A Visit to Charlottesville

Saturday morning, we headed to Charlottesville to celebrate Carter's 8th birthday.  Wow - 8 already?!?!?

We also got to see Ryan and Mindy's new house - which is amazing - and the kids had lots of play time together.  Grandad the Friendly Ghost also made a special appearance and had some fun with the kids.

On Sunday afternoon, we were able to sneak in a quick visit to a Fall Festival before Superstorm Sandy arrived.  The cousins had a blast climbing, sliding and finding all the mailboxes in the Corn Maze.

Halloween Parties

Last Friday, Nathan and Andrew enjoyed some Halloween festivities at Discovery Station.  The afternoon kicked off with class parties for each of the boys. 

And after the parties, all the kids came outside to Trunk or Treat.  About 20 families decorated their cars for this event.  It is amazing how creative and elaborate some people are.   This year, I kept it simple with a football theme (thanks to Nathan's birthday party for most of the decorations!)

After Trunk or Treat, we headed to Reston to catch the tail end of the Halloween party at Lanka's (the boys old daycare).  It was sweet to see Andrew connect with some old buddies 

Hersheypark in the Dark

After the Half-Marathon (and a shower), we packed up, had some lunch and went to Hersheypark.  We were there when it opened at 2 and stayed until closing at 9 pm.  It was a beautiful fall day at the park. 



Nathan was the roller coaster king - eager to ride any roller coaster that he was tall enough to ride.  Luckily he wasn't tall enough for all of them, because both Dan and I were suffering from slight roller-coaster induced headaches from the few we did ride with him. 

Andrew was actually much more adventurous at the park than usual.  He was very excited to go on the kiddie swing ride, but.......

his enthusiasm quickly faded as the swings reached full speed. Poor guy! :)

But with some trick or treating, Andrew's goofy self returned as he showed off his dance moves under the Halloween lights!

This was a fun memorable family weekend away.  We hope to participate in this Half-Marathon event in the future!

Running in Hershey

On October 20th, we loaded up the van and headed north to Hershey, PA for the Hershey Half-Marathon.  After a fun afternoon at Chocolate World and checking-in at the race expo and hotel, we headed to the Hershey Stadium for the Kids Fun Run. Our two little racers were very excited to participate in their first race.

Andrew ran a 30 yard dash and he was one of the first couple of kids to "break the line."  He was so excited and then eagerly cheered on Nathan for his race.

Nathan ran a 50 yard dash with the other 6 - 7 year olds. 

We are very proud of our little racers!

The next morning, Dan and I headed back to the Stadium to kick off our race.  Thanks to my parents for watching the boys so we could both run.  Dan may have started with me in the 10 minute mile corral, but he sure ran a quicker pace.  Dan finished his first Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) in 1 hour 55 minutes.  GREAT JOB!

I was excited to complete my 2nd Half-Marathon in 2 hours 18 minutes.  It was a beautiful morning for a run!

 

More Fall Festival Fun

It's my favorite time of year... fall.  And if the weather is good, we are eager to get outside and enjoy this glorious time of year. So after church last Sunday, we took a beautiful drive west about 45 minutes to Long Branch, a historic house in Clarke County for the Shenandoah Wine and Music Festival.  The Virginia countryside is absolutely stunning out there.  We lazily spent 5 hours at the festival playing, relaxing, eating and enjoying the festivities (music, children's magic show, "punkin chunkin", monster truck ride, hayride).  Nathan LOVED playing with the bow & arrow we bought at the festival and Andrew had fun taking pictures.  My brother and his girlfriend also joined us and we were all amazed by the "punkin chunkin".  We witnessed one of the crazy contraptions below chuck a pumpkin over 2,000 feet.  It was surprisingly incredible to watch!

This picture of Nathan is one of Andrew's photos.

And this photo of us was taken by Andrew. 

Happy Fall Y'all!