Rialto Beach (Part 3)

Just for documentation sake, we were on this vacation from July 22-24th, 2010.

Our second day we planned to do some day hiking farther up the beach.  It was incredibly foggy when we woke up and for most of the day until around 4pm when we hiked back to our site.  This was a lazy day of hiking, but we had no desire to push ourselves like we have in the past.  After working on the house so much we really needed a restful break and we forgot my boots, so I didn't feel safe climbing over big rocks with my pack and no ankle support.  Also, hiking on the beach is a good workout!  We sank into the sand as we walked and walked over little rocks, climbed big rocks, and shimmied through fallen tree trunks.  Oh, and I was really afraid of slipping on wet rocks...I've had a few head injuries as a kid and I didn't feel like cracking my head open in the middle of no where.  Needless to say, hiking on the beach is a much different experience than hiking through the woods.

These pictures are from our day hiking on Friday and I took a couple from our hike out. 

Fog in the morning.

Above and below: our lunch spot...yeah, it was gray out. 

When the sun came out, it looked so beautiful at our campsite!

We built a huge fire!  I think the flames look so cool.

Our beach at low tide early in the morning.

Another shot of Rialto.

On the ferry ride back to Seattle from the penninsula with Mt. Rainier and a logging barge in the background.  These ferries are amazing!  They hold a lot of cars and passengers.

Rialto Beach (Part 2)

We've been busy prepping for painting tomorrow...well, almost today and I'm sure that my home is going to take on a totally different look and feel with some color!  I really wish that I had taken some pictures of the mess we created while working, but every time I thought of taking pictures it never really interested me enough to actually pick up my camera and snap a few shots.  I'll be happy with before and after shots, and hopefully the results will be just as shocking if not more. :)

Other happenings in the Thompson household are that we celebrated our third anniversary on this past Wednesday!  Shem and I are both like: "It has only been three years?!!  It feels like we've been married much longer than that!"  Should we be worried about this mutual thought? :)  I think what we mean is that we've been together long enough to not remember what life was life before marriage, or that we're so in love that it feels like we were meant to be from the beginning. :)  Anyway, I love him so much and I love how we've grown so much together these past three years, but more about that latter when I post pictures of what we did!  It was so much fun and we ate some super yummy food from Ivar's.

Here are more pics from Rialto Beach. I've only edited the first day, but I'm sure I have some cool shots from our second and third days too.

These are all shots from our first day.

The famous Rialto Beach Picture.  I have more of these from our hike back.

Hole in the Wall.  When the tide is low you can hike through it, but since the tide was too high we had to climb the ladder.  It was basically some stairs made in the dirt and it was very steep...scary.

After the Hole in the Wall we pretty much hiked over rocks like these with 30 lbs. packs on our backs.

Shem in the two man backpacking tent...doesn't he look hot?!

The homestead.

This is our same beach at high tide around 9pm.  I took some long exposure shots to make the water look dreamy.  I didn't have my tripod, so I cropped out the log that used to be in the foreground.

Rialto Beach Backpacking Trip (part 1)

Our private beach...Rialto Beach, WA

I have more details about this trip and other things going on with us, but I haven't finished my other chores yet, so those details will have to wait.  Shem and I have both felt a little lost with all that we have to do the past two days, but tomorrow will hopefully be a different story!  We need to get a lot of work done so that I can paint next week!

Fireworks from last night

These are some of my favorite pictures of fireworks that I took last night.  After Shem and I got home from church at 4:00 we ate some leftover Enchilada soup, I blogged, we played LEGO Harry Potter for about 2 hours, and then we packed up the camera gear and drove over to the park to take some pictures of the fireworks.  I loved taking pictures of those fireworks and Shem got really into it as he held the umbrella over my camera to keep it dry.  We had such a good time!  And to think we almost didn't go.

Just being silly

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately...here is one of me from today. :)  I'll post some pictures soon of our house in its current condition...it looks like heck!

Do you like our new bathroom door??  Yeah, that has been the most annoying project ever!  Doors shouldn't be a pain to hang, but we're new at this and they were.  I had a melt down at one point.

