I am not Irish....

but my cousin, Callie McRitchie, is! It was a must we celebrated with her as I have missed so many in the years past. Saturday we went to the parade in downtown Denver. Apparently, it is the biggest parade West of the Mississippi and ever since Luke saw the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on television he has been asking me to take him to New York. One day I am sure we will go but until then green shamrocks, vintage cars and Irish folk dancers will have to suffice.

It was then off to John's apartment where he and Callie had cooked up the traditional corn beef and cabbage, Guinness bread and pasta salad. Thankfully everyone was in their green attire or Luke was prepared to give them a pinch....lots of practice pinching this week.

Kiss me I am (almost) Irish!

Excuse me...

"Excuse me mommy. Can you please be patient? I am talking to dad."

- Luke, 2.5 yrs old going on 13 yrs old.

BlackRock = Big Smiles.

March 1st, that was Matt's official start date at BlackRock. Wahoo! The company has poised itself to be the leader in the marketplace, the team is small but fierce and the manager is phenomenal.

Cheers to new beginnings. We could not feel any luckier.

Half marathon- check!

Oh, the feeling of accomplishment. What a thrill! I only say this because I never thought I could have run 13.1 miles and felt so good. I am not a runner and prior to my training had only run 6 miles once.

It just goes to show what a good pair of running shoes and proper training can do for a girl. My mom, sister and I all participated. My mom had plans of walking the race but she said there was so much energy she ran the first two miles and finished off running too. I was so proud of her as I watched her cross the finish line! My sister, Jamie, and I ran the entire course together- except for the last .5 mile, she smoked me and finished about 30 seconds ahead. We made a total rookie mistake and had to stop at the first bathroom check point. The line was literally ten minutes so all in all we probably ran the race in a little under 2:30. The day was beautiful, my partners were awesome and I had the best cheering crowd around (thanks Dad!!)

I realized something about myself during this whole process. I always thought I was competitive but really I think I like to just set a goal and achieve it. Whether that puts me in first or last place depends on what I set my mind to achieve. Now I just wonder, what is next......