...The Traveling Powells...: 2013

Friday, November 1, 2013

Photo Dump- Trip to Oregon

Here are a ton of pics from our trip to Oregon early October. The weather was beautiful, the marathon was outstanding (22 minute PR!) and it was SO wonderful to see family and friends!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Home in Oregon!

Up at 4am with the girls and a dinosaur this morning. Guess they're still on Nashville time!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Well, that's it.

After a month of running 18-20 miles every weekend, its now time to taper-off, in preparation for the Portland marathon Oct. 6th. (Did you know you'll be able to track my progress online?? Check out the Portland Marathon site on the day-of for details.) We will travel to Oregon from Oct. 2 to Oct 9. We haven't been "home" in over 2 years, so its bound to be a trip full of emotions and building memories and we can't wait.

(Truth be told, it's hard for me to even type about it. A faculty member from the University of Oregon visited Vanderbilt recently and I got choked up at dinner talking to him about Oregon, but I managed to keep it together. Have I mentioned I miss Portland? A lot? ;-) )

ANYWAYS. Enough of the mushy stuff. There will be plenty of time for that when we are out there.

Tomorrow's run?
*Only* 12 miles.
Glorious!!

I smoked the last 20 miler in 3hours, 30 mins! (on an incredibly hilly route!) WOOO!

Tough to see, but here's the course. Suffice it to say, it's along the river for pretty much all of it. :-)

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Pictures

We had our first professional photos of the girls taken when we were home in Montana. Here are a couple of "teasers" the photographer provided. More to come when we get them all!

Friday, August 30, 2013

Happy 1 year birthday, Cora Jane!

We can't believe it, but one year ago on August 26th 2012, Cora Jane Dietz Powell joined our family! She is the sweetest little girl and we love her so much.
Here we were one year ago:

(This photo doesn't even look real to me. Taken 12 days before she was born- 2 days before my "due date" of course, we all know how that went. If and when we have a third baby, I'll know to just ignore those pesky "due dates.")

Here she is now!

Stats:

Born at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, August 26th, 2012 at 4:58am
8lbs, 12oz and 20.5 inches

One year appt. August 27th, 2013:

21lbs, 3oz (71st percentile), 31 inches (97th percentile)

She's growing so much and eating everything we do! She walks along things (no independent steps yet) and says "bye-bye", and "up" and "uh-oh" and "dada". (Ok, and she signs "more." But now I'm just showing off. ha!). SUCH a joy to have!! We love you, Cora Jane!

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Trips to the West

The lats couple of weeks, I've been in Colorado for a meeting and then in Montana to see family. (Brendon flew with the girls to Denver, met up with me and we went to Montana together.) All in all, it was 2.5 weeks of gloriously non-humid weather, [real] mountains, and a wonderful time with family and friends!!

First Colorado:
Steamboat Springs is such a wonderful location for a science conference. It's located at about 6,500 feet in elevation and right in the middle of the mountains. Tons of hiking, etc. The conference was great (I gave a talk- see page 2- and got good feedback-- which also meant I didn't have to haul a poster there. WIN). And I was able to see my former mentor, Missy Wong, and go hiking and to the hotsprings with her, some folks from my lab and and one of her postdocs, Nick, (who actually did grad school in Eugene right next to a lab where a friend of mine worked. Small world). We found out the hotsprings were "clothing-optional" after dark, and some people were taking advantage of that. Thank goodness it was VERY dark out! Great trip!

Missy and I taking a break from a hike

Western US streams are something I will never take for granted!

One of the views as my lab mates and I approached RabbitEars Pass on a hike

My lab mates and I as we made it to the top! 9,500 feet!

Brendon sent me pics of the girls everyday. This was a favorite. They look so grown up!

Now for Montana: We went and visited my mom and dad. We didn't see my little sister Katy, as she was out in Seattle, but are looking forward to seeing her in December or January. Mostly, we stayed in Great Falls, where I am from, but did take a 2 day trip up to my parents cabin they bought a couple of years ago. It's 20 acres in the middle of the mountains on the Continental Divide in Montana. Its a wonderful little spot and we felt lucky to visit it!