Marathon Man

He did it!

Gary completed his first marathon. It was good to see him overcome so much in recent months to train for and finally complete the Richmond marathon.

Sam and Grace made signs to cheer him on. Both were encouraging in different ways. Sam's depicted other runners tripping, falling, and bleeding, thus enabling Gary to WIN the marathon!

Gary's mom and dad came down from Northern Virginia to cheer him on. It was great to see.

I jogged a block back to the car and was winded. I'm amazed at 26.2!!! Way to go, Gary!

The Coolest Ride Ever

We had a blast at the state fair of Virginia. Basically we paid a fortune to be able to milk a cow and watch some lumberjacks. But the coolest ride of all had to be this bubble ride. You sit in the thing and they inflate it with a leaf blower, close it up, and push you out onto the water. You then get to channel your inner hamster and try to move the ball by running in it. Here are Sam and Grace doing their thing. Too bad I was too big or I would have been all over it!

Photo is from Gary's phone, so not the best quality.

Cousins Ahoy!

Sam & Grace had a great time with their cousins this weekend. They all dressed up and attended a pirate adventure put on by the county. Sam managed to throw out the first pitch for the dunking booth... and dunked the lady! No one was more shocked than I. They had crafts and face painting, "pirates" performed sea chanties, a bouncy pirate ship, and other fun stuff to do.

The hit of the afternoon was the letterboxing treasure hunts (AKA wild goose chases) we were sent on through the woods in the park. There were 4 different hunts. You had to do the first 3 to get the clues to fill in the hints for the 4th. At the end of the 4th you would find that mythical treasure chest filled with gold coins. We did three of them and then found ourselves lost on the 4th. Coincidentally, we emerged from the woods near where we'd parked the car. That's where I threw in the towel, promised all the kids ice cream, and got the heck out of there. We never did find the treasure, but I got a nap. I say things worked out just fine, after all. Aargh!

New Developments...

Two new things have happened around here:

1) The kids learned how to work the ipod and choose songs on demand

2) They are big enough to unlock the attic at will (where the old Halloween costumes are located)

The result:

Merry Christmas!

Grace's Barbie house ~ Sam's Legos

New bikes ~ American Girl

Cookie Tree ~ Cousin Roudolphs

Snowmen with G & G Payne ~ G Minster

G Minster made matching dresses for the girls and babies ~

Christmas morning

Merry Christmas!

We hustled and bustled with the best of them this year and managed to get in a lot of Christmas fun. We spent time with 2 sets of grandparents, and our Minster cousins. I hosted 2 classroom parties and a neighborhood party. We went to The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol. We decorated cookies and made our cookie tree, exchanged gifts, went bowling, opened our books each night, made a chain to count down the days, and attended the live nativity at the zoo. We decorated the house and set up model trains and 7 Christmas trees, took pictures and sent out cards. It was exhausting.

Gary and I spent many Christmases without kids and, while we enjoyed sleeping in and having a relaxing day, nothing compares to the enthusiasm of a child who wakes you at 5:30 am having already shaken each gift to determine which were Legos. We felt truly blessed this Christmas to enjoy seeing our kids enjoy Christmas.

One of my favorite things about this year was their enthusiasm for each other. Sam threw two hands in the air and cheered when Grace got her long-awaited American Girl doll. Perfect.

Hope you had a good Christmas. I must say, the exhaustion only enhances the experience, don't you think? Although I slept all day today and it was great!

The Nutcracker

For the last few years we've gone to see the Nutcracker during the Christmas season. This year we decided not to do it. We had tickets to see A Christmas Carol instead, but at the last minute Gary decided to surprise me with tickets. I have to say that A Christmas Carol was my least favorite performance at Theater IV to date, so I was that much happier to know that the Nutcracker was coming.

Our cousins from Northern Virginia and my parents joined us for a fun event. My mom made Grace and her cousin matching Christmas dresses. She even made matching dresses for their American Girl dolls. The kids all enjoyed the performance. The list of "favorites" ran the gamut from the rat king meeting his demise, to Fritz getting spanked for breaking the Nutcracker, the break-dancing-booty-shaking bear, to Bo Peeps's little sheep who are afraid of the wolf. Many of the kids listed getting the Nutcracker ornaments from Grandma on their list of favorites.

