pat played football for the Sun Devils of Arizona State University and then, professionally, for the Arizona Cardinals.  Jim and I decided to crash their party this year.  Since I was going, Melanie and kids (Christian and Kara) came, too.  We all stayed at our friend Deb's condo in Scottsdale and were lucky enough to experience record high temperatures while we were there. 

We got there on Thursday night and went for a quick swim in the warm pool right next to Deb's unit.  Ever enjoyed her first dip in a pool. 

Friday afternoon the boys played golf while Melanie and I stayed at the condo with the kids.  Mel and I finally got out to the pool at about 5:30 P.M. because one kid or another was napping until then.  Melanie said she now understands why I'm a shut-in:  Ever likes her beauty sleep and doesn't stay up long enough between naps to allow for much in the way of outings.  She napped; then Christian napped;  then Ever napped again; then Kara napped.  We had a nice time at the pool, except for a run-in with the "president of this regime" who was convinced Melanie was going to let one of her kids drown on his watch.

The race was Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, Chris was the only person who was registered.  When I asked about it a couple months ago, Derrick said not to worry, and I was under the impression it didn't sell out.  Apparently it used to not.  This year it did, as Jim discovered when he checked the week before the race.  So Mel, Derrick, Jim and I had to sneak into the race sans numbers and red race t-shirts.  Given my fear of breaking rules, that made me a little concerned.  There were gabillions of people there, all organized into sections based on how fast they expected to run/walk.  We hung out off to the side and tried to merge in toward the end but were denied because all stroller-toters had to go in the very last group.  So we waited until stroller time and then merged in without a problem.  (Note:  we bought t-shirts for all three of us after the race, so we did contribute to the Pat Tillman Foundation.) 

We tried to run, which was hard to do because we were stuck behind the slowest people who intended to walk the whole thing.  Jim made enemies by weaving around people.  It was so crowded that we had to walk for some of it, which I didn't really mind because I'm insanely out of shape.  And it was hot; the temperature got over 100 degrees that day, although it was probably only in the 80's while we raced.

Getting lubed up on race day:



Walking to the starting area at ASU near Sun Devil Stadium:

This picture doesn't really do justice to these most gorgeous yellow trees we saw all over Scottsdale/Tempe.

Waiting in the lua lines:



Team Kringel, with the 30,000 legitimate runners corralled behind us:

The whole gang:

Left to right (back):  Chris, Derrick, Melanie, us.



Ever was super excited about her first race.



Starting out:

Walking:



Running:



The race finished inside Sun Devil Stadium, which was cool.  Heading toward the finish line:



Posing with the winner of the "unregistered four-month-old" category:



Heading up in the stadium:



Pat used to climb up on the light posts at the top of this picture to think.

Photo shoot in the stadium:





Christian and Ever taking in the scene.  He likes her despite her giant bald spot. 

Enjoying the free water and fruit:



Dean slept through most of the race.  Still looking tired:



We hit the mist machine on our way out:



That afternoon the boys played golf again.  (This trip is Derrick's golf version of Jim's surf trips.)  Mel and I hung out at the condo and ventured out very briefly to visit the pond by our building.  The kids didn't last long, but we had a minute for pictures.  Ever's bib ruins all the photos, but I'm finding it very convenient for drool and spit-up to just leave it on her. 



Back at the condo.  Christian was smitten.

How could one not be?

Jim and I went back out to the pond for a minute on Sunday morning.

Ever practiced her walking.  

We were so glad the Karners let us join them for this trip.  We loved the race and would really like our fam to run it every year.  I'm currently reading Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory:  The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.  It gives an interesting (and devastating) history of Aghanistan and the wars, as well as of Pat's life.  He was a pretty amazing guy.  Haven't gotten to the part about the cover-up of the circumstances of his death yet.  But what a tragedy.

 

All the Talents in the World

While boogie boarding in Hawaii, Anders once said, "Now I have all the talents in the world except singing and dancing!"  That is one of my all-time favorite quotes. 

We are determined to help Ever develop ALL the talents in the world, especially singing and dancing.  We spend so much time singing and dancing with her, in fact, that it's hard to get anything done.  It begins first thing in the morning.  Before changing her diaper, I sing, "What's goin' on in your pants, Dolly Girl?  What's goin' on in your pants?" - repeated about 10 times.  Once we discover what's going on in her pants, we also sing about that.  Other favorite songs similarly consist of one line repeated ad infinitum, such as "Your mama [or 'daddy,' depending on who's singing] loves you" and "Hey, my little love, my little love, my little love."

For a long time, we had post-change dance parties on the changing table.  She loved dancing. 



(Jim's bedhead is my fave.) 

Of late, she seems to have outgrown this sort of dancing and doesn't smile and laugh as she used to.  But there's still plenty of signing and dancing around the house. 

Music is optional.

Sometimes, though, we take breaks from our song-and-dance training to talk...

... and eat...



... and hug it out.

I love her laugh.  Once, I entertained her for several minutes by saying the word "stroganoff" over and over in a loud, weird voice.  She was in a particularly silly mood, apparently, and she laughed so hard for so long that her face was red and she had tears in her eyes.  I recorded a little bit of it on my phone but can't get the file to open on my computer, unfortunately. 

We want Ever to know how wonderful and talented she is, so Jim has been announcing the daily winner of the No. 1 Baby Award.  Amazingly, Ever wins pretty much every time. 



Kitchen Completion

In the beginning--that is, after we scraped off the terrible chicken and sponge-art wallpaper and painted it--our kitchen looked like this:

Action shot:  I'm cooking for our 2010 Halloween party.  Jim had already taken out the fluorescent lights (leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling) because a leaky pipe had caused mold.  We had virtually no light in the cooking area for a year and a half.

Picture included in remembrance of my ridiculous attempt at an ice cream cake for Jim's birthday last year.

Demo occurred in the beginning of September 2011.  Here's how it all went down:







Footings for the steel beams.



Jim made a pocket door to replace the old swinging-like-a-saloon-door door that separated the kitchen from the formal dining room.

 

Our view for months looked like this:



We had a makeshift kitchen under the stairs.

We later moved the fridge out to the garage and stuck a little cooktop and convection oven that were lent to us under here.



At its peak, our temporary living/dining/kitchen space looked like this:

The obstacle-course passageway.  The washer and dryer were in the entryway at this point because Jim was simultaneously working on the garage.




Eventually, we got it cleaned up to look like this:

At long last, the kitchen finally looks like this: 

It was a painful, frustrating, and incredibly long process.  I'm still trying to clean up the living room and finish moving things back into the kitchen.  The other side of the room, where the T.V. and fireplace are, is still unfinished.   Jim's going to build that out - cabinetry, a table, etc.  Then there's the living room.  And the master bathroom.  And the loft above the garage that we want to enclose.  Years of fun await us.  But for now, let's rejoice in the fact that I have a functioning kitchen, and it's really pretty.