Gearing up for the holidays

Here are just a few randoms!

Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The highlight was probably watching all of the kids playing together with Legos. It was pretty adorable, quite frankly.

Ann Arbor Turkey Trot

On a whim a week or so before Thanksgiving, Brian came up with the idea of doing the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot with Nathan. Our official Thanksgiving with my family was being pushed to Friday anyway, so there wasn't any pressing need for us to be anywhere later that day to be helpful. He asked Dad if he would want to run the Tot Trot 1k (back by popular demand) with Nathan and Papa followed by the 5k, and in his great kindness, Dad decided to forgo his other planned race to make Nathan feel extra special. It doesn't quite show in the pictures, but Nathan was SUPER excited about doing a special race with DAD and PAPA - JUST HIM! They don't allow strollers for the Tot Trot (totally respect that - it's enough chaos as it is) so Vivian and I were going to act as spectators.

It was a disgusting morning. Not freezing, but cold and rainy. Thankfully, wonderfully, delightfully, the start line was literally feet away from Brian's office, so we were able to camp out there until the skies cleared just before the Tot Trot was about to start. Vivian was visited by our local police department and got an honorary sticker, and she kept me company while we cheered on the boys. 

Nathan made it most of the way on his own (so the report went) and finished off strong. At some point he wanted to be carried because his lungs hurt. I suspect his lungs like running in the cold weather as much as mine do (which is to say, not at all). He was tickled PINK with his participation medal and wouldn't put it down all day. We even took it over to my parent's house the next day to show Nonnie. I don't doubt that if it had been warmer he would have been just fine, and considering how much he loved it, I think we'll try again in the warmer months. 

After the boys got back it was almost time for the adult run. The kids and I hung around for the start and then it started to rain again, and I decided that we were pressing our luck as it was and headed home. The guys finished the race (Dad came first in his age group) and walked home. There are many moments that I love the location of where we live and this was another one.

I also want to note how hard it is to find your runners in a race with a camera. Even when I saw them coming up to the finish line I was fumbling. Not my best work. I'll get better! Or maybe next time Vivian and I will be with them. :) 

Plaid Pictures

Mom and Dad really embraced buffalo plaid this winter and wanted a group picture of everyone in it. We tried to get a family photo for their Christmas photo one Wednesday night. The pictures that came out of it are kind of hysterically bad, but also kind of great. I didn't get any of the big group shots, but it was memorable.