Party at Papa's

We celebrated with family on Saturday night. It was a very nice time. We had pizza and salad and ice cream cake. My Uncle Mike and his wife Cindy came, and we haven't seen them in about a year. It was a small party, but fun to catch up with everyone.

Here are a few of the great gifts that Brennan got. He really likes his TAG learning tool. He got a world map to use with it. He also got a few TAG books.

Clothes; gearing up for summer and some pants outfits, which are needed, just today he blew another knee out of a pair of jogging pants.....and he got a new pair of shoes and crocs.

and some other great toys; here is the look of excitment!

Thank you to everyone

His first Birthday!

Brennan had his 1st real birthday on Wednesday. All that matters to him was that he had a great party at Chuck E Cheese with some friends from the Y, I don't know that he understands yet that his actual birthday will only come once every 4 years. We planned to take him there on his birthday, and I thought why not invite some kids that he can play with. It was our first time at chuck e cheese, and it was pretty fun- and the pizza wasn't too bad.

here are a few

Happy Birthday to me! A friend watched the kids and we went out to dinner and Brennan picked out the dessert.

We bowl one time a year, at Christmas.

Speaking of the holidays, it was great to see family and everyone was very generous. Quinn liked the boxes the best :)

September stuff

September had a busy start, and I'm sure as the kids get older, it will continue to stay that way. Here we are at open house for Brennan. He started Preschool this month. It is a 3-4 yr old mix class. He goes MWF from 830-11.

Bathtime is always a hit. They can't get their clothes off fast enough to crawl in when they hear the water start. They love when Adam blows bubbles with his hands. They scream with joy.

First day of school. He was so excited, and is still so excited about school. He asks everyday if he is going and gets a little mad on Tues/Thurs when he is not going.

Waiting for the doors to open at school. Adam and I both came for drop off that day. It was a big day for everyone, but no tears by any of the Thomas family. His school is a few blocks from the Y so they let me leave and come back on his school days. I have friends to drop him off on MW and I drop off on Friday, and then I pick up each of the days. I'm very glad the Y is willing to work with me and get him to school.

I ran another half marathon a few weeks ago. I got a PR (personal record) by 7 mins, and got my goal time and then some. I was hoping for a 2:10 (to beat my previous time of 2:14) and got a 2:07. Not too bad, huh! I'm going to take a little time off from running and have some toe surgury (get a few more nails removed- sorry if tmi) and then I'll start training for my full marathon in December, that race is April 29. I'm headed to California to do the Big Sur marathon with my brother, and that will be his first marathon too.

summer pics

Everyone love ice cream!

and free ice cream is better yet. Free coupons from Miss Sue and the summer reading program at the library. We like to visit the library throughout the year on Monday nights for the family storytime.

I competed in a few races over the summer. It has been fun to see my time drop, speed increase since my half marathon in May. I competed in my first triathlon at the end of August. I was the swim leg. I was the 3rd fastest woman out of Lake Michigan. It was a sprint tri, but the lake was cold nonetheless, 56deg. Oh! and we won the womans relay event. Here are my teammates, Mary and Lori. I really enjoyed the relay event. It was my first tri and I just had to get the swim out of the way. I'm a great swimmer, but open water is way different than in the pool. I've pinned it to, that it is the opposite of clostraphobic, but it's that there is too much water around me and I don't know what is under me. BUt the more I do them hopefully I can overcome that. I'm looking forward to next season. And I have another half coming up in 2 weeks. And then I signed up for a full marathon in April in CA. My bro and I are running the Big Sur marathon!

And as you can see from the post just before this, we spent a short time over Labor Day at Mermaid Lake with the Reed family and my brother. We had a great time!

It was a little rainy, but that's OK.

Other events from the summer- Adam and I went to Upper Peninsula MI. It was great. The kiddos had a sitter and we had some time away. We went to Pictured Rocks Nat Lakeshore. Put iit on your bucket list people. It's awesome and we also spent a few days in Marquette. And we'll be back next summer, they have a mountain bike race and Adam is going to jump into the racing events too.

**and not real sure what is the problem with this blog. but hopefully I figured out a way around things so I can post.

Mermaid Lake

We spent a short 24hr time period in Northern WI at Mermaid Lake visiting with my brother Joe and his girlfriend Suz and her family (who have a cabin at this lake) we had a great time.

Happy Birthday Quinn

It was pretty fun to watch Quinn get into her cake. And she was green all over her face. and the green cake is thanks to brennan, it was his selection for her :)

reposting some of the missed ones that i had saved...