Dearest Emma...

Hard not to love this sweet face

... you will be 18 months old tomorrow (or perhaps its today already). Where has the time gone? Its might be an overused statement, but it is oh so true "The days are slow, the years are fast." You are the furthest thing from that little baby we brought home from the hospital. You are now a walking (running), laughing, babbling, smiling, tantrum throwing little toddler.

I look forward more and more to when you wake up every morning to see what you might decide to do that day. Your smile and your cackling laugh is infectious. You absolutely must grab now all three of your favorite animals and your two blankets and have at least two pacifiers in your hands when you get out of your crib in the morning. Sometimes we have to pry you out of your sleep sack, since you seem to think that is the coolest thing ever right now. And those owl pajamas? You could not love those more, the look on your face when you saw your little cousin Louisa in the same pair was priceless. Let's just say I love all your expressions. As your father likes to say, and I might add it's pretty darn true "you wear your heart on your sleeve" and sometimes I think we all need to do that a little more often.

Emma and her baby cousin Louisa

Priceless expression when the orangutan came to meet her

A favorite pose of late... "hands up" and all done, ready to be cleaned. It comes with the warning that they must be cleaned in the next five seconds or they are going in her hair...

Such delight in the little things

Your love for books and reading is coming on fast as you ask to read and get out every single one of your books off your bookshelf nearly as soon as when you get up in the morning. And I love the delight in your eyes when you see Dakota come trouncing into your room in the morning, its so true that a dog is a child's best friend. The way you pull, climb, poke, share your food, scream at her, its a best friend love. And the way she lets you do all that to her, clearly you are her best friend now too. Let's be honest, you feed her breakfast and dinner and all of her treats in between, mom and dad are now useless to her.

What a good horsy!

Best Halloween buds

The feeding under the high chair tray seemed to be instinctive for both parties...

Although I can't always understand you, your words are coming fast now. Each week there seem to be a few new ones you are trying to say, but anything that starts with "b" is by far winning out... bye bye, banana, bed, bowl, button, beep, ball, boo, baa to name a few. Without a doubt though my favorites are when you say dirty "di di" and amen "ahhhh men." So sweet to see you sit quietly when its time to pray and to watch your eyes light up when we are all done and you get to say "ahhhh men." I think you're starting to understand now that it's not just something we say when something is done, but it was still pretty comical the time you said "ahhhh men" when the man on the intercom at the store finished making his announcement. However, your passion for saying the word "bowl" when it's time to get one out and feed the cats is unmatched...

I love the way you clamor to sit like a big kid on the kitchen stool and how much you wanted to help me bake Christmas cookies. While you are seemingly the pickiest of picky eaters, you seem to always know the good stuff. I now know I can't turn my back for a minute or I'll find you eating cookie dough and sugar by the spoonful!



Decorating with passion

And delight in the finished product!

You are quickly become independent and so very assertive and stubborn. You want to do everything by yourself and everything mom does. Getting ready in the morning has perhaps never taken more time (but has never been so much fun either) when I have to make sure you also have your deodorant on and chap stick applied among other things. While I used to give you access to my make up bag those days have ended quickly since you twisted the mascara open and gave yourself what looked like a black eye. It is amazing to watch how many things you have mastered from zipping to twisting and snapping, I have to make sure not to forget to give you the chance to do all these things, otherwise there is sure to be a meltdown if I don't.

Post self-mascara application

But perhaps the cutest of all is when you walk Dakota. It is such an ordeal to get the two of you out the door to go for a walk. While I try to wait until the last minute to get Dakota's leash out, it is the first thing you want to do, and as a result you fight being trampled by her excitement. Then when you insist on walking and holding her leash by yourself you are literally out for the ride of your life as you try to walk and then run as long as you can before Dakota gets a little too excited and you let go (thank goodness you let go instead of getting dragged down the sidewalk).

Just out for an afternoon stroll

She ALWAYS wants to help!

