Our visitors from the desert!

The weekend of the half marathon, our dear friends, the Stones, came in town from Arizona. They arrived Wednesday night and we spent 4 straight days soaking in as much fun as possible. They have an adorable sweet 4 year old, Nicolas, and then Will who is a couple of months younger than Ray that we had yet to meet! The kids played, the adults ate and drank really well, and we even fit in the pumpkin patch! We hope to visit them in AZ soon but also look forward to their next visit to the Lou.

Run, Mom, Run!

In July, I couldn't run to the corner without needing to catch my breath. But, a night out with friends and a few cocktails later, I had the great idea to agree to run a half marathon with friends. The morning after Corey looked at me, "you're not really going to do that are you?" But, I gave my word. And I wasn't going to just give up without even trying. I figured I'd start the training, see how it goes and then decide if I'd actually officially sign up. So, I googled "couch to half marathon training plan" and the rest is history. It's amazing how a day-by-day schedule can keep you motivated. I can't say I've kept up with the running after the fact but I know that I can do it if I put in the time and effort and I hope to keep up running (shorter distances, of course!) in the future! By the way, I have an enormous amount of respect for those that run full marathons. They're also slightly crazy ;-)

A few weeks before, I took the kids to run our town's 5K. Lill was so proud to participate in her own race!

Our third runner found out she was pregnant shortly after we signed up for the race.
She made a game-time decision to run the 10K and cheered us on at mile 11!
(Hence why she's not pictured here with us at the finish line)