Pinewood derby car

Shem and I were invited to a friend's 30th birthday party.  Well, instead of just having a party they decided that it would be fun if there was a pinewood derby race also, so we built a pod racer!  It was, in fact, a replica of Anikin Skywalker's pod racer from Episode 1 and if you don't believe me, check out my pics below. :)

Once Shem cut the block of wood in 1/2 all we were really hoping for is that it would roll.  Normally when people make pinewood derby cars they make it look sleek and fast.  We went for unique and just plain cool!  Vader even has some pretty Lego flowers on his dash!

I'd also like to note that we made this the weekend of my 1/2 marathon in about 5 hours total!  I can just imagine what we would have been able to do with more time.

Rock in Roll 1/2 Marathon

What a busy week! I’ve wanted to report on my first ½ marathon, but this week I’ve been recovering from the worst charley horse in my left calf ever, working on the house with Shem, editing and taking pictures, and probably just wasting time or reading…I’ve been reading a lot and I actually am loving it! It’s amazing how much I love to read when we don’t have any favorite shows to watch anymore.

Okay, so the race. My training went relatively well except for getting sick 3 times (I think my sinus infection just didn’t go away) miscarrying another pregnancy, and just being extremely busy with work. My farthest distance that I ran was 10 miles and the longest right before my race was a weak 8 miles (post miscarriage…my body was tired). Needless to say the week before the race I was thinking how in the world can I finish 13.1 miles!? I was determined to finish though and that week I mentally thought about running 13.1 miles and finishing and I knew that I just needed to run 13.1 miles. Besides, it was only 3.1 miles farther than my longest run and there was no reason that I couldn’t finish it.

Well race day came along and I sprung out of bed, got dressed, ate my English muffin with peanut butter and banana, made my cytomax drink, and walked to meet my carpool at 6am. I was so excited and nervous all at the same time, but I was ready to finish no matter what it would take.

The start line was incredible to see with over 30 corrals of runners lining up, dropping off their bags in the trucks, and using the porta potties before the race began. I felt like I was in for a treat just to be running with all of those amazing people who have also worked really hard to get ready for the race. I also realized that getting that many people through the stat line takes a long time! I was in corral 16 and I didn’t get to the start line until 23 mins. after the 1st corral started.

Mile 1: I felt really good and I was keeping a good pace and stopped for water, then picked it up again.

Mile 2-5: I don’t remember really anything special happening except for climbing a bit and getting more cytomax and water. Although I do remember my stomach feeling really upset with all of the sugar in my system! I felt good though, my pace slowed to probably 11:30/ mile at 5 miles though.

Mile 7.5: I loved this part of the race because if was along Lake Washington and we got some GU! From here until mile 9 I ran and walked a little.

Mile 9: My ankles started to hurt at this point so I walked a bit and ran through the carpool tunnel into Seattle. It was so cool to run through that tunnel!

Mile 10-11: I was getting really excited to finish and I thought about seeing Shem, but every time I thought of him I would get so emotional and start to hyperventilate! I had to stop thinking about him in order to breathe properly. At this point we were still in the carpool lanes heading towards Qwest field and a lot of mile 11 was downhill so I kicked it into high gear and ran into the city.

Mile 12: Was through the city and the large crowds and it just wouldn’t end! I walked some up hills until we got to the overpass onto the viaduct then ran/jogged the viaduct until mile 13.

The last .2 miles on the straight away to the finish was hard because I felt like the finish was near, but I couldn’t see it, then I saw Shem and I sprinted my guts out until I finished!

I finished in 2:46 minutes which isn’t fast by any means, but I still did it. My goal was to finish and still love running in the end and I can honestly say that I’m ready for another race soon. I’m glad to see that my body can run long distances and in my next race I plan to push myself to the finish.

Oh, and I had the worst charley horse ever at the end of my race!  I saw Shem, went to give him a hug, and then my left calf ceased up into the most painful contraction of muscle known to man!  I had to bite Shem's arm (he had a fleece on) to prevent myself from wailing in pain for everyone to hear.  I hope that I never get one of those again!