Good Times with the Smithskis and KK Turns 30

Back in June Kathy decided what she wanted to do for her 30th birthday - a simple party in the park where we could play childhood games and relax with good friends. So we booked a few picnic tables in Golden Gate Park and waited for the weekend to arrive. I mentioned the party to Lauren and Stu, who found out a few weeks before the big day that a friend was driving up to SF the weekend of the party. Lucky me - a great friend's birthday and some of my favorite people in town on the same weekend. :)

Lauren and Stu arrived Friday night, and brought Mini KK along with them. We left her at home and headed out for dinner at Kennedy's Irish Pub (for Indian food, of course) and met up with a friend of theirs from law school on Union. They got to suffer through a truly Marina evening and know understand me on a whole new level. I never get to cook for anyone, so I invited them over for breakfast on Saturday morning and we made breakfast tacos. They were edible and possibly even good. We set off for the party, figuring Muni was the easiest way to transfer a life-size pinata.  

We had so much fun hanging out at the park together. Despite the frigid temperatures and bad wind, we managed to have an egg toss and a pinata beating. 

Happy 30th KK! I love you and am so thankful for your friendship.

Espana!

The Collins Family set off on a two week adventure around Spain at the end of June to celebrate Mom and Dad's 30th anniversary on 7/5/2010. We kicked the trip off by meeting in Denver, where Dad surprised Mom with a DVD of pictures taken over the last thirty years. Great way to start the trip! Becky, Joey and I have been so blessed to have an example of a wonderful marriage all our lives and to be a part of a family that enjoys extended family time every few years. :)

Happy 30th, Mom and Dad!! I love you!

We traveled together through Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Marbella, and Barcelona. Our timing was perfect - we managed to catch Spain's round of 16, quarterfinal, and semi-final World Cup games. We left just a few days before Spain took the championship game for their first World Cup win. Here are a few of my favorites pictures from the trip. All the pics can be seen here.

 

The Mandas

On May 8th Julie and Jamie became The Mandas in a lovely ceremony at the Sir Francis Drake in downtown San Francisco. It was a wonderful evening filled with many special J and J moments, from the Florida State football references during the ceremony to home made cakes in all the best flavors.

Happy Couple

Ridiculous - both the cake and the view

Can't imagine life without these women!

The Relay

The first weekend of May, we set out with 2 vans, 11 co-workers, 36 race legs, 48 pb&j sandwiches, 60 gatorades, and 200 miles of road for The Relay. Team Slalom finished the Calistoga to Santa Cruz adventure in 29 hours and 42 minutes. More importantly, we're all still co-workers and employees!

Team Slalom

Van One!

Meeting Dean Karnazes! (Close to as exciting as meeting Phil and Harry was back in '01.)

Can't seem to leave work behind for the weekend.

Running along the highway in Calistoga.

Mission Peak Hike

Kicking off Half Dome training with a hike at Mission Peak in the East Bay. 5.6 miles out and back, with a 2000 feet elevation change. Ouch! 

Sonoma, Baby!

So, maybe it doesn't have the same ring to it as Vegas, Baby!, but it definitely suits the girls much better.

We took off for a night in Sonoma to celebrate the soon-to-be Mrs. Manda. Unfortunately she came down with the stomach bug. After biking to two wineries we spent the day at the pool relaxing and indulged on Mary's Pizza in the hotel room. It wasn't exactly the send-off to married life we had planned, but it was so relaxing and nice to spend time together.

Stadium to Sea 2010

I swore I would never run another marathon after I crossed the Chicago finish line back in 2004. Fast forward five years, numerous races, and an overachieving BFF new to the racing world. Somehow in the Fall of 2009 I excitedly found myself signing up to run the 25th anniversary Los Angeles Marathon.

We started off on Saturday in the blistering sun at Dodger Stadium to pick up our race packets. We treated ourselves to t-shirts since the only official race shirts they had left would nicely fit your average sized troll. It was HOT so we didn't stay long, all quietly wondering how we were going to run 26.2 miles the next day when we could barely stand around without melting.

We dragged the boys to Michael's with us to get crafting supplies. When you need to bedazzle, you need to bedazzle. Too bad the bedazzling wore off somewhere around mile one. Our Support Team (of one) joined in on the crafts and made some of the days winners in signage.

Side Note: Matt was awesome and deserves the award of the day for crafting on a Saturday night, going to a senior citizens dinner, getting up at 4:30 for no reason, traversing the streets of LA in a car and on foot, and capturing awesome finish line pics of us. 

Getting ready to start with Alexis!

The race itself was great. Alexis, Meredith and I started off together. Lex pulled ahead around mile 1 to look for a bathroom and unfortunately we didn't meet up again until after the race. Meredith and I ran until 15 then went our own ways. She now refers to the race as my LA Snack-A-Thon. Let's just say I tried every item the crowd had to offer, from bananas to licorice. I had a smile on my face until about mile 23. Then I wanted someone to cut my feet off. But I plodded away, especially once I realized Becky and Arek would be at the finish. I crossed under in 4:51:17. Wasn't exactly a PR, but I am proud of it. The best part of the race was crossing the finish line and not having the "I will never do this again" feeling. Two down, hopefully at least eight more to go.

Crossing the finish line 26.2 miles later. 

Some of my favorite badass rockstars. 

What's left of the bedazzling. 

Not sure what's next. New York 2010? International Something 2011? 

All the pictures are here.