Henstrom Happenings

I tried to wish it away but the day still came. Lily turned 1 on the 15th. We were in St. George visiting friends and family, even though Mike was not with us and we were missing him we had a great party.

I wanted a pink and green theme, so I made a little watermelon cake for the birthday girl.

She was definitely a lot more reserved than my other kids have been.

It is hard for me to accept that my baby is growing up but despite my denial it is still happening.

Lily

* is a great sleeper

* loves food

*is so busy now, she loves to empty and and all drawers

* army crawled for a long time but has now progressed to what i call the wounded warrior crawl, I give her 2 weeks before she is walking. She is my latest walker.

* has 8 teeth now. Her teeth came in a strange order. She had 3 on the bottom forever. The 4th came in and then she got 3 on the top. Her 2nd front tooth popped through a week ago but is still shorter than her other top 3 so far. I love it when she does her cheesy grin :)

*she loves to be in the action

*she loves water, baths and pools

* she knows what she wants as evidenced in the above picture. This is what happened when her 14 month old cousin tried to take her balloon.

Love you Lily Kate!!!

Boston Marathon trip 2010

I can't believe that it has already come and gone! Last Monday I ran the Boston marathon :)

We took a redeye to Boston and while Lily did great, we got no sleep! We arrived on Friday morning and my awesome sis-in-law picked us up. It was great to have family there and Nicky was a great hostess! We also lucked out that my older brother Jared was in town on business.

While we wanted to pack Friday full of sightseeing we were running a little low on energy so we kept it pretty low key. My brother was our chauffeur and we were able to visit some Revolutionary War sites and the Boston Temple.

Saturday was a fun filled and busy day! We went to downtown Boston and what an amazing city. I loved all of the old buildings and history, I wish I had taken more pictures! Loved the old gas lanterns which are lit all the time. I really need to go back when there is no added pressure of a marathon. We saw some great statues, like this one of George Washington.

We took a duck tour which gave us the chance to learn a lot of history and see a lot of sights.

We spent 2+ hours at the marathon expo, it was huge!!!! So much fun with lots of photo ops. The finish line was set up so we took full advantage.

This race is so amazing, I loved all of it!

Nothing like a hot pretzel off the street, good carb-loading food!

My nephews, brother, and Mike went to the Celtics playoff game.

On to race day...

The night before a race I always lay out all my gear to relieve all last minute scrambling in the morning. I thought that I had packed a top that I had not so I had some stress but just decided to go with it.

I was amazed that I actually had a pretty good nights sleep when my alarm went off at 5:45am. Honestly I was just happy that it was finally time to run, well almost. My brother was nice enough to come and get Mike, Lily , and I and drive me to the bus that would take me to Athlete's Village.

Mind you I got to the village at about 8am and the race does not start until 10am. It was sunny but not warm and a little windy. I did my best to pass the time and then it was finally time to run!!!! The national anthem was inspiring and the military jet fly over gave me goosebumps! I thought I was prepared for what 26,000 runners would look like, I wasn't, it was crazy! It took me 12 minutes to get to the start line if that gives you any idea of the amount of people! So I know that some of you do not want all the details so I will keep it simple on this blog. If you want a more detailed race report you can go to http://marathonmommies.blogspot.com/2010/04/boston-marathon-2010.html

The crowds were amazing and carried me through the pain in my leg. There were seriously crowds lining the entire 26.2 miles cheering every step of the way! There were probably over 100 of these army men in full gear that ran/walked the whole marathon.

Not the greatest pic of Mike but look at that cute Lily Lou!!!! Mike said she was great the whole time:)

In the middle of 500,000 people downtown at the finish line

It was an amazing race with so much energy from the crowds! Not my best time, but for me this race was very rewarding in so many other ways! I was not sure if I would be able to do it having injured myself 3 weeks before but I learned that willpower can you pull you through almost anything!

Where's Steph? Can you find me in this picture at the finish line? Jared and Mike waited so patiently for me and then I was on the other side of the street and they almost missed me altogether. Next time we will plan a little better! Also a shout out to Nicky and my niece and nephews who were at the half way point. I must have been on the wrong side of the street again. I was so sad to have missed them.