Last camping trip of the season

The weather has been beautiful for October. Crisp nights, sunny days - well, at least the weekend we picked to go camping was. With our fall season now being busy with soccer games, we were really wanting to go out for another camping trip as we feel we may have missed a couple of opportunities. This weekend was just perfect. We packed up and headed over to Maumee Bay. The forecast was originally for rain, but we took our chances and it turned out great. This was the first time we'd gone on such short notice, and it turned out probably better than any of our other trips. Everything went so smooth, I think we need to stop planning so much for our future trips! :)
Friday night was Jiffy Pop night. Yum!!!

I had to get some pictures of the kids together, hoping I could make some Christmas cards out of them. I'm going to try to get my photo stuff ordered early this year so I can spend more time during the holidays... well, probably just shopping and stressing out over the other million things I want to do. haha!

The fire felt so good. It got a bit chilly in the evening, but our camper was toasty warm. Heck, it was probably too hot! We were only one of 2 pop-up campers at the campground this weekend. I think the park was maybe 25% full.

We did go to Zack's last soccer game on Saturday, and on the way back from the game we stopped at Sonic for lunch. That was fun treat, and so delicious! The kids got these funny glasses. Zack is convinced that his orange glasses are sunglasses and has been wearing them everywhere.

They are a pretty cool toy, I like!

Ok, what would a camping trip be without me scrapbooking?? well, I had to make some cool Halloween themed notes for Sydney's lunch box. If didn't make those notes, I would forget to write one everyday, and they are so cute.

For Sunday breakfast we had super easy, super yummy donuts!! I think this may become a new Sunday tradition. No mess, just throw the box away! :)

As we were taking a bike ride, we found this guy in the middle the street. He was so cool! Ironically, Zack has a book all about praying mantis so we were very educated about him. What a shock to find him in the street.

He was very friendly and we let him walk all around, up and down our arms. When we finally let him go, we stuck him in the bushes and sure enough, after looking away for just a second, it was nearly impossible to find him again. He was so well camoflauged. Makes you wonder how many other cool animals are hiding out there....

Sad to see you go - Goodbye 2010 camping season!

Another soccer game

Zachary is just so darn cute in his soccer uniform. He really likes to play and seems to be understanding the rules of the game.

Sydney doesn't find the games as interesting as I do, but she's not too bad :) At least she keeps herself occupied!

They had a substitute coach at this game, but he did great with the kids.

Maybe Sydney can be a cheerleader!

Donuts with Dads

Over at the elementary school they celebrate Dad's with a breakfast for them. The donuts were delicious (or so I've heard!). In a shrewd marketing move, they host the donut day at the same time as the book fair so all of the kids can convince their Dad's to spend some bucks and buy some books!

Columbus Marathon 2010

Here we are all bright eyed and bushy tailed... well maybe bright eyed anyways. It's the start of the Columbus Marathon and we just parked the car at 7:10am. The race will be starting and we're all set to go.

The morning did not start out as we planned. We figured since we did not have the kids with us (thanks Grandma & Grandpa!) we would be right on schedule, having a relaxing morning. I think it started out well (5:45am), but what we did not plan for was the backed up traffic on the expressway! The expressway was pretty dead as expected, but when we got to our exit, the cars were backed up for miles trying to exit. And they weren't moving! This made us VERY nervous, because if we were stopped here, I figured the parking garage (which we prepaid our parking for..) would be super busy as well. So we ditched that idea and went for Plan B, which was getting off at the next exit and finding different parking arrangements. That turned out to be a great idea and we were able to get into the city pretty easily and parked in our normal parking lot. This time we even paid - so we didn't get a big parking fine like last year!! :)

We are looking snazzy. The temperature is about 50 degrees, and should be perfect for running.

Stylish cap on me!! (not)

A new plan at the race this year was to have corrals at the starting gate, so the runners would be staggered based on their speed. Sounds great! ... except there was not enough room for all of the runners in corral 2 (mine) and I ended up waiting on the sidewalk right next to the corrals until the race started! Fortunately those people were merged into the corral when the race started and we didn't have to wait for all of the corrals to exit first.
It did end up being a beautiful race day, perfect weather. There were tons of bands providing entertainment on the course and I can't even remember a spot along the course when there weren't any spectators cheering us on (oh, the pressure - can't stop now, they're watching me!!).
I ran a good pace - when I got down the last 5 minutes I could see the turn for the finish line in sight... my super goal was 1:55, and I was not sure if I could make it. I was getting so close! Luckily, right about the time when my watch hit 1:55:01 I was heading for the finish line - and it's all downhill! I started the sprint of my life, my little legs going as fast as they could, and I crossed the finish line in 1:55:49. WHEW!! That made me very happy :)

I got to take a picture of Alan right before mile 26. Even though he is in pain, he is looking pretty good. But here's the thing... I give Alan these awesome action shots...

