Marathon man

He did it!  Jon is officially a marathoner.  Jon, Zach and I headed down to Akron Friday night so we could sleep in until 4:30am on Saturday.  Roads started closing at 5am and we wanted to make sure we were parked in the area of the finish line.  Gram stayed home with the rest of the group.

It was very cold, very early and we were very tired but Zach did great.  He took some naps, took in the crowds and was his sweet self all morning long.

It was a long wait for the start, but they did a decent job of keeping the crowd occupied.    
The starting line:

Getting ready to line up for the start:

My first view of Jon after the start.  Mile 3 and going strong.

We got another look at the runners between mile 8 and 9.  He's still looking good!  At this point the course went all over Akron and Zach and I weren't going to be able to see Jon until the finish.  We walked around the Akron campus for a bit, got some hot chocolate and warmed up in the student union.  

I got an update at mile 16 so Zach and I headed to Canal Park (the Akron Aeros stadium) to wait for Jon to cross the finish line.  The runners came in on the field while we were in the stands cheering.

It was different being a spectator.  I got to see a lot of interesting costumes, some crazy strides, some strong finishes and some people that looked like they weren't going to make it.  We even saw 2 couples get engaged at the finish line. I was so glad we got to see him finish.  He did amazing and we are all so proud!

Play time

I love when play time turns into a photo op!

Tiny

Ellie outgrew her warm weather pj's so on one of our shoe shopping trips we got her some new ones.  Little Ellie who is a few days away from being 21months old got brand new 12month pj's.....and they are too big for her!

How does such a tiny girl pack in so much personality?

Shoes

Since we've had some cooler weather recently, we decided it might be a good idea for the kids to get something other than sandals on their feet.  I love that my boys are growing up, but it kills me that I have to consider their opinions when shoe shopping!  We went to way too many stores, but I guess it was worth it because we found some vans (on sale!!!!) in blue for Sam and red was a must for Ben. They love the shoes, but I have a feeling by November I'm going to be kicking myself for buying Sam shoes that tie. We finally found Ellie some shoes today.  I had no idea it would be so hard to go shoe shopping for a girl, but we got some great deals and good variety.  Pics to come later.

Two cool dudes!

Soccer

Ben had his first soccer game last Saturday.  It was really early and really cold.  Its rough being a soccer mom!  Ben is on the Hurricanes.  While they don't keep score at this age, they won HUGE.  I lost track, but I think it was 7 to 1.  Ben hasn't quite found his competitive side yet, but he was having fun.  Here are a few highlights:

Being cute during some down time:

Ellie is finding a love of the game:

Sam did a great job of cheering on his brother.

Gooooooooooal!

Looking forward to the next game...

First day

We were going to spend another day or two in North Carolina or at least spread out the drive home over 2 days, but I had my dates wrong and realized Sam started his first day of preschool on September 10th. We wanted him to have the 1st day experience so we drove like crazy people to get him home.

We decided to let Sam go to preschool for a few reasons. First, Ben got to go and Sam was always sad that he didn't get to stay and play with Ben. Second, Sam rejects all things learning related so I'm hoping this will spark some sort of interest. Third, with Ben starting first grade and school taking up more of my time and Ben doing soccer and possibly cub scouts, we wanted Sam to have something for himself.

I stayed with him the first day and he had a blast. He was shy for a few minutes, but had a great time exploring all the new toys, reading books and singing songs. He didn't realize that we weren't going to stay with him every day so when Jon dropped him off on Tuesday, he took a few minutes to adjust. He ended up having a great day. He only goes 2 days a week, but so far he's come out every day with a huge smile on his face, cute crafts and a full report on all the games they play and songs they sing. I think he's going to have a great year!

As always, a huge thank you to aunt Corrie for hanging out with the babies during school and being there when we need you!

The end

While Jon and I were out, my mom took a crazy amount of pictures of the kids. Here are a couple cute shots and the end of our North Carolina vacation.

Saturday-Sunday

Jon and I ditched the kids one last time Saturday morning to head to the beach. The currents were crazy and the waves were even worse. We headed out into the water and did a pretty good job of staying above water until we were caught off guard by one crazy wave that came out of nowhere. We went underwater. Jon actually went flying over my head. When we resurfaced, dazed and waterlogged, my loving husband looked at me and instead of asking if I'm ok or anything along those lines, he looked at me and said, "mine are gone too." He was referring to our sunglasses. We were both wearing them and they were both gone! The wave took our glasses. At least they were our sunglasses and not our regular ones, but they were both prescription.

We headed back and made a mad dash to the pool to beat a storm. Both kids got goggles and they wanted to try them out one more time before we left. We were rained on for a few minuted then the sun came out and the boys got busy. They each jumped in at least 50 times and Ben practiced swimming with out a noodle.

After swimming we got cleaned up and took my parents out to dinner. When we got back to the house and got the kids into bed it finally hit Ben that this was his last night in North Carolina. He was a little sad, but he was exhausted and was asleep in minutes.

We all got up early Sunday morning, packed up the car and were on our way home. Even though we were exhausted on the drive down, it was nice doing it at night. The kids were quiet and we barely stopped. The drive home took about 14hrs. 14 very long hours, but we made it. Jon was off all last week too. It was great having him around while we got back into a routine. Ben got back into his soccer schedule and Sam started preschool (more to come on those). Even though we are home, I have one more to be continued....

Friday

We got out the door early on Friday and headed to the aquarium and Kure (pronounced curry) beach with the boys. Ben has been all about the sting rays recently and was excited to see some. Sam is a lover of pretty much all animals and was happy looking at everything.

They had an albino alligator, but we apparently were too excited about it to take a picture!

I can't remember what kind of sharks these are, but we were allowed to touch them. How many people can say that they pet a shark?

The beach was a lot of fun. The boys were excited to have us to themselves instead of sharing us with the babies. We did have a pretty serious rip tide warning all week long so we didn't take the boys too far out in the water. We spent the whole time playing and only managed to get one picture.

To be continued...

Thursday

Jon and I ditched the kids for a couple hours on Thursday and headed to the beach. We walked, listened to the waves, checked out some local shops and had lunch. It was weird to be in a car together without kids. It was peaceful...and wonderful!

We headed to The City Club for dinner that night. We got our own room and the kids got to run around a bit. After dinner, my parents took the kids home and Jon and I did more exploring on our own. Its so nice to be able to have a conversation with Jon with out kids interrupting every 30seconds.

To be continued...

Tuesday pm-Wednesday

Tuesday night my parents took us out to dinner. The food was really good. I think the kids especially liked it:

I forgot to mention that Zach got sick on Monday. He had a fever, wasn't eating and none of the kids were taking their afternoon naps. By Wednesday he was pretty much back to his normal self. So when we decided to go to the beach on Wednesday, I figured all the kids were healthy enough to enjoy it and since none of them were napping, we could just go. I was very wrong!

This is the only picture we have of Zach at the beach. After about 10minutes, he was tired and wanted a nap. Of course, it was crazy windy so we couldn't get an umbrella up for some shade. The wind also made it impossible for him to relax and get comfy so he screamed and screamed and screamed some more. The rest of the group managed to have some fun though.

My parents had something going on Wednesday night so we were on our own for dinner. We grabbed a pizza, threw in a movie and recovered from the day.

To be continued....