On Saturday, July 25th, you can be apart of this fun, free, bowling soiree, but you have to RSVP here for what is sure to be a rocking and rolling event. (Okay, I know people don’t talk like that. I need to get out more!)

You can win*:

• 3 nights in a 2-bdrm/2-bath park view unit (nearly 1300 sq. ft. - Very modern & wonderful!  Like This!)
• 4 passes to climb the Grays Harbor Light Station
• $100 Gift Certificate to the HMBBG
• Complimentary wine, chocolate & cheese tasting at the Westport winery.

All you need to do is leave a comment here and tell us why you would love to take this trip.  Need some relaxing time with the family?  Had a rough start to summer?  Want to remember being a kid playing in the sand? Let us know!  You can even nominate someone you know if you think they really deserve the time away! Who knows…maybe you’ll get lucky too and they will take you with them!

Winner will be drawn by random using randomizer.org for the number of comments during the week of July 14th. If you tweet about this and provide a link to this post you can enter twice!  So spread the word! You pick the weekend, we’ll get you there.

ONE NOMINATION per person please (unless you Tweet it).

Ready? Set? GO!

(Don’t want to wait to win? Want to get away now?  Use the promo code SEAMOMS for a discount when you book with Vacations By The Sea.   The discount is 15% off for a mid-week stay and 10% off for weekend nights- This discount applies for the garden units as well as the INCREDIBLE ocean side units).

*You will still need to provide a credit card number upon check-in.  Vacations by the Sea will hold it for damages because that’s what their contract with the individual condo owners require. However, your card will not be charged.

So this year, we did something different.  We planned to get away for a couple days…mid-week!  SHOCKER.  The Seattle Mom Blogs Ladies, Leslie and Laura, and I, decided that we wanted to go on an adventure.  Just the moms and the kids for a couple nights.  Since our weekends are pretty much full from now until…oh…Thanksgiving and finding a time when all three of us could slip away for a weekend was impossible, we decided to buck the system and head out of town on a weekday.  Let me tell you…we are hooked and will be making this mid-week jaunt away a yearly, or maybe even semi-summerly adventure for us and the kids!

Unfortunately, given the 4-6 am shuttle run to the start line, I had to get up at 3:45 am to head downtown by 4:20 am. I think I may have even Twittered that stupid start to the morning. Met co-worker (”L”) at our office and gathered our stuff, stripped down to running clothes and took off for the shuttle buses about 1.5 miles away. COLD. WINDY. I don’t recommend walking in downtown Seattle at 5 am in the morning in shorts and tank tops or t-shirts.

We were shocked at the line of people waiting to get on a shuttle. But the line moved quickly and soon we were bouncing and jostling our way down to Tukwila in a school bus. I thought my bladder was going to BURST by the time they dropped us off. Have to pee, have to pee, have to pee. Shit. There are 25,000 other people here who have to pee. Barely made it through the 30 minute wait for a porta potty and then we were off to find our start corral. I was shocked at how quickly it was 7 am and the race was starting. Oh wait. I’m in corral 24. We stood and slowly inched forward for the next 45 minutes before WE reached the start line. My feet actually hurt from standing on the concrete.

And finally! We’re off to run the marathon! And I have to pee. Badly. The hour wait to actually start running did me in. First porta potties were at the 0.6 mile marker and there I had to stop and stand in line.

And now we’re really off and running! L did an amazing job keeping me from starting out way too fast which is my MO. I blaze out of the finish line and then totally burn out half way through the race. L kept us on a great pace through Tukwila to Seward Park. After another bathroom stop (an unfortunate one that had an 8 minute line), we increased our pace a little and soon caught up and passed the 5 hour pace group. The run from Seward Park to I-90 was fantastic. We felt good, we were moving along at a good pace and we even ran back a little to see the bald eagle sitting in a tree we had just passed.

We got to the transition to I-90 where the marathoners first split from the half-marathoners. It was interesting to see 70% of the runners head the other way as we started off across I-90. It was gorgeous! Mt. Rainier was out and the view was beautiful. Hit Mercer Island and turned around and headed back across the bridge. Joined back up with the half-marathoners on the express lanes into downtown Seattle. They were running their last 2 or so miles and we were on our miles 13-15 at that point. They all took off for their finish line and us marathoners were routed into downtown. That was a fun part of the run- through masses of people cheering us on.

Ran up the on-ramp to Highway 99 and headed north at that point. We had many many miles to run on Highway 99 but the view of Elliot Bay was stunning. Every time we ran through the tunnels (on both I-90 and Highway 99), it was like entering a sauna. Hot, humid, off lighting. As hot as it was, the humidity did feel good for our legs. I much preferred the cold air and breeze though.