Oh there are simply too many amazing and adorable things you do each day, while you can be a handful, you are undoubtedly a fun handful. While you say "yes yes yes" as fast as you can as soon as we walk in a store with a shopping cart, it isn't but 3 minutes after you first get in that you decide this was the worst idea on earth and it seems nothing can make it tolerable. But then some stranger starts talking to you and saying how cute and what a smiler you are (they would be correct there, except for when it came to Santa), and you act like the best kid ever and I could not be prouder to be your mom. But then that person turns away down the next aisle and life in the shopping cart is again such a drama. I would say thank goodness for that seat belt in the shopping cart, except oh wait, they're either all broke or they do no good at holding you in. But do you know what is so much better than riding in that shopping cart? Grandpa's walker...

Riding in the indoor sled is also sooo much better than the shopping cart!

The list goes on and on. I am quite sure you are the sweetest, cutest, smartest, most delightful 18 month old around (perhaps I'm a little biased). No matter what, you are mine. I could not be luckier or more blessed to call you my daughter. I pray that feeling is never taken away from me and that one day you'll also say you could not be luckier or more blessed to call me your mother.

Like mother, like daughter? Or is it like daughter, like mother?

26.2 miles across, 5920 feet up... the Jungfrau Marathon

Jungfrau mountain in the backdrop of the finish line

I have come up with a fair number of what I would call "stupid" ideas. I think this one topped them all. About 15 miles into the Jungfrau Marathon and every step after that I was wondering why in the world I thought it would be a good idea to run a marathon that also involved an elevation increase of nearly 6000 feet. But then between every other painful step I remembered why. The view, the experience, the runners around me, there is surely nothing else like it in the world.

Sometime ago in my first few months living in Switzerland while I was still pregnant I heard about the Jungfrau Marathon and decided I was going to do it while we lived there. So I meticulously put dates on the calendar, made sure I didn't miss the registration as the entries were very limited (only 4,000 as the course is very narrow in places), and then it seemed destined to happen as our calendar perfectly aligned so it would fall on our last weekend in Switzerland before moving home. While I planned meticulously to make sure I had a race entry, my training plans were not quite so meticulous. Life happened this summer and we traveled A LOT. My visions of day trips on the weekends so I could spend time running up the sides of mountains while Steve and Emma went for leisurely strolls didn't quite pan out. Oh well, I trained, not my best, but I trained for a marathon and did a little altitude and incline work and prayed it would be enough.

For those running nerds... a map of the course

We set out for Interlaken on Friday and looked forward to one last weekend in this amazing region of the country. We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon strolling through the town of Interlaken, going to the very small and simple race expo, and just relaxing a bit. We were introduced to friends of a friend (that just happened to be running as well) a few weeks before the race and coordinated to meet up at the Pasta Party to share our race strategies and pre-race fears ("what in the world are we doing tomorrow?!"). In addition one of Steve's former co-workers and friends just happened to be in Interlaken the same weekend so we were able to meet up for a drink (ok I skipped the drinking part) before heading back to the hotel for an early bedtime. It was a good thing we got to bed early as well since the day before Emma got a new tooth that was proving to be especially painful and sleeping was not her forte that evening...

So with a little less sleep than ideal I headed out the door on Saturday morning and made the half mile walk to the start area where luckily I only had a little time to get nervous as I watched all the Swiss "mountain men" performing their warm-up regiments. It was clear that this was far from an average race field with the majority of the participants being 40-50 year old men. But before I knew it I was lined up amongst them waiting for the Alphorns to play and sound the start of the race.



My little cheerleader getting her run on near the start

The first half of the race felt like anything but a race. It was a beautiful 55 degree clear morning and we set out for our first "leisurely" lap around the town of Interlaken before heading out for a quick turn along Lake Brienz. All the runners around me were chatty and happy taking in the beautiful scenery and making it feel like it was nothing more than a long, "slow" training run. It literally felt effortless and fun as we made our way towards Lauterbrunnen Valley and I anxiously kept my eyes peeled on the sidelines near Steve and Emma's targeted viewing points and to see our friend's Mike and Mel, who had made the trip down from Zurich for the day to cheer me on. In addition to my fans it seemed that all of the residents in each of the tiny Swiss villages we ran through poured out of their homes to cheer and ring giant cowbells as we ran through their streets.

