April

Finally getting caught up! A quick picture update:
Multnomah Falls hike
We hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls with the Richards and Ottos one day during the break. So much fun!

The guys

The girls

They found a cave!

Easter

One of Rob's "stained glass" egg creations.

Community Easter egg hunt. Collin got 3 eggs all by himself!

He found all the eggs at our house Easter morning

And quickly discovered what was inside

The hunt

Easter basket!

His favorite thing was this little chick that wound up and hopped. It worked for one day. But he loved it!

Going on a walk

 Some of Collin's shenanigans

Airplane ride

A little nap

Spinning!

He likes to sit on his ball while he colors.

Watching some Wheel.

He climbed all the way up Rob's bike one day.

Diner with his buddy Adam!

So silly.

Rob's shenanigans

Rob and Mark ready to fight

Outside!

March

I guess it's time to finally update the blog. March was really busy. Rob finished his 6th quarter of school, and he took his first set of boards, covering cumulative information from all 6 quarters, along with regular finals. His boards were on a Saturday and a Sunday, and then Monday through Friday were finals from that quarter. He took 19 tests in 7 days. The weeks leading up to that were extremely busy! He would basically come home for dinner every night then go back to school to study until bedtime.
We made a kind of last-minute decision that Collin and I would go visit my parents in Salt Lake during the week of boards. It was nice to be away from home and have distractions, and Rob was able to better focus with us gone. Collin loved seeing his grandma and grandpa. He points them out in pictures and calls both of them "Bapa."

Plane ride

Playing in Grandpa's truck (the hat was because his eyes were really sensitive in the sun, and it's all I had!)

Reading time

The drumset! Collin picked up on it pretty quickly after watching Grandpa. He loves drums!

 Collin had his first real snow experience while we were there! He was fascinated by it.

A little taste

Taking a little nap

At a little cafe

The gigantic moose was also a  big hit

Collin and Grandma

Kayla came to see us!! Just back from her mission! Loved catching up with her. 

We went with my mom to Rexburg for St. Patrick's Day weekend to see Katie and Justin. We had lots of fun at their apartment! Collin had a blast and especially liked playing with Justin. I also got to see a family that I worked with when I lived there (I worked with 4 of their kids), and introduced them to Collin, since I was pregnant when I last worked with them.

Collin and Justin

St Patrick's Day

Collin "getting his hair done" at Panache :)

Doing an Irish jig for St. Patrick's Day

Collin and Katie

After our trip, we had a few more days until Rob was completely done with finals, and we were so relieved when it was finally break time!! Collin really missed spending time with his daddy.

We went to Tri-Cities for the weekend for our newest nephew, Corey's baby blessing. Collin had a blast with his cousin Jameson in his little police car! He looked like such a big boy riding around in the passenger seat. He even waved at us a few times when they passed by.

He also enjoyed the piano at Jameson's house.

We spent most of the break relaxing at home and around town. Collin loved this fun park called Imagination Station, and I think we'll spend a lot of time there this summer!

Sliding!

And more sliding.

Eventually he just went down by himself.

The first General Conference where Collin could look for grandpa! (He didn't actually see him unfortunately, but we took a picture as proof that he tried).

13.1

I ran a half marathon! I am so proud of myself. I have never been a runner, and when I started about a year ago, I could hardly run for 5 minutes at a time. I only ran to get in shape and lose baby weight, but I consistently ran 3 days a week, and slowly increased the distance I could run. I remember being so happy when I ran 2 miles straight for the first time. Then 4. And when I first ran 6, I signed up for our 10k, and that was as far as I was going to go. Rob could do his half marathon, but I was content with having done my race and keeping my Monday long runs at 6 miles. Until one day I felt great and did 8. Then a few weeks later, 10. After running 12 miles a few weeks ago, I decided I was ready for the challenge and I signed up for the Tri-Cities Half Marathon.

The race went really well! We arrived in Tri-Cities the day before and checked out the course and it was extremely windy and freezing and I was so nervous! We had a carb-filled dinner with Amber and Steve at Olive Garden, and spent the night at Cory and Minnie's house. The morning of the race was still freezing, but the wind had fortunately died down. 

Trying to stay warm

Ready to go

We all lined up and when the race started, it was a little bit slow since I was behind so many people and we didn't have time chips. I warmed up very quickly and felt comfortable running at a faster pace than normal, probably because of the excitement. Usually the first 3 or 4 miles are hard for me to push through, but I really felt great from the start. Near the turn-around point between miles 6 and 7, Rob and Collin were there with Amber and Eli to cheer me on!

It started to get hard around mile 10, when I started thinking about the finish line. It seemed so close, but I still had 3 miles to go and those were hard to push through! Miles 10 to 12 were the hardest, but the last mile went by pretty quickly.

It was the best feeling to finally cross the finish line! I had seriously been looking forward to that moment ever since I decided to do a half marathon. Although, as soon as I stopped running, every part of my body hurt like crazy, which I hadn't considered in all my daydreams about how great it would feel. But still, I'd just run the farthest of my life, and I finished faster than my goal!

Last stretch!

Finished

My overall pace was 10:37 and my time was just under 2 hours and 20 minutes. I know it's not a competitive pace in the racing world, but still faster than I usually run my long runs, and I've never run for speed. Distance was the goal, and I did it! Completing the half marathon was a huge accomplishment for me, one that I never would have thought I could do. But I'm so happy I did!