Wenatchee Half-Marathon - - yep, 13.1 miles folks

We went to Wenatchee, Washington to watch Jon run his first half-marathon ever. He's been training for weeks and finally the day (April 18, 2009) finally came. It was a great day to run (Jon says that there could have been a little less wind) and perfect to watch! His goal was to run the whole time and to make it over the finish line in 2 hours. Well, he did run the whole time and he came in with an official time of 2hr. 12min. 03sec. We're pretty proud of him and his accomplishment!

At the starting line


The starting line. They had to wear an ankle bracelet that had a computer chip in it that monitored the time. If you look close at the skinny legs in the picture, his bracelet is on his right ankle. When they crossed the blue mats, the timer would start. From where Jon was standing in the crowd it took him 20 seconds to cross the mat and start his timer.



Jon is coming down the final 30 feet of the race. It was a long 13.1 miles!


Jon and his buddy Clint (from work) waiting for their other friend Tim to cross the finish line. (Clint came in just under 3 minutes behind Jon. Tim came in 20 minutes or so behind Jon and Clint because he hurt his knee).


Kyra waiting for Jon to cross the finish line.


Megan wearing Jon's medal


Jacob loved to play on the metal tree protectors. He would sneak away and that's where we would find him...made me panic a couple times (but it wouldn't be an outing without a panicked moment caused by Jacob).


Ethan sitting patiently in the stroller....he was quite the trooper since I wouldn't let him out to walk in the crowd.

Playing catch-up

Oh where oh where do I begin???? How about with Easter.

I posted pictures of the Easter eggs, now here are the Easter egg hunts and the Easter outfits:

The first egg hunt we went to was at our friends house. Jason and Jodi Blake invited a bunch of mutual friends over for a BBQ and egg hunts for the kiddos. We had a blast and Ethan figured out what to do very quickly!


Jacob and Ethan


Kyra (bending over)

The next hunt we had was after Easter dinner at my Aunt Carols house. Due to inclement weather, we had the hunt inside. The kiddos had a lot of fun trying to figure out how the Easter bunny got into the house while we were watching Wall-E and cleaning up after dinner....hmmmm I wonder...


Kyra and Megan


Jacob enjoying his monopoly of the hallway.


Derek making sure Ethan doesn't escape out the front door.


Aunt Carol with Jacob and Kyra "cracking" the eggs.


Easter egg hunt bounty in all it's glory!

Here are pictures of Kyra, Megan and Jacob in their Easter outfits. Ethan was asleep when we took these and so I didn't get any shots of him. I'll have to take his pics at a later time.


Megan, Jacob and Kyra


goofy Jacob


Kyra and her pretty orange dress


Megan and her pretty pink dress


Jacob and his shirt and tie that he picked out all by himself!

Easter Eggs of Course!

Today I broke down and let the kids dye eggs. Ok, so it was gonna happen today or next year. We actually managed to have zero spills and only a few dyed fingers (Ethan has 1/2 a hand that is blue). It was fun watching Jacob want to turn all of his eggs blue...Megan couldn't decide which color was best and Kyra wanted them to be perfect...go figure. Ethan decided that he needed to push his eggs into the blue dye 2 at a time...(hence the blue fingers). Here are some pictures:


3 dozen eggs waiting to boil...


Kyra and Jacob working hard


Jacob and his mostly blue eggs


Kyra working


Ethan and Mom coloring..."oooooooooh"

And the finished product:

Kyra's eggs...she looks like she's in pain...hmmm


Megan's eggs


Jacob's eggs


Ethan and his eggs

Breakfast of Champions

This morning the 6 Shaws went to the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce for a "Breakfast of Champions" where we met with Ronald McDonald and 3 school districts of principals, teachers, school board members, students K-12 and their families. We were given breakfast and a special award assembly for the students.
Kyra's teacher, Mrs. Schaefer, nominated Kyra to be a champion and her nomination was accepted with one other student in the whole elementary school. We were all (Jon, me, Kyra, Megan, Jacob and Ethan) called up in front of the group and her principal, Mr. Pratt, and Mrs. Schaefer talked about Kyra and how great she is. Then they handed Kyra a framed certificate and we got to shake hands and then get pictures taken with Mrs. Schaefer and Ronald McDaonald himself. She also got a certificate for bowling and a bunch of free things from McDonalds. Later today, the local radio station is going to announce all of the kids and their accomplishments! Kyra was so excited all morning. She had a permanant smile on her face. She even got to go to school with Mrs. Schaefer after breakfast and Mr. Pratt excused both Kyra and Megan from being late.

When she gets home today I will taker her picture with her certificate. (She wanted to take it and show her class).