Cape Cod Half Marathon. #2

Last year this Cape Cod half marathon was my first half marathon ever.  This year it was my third.  I was really excited about running it again, being familiar with the course, and knowing that my time would improve drastically from the first time I ran it.  I trained much more this time around and was so excited to have this amazing group of friends to run with.   We all trained together, and I loved every minute of it.  

Andrea also had the genius idea of instead of everyone paying for hotel rooms....we should rent a big old house on the Cape, and stay the whole weekend.  It was PERFECT.  

It was a good 10 degrees warmer this year than it was last year....so I was actually a little too warm this time. 

 Bryan, Beau, Andrea, Catherine, Maren, Tiff, me, and Kristen.  (this was Kristen's first half and she KILLED it).  not pictured, Brent.  Where is he? 

 a view along the race. 

 um, why the crap does Maren still look so pretty after running 13.1 miles? 

 those are some hot thighs .

all of us at the finish line. 

let me just say, this friend of mine, Kristen, is a ROCK STAR.  We ran together for the entire race, and I knew she wouldn't stop and walk...so she literally kept me going.  I was so numb at mile 11 I wanted to die, but she just kept running.  I was soooo proud of her and I love that we did this together. 

just ignore how awful I look in these pictures.  :)

p.s.  Mike was going to run the race with us, but ended up having a job interview in Seattle the day before, he took the red eye back the night before to Boston and got to Cape Cod when we were about half way through the race.  He and the boys were there to cheer me on at mile 12.  Loved it. 

Damon and some new sports

Damon was sooo excited that he was finally old enough to sign up for flag football.  At the end of the season his little team was able to play against another town's team....Damon was playing defense, and was up against kids that were literally twice his size.  I was getting seriously annoyed at these other kids and this was JUST flag football!   I'm really hoping that this football thing is just a phase. 

Damon also took a little Hockey "Lean to Play" clinic for a few weeks, and LOVED it.  He looks dang cute in his little hockey pads too.  

Grandma came to town!

worst. daughter. ever.  

My sweet sweet mom came to town, and I took ONE picture of her.   I am so mad at myself.  My boys were SO excited to see her and we were able to go do a few really fun things..or at least tried to do fun things...there was a lot of rain the week she was here, so we did some relaxing too.  Love you so much mom, and we are so grateful that you were able to come and visit us! 

just had to document Brixton's gigantic kids hamburger. 

October in New Hampshire

these pics are just to sum up how beautiful it is here in October.  I would drive around every day and be amazed that we get to live in such a magnificent place.  

Tuck Fall Formal

I will start out by giving credit for all of these pictures to my sweet girl Maren.  Thanks.  Sorry I stole them from you.  :)

We finally made it to a formal Tuck event.  It was SO much fun.  We went to dinner with three of our favorite couples....and then headed out to dance our butts off.  I love these friends so much.  This will be a night that is not easily forgotten.  That's for sure. 

by the way, it rained ALL DAY and we had to walk down a massive dirt (mud) road to get to the venue...hence the rain boots, that we rocked ALL. NIGHT. LONG. That's right.  It's okay though, we weren't the only ones.  

fun. date. night. 

First set of stitches

With two boys, it was inevitable. But I'm actually shocked that Brixton was the first of my kids to get stitches.  He was riding his bike right in front of our house on the sidewalk, turned at the corner, and just fell right off, chin first, into the pavement.  It honestly just looked like a normal minor bike crash.   Mike ran and picked him up, was starting to walk him inside to clean up the blood, and looked right at me and said "this is bad, we've gotta go to the ER."  Luckily, we had only been home for 10 minutes, and hadn't even gone inside the house yet. I grabbed the car keys off the porch and we all piled in the car.  (by the way, we have the most awesome neighbors who within SECONDS had an ice pack and roll of paper towels in our hands)

 the drive to the hospital...was not pretty. 

 the waiting room.....

 waiting....waiting....waiting....

 please don't mind that my son has a giant hole in his chin! 

I figured the fewer people back in the ER room, the better.  Damon and I walked around the hospital, got some lunch, watched some football. 

(these pics were taken after Damon and I did our wandering....the nurse had cleaned out the wound, and they were waiting for it to get totally numb).  

When it was time to get the stitches, Brixton was the most perfect patient ever.  He literally laid there still as can be and got his chin stitched up.  He said at the end "that hurts" in his sweet little voice.  That was it. 

Damon actually found a 'green lollipop" in the gift shop.  It was a miracle.  It was exactly what Brixton told us would cheer him up.  And it did.....

 He also said donuts would make him happy, and so he got some of those too.  

A couple of hours later I made a bad judgment call.  We were going to a neighbors birthday party....I thought I'd just take Brixton for a few minutes...then we'd come home....Well.  He got playing with his friends, tripped, landed on his chin AGAIN and busted his stitches open.  Not kidding.  Mike and I took off running, Damon stayed back and a good friend watched him for the next couple of hours....and Mike and I did it again.  This time, he screamed bloody murder from the first stitch through the last one. It was AWFUL.  One of the saddest moments ever.  It was seriously as though he could feel everything.  But....I did get some cute pics out of our wait in the ER room. 

Can we please wait a while before I have to deal with stitches again?  Please? 

Brixton and Mike. First Day.

Just so happens, that Brixton's FIRST first day of school, and Mike's LAST first day of school were on the exact same day.  The picture says it all.  I love these guys.  

This little guy is seriously such a crack up.  I laugh every single day at him, and can not get enough of his personality.  He has come a LONG way in the last year with his speech.  He is honestly such a fun kid.  By the way, Yea for pre-school.  Seriously.