Boston - tourist day!

Since we left a day early for our trip to Boston, we had a whole day free for sight seeing.  We started out our day with delicious waffles and muffins at the hotel, and then off on the subway (the T) into Boston.

We headed to our first destination, a Duck Tour.  On the way to the tour we got to stroll down these beautiful streets. 

The tour is done on this cool vehicle that goes on both land and sea.  It was great way to see the whole city.  Last year when we went to Boston we didn't get to see much at all.  We drove our car around the town and really overpaid on parking.  It wasn't that much fun.  But this time I decided to "city saavy" and get a pass for the T for the weekend.  The tour gave us lots of ideas on places to visit.

Here we go into the water!  We went into the Charles River.

One of the highlights of the tour was when the tour guide (Snags McTangles) let the kids drive the boat around the river.  All of the kids except for Zachary wanted to do it.  Zack was all concerned about safety or some silly thing like that :)

We also had lunch in the high priced area of town, Newbury street.  Next stop was the finish line for some photos.  This might be the closest I ever get to running over the finish line, so I need to commemorate it!

 We then took a tour of the USS Constitution, aka Old Iron Sides.  It was a very interesting tour.

The kids liked seeing all of those cannons on the boat. 

We are pros at riding the subway now!

For dinner we ended up in Chinatown.  It was amazing how many things we could see by just hoping on the T.  

The kids gave chopsticks a try.  Sydney ate a large portion of her dinner with the chopsticks. 

The last event of the night was meeting up with all of the people from the Runners World forum at Beer Works.  It was a great event for Alan as he got to meet some of the people in person that he has been talking with for months now during his training.

 The kids did a good job of keeping themselves entertained by playing pool while we chatted.

Fairies, Dinos, and more!

It was such a beautiful day today, we decided to head up to Ann Arbor to seach for the Fairy Doors.  We did find all of the doors listed on the map, and a few others!

  The doors were so cute, they looked just like the big human doors!

  Such a beautiful day to be walking around in Ann Arbor!

  This location was a theatre, and the fairies had their own little ticket window!

This grey door was the Goblin Door.  Oh no!!! 

 On the way to find the fairy door at the library we ran across this fairy village.  Might be the perfect for Smurfs too. :)

 This blue door is at the Ann Arbor library.  The door opens into the books right next to it on the shelf.

 After a satisfying meal at Zingermans Deli (that's code for big expensive sandwiches!), we headed over to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.  We checked out the dinosaurs...

 ... the ancient artifacts...

... and everything else! 

 Our very last fairy door to check out was in a book store.  A great place for a little fairy to hang out!

Cookie Classic 5K - I can't believe I ate them!

One of the things I like about the Toledo Roadrunners club is that they put on fun runs, often with crazy themes.  The theme for this race was cookies.  We run to the halfway point, eat two cookies, and run back.  I'm down with that for sure!!!  Another plus was that the race was it was just over a mile from our house.

So we convinced the kids to run another 5K.  It wasn't too hard.  I just said "want to go to a run?  We get to eat cookies!".  It was a little chilly for the run, but not too bad considering it's February.  It was a "girl power" day, so I got to run with Sydney.  She did really good!  We got the half way point and got to enjoy our really big, soft and sweet, sugar cookies.  yum!  Sydney sprinted at the end and it was hard to keep up with her.

Here are the boys coming in for a strong finish.  Zack was sprinting fast at the end.  Alan reported that he had to hold him back from taking off to too early and being exhausted at the finish line.

 Sydney won a pair of glasses at the giveaway after the race.  She's styling!!

Pokagon Toboggan run

Even though it never really started much, winter is ending around here soon. Given the limited number of days in winter left, we decided we needed to make a trip over to the toboggan run at Pokagon state park.  The track is cooled, so even though there is no snow on the ground, it's still operating.  We made sure we got there early (10 mins before it opened!) so we could get a light sled, and not need to wait in long lines.

Our planning really paid off because it wasn't very busy until we started to leave.  We got in 6 runs in an hour.

 Our maximum speed on our runs was 35 miles per hour!  Zachary was nervous about riding in the front of the sled at first, but after he did, he was just crazy excited about it.  He loved it.  Said he "would never forget today".  :) 

After tobogganing we enjoyed some of the delicious hot chocolate we he brought along with us.  Extra chocolatey and full of marshmallows.  yum! 

A nice day at the zoo :)

Today was one of those really nice days.  First, a went for a long run... 10 miles and I didn't stop once!  That is a real accomplishment lately.  I'm feeling so pokey :(   And when I got home, Alan was vacuuming and cleaning up the house!  yahoo, that was awesome!

We have been mentioning that we wanted to go to the zoo for a couple of weeks now, so we took a trip over there after lunch.  We got to see the new tiger cubs.  awwww, so cute!  Too bad they were laying down the whole time.  We think the rock may be heated because they looked very comfy in that spot....

I am really loving my iPhone.  I usually drag around my camera and look like paparazzi, but now, I just whip out the phone.  It takes such great pictures and I just love Instragram.  So artsy!

It even took a decent picture of the jellyfish. 

 Part of the winter program at the zoo is a show called the Wonderful World of Bubbles (I think that was the name).  The lady who did the show did some pretty amazing tricks with bubbles.  We will definitely be trying some of these things this summer.

 Then we watched the spiders being feed.  Wait, no, they weren't eating my family... but they were being hand fed by the zoo employee.  I was surprised, figured they would have been way more excited to see an insect.  The guy practically had to put the bug in the spiders mouth!

Lastly, we watched a snake gulp down a rat.  COOOOL!

Sidecut Metropark

Today was the celebration of the new ice skating rink at Sidecut park and also to show off the portable lighting for the area.  Luckily, it was one of the only snowy days we've had this season!!  There was enough snow for sledding, but the ice rink was definately not even near frozen.

It was pretty cool because they had s'mores for everyone.  Make your own, at one of the really big fire pits.

I think this is my new favorite photo place!  Look at this awesome tree, so many options!

 Here I am modeling my new ski jacket.  Snazzy eh?

 A handsome, rugged, young man!

The kids thought the s'mores and hot chocolate were delicious!

This is how crowded the sledding hill was.  It was fun, but I have never seen so many people here!  It's too bad they had to advertise this event because I liked the sledding hill to be our little secret :)

 Part of the event was ice sculpting.  Very pretty.

 

After sledding my little man was just too tired (aka, lazy) to walk to the truck.   Luckily Sydney pitched in and gave her bro a ride.