... and these are the pictures he takes of me! Come on, I'm hoping I'm not ALWAYS looking that bad! That was from the Toledo Race for the Cure a few weeks ago. Good thing I didn't have to pay for that race photo!! ;)

Alan finished @ 3:19 on his full marathon. Woohoo!! He was in a bit of pain, as he was running on an injured foot - so I helped him limp to the car for a rest. We're both ready to take a break from running... for a little while.

Sonic comes to visit

I'm not sure why I don't have more pictures of this, but we got the great honor of bringing home the kindergarten pet - Sonic! Sonic is a cute little mouse, but phew, he really is stinky. Of course we had to keep him away from the kitties, so he didn't come out to play a lot, but after a while the cats seem to lose interest in him anyways. This weekend was actually 3 days long, so on Monday when the kids went over to Jennifer's house for a playday while I went for a long run, Sonic got to go too. Ironically, Zachary enjoyed the thought of having the mouse at our house, but he didn't want to hold him and by Monday Sonic had stayed in his bedroom almost all day.

Lunch at 577 Foundation

Since Alan had a long run to do, we decided to go have a picnic lunch over at the 577 Foundation. It was a beautiful day. The 577 Foundation is such a peaceful place. It's quickly becoming our favorite little santuary.

We had plenty of apples from our trip to the orchard last month.

The kids played around in the Zen garden.

Of course we stopped over at the log cabin too, and talked about all of the great things we have nowadays. Like indoor plumbing! haha

Cedar Point Halloweekends!

It's time once again for Cedar Point to decorate the park with spooky delights! We love going for Halloweekends, the park looks so cool.

Zack was not cooperating for the picture!

This maze was a piece of cake for the kids. They loved the kids haunted house - they got chocolate candies at the end!

While Sydney and Daddy were riding the coasters, Zack and I were enjoying a ride on this spinny thing.

Luckily I didn't get too woozy from those rides. The kids just love them, but they are hard to "stomach" for us big kids!

One of the best parts of the day was that we bought season passes for next year - so hopefully we will be visiting Cedar Point a lot next year!!

This is a funny photo booth experience - Notice how happy Zachary is at the beginning of the photo shoot, but by the end someone had quite annoyed him!! Ah, such is life....

MacQueen's field trip

I was originally going to be a chaperone for this field trip, but when I was told that it was pretty much each parent driving their own kids because there were so many people interested, I declined. I did get to go on this trip last year for Preschool, so it probably was the same thing. But here is the class hanging out in front of the store at MacQueen's.

It was a beautiful fall day - couldn't have asked for better weather!

Cheer camp

Sydney particpated in the school's Cheer Camp again this year. She got to learn cheers and then they performed at a football game's half time show. Unfortunately it was a drizzly day at the football game, but she still had fun and did a great job!

She was so excited that her best bud Gabriella was there too. They were both so cute!

My day of cooking insanity!

I'm not sure what got into me - maybe it was the change of seasons. Felt like I needed to make some freezer food so I could have more time to relax after work and not cook. Maybe I was just hungry! who knows... but it started out with picking a whole bunch of recipes, and going crazy shopping for enough food to feed an army.... My fridge was so packed there was absolutely no space for anything else at all!

I started out by baking some yummy oatmeal bars. Or so I thought, they smelled delicious but were really pretty weak. Could have used a cup of sugar! However I did later find out that they were pretty good mixed in with some yogurt.

As the day progressed I realized I was not going to be making my goal of cooking all of the dishes I selected. Especially after the sink clogged up right when my kitchen was filled with food and dirty dishes. Note to self, don't throw grease down the drain - even if it is mixed in with a lot of water :(

Note the plunger in the kitchen? Not a good sign when you are cooking!

After Alan got home from work, he spent several hours working on the drain and had to finally buy a snake to clear it out. He's so good! :)

Here's another shock - after preparing all of the food, there was so much it didn't fit in my freezer! doh! I even had to take some of it to work at put it in that freezer. But after all of that, I did end up with some yummy food. I hope to be enjoying the fruits of my labor soon!

MacQueen's Orchard

The trees are getting full of apples - it's that time again - time to go pick some apples!!  I'm certain my family loves our annual photosession...  well, ok, maybe they enjoy the actual picking of apples and the yummy treats we hope to make with the apples.  But I love this opportunity to get some great pictures of everyone.

We had this great idea of how to pick the biggest apples on the tree!

This year both kids were allowed to drive the truck, just a little, in the orchard.  They loved it!