Oktoberfest Marathon Weekend

We managed to squish a lot into yesterday, so naturally this will be one of those way too long blogs.

We begin Friday afternoon.  Andy dropped the boys off at my mom's house and we took off east.  We rented out a cabin house with 3 rooms and split it with Krissy and Leslie and Jenna.  It was really nice and had a fire pit out back, a hot tub, and a hammock.  It even had laundry machines!  It was right across the street from Lake Wenatchee and had a beautiful view out front which I didn't take a picture of.

There was a loft lookout thing upstairs and 2 bedrooms

My parents took the boys to Luminasia at the fairgrounds and both of them loved it.

Kellan looks like the Christmas Story boy

We didn't stay up too late because the next morning we got up early for the race.  The start for the marathon was 10 miles up the road from the start/finish for the half and they were getting shuttled so no cars were allowed.  I was a bit sad I couldn't see Andy off, but relieved to not have to wake up extra early.  The rest of us left with Jenna since the half started 2 hours later.

The half started and Andy got there right afterwards!  It was good timing.  We had our signs and Andy stopped to chat with us and take a short break at mile 13.

There goes Jenna in the middle (gray shirt black pants)

Here comes Andy half way

The "ANDY!" sign said "JENNA!" on the back

We hopped in the car to find a spot along the way to hold our signs and cheer people on.  We found a couple ladies from Tacoma with cowbells and decided to feed off of them and hold signs next to them.  It was a good spot because it was mile 7 for the halfers and 20 for the marathoners. It was so fun!  Everyone laughed at our signs, we got a lot of "Thank-yous" and other comments about them.  We even saw Jenna since she was doing really well and she said we were really motivating. We waited about 15 minutes or so for Andy but Jenna was cruising and we saw traffic about to stop and wanted to make sure we hit her for the finish line and got a parking spot. We figured since we motivated him halfway we did our part already and took off.

Found Jenna

We got back and found a spot right in front of the finish line.  Jenna came in at and official 1:52 beating her last time by 5 minutes.  It was great especially since there were a lot of rolling hills and the last mile was in SAND!  (Andy had to do the sand twice...imagine running 25 miles then  hitting a mile of sand)

Some lady crossed right behind her after this so I didn't get her crossing the line

We waited around an hour cheering on each person finishing (there were consistently people) and finally Andy came into sight, finishing at 5:07.  We were so proud!  Andy's mom and Sam even came up to support him at the finish :)

haha he does not look thrilled and he looks super swollen but he finished!

The 2 racers

After a bit of rest, Andy and Jenna went back to the cabin to shower and sit in the hot tub for awhile and I went to town to check out the Oktoberfest festivities with Krissy and Leslie.  We ate lunch at a little cafe, walked through the bazaar, watched a polka band, walked along the river through the changing trees, and got ice cream.

As we were finishing our ice cream, we found Kyndyl and Joe (he grew up in Cashmere right near Leavenworth and they were there for the weekend) and right after that, Andy and Jenna showed up.  It was great timing.  We had run into Krissy's friend and he told us about the official "Oktoberfest" tents.  It was $20 and all it got you was into the area where there were a few beer gardens.  It didn't include anything so that was way too expensive for nothing.  Joe saw a friend in town and she told us about a bar down the street with a beer garden and live music all night for only $5.  Heck yes!  They had good bands and we had a ton of fun hanging around a fire pit.  Other people took more photos than me so I don't have them (including me having to tie some hairy guy's leiderhosen) but I have a few pics.

The brat had a nub and I thought it was cute

The crew

Andy feeding Leslie her beer

That dog's name was Zeus

We went home right after and me, Jenna, and Leslie hit the hot tub before bed.

We woke up and tried to find a bar to watch the Hawks game but most of them were filled...despite the game being at 10 am and everyone should have had hangovers in town.  Luckily we walked by a "South" restaurant with a little bar that was opening just as we walked by so we got to watch part of it while eating delicious fish tacos.

Leslie disappeared (she went to get aspirin and never came back) so we left and walked around the town while Krissy hunted her down.  We got the boys a few gifts then headed out after another ice cream.

On the way out we admired the beautiful view as the leaves changed, and we stopped to buy a box of apples/pears at a fruit stand we had been to before.

We even ran into the race announcer at this little stand

We got home and I gave the boys their gifts.  I think they liked them.

It was an amazing weekend and hope we can do it all again!