The chatter of fellow runners quieted down as we started a "relatively" small ascent leading into Lauterbrunnen Valley. While running in this beautiful valley was one of my favorite sections of the course, it also signaled the end of our flat running as we neared the 25 km mark (about 15 miles) and we started a very steep zig zag ascent towards the town of Wengen. This is where the real race began...

Most all of the runners (at least those near my pace) slowed to a walk (albeit a quick one) in this section as in less than 3 miles we ascended nearly 1800 feet. The race quickly became a game of efficiency and pacing yourself (if it wasn't already). And while it might have been easy to stereotype the runners at the start of the race based on shape, size and age it became apparent that none of that applied any longer unless you only looked at the size of your neighbor's quadriceps, and even that was deceiving. Just when I thought I was keeping a good pace I would get passed by a 60 year old man. And to make matters worse the kilometer marker signs were replaced by signs every 250 meters simply because it took you so long to go just a few hundred meters. It quickly seemed to become painfully slow as the progress being made seemed less and less.



Views from Wengen of the Lauterbrunnen Valley below

Thankfully, there was a short reprieve once we made it to the town of Wengen. There were plenty of stops for water and a whole gamut of energy foods (certainly a well organized race to plan how to get these resources out across the course, but once again it spoke to Swiss efficiency) as we leveled off for short spurts here and there and the fan support was simply phenomenal. I was able to run at a good clip for a mile or so and got to quickly see my cheerleaders yet again (this was the 4th time!).

I'm glad I soaked up as much of that crowd energy as possible because from there on out for the remaining 7 or 8 miles the going was tough. There were very limited areas of accessibility for fans and it seemed little to no flat sections longer than 100 meters remained on the course with the exception of the last kilometer. And as badly as I wanted to run (or do anything other than a fast walk or very slow jog) I found that when I ran on those short flat sections I could hardly catch my breath between the thinning air and the grueling course. In the 12 marathons I had run previous to this race there had been a time or two where I have walked part of the course, but there has never before been a time where I so badly wanted to straight out stop. Quads burning, my lower back screaming, and my arms seemingly carrying 50 pound weights, I had to do everything I could at times just to bend over with my hands on my quads and continue to trudge uphill.



Little ants on a ridge



However, just when the going got really tough we would come to an opening in the trees and see tremendous views of the valley below us and the daunting faces of some of the world's most famous mountains, the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau looming above us. I remembered then why I was putting my body through such torture. The last few kilometers I continued to drag myself up along the only true "trail section" of the course with rocks underfoot and narrow paths. While it was difficult to capture a good photo, Steve said the runners looked like a trail of small ants moving along a narrow ridge. At least one good thing I could think of towards the end of the race was that we truly could not have asked for better weather as it was still close to 50 degrees by the time we reached our highest point of the race at nearly 7,000 feet. With the warm weather the runners were greeted several times by the sound of avalanches in the nearby peaks (but we were still quite far from harm's way). 





To my surprise for about two kilometers near the end of the race the course actually split, with runners going on two different paths before meeting back up. At first I was extremely confused as I came upon the division, but then I understood why as there would have been a very heavy bottleneck if everyone went on the same path. By the time we joined back together there actually were still a few spots were you literally had to stand and wait for a few seconds unless you really wanted to go off the path and climb a few rocks back on (which some anxious runners did). While I at first felt frustrated by this scenario and wondered why they let as many runners compete if this were the case, I realized it might not have been the worst thing for me. If I would not have had runners breathing down my back I likely would have stopped as several times I felt like I could not lift my legs one step further up.

Of course it was along this segment where the backdrop was absolutely stunning that they had several photographers snapping runners' photos. While I don't typically find myself caring too much or going out of my way to smile for a photographer I found myself using every ounce of effort to do so here. And perhaps this is one of my favorite images from that day... I think the look on the man's face in front of me says it all.

Trying to look happy!

