Meet Marianne!

This is Marianne, our son's very special friend, whom we got to meet and welcome to our home recently for our family celebration in honor of my dad. The day after the party we went up to visit the ranch and Marianne got to pick her first peach, a VERY historic occasion! The orchard had already been picked, but thankfully there were a few still left on the tree.

The weather was so beautiful, after our tour of the ranch we decided to go back home and get a picnic together and go down to the river for a hot dog roast. Since Marianne doesn't eat meat, she took a veggie burger to heat in a pie plate over the fire. That was a definite first on Jenkins Farms!! :D

 Later in the week my great-niece Elizabeth came over after school and we made some pie crust together for Grady's favorite dessert: Mile High Apple Pie. It turned out really, really good. I think we have some future expert pie bakers here!

On Thursday, Dave and I drove Grady and Marianne down to Monterey to get ready for her Triathlon on Saturday at Pacific Grove. We took the beautiful 17 Mile Drive down to Carmel which Marianne had never seen. It was a gorgeous day and we had a wonderful time. Notice all the kelp out in the water!
That was a preview for what Marianne was going to have to swim through at Pacific Grove in the first leg of her Tri.

Saturday early morning arrived and Marianne swam both of her laps out into the ocean!! Here she is emerging from the sea and getting ready to run up the steps to the transition area where she would get ready as fast as possible to ride her bike laps.

Here she comes, full speed ahead! We had our sign and shouted out encouragement as she rode by...

Another lap, still smiling!! Marianne's times on her four bike laps were all less than 15 seconds of each other, an amazing feat. Obviously she had trained very well!

Now it was time to run, the last leg of her Tri. She never seemed to falter and always gave us a great smile!

Marianne REALLY poured on the steam as she came across the finish line. Her final time beat every one on the Portland team except four teammates and her coaches!!! Woo, hoo Marianne!!! We are totally impressed. And all her efforts at training and fundraising went to benefit Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma  Society. She had to fundraise $4,000!! Way to go, Marianne.

The day after arriving home, Marianne looked at a house that she really likes in Portland. She had been looking for awhile in this great buyer's market. She decided to put in an offer and it was accepted, so Marianne is now a proud owner of a darling home in a great neighborhood. Grady has signed up to help with the renovation on the bathroom and a redo of the backyard where a lot of concrete needs to be removed. That will keep him busy for awhile!

Congratulations, Marianne, on a very successful Triathlon, and a beautiful new home in Portland. You are really on a roll, girl, and we are VERY proud of YOU!