Cody's Graduation

Last Saturday, Roger, Denise and I traveled to Missoula to celebrate Cody's graduation from the University of Montana. My parents also traveled from South Dakota to be there for the event. Cody seemed very happy to be done - no more studying!! Cody worked hard and graduated with honors. That's what the gray cord around his neck signifies.

In the photo to the left Cody is hanging out with the rest of the grads in the UM quad before the start of the ceremony. All the graduates had to line up in the quad and march into the Adams Center (UM's basketball arena), where the ceremony was held.

The very proud parents!

My good-looking kids!


Grandma and Grandpa are also very proud of their grandson.

The moment we've all been waiting for (especially Cody!)

Yahoo! I did it!

A very happy college graduate shows off his diploma.

Cody, your Dad and I are very proud of your accomplishment. Great job!

Hippie Chick Half Marathon

This Saturday, I ran my first half-marathon. I've been training for this day since I signed up for the race on November 1st. Before November, I had not run since my college days (over 20 years!). Training in the middle of winter was a daunting task, but knowing that I had a race to run in May gave me the incentive I needed (that and the fact that I did not want to totally die during the race!).

My sister Susan was my inspiration to give this a try. Despite working full-time and having three children to take care of, she finds the time to run races, and even trained for and ran two marathons!





The race was held at Champoeg State Park, just south of Portland. It is a beautiful park located along the Willamette River. Above is a photo of me with my "support team", Denise and Susan, on the morning of the race. We are all dressed in OSU colors. Go Beavs!

Roger, the third member of my support team.

I couldn't have asked for nicer weather to run a race. It was a beautiful spring day. Roger and Denise stood on the sidelines and held my coat, and took photos. I let Denise use one of my digital SLR's and she had lots of fun snapping photos.

At about the 2-mile mark, Susan jumped in and ran with me the rest of the way. It was nice to have someone to talk to and pace me. It kept my mind off of my body's protests. We had fun mugging for the camera, and doing "the wave" at every mile marker.

The finish line! Yahoo!!
I ran a total of 13.1 miles, farther than I've ever run before in my life. My time was 2:04:00, and I was 170th out of 637 women. I was 21st in my age group, out of 108.


I'm grateful for the support of Roger, who encouraged me to get out there and run on the days that I didn't really feel like it. And thank you to my sis who traveled all the way from South Dakota to be there for the event. We will definitely have to do this again (San Francisco Nike Women's Half Marathon 2010??)

Mom's Weekend at OSU

Saturday, I was off to Corvallis to visit Denise at OSU for Mom's weekend. I've been to OSU's campus many times in the fall, and once in the summer, but had never visited in the spring. I discovered what a beautiful place it is in the springtime! The photo above shows some of the amazing flowering plants and landscaping found on campus.

Denise and I had a fun day. We got to tour the nuclear reactor that is on campus-- very interesting! We also toured the OSU Wave Research Laboratory that is used to study tsuanmis. Very, very cool! The demonstration was so interesting, I forgot to take any photos until it was over. But I did get a photo of the outside of the huge building that housed the lab.

The Wave Research Center - it is huge!

Our attempt at a mother-daughter self portrait.

Denise gave me a tour of her school, and we dodged the raindrops as we walked around campus.I also took her to the grocery store to stock up on some healthy food--she has been fighting a cold. I even got Denise her own Flinstones vitamins, and she promised to take them!

It was good to spend the day with my daughter. I miss her and look forward to having her home this summer.

Conference on the Coast

For the last three days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) of this week I attended a conference in Seaside, Oregon. The conference was put on the by American Public Works Association (aka "APWA" by those of us in the public works profession). I need to get so many continuing education hours every two years in order to keep my license, and attending these conferences is a good way to keep myself current.


It was a good conference. The weather at the coast was really nice (made it hard to sit in classes all day!) We did get a couple of breaks, which gave me time to run out and see the beach.

At the luncheon on Friday, the conference hosts gave out tons of door prizes. I was the lucky winner of---- a wheelbarrow! I wasn't overly thrilled with the prize, but Roger was more than happy to take it off my hands.


Here's another shot of the beach scene at Seaside:

Friday morning, I left home a little bit early and stopped by Cannon Beach for a quickie photo session at one of my favorite coast overlooks. This is at Ecola State Park. The weather was not cooperating for good light and the sky was cloudy and washed out - but hey, I was there and I figured I might as well get some photos anyway.


This photo is looking south towards the town of Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.

This photo is looking north from the Seal Rock viewpoint.

Hope you enjoy the photos!