Happy Halloween!

The Wednesday before Halloween our church did a trunk or treat. For a while we had no idea what we were going to be but a week or so before Halloween we found an adorable dinosaur costume for Daniel. That led us to try to find something we could do with dinosaurs as a family. Then we remembered that one of our favorite movies this year was Jurassic World! We decided that Mike would be Owen and I would be Claire and Daniel would be our "asset out of containment".

The trunk or treat was fun but it was pretty wet. It had been raining for 2 days so pour Dan's feet got really wet even though he had shoes. It didn't seem to slow him down though! He had fun carrying his pumpkin around and watching a little dinosaur run is just about the cutest thing in the world. Daniel actually won for cutest costume out of all the cute costumes but I have to say...he was the cutest one there! No one knew who we were until we explained it but I think we did a great job!

Then on Friday night we went to a trunk or treat at Sherman. It was fun to dress up again as a family. I just can't get over how cute Daniel looked in his costume. He usually doesn't like things on his head but he actually seemed to like the dinosaur head.

The line for the trunk or treat at sherman was ridiculous. I've never seen a trunk or treat with a line. It could have been better organized for sure. Daniel got a bit tired of standing around and had to go on some walks but he couldn't run around since cars were still driving around the parking lot. He did get some good candy though and once we got to the cars he was a bit happier and again everyone agreed he was adorable!

We had my mom take some family pictures for us outside our apartment. Happy Halloween everyone!!!! I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Halloween Races

Last year for Halloween Mike ran in the Spinx half marathon and he set a goal to run 5 half marathons in 2015 and one of them was the Spinx in Greenville, SC. A few weeks ago I decided that I would run the 10K while he did the half marathon. I had never run that distance so I was pretty nervous and Mike was nervous cause training for this one has been difficult and sporadic. The good part was that we had good weather for the race and my mom was able to come visit for the weekend and watch Daniel during the race so neither of us had to push him in the stroller!


The race this year happened to be on Halloween morning. Mike's race started at 7:50am and mine was at 8:15. We were a little chilly before the race started but I figured we'd warm up as we started running.

I started off feeling pretty good. The course had more hills than I was expecting but I got pretty good at walking up the hills and running down them. I think I started a little faster than I should have because I had to walk more in the second half than I would have liked since my legs really started to hurt. Luckily I didn't have any cramping just pain in my legs and I had to go to the bathroom for the last 2 miles which is no fun. It got a little warm at about the halfway point but all I had to do was walk and I cooled down. The end of the race is pretty cool. You end by running into a baseball stadium and around the field to home plate which is the finish line and they call your name as you run in the stadium. I finished in 1hr 17 minutes! My goal was an hour and a half so I was really happy!

Mike had a little bit of a hard time. He's been sick and also had to take 2 weeks off from training while we were on vacation. His biggest problem though was that the race advertised that they would have gatorade at the aid stations which he is used to but they didn't. So at mile 10 he hit a wall. He was doing a 7 minute mile for the first 9 but miles 10 to 13 were 10 to 12 minutes each which really pulled his time down. He was really hurting when he was done but I'm proud of him! He did great! Finishing in 1 hr 52 minutes is not bad at all!

 Dan had fun hanging out with grandma during the race!

We took our customary after race pictures with Dan once we got home!

It was a pretty good race but I'm not sure if I'll do another 10K but if I do I will definitely train more. I didn't do any training for this. I hope Mike is ready for his next race in December.

Pumpkin Patch

A few weekends ago we took advantage of the beautiful weather and took Daniel to the pumpkin patch. This was his second time going but the first time when he was aware of what was going on, at least a little bit. We took him to Niven's Apply Farm. