Paola and Pop

We were so proud of Chad this weekend as he completed his first triathlon in Paolo, KS! He did an amazing job with the grueling 1 mile swim, 20 mile bike ride and 5 mile run finishing in just over 2 hours and 30 minutes.

While he continues to train and is amazing shape, he has also decided to take on another task.....kicking his addiction to diet cola!!! I am thrilled to see him take on this challenge and hoping the withdraw symptoms aren't too severe. :) For those of you who know him, you understand what I huge victory this will be to kick the pop addiction!

The last two pictures are from our Saturday in Kansas City. It was fun to spend some time with the boys on Saturday and celebrate my birthday as well as Mitchell birthday together.

Daddy and Mitchell at Fritz's restaurant in Kansas City....if you haven't been there before, it is quite the experience! You order with the phone at your booth and then a train delivers your order to the table. Mitchell requested this as part of his birthday weekend celebration.

It was Collin's first experience at Fritz's restaurant and he loved it as much as his brother! I'm sure this will be a regular spot on any KC trip for our family.

Where has the time gone?

Here it is! The big moment has arrived!! Mitchell starts Kindergarten tomorrow morning! Tonight we met his teacher Mrs. Runyan and saw his classroom, now we are set to embark on a new journey into school. :)

Mitchell is so ready for school and excited to learn. Tomorrow will be hard for daddy and mommy, but we know it is time and he will do great. But of course, I have been asking myself the question...how can it be time for school already?

I look back at these sweet and silly pictures of Mitchell and wonder where the time has gone. We have covered a lot of ground since then. Who knew six years ago the path of parenthood would lead us to being blessed with such an amazing, sweet, kind-hearted son.

Six years ago, I was overdue and miserable. I remember calling my mother, certain that I would be the first person EVER to be pregnant forever. I'm happy to report this wasn't the case and on August 27th we were blessed with our first son (all 10lbs 1 oz of him!!!)

I will post more pictures from our first day of Kindergarten and Mitchell's birthday soon. But wanted to share a few shots from the past as well as the newest picture we have of Mitchell today.

Kindergarten here we come!!!!!!!

It's official!!!

Chad and I registered for our 2nd Half Marathon of the year! We will be running our latest 13.1 mile race in Wichita, KS on 10-10-10. We are both in the middle of training....I just ran 9 miles on Saturday for my long run and Chad will compete in his first Triathlon in Paola, KS this weekend!!

After running my first half marathon in May, I didn't want to become one of those "one and done" individuals when it comes to running and accomplishing this goal. I am so lucky to have Chad to keep me going with this and help keep me motivated! It will be a busy fall with Mitchell starting school , fall soccer and swim lessons as well as KSU home football games for the family starting soon....so planning out training and staying organized will be key!!!

Another fun development is that my parents will soon be residents of Manhattan, KS! We are so excited to have them close and can't wait for their transition to Kansas to be complete!! :)

Early Birthday wishes for Mitchell

It's hard to believe that Mitchell will be 6 years old this coming Friday!! Chad's folks were down this weekend and we had an early celebration with them. It will be a busy week as Mitchell starts Kindergarten on Tuesday as well. :)

Of course Mitchell loved the purple frosting best on his birthday cupcakes!! :)

5K Personal Record!!!

This weekend we were up visiting my in-laws in Hildreth, NE. Mitchell is spending the week with Grandma and Grandpa Bunger and can't wait to help Grandpa irrigate, swim with Aunt Christa, and have lots of fun! We will miss him but know he will have a great time!!


Saturday morning Christa, Chad, Aaron and I all ran in the Elizabeth Stratton Memorial 5K run which took place by the Archway in Kearney. It was fun to have us all running a race together again! Chad and I also had a PR for this race!!! Chad crushed his old PR by almost 4 minutes and is in amazing shape for his upcoming triathlon in a few weeks. I was also excited to take 1:45 off my old PR time and came in at 27:20!!!! That is an 8:51 mile pace.....whoo-hoo!!!


We were on our way to Nebraska on Friday when we heard about the 80-90 mph winds that hit Manhattan. So we came back earlier than we had planned today to start working on the clean-up. We have some tree damage and obvious damage to our house/gutter...but thankfully everything else was intact!

The good, the bad and the 10K

Today I finished my 3rd 10K of the year. It is surreal to me that my first race was just about a year ago, where I ran a 5K at Anneberg Park. I never thought I would have gone on to do several more 5K's, 3 10K's and a half marathon all since August 2009!

At some point I am hoping to conquer my mental block when it comes to running 10K's. For some reason, they are always a tough run for me! I was hoping to finish under an hour today...but had to settle for a 9:54 mile average which didn't quite cut it. I'm hoping to find another 10K in more fall-like weather conditions soon and finally achieve my goal of coming in under an hour for a 6.2 mile race.



It was great to have Chad and Collin cheering me on at the finish line! Collin was clapping and so excited that "mommy won her race!" I also kept to my training schedule today. After the race, I hydrated, stretched a bit and ran an additional 2 miles. Now I am heading to Lincoln, NE soon to meet my folks and pick up Mitchell who has been visiting his cousin Daniel's in Minnesota. He's had a great time, but we have missed him so much and can't wait to have him home again!