We were very happy to have Kathy and Samantha visit us this Thanksgiving!

We enjoyed eating, eating, and more eating on Thanksgiving day. Plus Justin got some much needed yard work completed.

That evening we also exchanged gifts to celebrate an early Christmas. The kids loved everything they got and they love it even more when Christmas starts on Thanksgiving!

Rather than spend the day after Thanksgiving shopping, we decided to head into DC instead. After recently following the tour with Sophie’s class, we felt like experts giving a tour of the FDR and MLK Jr. Memorials.

Me: “Sophie, what is the MLK Jr. Memorial made out of?

Sophie: “People’s skin”

(Real answer: Granite that has multicolored speckles to signify people of all colors coming together.)

We also toured the WW II, Korean, and Lincoln Memorials. It was a busy, but beautiful day downtown.

 Kathy and Sam had to leave on Saturday. It was a short visit, but filled with lots of fun! Come again soon!

In the Fall, Sophie participated in Gymnastics. She’s taken classes over the summer before, but this was the first time we’ve done it during the school year where they meet 2x’s a week.

She enjoyed improving her skills and the boys didn’t mind going to the nearby park with me during her class.

On the last day of class parents are invited to watch. While Sophie was pretending that I wasn’t there, I was able to snap a few pictures!

 Truman had a fun Thanksgiving Feast at school. As the kids get older, there are fewer and fewer of these types of activities. I’m happy I could come help out at this one and am glad that Truman is still all smiles when I show up. (I know that won’t last forever. 😉

After running the Ragnar Relay in September, a few of us on the team decided to conquer our first half-marathon in November.

While it took dedication and lots of training to build up to it, I’m still a little amazed that I was able to do it. Historically, I’ve never enjoyed running.

It’s true that I was on the track team in high school, but only for 2 years and I really only joined because my friends were on the team too. I have bad memories of having to run longer distances in the cold spring weather of Ohio. Miserable. After high school I never ran again.

Fast forward to about 1 1/2 years ago when a couple of my friends were getting back into running and asked if I wanted to do a 5K with them.  I succumbed to peer pressure and joined them. That year we ran several 5Ks together and I actually started enjoying it!

From there I did the Ragnar the following summer and am happy to be able to cross off “run a half-marathon” off my list now too.

I couldn’t have done it without a great bunch of ladies (past and present) to run with and encourage one another!

I finished in 2 hours 20 minutes, a personal best for me (ha, since I’ve never run 13.1 miles before =).

It was a challenging and rewarding experience. I’m looking forward to warmer days in the spring to start running again. It’s just getting too cold now. I’m a wimp.

 

When I was in 5th Grade in Ohio, we took a school trip to Washington DC for several days. We visited all the main attractions and slept at the YMCA at night. As a 5th grader I certainly didn’t appreciate all the history and interesting facts that the Nation’s Capitol holds, but it was still a neat experience.

In the past 6 years that we’ve lived less than 20 miles away from DC, it’s been great to visit all the sites, memorials, and museums.

Now that my kids are getting older, I love that they get to take short field trips during school to see these things as well.

Sophie took her first field trip into DC this year. They visited the FDR memorial, MLK Jr. Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. I think I found the guided tour from the park ranger a little more interesting than the 3rd graders did, but if you ask Sophie what material the MLK Jr. Memorial is made out of she should be able to tell you! (and why it’s significant)

*see this future post for her answer*

Per tradition, our church had it’s annual Truck-or-Treat.

This was the first one we experienced with this Ward and we were delighted with the format.

First, it started at 4pm on Saturday. A huge plus in my opinion. So much better for little ones than those later evening weekday parties.

Next, it was set up outside. Genius. Perfect for easy clean-up.

Dinner was served. Wonderful. A night off for mom!

There were game stations set-up, but in general the kids were able to run around because it was outside.

Since we were already outside, it was an easy transition to trick-or-treat out of everyone’s trunks.

And as always, the kids loved seeing all their friends!

“Hey Archer, show us your Spidey moves!”

This year we had

a skeleton (for the 3rd year in a row)

a witch

(Face paint was attempted, but after deciding she looked more like a “witch-clown” she quickly washed it off before collecting candy.)

and Spiderman disguised as Batman.

Archer knows what he wants and I’ve learned it’s better to just go with it.

Back in September I found this cute monkey costume at Old Navy. Archer loves monkeys and calls them “bo-bos” (like from Diego). The costume was an instant hit; he loved wearing it around the store and was elated when we brought it home with us! I figured this was a homerun for Halloween.

Fast forward to the week before Halloween when we dug out all the old costumes. Archer discovered the Spiderman suit and didn’t look back. He’s been wearing it everyday since (even now after Halloween is over).

Most days I’d let him wear it down to the bus stop, but then have him change before we ran any errands. On Halloween I figured he could just keep it on all day.

Lucky for us we ran across this while we were out running errands.

I loved the fact that we came across this without planning it. I returned something to a store and then we even had an empty bag to collect candy!

It ended up being good practice for Archer and he was a pro at saying “Trick-or-Treat” followed by, “Thank You” on Halloween night.

Archer kept up with the big kids for the first half hour of trick-or-treating, but then headed home early with Dad. The older kids had a blast running from house to house, quickly noticing the extra spacing between all the houses (as compared to our previous neighborhoods). I figured with the extra spacing the kids wouldn’t get as much candy, but that certainly wasn’t the case! Since each house doesn’t get many kids (besides houses being a little spaced from each other, our neighborhood doesn’t have any sidewalks either) they all seemed to hand out tons of candy!

Lots of good stuff in there. Mmm, now it’s time for me to go raid their stash…