We kept heading north and were finally near Queen Anne and Canlis restaurant. At that point, we had to run north across the Aurora Bridge to the turn around point. L and I were still feeling good. Passed mile marker 18 and then the turn around. Legs, hips and feet hurt but attitude is good and we have yet to stop and walk.

Turned around at the north end of the bridge and headed back towards downtown Seattle. Mile 20 was just after Canlis and we had our final bathroom stop there and took off for the last 6.2 miles. Our plan was to increase our pace at this point but the pain had really set in. We were able to pick up the pace on the downhill portions but my uphill pace was barely more than a shuffle. I started making L calculate our per mile time and estimated finish time at every mile marker. She was a really good sport and did it. At every single mile. We figured out that we could beat my Portland Marathon time and so that was the goal.

We passed Qwest Field and could see runners coming back from south of downtown and turning off to run towards Qwest Field. I wanted to be them at that point. My legs were hurting and I could tell I was getting blisters on the tips of my toes of my left foot. But, no. We kept heading south and passed miles 23 and 24 and then we got to finally turn around down by the West Seattle Bridge (in the middle of some container yard) and head back UP north. Yes, UP. Mile 24.5 to mile 25.5 was UP a hill. Sadistic race planners.

Unfortunately for L, she had seen a volunteer eating a muffin at the water station back at mile 24 or so. Remember, we last ate at 4 am. It is now around noon. 8 hours later. So then we spent the next several minutes talking about just how hungry we were. Oh well, we shuffled up the hill and FINALLY reached the turn off point from Highway 99 and it was downhill to Qwest Field.

We took off down the hill and picked up our pace immensely. Passed mile marker 26 in a sea of people cheering us on. Turned a corner and we started to sprint. Whoops. I made the same mistake I made at the Portland Marathon: 0.2 miles? Is a lot further than you think it is. Especially after just running 26 miles.

We were sprinting past people and the finish line was still a couple of blocks away. Had to slow sprint a little until the finish line was actually close and then we took off and blasted across the finish. Woo hoo! 26.2 miles DONE. Our “unofficial (without the bathroom breaks) time” was 4:29:29. Not too bad. Especially since neither L nor I had really trained that much leading up the race.

We went to get something to eat and those bastard half-marathoners (sorry, Mrs. Flinger- love you!) had cleaned out the food. We managed to snag half of a bagel and a bottle of water and started the long and painful 1.25 mile walk back to our offices. I won’t lie: that final walk downtown to the office hurt like you would not believe.

But, it’s Sunday morning and I’m feeling great. Legs are a little stiff but not too bad. Two toes on my left foot have ugly blisters on them but they’ll heal. Even heading out for a bike ride with the kids in an hour or so.

Final verdict: I’m already planning to run the Seattle Rock N Roll marathon next year! 

(Chris also posts over at www.3giraffes.net with her partner in crime, Kim.  This post was cross-posted at both sites as Chris was too tired to come up with TWO posts on the same race.)

Ever since I was introduced to Pledge Multi-Surface Cleaner at the 5 Minutes for Mom meetup a couple of weeks ago, my cleaning routine has completely changed. Now instead of yelling at my three-year-old for leaving his Otter Pop to leak on my bamboo floor and falling to my knees, crying, “WHY ME?!?!,” I simply pick up a can of Pledge, spray the area and wipe and it’s clean. Not only does it work on floors, but I can also spray the keyboard where my son has smudged his grubby paws or the table where my toddler has yet again decided to mash spaghetti sauce into the wood. This truly works on many surfaces. Yes, I graduated with an English degree and only now I understand that “multi” means many! Imagine that!

We have two bottles of Pledge Multi-Surface Cleaner to give away to a lucky Seattle Mom Blogs reader!

All you have to do to enter is comment below and answer this question: what’s a quick cleaning tip that works for you?

Contest ends Wednesday, July 1st, 5PM PST. One entry per person. Good luck! Comments are now closed. Thanks everyone for entering!

Wiggles

Our very own WM is giving away four tickets to the Wiggles concert in Everett this July 17th at the Comcast Arena at her review blog.

She writes, “On more than one occasion, I caught myself singing ‘Fruit salad, yummy yummy’ or ‘Where’s Jeff?’ at work. Truthfully, I think I got as much of a kick out of them as kids did. They were songs we could all sing along to. It was good clean, wholesome family fun.”

Read more about her fun experience at a recent Wiggles concert and enter to win four tickets!

By now, we (and I think I can speak for many) are sick, sick, sick and tired of hearing the phrase “economic downturn.”  In fact, I read in Newsweek (I believe) that the phrase alone had been used something like 2,500 times in print journalism since the new year.  Enough to drive a person crazy, right?  Right!  And like I’ve said to my dad on several occasions, if people only listen to the bad news about the economy in our country, the entire population will be dependent on anti-depressants (not that there is anything wrong with using them if one needs to) by the end of 2009.

