Thirteen Point One

I did it!

I ran a half marathon yesterday and lived to tell the tale! :)

Way back in June, I emailed my friend Courtney about a crazy idea-- I asked her what she thought of training for a half marathon together (in spirit that is-- she lives in San Antonio, I live in Dallas). She enthusiastically replied YES! and we began running.

Yesterday was our true test of stamina. She had injured her leg in September, I had injured mine in October. She hadn't run a "long run" (more than 4 miles) in 2 months. I hadn't run more than 8 miles since the previous weekend. We weren't sure what amount of running we'd be able to do at the race but we ended up doing really well considering all the time we had taken off right before the big day. Of course, we still took some breaks to stretch, get water, walk when we felt our knees act up, but I'm proud of what we accomplished!

It was forcast to be in the 40's with rain, but we lucked out and it was about 54 and cloudy with a slight breeze-- enough to keep us cool once we were warmed up and running.

Below is a video of the course we ran-- it seems LONG (and it's only 6 minutes!). This was the video that made me nervous before the race. ;-)

Race day! This was seconds before we hopped into the sea of people. There were 33,000+ people running the 1/2 and full marathon. In the picture at the bottom left, you can see the people running ahead of us; behind us there were just as many people!

Troy tried really hard to get a good picture of Courtney and I getting to the finish but there was a huge mob of people so he ended up shooting this over his head and hoping for the best. Not bad! Courtney is in red with the white hat and I'm in the purple shirt.

 Heading for the finish!

 We did it!!

Look at the amount of people there were! This is not everybody-- there were still people crossing the finish line as we made our way out. If you think about 33,000 people being there plus each of them having at least 2 people there cheering them on, that's a lot of bodies in one place!

Here are my results. Not bad considering I was running out of practice and worried about my knee injury flaring up (and it didn't! Today I'm walking around fine-- in fact, tomorrow I'll probably be running again!)

Here's my "proof". ;-)

All Hallows' Eve

'The skies they were ashen and sober;

The leaves they were crisped and sere-

The leaves they were withering and sere;

It was night in the lonesome October

Of my most immemorial year.'

                                              Edgar Allen Poe

Peyton the Pirate in a Parade

Peyton's school hosts a Halloween Parade every year so that all of the kids can dress up in their costumes and have classroom parties to celebrate this fun holiday. Peyton was thrilled with his costume this year and cried when I took it off for the first time; which for anyone who remembers Halloween last year and the year before that, that's saying something because he HATED Halloween the last two years.
He cried when we put him in his costume, he cried when we took him from door to door, was mad when someone put something in his treat bucket-- it was seriously such a hassel that I kind of dreaded it this year. But, like I said, no worries this year-- he actually enjoyed dressing up and going trick-or-treating!

Anyway, Peyton woke up grumpy the day of the parade and didn't want to wear his costume until I pulled it out of the closet and then he was tearing off his pajamas as fast as he could go to get the costume on! I told him that he was having a party at school and he was excited to get there.

At 10 a.m., Chloe and I pulled into his school to watch the parade of costumes. Now it was Chloe's turn to have a fit.

She cried.

She screamed.

She leaped forward to try to get out of my arms.

She didn't want to stay in the stroller, she didn't want to hold my hand.

She wanted to walk!

She wanted to get down!

She wanted to see what all of the excitement was!

So I didn't get many pictures.

But it looked like Peyton enjoyed marching around the parking lot! And I love it when I surprise him at his school. His face is always like "What?! What are YOU doing here?".

And Chloe was finally happy when she got to walk beside her big brother for a brief period during the parade. She reached up and grabbed his hand and they both held hands and walked together for a few minutes side-by-side until she got distracted and wandered off.  So cute!

Fun with a Honey Bee

Anybody home?

 I guess not. Oh well, we'll try later.

 Quick, let's make our escape!

 Free pumpkins! Hey, is anybody looking?

 I'll just nab one of these little pumpkins!

 Uh oh, you caught me!

Mmmm. Scratch and sniff!

Trunk or Treat

Troy, A.KA. 'Antoine Dodson' warns everyone to:

"Hide yo kids, hide yo wife and hide yo husband too."

 

 Peyton the Pirate is in search of some booty.

 

Meanwhile, I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee.

{Won't my mommy be so proud of me?}

Not pictured: me dressed as Christine O' Donnell (of "I'm not a witch" fame).

Mimzy the Cat Woman holds a sweet baby honey bee.

Rico Suave

What cute men I have. :)

Autumn at the Arboretum

 It was a lovely day to go to the Arboretum-- the morning was crisp and cool so we donned our coats and strolled through the manicured grounds to take in the sights of fall.

 There were myriads of pumpkins everywhere-- so many types and varieties that I had never before seen. The abundance of pumpkins altogether was quite a sight as well. I had never in my life seen so many pumpkins at once!

 The gardeners had set up a few pumpkin cottages throughout the park that each depicted a story which had something to do with pumpkins like Strega Nona or Cinderella.

Chloe seemed to enjoy the fresh air and the change of scenery very much. In fact, the outdoors lulled her to sleep at one point after lunch.

 What a charming little place!

 Chloe brought along her friend, Kendall too. The girls had so much fun together!

 I love the contrast between the bright brilliant orange of the pumpkins and the vibrant purple stalks.

 Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

 Look at all of the different kinds! Chloe had to explore for herself.

 Just beautiful. Look at how the pumpkins line the way as far as the eye can see.

Inside the pumpkin village.

 A close-up of the construction of the cottages.

 Simply amazing.

 Care to rest a spell?

 Jack-o-Lantern faces peering from the shadows.

 Some of the many varieties that were used throughout the grounds.

 This was astounding-- I think they said that throughout the entire grounds there were 10,000 pumpkins. I wonder how many they used to make this little section!

 Going to the Arboretum wouldn't be complete without visiting the replica homesteads.

 Seeing this sod house reminds me of Laura Ingalls Wilder. :)

 There's my little punkin!

 Do you see the mischevious look on her face?!

It's always fun to see pumpkins with friends!