Elf on a Shelf! Its almost time for him to come again!

Photo from http://www.elfontheshelf.com/

Wow, only one more week until December 1st! I cannot believe how fast time flies.

I started this tradition last year when my son was 4 years old. I feel like that was the first year when he was really into the whole Christmas spirit and a great age to start with traditions that he can still remember. Our elves name is Cadem and he starts coming on December 1st, I know some people will do it after Thanksgiving, but what I do is I have him bring the advent calendar as a welcome back gift for Chase.

Below are all of our Cadems mischievous doings. I got a lot of ideas from Pinterest, there are some great ones, mostly the same stuff though and also lots from my coworkers and friends.

Feel free to use these, but give credit and please comment below with some ideas that you've done. Its hard to keep coming up with new ideas. Thanks in advance.

December 1, 2012

We were introduced to our Elf on a Shelf, we found him hiding on the top of our Christmas Tree on the very first day of December. Chase decided to name him Cadem because his best friend at the time as called Caden, so he wanted to honor him, but still make it a little bit his own by replacing the "n" with an "m". Welcome Cadem to the Silverman home!

December 2, 2012

Cadem found all the cars that Chase owned and lined them all throughout our living room, must have taken him all night, he got so tired that he fell asleep in the pile of cars at the end of it all!

December 3, 2012

Don't you hate when this happens, you wake up in the morning and go to get yourself a cold cup of milk and this is what you see when you open the fridge door!!! Our mischievous little elf decided that it would be funny to turn our milk green for the day!

December 4, 2012

You've heard of TP'ing somebody's house for fun, right? Well, I guess Cadem took it a step further and decided it was an awesome idea to TP our Christmas Tree, but he was caught red handed on the top!

December 5, 2012

This one got lots of laughs! What's better than drawing funny faces on all of our beautiful pictures!

 December 6, 2012

Looks like our Elf thought that Chase has way too many cars and was going to tow them away, good thing we caught him in act!

December 7, 2012

Elves do know everything, especially that Chase loves Star Wars. He was so kind to set up a battle between the Dark Lord, Darth Vader and himself, he did get some back up from R2-D2, but how much of a help is he really? (Glow sticks really made it cool looking when we woke up in a dark winter morning).

December 8, 2012

I guess the stuffed animals really wanted to hear a story and we were all sleeping, so Cadem (our elf) decided to read them a story instead of waking us up and making us do it. Which I much appreciate!

December 9 2012

I guess Cadem was trying to drive out cookie train out of town, good thing we woke up before he made it out the door!

December 10, 2012

Just "hanging" out!

December 11, 2012

Just another family game night. Paddington Bear, Mater, Monkey and Cadem, BFFs!

December 12, 2012

Cookies and milk are not just for Santa, Cadem found some that were just his size.

December 13, 2012

Always fast to blame other people, that's the kind of an elf we got. Chase denied everything, by the way :)

December 14, 2012

Somebody made themselves comfy in my gravy boat. Who would have thought that little elves like taking bubble baths in gravy boats?!? The bubbles, by the way, are those little things that Squinkies come in (if you have children, you know what I mean, they were just perfect for this).

 

 

December 15, 2012

I think after waking up this morning to what you see in the picture, my son really believes that we have the best elf in the whole wide world. To combine some of his favorite things and to come up with an Angry Bird Lego game, was just amazing to him. We actually ended up re-setting this up and playing this game over and over again. Super fun!

December 16, 2012

This day was a shocker! It had been raining underwear all night, I swear! Our whole living room was filled with underwear and look who we found trying some on! Even our Christmas tree got redecorated with underwear, I sure hope they were clean ;)

December 17, 2012

Our little kitty cats were super happy when they woke up to this! All Chase had to say was "Oh Cadem, what have you done now?" Cutest thing I've ever heard.

December 18, 2012

I guess the other toys just got sick of him playing tricks around the house and finally did something about it!

