Vranicar Family: Party of 5

  2012 Participants   There’s something special about a group of people gathering together on a cold, windy morning to participate in a 5k. It doesn’t matter how many races I run or how large or small the event, every time I stand at the starting line I get an overwhelming surge of excitement and energy for what I’m about to do. This Thanksgiving morning was no different as I and nearly 75 others came together in Lake Park to run the first annual Families Forever Turkey Day 5k. The event was held to raise scholarship money for the Families Forever Scholarships that are awarded each year to two young women in the community; a Lake Park Audubon senior and a Miss Northwest contestant. I’m very pleased to say that thanks to the number of participants and our sponsors, we will be able to increase our 2013 scholarship amounts. This event would not have come together without the awesome group of runners and walkers who laughed/cried through the brutal wind and cold. You were ...

Within the last month or so, I've been trying to be more efficient in my every day planning. My goal is to have more "free" time with Cooper and Parker and reduce my self inflicted stress!  By free time with the boys I mean, real time that I am not distracted and can just play with them rather than, unload the dishes, load the washing machine, dust, make dinner, etc, etc, etc....  One example of my pre-made lunches. If I'm out of chicken, or need a change, I'll pack salmon or tuna instead.  One thing that has really helped reduce the stress levels is preparing my lunch for the entire week on Sunday night. I bake four chicken breasts, pack four containers FULL of greens and veggies (spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, avocado, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli)  Cooper likes to help me with his and really is good at jamming lettuce in! :) I also pre-pack bags of fruit, an apple, banana and one more snack for each day. I settle everything into the fridge so all I ha...

Just a sneak peek at the family photos we had taken with Scott Haraldson Photography. More to come!

A few weeks ago I began my search for a Thanksgiving day run to participate in. If we were planning on being home for the holiday I would have a pretty nice variety of choices for something like this. But I soon found that my choices near my dad's house in northern Minnesota were not as varied. In fact, the races I did find were both at least an hour from his house and the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. I guess I'd just get up that morning and go for a run onmy own or maybe one of my brothers would join me, unless... I organized my own! Why not? If you want something- make it happen! And suddenly the Families Forever Turkey Day 5k was created! For those you don't know, Families Forever was created almost seven years ago in memory of my mother, it is a scholarship we give each year to two young women in the Lake Park Audubon high school and to a Miss Northwest contestant. For more detailed information you can visit our website here . My aunt Peggy is the spearhead of t...

I started to write this post in my head as I ran along those 13.1 miles. If only I had remember all those clever things I wanted to write....   Let's start at race packet pick up which was Friday afternoon at the St. Paul River Center. I took my lunch hour  to drive to St. Paul and pick up my race bib, finishers' jacket (which I think is pretty funny since I hand't stepped foot on the course and already owned the finisher's gear) and looked around the expo. As I entered the expo area to my left I saw a huge banner, stretching across the better part or the wall. As I neared it, I saw that on it was an alphabetical listing of all the 14,000 runners who would be participating that next day. I did a little searching and found both my name and that of my sister in-law Delayne. Originally, Delayne had encouraged me to sign up for the race because she was going to run it with me. Well, she...

This Saturday morning I will wake up and head to St. Paul to fulfill one of my big "life to-do's", running a half marathon. (this run is part of the Monster Dash series)  I've talked about my running history previously so you know that doing this tomorrow is something that, just a short while ago, I never imagined I'd ever do. Last week I felt nervous about it, earlier this week it almost felt like I didn't realize it was a few short days away and now I feel ready! I keep envisioning myself on all of the long runs I completed during my training. Each Saturday morning, rain, shine, COLD and all, running mile after mile and each time thinking, "woohoo, mile one done!" and a little later..."yes! there goes mile 3 and 4." and eventually, "wow, that was 9 miles? I could do a few more!" The feeling of accomplishment it gives you to complete something successfully is worth all the hard work that went into it. When I start to fee...

This past weekend we celebrated and celebrated and celebrated Cooper turning three. The weekend started with a family birthday at our house. It was made extra special with two Great-Grandmas being able to celebrate with us. Kevin's aunt Jean was thoughtful enough to travel to the Iron range to pick up Kevin's grandma and my dad and sister traveled from "Up North" with my grandma, who had never visited us at our home in Savage before. Both of them seemed to really enjoy their trips. With all of the partying, we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked, but are hoping to do so with the holidays approaching. After an awesome birthday with family on Saturday, we woke up and did it all over again with Cooper's friends on Sunday! Because the weather can unpredictable the end of October (it snowed the day after Cooper was born!) we decided we couldn't rely on having outdoor space for his party and planned on having to use our house to ...