I tried to avoid looking at any distance markers these last few kilometers as never before had it seemed to take so long to reach the finish that looked so close. When I finally reached the highest point of the course at kilometer 41 (there are 42 kilometers in a marathon), I felt a wave of emotions rush over me. I had done it, the worst was behind me. From here it was nearly all downhill to the finish line. So I gladly took the hands of the Swiss who were helping to hoist up runners as we clamored up and over one last rock before handing us a chocolate as we began our turn towards the finish line.

There I am behind the bride!

Somehow my legs still had the energy in them to run and while it was a terribly long kilometer to that finish banner I had never felt such an achievement in my life. It was a culmination of so many things and emotions... finishing the most difficult race of my life, completing my third marathon post-Emma, a day to reflect on my grandmother's birthday who had just passed away, and more than anything it marked the end of a journey, a nearly two year phenomenal adventure living in Switzerland.



At least one of us looked happy!


I was ecstatic to finish in 5 hours and 35 minutes. Leading up to it I had feared the worst of getting swept up by the trailing vehicle that signaled the 6 hours and 30 minutes race cut-off time, but instead I crushed that time. I was right on pace with the 1.5 to 2 hours longer than an average marathon they told me to expect it to take me to finish. And don't tell Steve, but I even beat his regular marathon time (oh c'mon my husband will be the first to tell you I did and even laugh about it).
 
Certainly the greatest part of the day was crossing that finish line and finding my family and friends waiting there for me. Emma was such a trooper all day despite feeling less than stellar and I wanted nothing else but to hold her and lucky for me she literally jumped into my arms when I saw her. Somehow I still found the energy to carry her the entire way through the finishers chute despite my earlier desire to amputate my arms around mile 23.
 
Not only was it a long day for me, but it was quite a lot of work for my support crew as well to hop on and off trains to spot me at various locations along the course and make their way all way up to the finish line. We were all happy to spend some time celebrating at one of the restaurants near the finish at Kleine Scheidegg. And from there Mike, Mel, and Lenny headed back to Zurich for the evening, but Steve, Emma and I had reserved a hotel in the town of Wengen and enjoyed soaking up one last night in the Alps.

Thanks guys! Lennon (our friend's dog) was maybe the most important fan of the day...
in charge of keeping Emma happy!

We certainly felt lucky as we headed back to Zurich on Sunday that the race had been the day earlier as the weather was cold, rainy, and there were low clouds and fog throughout the region. While we wished we could have stayed for several days there was little time to rest as we had to say goodbye to our friends that evening before flying out to Iceland, which would be our last stop before returning to the United States.

Love this pic Steve caught of our friends taking in the scenery near the finish line

What a race, what an incredible place. While I swore while running I would never dream of doing such thing ever again, I sit here today already dreaming up more crazy ideas and thinking I would consider doing such a race again. Switzerland seems to have a way of doing that to you... such an awe-inspiring creation from God, you just find yourself wanting more.

A happy finisher in front of Eiger's North Face

And by the way, there's no way my images do it justice. Here's a link to a video that will give you just a little taste of my day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZeXb9L9-tk

I have no idea how the winners ran the whole course (and in case you're wondering I believe it was the first time a Kenyan ever won). But I'm pretty happy just finishing in the top half of the females, in a race dominated by males (over 70%). I did it. I finished.

One last Swiss family photo!

 

 

Five Beautiful Swiss Lakes

Steve got one last chance to go on a day hike one of our last few weekends in Zurich. Although he didn't get in the 30+ Swiss hikes he had hoped to when we moved to Switzerland, I think we did pretty good, and we definitely got in some of the best hikes the country had to offer. From the looks of his photos, this one was pretty good too.

While I was busy getting one last training run in for my upcoming marathon, Steve took off with a friend and Emma tagged along with the boys for a day in the Alps in Eastern Switzerland. Their hike took them around five picture perfect lakes. The day had some clouds, but even with the clouds the views still looked spectacular. And although I was sad to miss out on the hike, I also didn't mind having a little time to myself as well!

Here are his photos!

Happy to be with the boys for the day!






What a great friend! Kevin even helped to carry Steve's backpack part of the day!

 

 

One last daddy daughter photo!