Fall is Here.

Xander was so excited when he woke up this morning and saw that the wind had blown lots of leaves off the trees and into our yard. After school I took him and Jessica outside to play in the leaves and "help" me do a little raking. As you can see from the picture, they both worked very hard :)

Uncle John's Cider Mill

Here are some pictures of us at Uncle John's Cider Mill. The kids had a great time eating donuts, drinking cider and playing outdoors on such a beautiful day. Xander got to go down a huge inflatable slide with his dad a couple of times after beating him at a duck race. Jessica enjoyed walking around in the children's area and really thought the pumpkin patch was great.

Obama Rally at MSU

I took Jessica and Xander to the Barack Obama Rally at MSU on Thursday. It was a nice, crisp fall day- perfect for waiting outside for a few hours. We packed our lunches and met up with our my friend Renee and her children, James and Grace. The boys ran around until it became to crowded (I think there were 20,000 people there). Jessica slept until the crowd started screaming when Barack came out. Xander was very excited to be there. I can't wait until November 4-- Jessica will turn one year old and Barack will hopefully be elected President of the United States of America!

Capital City River Run

Here is a picture of Doug running the Capital City River Run half marathon last week. I took Xander and Jessica to various spots throughout the race so that we could cheer him on. They had a great time seeing daddy and I think Doug apprecaited seeing us along the way. He finished with an impressive time of one hour, 52 minutes and 17 seconds!

Barack the vote!

Tyler and I went to see Obama and Biden in Battle Creek a week ago. We waited in line for four hours in the blistering sun to be one of the first in the stadium. It was well worth the sunburn I got to participate in history in the making. I 'm so happy I was able to share this with Tyler- it's something he'll remember for the rest of his life.

Busy, busy

Wow, I can' t believe I haven't posted anything since March! We've been so busy the last few months. Jessica is already 7 months old-she scoots, rolls and propels herself where ever she wants to be (usually to Xander's toys). She sat herself up for the first time today and is very close to crawling. She'll be walking around before we know it and life will never be the same again. Xander's last day of school was last Friday. He will move up to the primary class next year, which he is very excited about. He's already started swimming lessons this summer and will also be attending nature camp for a week and playing t-ball on Saturday's. Tyler also finished school last Friday. He had a very busy spring with basketball and track. He was fourth in his conference in the 100 yard dash, running it in 11.1 seconds. He qualified for regionals and just missed going to the state track meet. I ran the Bayshore half marathon over Memorial Day weekend and finished in the 2 hours and 21 seconds. I then completed a sprint distance triathlon the next weekend, which was so much fun. Doug and I are signed up for the Grand Rapids Marathon in October and will begin training for that June 15. There's never a dull moment around here...

Run, run, run

Xander ran his first race this weekend! I talked Grandpa Mel into running the Food and Fitness 5K with me yesterday and since the weather was so nice, I took Xander along to run the 100 yard dash. He was so excited, but got a little worried when the air horn went off. I ran with him and he did a great job. He was so excited when he received his medal at the finish line! He looked and me and said "Mom, I won a gold medal!". It was so adorable. I do have to mention that despite his slow start he still finished at the head of the pack- wearing snow pants, boots, coat, winter hat, gloves and all! A future sprinter, perhaps? Tianna came up with Mom and Mel and she ran the kids 1/2 mile. She went out like a lion, but managed to make it across the finish line. She told me next time that she was going to start out a little slower. This was Grandpa's first 5K and he finished very respectably at just over 29 minutes. This was my second 5K since having Jessie and I came in at 26:07, which is about 30 seconds slower than my best time. I'm bound and determined to get into the 24 minute range this summer, but Doug thinks I should be able to break 20 minutes...we'll see. I'm running a half marathon in May and doing my first triathlon in June. I've also decided to do a fall marathon (hopefully the Marine Corp), so this is probably the best year for me to get faster. Xander's already looking forward to his next race, which is the most exciting thing of all.