In short, it is depressing.  Even for a “glass half full” kind of girl like me.

But am I going to let that stop my family from having a super summer?  No way!

Instead of wallowing in the recession, we are going to amp it up this summer using a little thing called…our imaginations.  You heard it right here folks, our imaginations!  Funny that something which is a big part of what separates us from the apes (I hope) is the one thing that can get us through these stressful, jaw-clenching, nerve-wracking months of economic uncertainty.  Better yet even?  It is one hundred percent, without a doubt, completely free.  Yes, free.  Four letters pieced together to form a word that is pleasing to everyone.  Like peace and love and baby.  And mama.

There are a ton of cheap, easy and most of all, fun things to do with your families this summer and here are just a few ideas:

• Check out the free summer concerts at the local parks.  Simply log onto your areas parks and recreation websites and check out the free activities they have lined up for the summer.  Most of them have family-friendly concerts, crafts and even activities to entertain kids of all ages.
• Expand your horizons.  Head to the mountains and hike one of the numerous marked trails with your kids.  Favorites of ours include The Iron Goat Trail, Wallace Falls and Big Four Ice Caves.
• Bring the inside OUT.  While camping over Memorial Day Weekend, we did something we had never done before.  We brought our dinky little camping TV outside and watched a movie sitting in our camping chairs, huddled under several blanketed layers and noshing on popcorn just like at the movie theater…except under the stars, and free, and really, really a lot cooler than sitting in a movie theater.
• Ride the ferries.  Yes, you may need to save a few pennies for these trips, but much less if you are a “walk on” passenger vs. taking a car on board.  Ride the ferry to the other side, and spend the day on foot, exploring the local scene on the other side of the water.  Pack a picnic, take your time.
• Day camps.  Instead of sending their children to expensive over-night camps, many parents are choosing from the variety of day camps offered by their local school districts and communities.  These programs are a blessing and provide just the distraction both parents and children are looking for to break up the monotony of those endless summer days.
• The festivals!  Summer is the time for festivals in nearly every city around The Sound.  Find out which ones are close to home and head on over.  Parades are free, fun and the kids will undoubtedly love all the free candy thrown their way.  It’s a win-win situation.
• Don’t forget the beaches.  Our area is lucky to have a variety of beaches for just about every type of person.  We have ocean beaches, with miles of smooth sand in every direction (perfect for wave jumping!).  We have rock beaches with tide pools teeming with aquatic life and we have lakes, providing a non-salt water option.
• Lastly, the zoo.  Having a membership to The Woodland Park Zoo is the best value for a family, no matter what the economy is doing.  If a family of five visits the zoo only twice in a year, they would have paid for a membership.  Seems pretty simple to me.  Additionally, when you have a membership, you don’t feel pressured or obligated to see every single exhibit every single time you go.  You can take more time at your favorite stops and really observe the animals (or the people, whatever floats your boat) without feeling like you need to “get your money’s worth.”  Zoo membership = freedom.

But most of all…enjoy.  With a little resourcefulness, a little creative thinking, and a lot of imagination, this could be your family’s best summer ever!

Carrie can be found pulling her hair out on her personal blog Stop Screaming I’m Driving! She takes offers of free babysitting and lattes very seriously.  You can reach her at carrieb[at]seattlemomblogs.com or blankenship.carrie[at]yahoo.com.   She will also be appearing as a guest on “The Conversation,” airing on local NPR radio KUOW 94.9 on June 23rd between 12:20 - 12:40 PST talking about how to have a fun summer…despite the “economic downturn.”

Thankfully, there won’t be any buffets in our agenda today. I have a “World’s Greatest Dad” waiting for my husband, and a card written in crayon. Spoiler: I helped with the crayon message since the three-year-old still has difficulty following my yelling, “What ever it is you’re doing, STOP IT!”

And if you haven’t picked up a gift yet, may I suggest heading to the grocery store and picking up any of the gift cards in stock. It’ll be better than what Tracy Jordan received from his kids.

While we’re at the park today, eating a small picnic and yelling at our son to not stick rocks in his mouth, Seattle Mom Bloggers like Kathy from Priceless Parenting have other plans: “My husband loves going out for brunch so our family’s tradition is to splurge once a year and enjoy the buffet brunch at Salty’s on Alki. He can pretty much expect the traditional gift too…a Family Four Pack of tickets to a Mariner’s game on a Wednesday night! ”

So what are you doing today to celebrate Father’s Day?

You can vote once a day.

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