December 19, 2012

Wow, he is a real artist, didn't even follow the rules, Spiderman is supposed to be RED!!!

December 20, 2012

I guess our elf likes videogames as much as our family, like father like elf! Unfortunately this game is rated "M".

December 21, 2012

I think Cadem was ready to go by this time, its hard to come up with new stuff every day for 24 days straight!

December 22, 2012

This is a great day, no matter what year it is. Its my birthday!!!
I guess Cadem wanted his very own Christmas Tree, so this is what he came up with!

December 23, 2012

He snuck into Chases bed for some cuddles!

December 24, 2012

Ahhhhhhh! Christmas Eve is finally here. When I was little this is when we would celebrate and give gifts. I just love this holiday so, so much and hope to bring lots of fun traditions to our little family.

Good bye Cadem, it was very nice to meet you, but now it is time for you to fly back to Santa and tell him we were very good and to bring us lots of presents tomorrow! See you again next year!

 

Thanks for reading and please leave me comments on what you have done to help me this year. I always struggle the closer to Christmas we get.

Happy Holidays, may it be filled with joy and happiness!

 

 

Keili, Mark and Chase

 

Bellingham Trail Half Marathon 2013!

Half Marathon # 12 finished!

I was having a really hard time finding a half for the month of November, for some reason the only ones I could find were trail runs and most of them looked very unprofessional and didn't include timing of the race or really any support on the course.

Finally I came across this race and the reason I couldn't find it earlier is that they had added a half marathon last minute (there was a marathon also). When I went to sign up for this race, they were all sold out :( however it still let me register incase any spots opened up. Sure enough, about a week before the race I got an e-mail saying that I got a spot to run. I was super excited but nervous at the same time. This was going to be my very first trail run, EVER! So I decided to go and do some more research on this race and see what it was all about.

The first thing I did was go on their web site, you can check it out at bellinghamtrailmarathon.com, they do a ton of trail runs if you are interested. I clicked on "About the Marathon/Half" and this is what I read "The marathon is a stunning mix of trail running in Bellingham with lots of tough climbs on single track trails, as well as fast interurban trails and a short road section. With 5,000 feet of climbing, this may be the toughest marathon in Washington!" What?!?! Toughest marathon in Washington? What did I just get myself into... Now granted, this was about the marathon course, so I told myself, this is not what I'm running, right? I'm doing the half, that can't be that bad, let me find out more about the half. This is what I find under "Distance/Elevation Gain: 13.1 miles with 2,500 feet of climbing". I guess that was better than 5,000 feet of climbing? It was too late to turn back now, I needed this race and there was nothing I could do about it now, except to Google how many stories is 2,500 feet, do you know what it said? 230.9 stories!!! Yikes!

Besides the elevation, which I couldn't do anything about I kept worrying about getting lost on the trail. First of all, I'm not a hiker, I think I've only been on one hike in my entire life and that was only three miles, second of all, I had no idea that this was even a problem on trail runs. Apparently that's a huge problem and I was telling all my friends that if I don't show up for work the next day they know where to come looking for me. It was kind of a joke, but I really was worried about it. Apparently somebody had taken down all of their signage the night before the race and they had to go and put up all new signs the morning of the race.

Finally it was time to face my fears and get in my car and make the hour and a half drive to Bellingham. It was raining in Kirkland when I left, but by the time I got there the weather was perfect. We were instructed to bring warm clothes, wear gloves and a hat as in the past they have seen snow on the top of the mountain trail. I was wearing three layers of clothing a pair of gloves and a head band. Since it was a trail run the aid stations were a few and far between (2 miles, 8 miles and 11 miles) so it was recommended to bring your own water. Thankfully I had a three bottle hydration belt at home, I wore that and my favorite iFitness belt for all my other goodies I carried with me.

