The Gray Family: Inspiring

Monday, July 2, 2012

Inspiring

Adam and I drove to Duluth a few weeks ago to watch Larry, my father-in-law, run in ~~Grandma's~~ or as we like to call it Grandpa's Marathon. (As Larry would tell people he was going to run his first marathon and it was called Grandma's Marathon he'd get funny comments like, "Oh, is that a marathon for old people?" Nope. This was a real marathon with young and old alike.) Watching the marathon was truly inspiring and amazing to see so many people complete such a tough task. I was blown away by watching the Kenyans sprinting by us at mile 24.5. I wouldn't be able to keep up with them for 1/2 a mile even after they had run that far. It was very inspiring to see the human body in such great shape. But the real inspiring thing was to watch Larry run by us and look so strong. He was amazing! I ran with him for about 20 seconds and tried to encourage him to finish strong. He was on pace to break the time he was hoping for of 3:55 and I knew if he could finish strong he'd get it. I told him, "Keep on pace and you've got this. You've got this!" He knew he was close but seemed a little unsure. He somehow found his last reserve of energy and finished with his second fastest split time, and qualified for the Boston Marathon at 34:54:37 with 23 seconds to spare! Truly inspiring!

I have been trying to train for a half marathon in the fall but have been battling injuries and sickness. If all goes well I'm hoping to run the Monster Dash 1/2 marathon on October 27th. 13.1 miles- because I'm only half crazy! If any of you'd like to join me I'd love to run it with you... let me know.

Adam and Marie holding up our signs

Larry as he is running by us.

Larry finishing strong!

Adam with Larry after the race. Adam wore a bib that Stephen & Jonelle made- it had 355 on it- the finishing time he was hoping for.

One of my favorite memories from the trip was watching Larry and Marie embrace after the race. Both were so overcome with emotion and just held each other. I tried to capture it on camera but it doesn't fully do it justice. Aren't these two love birds cute?

We got a number of laughs and comments on Adam's sign as runners would go by.

4 comments:

Unknown said...: that is inspiring! and wow good luck to you as you train!; July 2, 2012 at 4:01 PM
Natalie and Jeff said...: NIKI!! I soooo want to train with you from across the country!!! I have been wanting to do a half marathon for awhile now! I'm going to look up races close to October now!; July 2, 2012 at 7:43 PM
Janis said...: That was awesome for you and Adam to go together and support Larry and Marie. I know they appreciated it. Congrats to Larry on that accomplishment!!; July 3, 2012 at 1:14 PM
D said...: WHat a great post! I love the signs, too. Those Grays keep inspiring me! I'm so impressed with Larry and so proud of him. I can't believe he qualified for the Boston Marathon- wow!!!; July 5, 2012 at 6:18 AM

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Kid Quotes

4/13 Calvin saying all of our names, "Dada, Mama, Am, Nana, Ca-Ca, Ca-Ca." Now he says, "Cal-m," for Calvin.

6/13 Anytime Calvin is sad or wanting my attention he says, "weed a wuve," meaning, need a love. He then gives me a big hug and pats my back.

4/13 "Todds and Shones," Calvin asking for the ipod and phone to play on.

11/12 I told Camille we had to go the grocery store to buy a turkey for thanksgiving. She asked, "what store has turkeys?" Me, "Cub Foods (our normal store)." Camille, "I didn't know Cub Foods has turkeys." Me, "well they are frozen turkeys." Camille after thinking a minute, "I don't think the turkeys like to be frozen." Me, "well, honey, they are dead turkeys so they don't care." Camille, "I don't like turkey. I'm not going to eat turkey for thanksgiving." Me, "no, you like turkey. It tastes like chicken." Camille thinking some more, "Because they eat chicken?" Me, "No, no, the turkey doesn't eat chicken. It just tastes like chicken." Camille, "Oh." She couldn't wait to see the frozen turkey.

10/12 Camille, "Mom, can you tuck me in like a Dorrito?" Me, "You mean a burrito?" Camille, "No, a Dorrito. They're yummy."

5/12 This one is from me after listening to a visiting General Authority from Utah, "Where do Utahans get the "t" in Wilt-son (or Nelt-son) from? From their moun'ains."

4/12 Camille, "How do I grow up to be a princess like Cinderella?" She asks this at least once a day.

10/20/11 Camille while having a fit and crying, "I don't want to be happy, I want to be crying." That about sums her up:)

10/19/11 We drove past a cement truck that let off a puff of exhaust and Camille shouts out, "Look Mom a be-cano!" Pretty sure she was going for volcano.

9/14/11 Camille after her ear popped, "Mom, my ear just burped!"

8/14/11 After catching a ground squirrel that has been eating my garden all year we were trying to figure out how to dispose of it. Adam said, "Should we suffer-cate him?"

