running man twenty twelve style

As I posted last year Blaine has really gotten in to running.  He had the opportunity to do a half marathon this month with our friends and talked his sister Rachel into doing it as well.  Sounded crazy to me, especially in the middle of July with all the high temperatures we've been having.  But Blaine got up before he went to work (so that his training wouldn't take away from family time) almost every day and trained for his half marathon.  Again an inspiration.  In no way shape or form am I that dedicated to anything!!!

The race was in Denver near his work and by the time Kash and I got there to cheer dad across the finish line it was about 80 degrees.  I felt pretty bad for Blaine running in that heat, I was dying just on the sidelines.  When we saw him coming down the home stretch he looked more tired than I've ever seen him, reasonably so.

As soon as we got home his stomach started to hurt really bad and actually our other friend's stomachs were in pretty bad shape too.  So not only did he have to run in the ridiculous temperatures but we are pretty sure that the water they were handing out at the race was contaminated and some of the runners got what seemed to be like food poisoning.  Not super fun after just running 13 miles.  I got pretty worried for him because he couldn't even keep water down. But by the end of the day everyone's stomachs had recovered enough that they could eat.

Blaine was pretty disappointed with his time, but I think he did awesome for his first marathon in the heat and the fact that he took a wrong turn...I just have to laugh at that because Blaine sometimes gets lost leaving our neighborhood!  But to his credit the other racers did say the course was pretty confusing.

Kash and I were so proud of him.  Kash thought it was really cool to see dad RACE, he's obsessed with any kind of racing these days (thank you Lightning McQueen), and cross the FINISH line.  The whole way to the race he was in the back seat practicing his "GO DAD GO" cheer.  Blaine really is his hero!

Since Blaine was a little disappointed with his performance he's already signed up to do another half marathon this September.  The date is right around the time I'm due but hopefully this baby will come a little early and Blaine can still participate in this race.

GOOD JOB BLAINE!  WE'RE SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

the worst week of Kash's 2 year old life

(this is an extremely long post, but it's been a long few weeks and lots of people have asked for all the details...so here they are.  Read them if you want)

It all started on a WINDY Friday morning hahah just kidding well not really it has been pretty wind here.  But seriously, a few Fridays ago I noticed that Kash's right foot was turned out a little bit, but didn't think too much of it and just thought I would watch it throughout the day.  An hour or so later we went to the store and as we were walking in he started to limp a little bit.  He wasn't acting like he was in any pain it was more like his leg fell asleep or something but it did strike me as odd.  When we got in the store he could walk a little better but had no desire to push the cart or fight me to sit in the cart, very unlike him.  I wasn't sure what had happened because he didn't fall or hadn't been crying that day about any pain.  

When we got home from the store he refused to walk up the stairs and when I asked him to walk he couldn't.  He couldn't bear any weight on his right leg and when he would try he'd just fall down.  This is the point I started to freak out.  It never crossed my mind that he broke his leg because like I said he was really happy and hadn't had a big fall or anything recently.  I looked at his leg and there wasn't any swelling or red marks just a week old bruise that you could barely see.  I just started thinking the worse that it was nerve damage, something was wrong with his spine or maybe even neurological????  

I called Blaine and told him to come home that something was wrong with Kash and I was really worried about him. I then called the pediatrician and she said I needed to take him to Children's right away.  What take him to the hospital???  I was pretty scared okay a lot scared.  It's super freaky when your child all of the sudden can't walk for no apparent reason.  I just kept having these flashes of him being paralyzed the rest of his life...obviously not helpful in the situation but I couldn't seem to help it. 

When we got to Children's he could walk and even jump, I promised Blaine this wasn't the case 30 minutes ago.  But although he could do those things he still favored his left leg and his right foot was turned out.  Well after hanging out with other sick children for THREE hours they finally called our name and we waited another hour back in a tiny room with kids who parents said their kids had been throwing up nonstop.  Awesome can't wait for Kash to get whatever they have!

The doctor took Kash back to do an x-ray but unfortunately Blaine had to leave to finish up some work stuff before the weekend and I wasn't allowed in the room since I'm pregnant.  So Kash was in there without anyone he knew getting x-rays.  I hated that moment so much and almost started crying as I heard him in there crying.

Finally the doc came back and said that he has what is called a toddler's fracture on his tibia bone.  Since it was Friday evening (at this point) all they could do was put a hard splint on it and we were instructed to make sure Kash didn't put any weight on it.  Oh awesome we'll just carry our 35 lb. monster baby around for the next 3 days!  We managed to keep him off of it for the most part and wheeled him around the house in his stroller! It was probably stress relief but for whatever reason this made me laugh out loud for about 15 minutes. 