We're all humming the music and doing the moves in the kitchen. Somehow we're not getting as much height on our jumps as they did. Maybe we need tights ...

Run Gary!

Richmond 1/2 Marathon

Last weekend we went downtown to cheer Gary on as he ran the Richmond 1/2 marathon. Yes, that's 13.1 miles. He was happy to finish in 1:50. Yes, that's almost 2 hours of running. On purpose, and no, he wasn't being chased by anything. :-)

The kids liked seeing him cross the finish line and taking turns wearing his medal. Way to go, Gary!

Then, to further prove what a great dad he is he managed to go on a bike ride and play kick ball with the kids later that day. They have no idea how sore his legs were, although they did manage to score more runs than normal.

Kids' accomplishments

You know how you spend lots of time fighting with your kids to get them to practice or do the things they need to do? Please tell me it isn't just me! Our kids had some successes lately and it was great to watch them feel a sense of accomplishment and pride for all of their hard work. I won't lie to you... I felt like I'd accomplished something after all the "encouraging" I do to keep them on task.

Sam finished his first set of books for his piano lessons and earned the theme from Star Wars music from his teacher. We're hearing it a lot! His teacher had to laugh because Sam paused during his latest lesson to explain how piano can be really hard, but when you just practice it gets easier and easier. Hmmm... where has he heard that before?

He also finally earned his green belt at Taekwon Do after 8 months of practicing twice/week. It was a big accomplishment for him and it was fun to see him work hard to earn it.

Grace is in first grade this year and entered an art project into the Reflections contest at school. She won 2nd place for her self-portrait. It was fun to go to the award ceremony and watch her receive her ribbons. She worked hard on sketching and painting. We were proud of her.

Keep up the good work, guys!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Halloween

Make a Smilebox collage

Halloween Traditions

Gary pushed the kids on the rope swing in the barn for a long time.


Some of our traditions were more successful than others this year. We met Ron & Beth's family at our pumpkin patch/corn maze/pig race local for some fun. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. They were good sports (as always) even when Zack decided to swim in some of the bigger puddles. Did I mention it was cold? The kettle corn was good enough to make it all worth while, even if we left the pumpkin patch without any pumpkins!

New Cousin

Sam and Grace are excited to welcome their 26th cousin into the family. Congratulations to our Kansas Cousins on their newest little guy, Aaron.

Aaron, we thought we'd show you some of the fun stuff you have to look forward to. Can't wait to meet you!

Click on the "Play" button, then click the tan arrow in the middle to turn the page.

Maymont

Maymont

We had a nice visit with our Kansas Cousins who have just become Northern Virginia Cousins. We even persuaded Grandpa to leave his Blackberry at home... well... to check it only semi-frequently anyway.. and join us.

It was nice to have my mom and dad here and they were good sports about my off-roading adventures I led them on at Maymont. Perhaps the best sport was my sis-in-law, Nancy, who had to push a stroller straight up a hill... over cobblestones... with her baby in it.

We all survived and had a great time relaxing, playing in the stream, and getting piggy back rides from Grandpa. I even got one for old-time's sake.

Gary met us with some lunch and was our hero! It was a great day.

Grandpa's babysitting service.

Pony Pasture

Pony Pasture - James River Park

I braved reentry into the James River Park after the mountain biking debacle. Grace was disappointed to find that Pony Pasture doesn't actually contain any ponies (nor much pasture, to be honest), but we had a great time exploring last weekend.

It was nice to watch our kids go from fighting over toys at home to holding hands and helping each other across the rocks at Pony Pasture. I didn't get any pics of the big rocks on which we climbed out into the river. We took some snacks and had a little picnic... hence the duck. He would not leave us alone and didn't seem to mind being whacked in the face with an old shirt. Nothing scared this guy. He started to scare me a little!

Gary helped everyone across an old log we floated between some of the bigger rocks and then promptly fell in when he tried to cross. He was a good sport (as always). Of course, it was the highlight of the trip for Sam and Grace!