5/20/11 Camille, "Is that Adam's alligator?" Me, "What?" Camille points to his drink from baseball. Me, "Oh, his Gatorade!"

3/3/11 Adam while looking at Calvin, "He looks like someone I know, but forgot."

2/25/11 Anna: "What's a stay?" Me: "A what?" Anna: "A stay, like when we pray." Me: "What?" Anna: "Please bless this stay." Me: "Oh, you mean day." (The really funny thing is that she's been saying this in almost every prayer for years.)

11/29/10 Adam: "Do you know what an encyclopedia is?" Anna: "What?" Adam: "It's what they had before Google."

11/27/10 Anna to Adam while playing house: "Adam, I'm getting that feeling again..." Adam: "What feeling?" Anna: "I'm going to have another baby." Adam: "Oh no!"

10/8/10 Camille while we were viewing stars, "Ju-pi-ter, Ju-pi-ter, WOW. Itz cool."

10/8/10 Anna, "Mom my mole teeth are hurting." She's getting some new molars!

4/28/10 Anna, "Mom when I grow up I want to be just like you. I want to be a mom and a teacher."

4/26/10 Adam feeling sick, "My stomach is all squeeze-y inside."

1/31/10 Adam: "Want to know why I don't want be a doctor when I grow up?"

Me: "Why?"

Adam: "Because they have to know the names of all the bones in the body. When you're a baby there are more than 300 and when you grow up there are more than 200. There are 206- I think."

(He learned about the body at school last year and could still remember how many bones are in the human body- 206!)

1/30/10 Anna while playing house, "Let's make this nice and filthy... Mom, what does filthy mean?"

12/09 Anna while playing a game, "Mom, it's fun to lose!"

11/10/09 A conversation during preschool, Brooklyn: "No one is perfect." Anna: "My mom is."

11/10/09 Anna to Adam: "If you eat a popcorn seed you'll turn into popcorn." Adam: "No, that's just a joke." Anna: "Oh."

11/10/09 Anna to Adam: "Does your head feel wooden?" Adam: "What? No." Anna: "My head feels wooden and broken."

11/09 Camille: "Mama, Mama!" She says a number of "words" but I have been waiting for that one! Her first word was "Uh-Oh".

11/09 Things Anna is grateful for: "butterflies, birds, my Mom that does pretty things in my hair"

11/09 I was fixing Anna's hair for church, Anna: "I feel princess-y!"

10/10/09 Anna: "Snow tastes like water!"

10/4/09 Anna while looking at stars, "There's Saturon"

10/4/09 Camille: "Grrrrrr"

10/4/09 "Daddy, I just made a one in hole!" -Anna after playing a mini-golf game at Grandma's house

7/18/09 Adam after Camille gave him a wet kiss: "I'm going to keep her kiss on me... it's ok because it will dry."

6/09 Adam: "Dad, there's red allergy growing in the fish tank!"

4/15/09 Adam to Anna: I have a girlfriend. (I listen a little more closely)

Anna: I know, Sydney

Adam: and Brooklyn, and Jennie, and Riley, and Jillian (Phew, I guess right now friends that are girls are his "girlfriends".)

3/09 Adam: "It's to bad I can't marry Camille because she so cute."

2/20/09 Anna to Camille: "You're the most special baby. You're the pretty baby in the world."

1/09 Anna referring to Camille: "Mom, how long are we going to keep her?"

1/09 We just finished moving Anna into Adam's room to make room for Camille. Adam: "When we have another baby after this one, we can sleep in a tent!" I guess he was thinking there are no more beds left so he'd have to give his up.

10/08 Anna: "Mom, I just saw a scary crow!" (I guess some scarecrows are pretty scary:)

6/7/08 The kids spent the night at Grandma & Grandpa's. When they woke up in the morning Grandpa wasn't there and Grandma had them guess where he went. Adam said, "Oh I know, he went golf balling!" He was right.

5/18/08 Adam: "Mom, when I grow up big and get married I will miss you too much!" I'll have to remind him of that when he is older.

4/21/08 We got to preschool today and Adam asked, "Mom, are we late?" in a panicky voice. I said, "No, we are early." He responded, "What is early?" I guess we'll have to work on that:)

3/22/08 We had our Easter egg hunt today. After we finished finding all the eggs Anna said, "Let's try that again."

11/3/07 Today I put pig tails in Anna's hair. She was so proud of them she kept calling them her, "pretty tails."

4/07 Adam just learned to put on his seat belt by himself and said, "All I need to do now is learn to drive the car."

11/06 On a cold winter day Adam could see his breath and said, "Mom, there's smoke coming out of my head!"

The Gray Family

Monday, July 2, 2012

Inspiring

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