I got to Lake Padden Park with about a half hour to spare, I was able to pick up my packet with no problem, I was bib #100. I felt great and we all got on the bus to the starting line. This was also my first race that was not starting and finishing in the same spot, it went very smoothly, the organizers were waiting for us at the starting line already and we just waited for the course debrief. It was simple, just checking in, to make sure who is staring, so they can make sure everybody finishes. They did tell us about mile three, to be careful, that's the top of the mountain, lots of slippery rock and sharp mountain cliffs. And off we went.

I was in for a shock, this trail was as hard as they said it would be. I fell back pretty much as soon as we started. These people were hardcore trail runners and with as few runners there were (116 runners) I was worried, I might be last and lost somewhere in the woods all by myself. I tried to stay with the crowd in the back to make sure I knew where I was going. The trail was well marked with pink ribbons and "Wrong Way" signs. There were parts to the trail going up the mountain that were straight up, I had to use roots to pull myself up at points. This was the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life (well, maybe not the hardest, but it was up there, trust me!). My legs were just killing me, I was trying to use the trees around me to pull myself up and to push myself off. I tried to run as much as possible, but lets be honest, when you are looking at going straight up, its impossible to run, it was more of a climb. I did walk the first three miles and I'm proud to say that, I was so close to quitting. I kept talking myself out of it the whole time. I just had to keep going!

The trail was so beautiful though, once I got to the top, there were beautiful views of the forest and the bay below us, it seemed like we were miles away from the civilization. It was great having this run in the fall, as all the leaves had changed color and tons of mushrooms everywhere. Unfortunately my phone died before I was able to get any good pictures, but it was beautiful nevertheless. I met a girl who ran with me for a while, she was so sweet and encouraging, she had done many trail runs before and gave me great tips. When we got the first aid station, I was so surprised what they had to offer there. They had a ton of food, PB&J sandwiches, grapes, bananas, oranges, GU and energy bars. They had Coke to drink and lots of other soda and energy drinks and water of course. We spent some time there just to recover from the climb and to get ready for the next hike up. We ended up getting separated and I just kept going, I found myself all by myself. I just kept looking for the pink ribbons tied to the trees to show me the way. Finally after about an hour of running by myself I finally saw some racers in front of me and I could not have felt any happier. At this point the trail started going downhill and I was cruising. I felt great running downhill, like I was flying, it made me feel like I was actually getting closer to the staring line ( I mean I was, but you know what I mean when you mind is playing games with you during a long, hard run). At this point I did not want to lose the group I was running with, so I ran with them for a while, but I felt great and I passed everybody and just kept going and going and going.

I was getting bad cramps in my calves, so I had to really watch my stride and how I landed my feet. I was passing a few people as I kept running down the mountain, everybody was so nice. At mile 5 my Garmin gave me a low battery warning, I had already lost my phone, I was really hoping that my watch would last until the finish line. Interestingly enough, at the aid station at mile 8 my watch showed mile 10, that was super disappointing, others were saying the same thing. It was though thinking that I had three more miles to go, but now I had another 5 miles to go. I had already come so far, I could not let my mind get the better of me. It was kind of airy that at each of the aid stations they kept crossing off all the bib numbers to make sure everybody was making it there, thankfully I didn't hear of anybody who got lost.

The last of the race was beautiful as I came to Lake Padden, I could see the finish line directly across. All I had to do is make it there, it was sweet as the people walking their dogs and running around with their children would encourage me as I made my way to the finish. And then my Garmin died at mile 12, I'm so glad that it lasted as long as it did.

I was so proud of myself, I would never, ever do anything like that in my entire life, but I'm glad that I did it and finished it. I came in at 103 of 116, with a time of 4:14:25, I was not last!!! I couldn't believe my time, it was crazy, but the trail was crazy and I was crazy for doing it!

The finish line festival was great, they had amazing wood fire pizza, they were cooking right there, chili and tomato soup with bread. Tons of cookies, chips, hummus and dips, soda and tea and apparently there was pie, but it was gone by the time I got there ;)

I want to thank the organizers for putting together such a great race, yes it was hard, but it took a lot to put this together and thank you to all the volunteers who came out and supported us and all the other racers who were so supportive and wonderful.

