What a Weekend!

This weekend was definitely full of accomplishments! For quite a while, I've wanted...wait...NEEDED to weed the garden bed in the back. There are a few reasons I've been avoiding it. One of those would happen to be the fact that I couldn't see any of my original flowers through the 2 foot weeds. Who wants to get up on a 4 1/2 foot tall planter box and rip out weeds? Gardening is not therapy for me. I wish it was because it sure does take up a lot of time. Secondly, sweating and bugs and exerting significant effort with a shovel are not things I categorize as "fun." Fortunately, my dad came over to help out which Will and I appreciated very much! Dad helped Will put in the trellis's for my climbing rose which had taken over the bed. I think all of us came away with scrapes and scratches from old "Joseph" (the name of the rose). The most embarrassing part of weeding was when I got to the end and realized that, through the weeds, our orange tree had grown about 20 oranges that I hadn't even seen. They're quite delicious even without love and care.
Here's a shot of Dad installing the trellis's to hold up the climbing rose. At this point, all of the weeds were gone. I should have taken a "before" picture.

On Sunday, I went to the "Surf City Marathon" to watch my amazing sister run her first 1/2 marathon. My cousin Cheryl and Mikayla went with me. We had to wake up pretty early and try to figure out where the best place to see the racers were but we ended up seeing Cara for approximately 5 seconds as she ran past us near mile 11. She is such an inspiration to me! As we were standing there (after drinking our Venti Starbucks drinks laden with sugar), both Cheryl and I decided that it would be pretty cool to run a 1/2 marathon. Cara tells me that I can do it. I've only run about 4 miles at a time so right now I'm pretty tentative but I'd love to be able to run alongside my sister. She is absolutely amazing and I'm so proud of her.

Frankly, I'm kind of surprised I got this shot. I believe I was jumping up and down and screaming as I was taking it...pretty steady if I say so myself.
This was what the beach looked like during the marathon. I love living in California!!
Oh, and one last milestone of the weekend-Lynnea is now an official walker!! She finally decided that she did not need to hang on to anyone's fingers to do a perfectly fine job of walking. As excited as I am with this new revelation, I'm having to relive the days of chasing, blocking valuables and restraining while in stores. *sigh* With every new thing, there comes a challenge. I welcome the challenge with open arms. Way to go, Lynnea!

Of course, now that she's mobile, everything is more interesting and she bends down to see something just because she can.