Kash grew to love being in the stroller and would point and tell you where to take him! haha

To make matters worse for the poor kid already had a cold and couldn't sleep through the night due to a stuffy nose.  Then Sunday morning he puked all over our bed and didn't stop throwing up until about noon.  He probably got a virus from the dang hospital despite my efforts to disinfect everything and try to make him stay close by in the waiting room. 

Here's the hard splint he had for 3 days.  This is right before going to get the cast. 

Finally, Monday morning we were able to get in to see an orthopedic specialist to see if he needed a cast or what the next step would be.  Blaine was out of town for business this week so his mom came with me...and I'm SO GLAD SHE DID!  The doctor told us since the fracture was near the growth plate that she wanted to cast it but it would be a walking cast so he could get around.  Great, cast him and we'll be out in just a few minutes.  WRONG!!!  Kash wouldn't keep his ankle still so four of us had to restrain him and they tried to cast his leg three times while Kash proceeded to freak out. I've never seen him cry that hard, it was soooo sad. Finally the nurse and doctor said that they would have to hard splint it again and we would have to come back another day when he was calmed down.  I begged them to please try one more time. He was already traumatized and if we came back another day it would only be worse.  Plus being pregnant and Blaine out of town I knew that I couldn't carry him around as much as I would need to in the splint. So they gave us about 20 minutes to calm him down and in that time I said a prayer.  I know it sounds a little cheesy but I didn't know what else to do, I had done everything I could and knew that we needed help from our Heavenly Father to get through this! When the nurse came back we laid Kash on his belly and had him watch Mickey.  Luckily that worked long enough to set his ankle, which was the hardest part to keep still and then we just restrained him again for the rest of the leg.  Unfortunately (again), the cast was set at such an angle due to Kash not holding still that it was a little hard for him to walk on at first.  The nurse told us that we would have to get him sedated when it came time to take it off since he was freaking out so much.

What should have been a 20 min. appt. turned into 2 hours!  Great, done see ya!  Get to the car, lock Kash in the car with grandma and myself on the OUTSIDE!!!!  Bah!  I called the police and they sent the fire dept. (yes the whole department--two fire engines and a police officer!) and they got us in the car.  Worst day ever.

After getting the cast...his face about sums it up!  So sad for everyone involved! 

Then a few days later Kash started puking again and then the rest of our house got the same stomach virus!  Needless to say it's been a long few weeks!  Good news is we are all feeling better, Kash is getting around pretty well on his cast and only has a week and a few days left before they remove it.  It was an adventure to say the least, and I'm just glad our Kashers is going to be okay and hopefully won't have any long term effects from all of this.  

Here's day 4 with his cast on, and he's even better at walking with it now. 

wildcat mountain 10 mile run

One of the things I love about Blaine (and also hate because I wish I was more like this) is that when he puts his mind to something he does it, no matter what.  And so it was with this running bug that he's caught.  Blaine told one of our friends, a pretty avid runner, that he wanted to run a marathon just to see if he could do it without training for it.  His friend thought he was crazy and talked him into running in a shorter race with some training.  

So that's what Blaine did, he signed up for the Wildcat Mountain 10 Mile Run.  He started training and running almost every night...6 miles here, 8 miles there.  I was so impressed. He would run almost every night after Kash was asleep no matter how tired he was, how cold it was or what kind of day he had he made sure that if he said he would run he would.  This is where Blaine and I differ greatly.  Never ever do I feel like I NEED to do something that isn't necessary, not saying this is a good thing but it's the way I am and that's why I admire Blaine's determination to do many things.

Anyway, the week of the race was perfect weather and we were sure that race day would be no exception.  Well we were wrong.  We woke up to rain and almost freezing temps.  Blaine rode up with our friends that we also participating in the run and Kash and I were going to meet him up there.  As we drove closer and closer to where the finish line was the rain turned into sleet which turned into snow.  They should have changed the name of the race to Polar Bear Run because it was freezing.  I felt so bad that he was running in freezing weather!

Finished!  Note the battle wound from the crappy running conditions. 

Blaine did an awesome job finishing 3rd for his age group and 4th overall.  This was his first race, in freezing conditions and he did awesome!!!  I'm so proud of him and I'm sure this won't be his last race!

These are our friends the Rowans.  Don't worry he finished 1st overall and she was the 1st woman to finish.  Yeah they are crazy good at running.  I just sat in the car and ate snacks with Kash while these fools were burning millions of calories haha. 

healthy? sure!

Look at my very own city-Aurora, Colorado-making the top 10 healthiest cities list! And look at SLC at the very top! Way to go cities I've lived in. Now if I could only live up to their reputations...