See you at my next race at the Seattle Half Marathon, my last one for the year!!!

P.S. It took me four days to recover and not feel any pain in my legs.

Keili

Sammamish River Run 2013!

Race number 11 under my belt!!!

I signed up for this race because one of my friends wanted to do her very first half marathon with me and was looking for something close to her house. So we picked this race, it seemed easy enough, it was just out and back, very flat course.

We were super excited as time got closer to the race. I could not have been happier to run my first half marathon with a friend. I have to be honest, I was a little nervous, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to keep up or not. I've been having a lot of knee problems lately, although I taped both knees with the KT tape, I wasn't sure how well it was going to hold up.

The morning of the race I get a text from K and she is telling me that it is pouring down rain in Snohomish, where the race was starting. I was so glad that she had texted me that because in Kirkland, where I live the weather was perfectly fine. I did grab a rain jacket, because I didn't want to get wet and then cold afterwards. Sure enough, as soon as I started driving north the rain just started pouring and it was still pitch black outside. The race started at 8:30, but they were closing the streets to the pre-paid parking area at around 7:30, so I wanted to make sure that we got there on time. K and I met up at a McDonalds and then I drove us to the starting area, which was at the Rotary Park in Everett. The rain was still coming down hard, we decided to walk to the starting line and just kind of check out the area and see what was going on. Thankfully K had picked up my race packet with hers the day before, so we were all ready to go. There wasn't much going on around there and it was super cold, so we decided to go back to the car and wait until about 15 minutes before the start of the race to go back. It was so nice and toasty in the car and by the time it was time for us to head to the starting line the rain had completely stopped. I have been so lucky that I have not had any races up until this point with any rain. It was still a little cold, but we figured it would get much better once we started running. We took our energy gels and off we went.

The course was very beautiful and peaceful, we ran along a river pretty much the whole time. There were huge farms with lots of land and cows everywhere. It was kind of fun that there were train tracks next to the road we were running on and there was a train passing by and he kept blowing the horn the entire time he passed us. As we got to about mile marker 5 we passed a water station and I totally saw one of the volunteers picking up non crushed cups from the garbage and re-filling them with water!!!!!!!!! Do you believe that, honestly I didn't believe it at first myself, but its the truth. I was telling K about it and she didn't believe me, who would, right, because who would actually do that!

A few miles into the race, K's parents called and said that they were going to meet us at the turn around part of the race and that her Mom was going to run back with us. So at mile 5 is when we got to the turn around and sure enough, there they were, it was awesome to see a familiar face and we were able to give our rain jackets for K's Dad to take with him since it wasn't raining anymore.

As we were running back now and made our way back to that awful water station I told you about earlier, they were ALL OUT OF CUPS! Now she believed me that they were recycling the cups from the garbage. So now they had sports bottles and asked if we wanted to get some water squirted into our mouths, this was seriously the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in all of the races I've done. It's not like it was the first time they had put on this race, you would think that they would have been better prepared. Believe me, we got a survey after the race and we gave them a piece of our minds, that's for sure.

Anyway, enough of me ranting about that, back to the race. We ended up walking a little bit during the last leg of the race, but we finished strong. We came across another water station at mile 10 that didn't have cups, so no more water until the end of the race. K's boyfriend ended up coming and surprising her at the end and we all crossed the finish line together and happily accepted our medals!

After the race, they had warm soup, which was amazing, we tried the baked potato, but they also had a veggie minestrone and lots of bread and water to drink. There was a booth with energy drinks and we all scored awesome beer mugs. We got super cold, super fast, so we didn't hang out for too long.

 

If you are reading, thanks K, for making this a memorable race and hope to do more in the future with you!

Hope to see you at my next race in Bellingham!

Keili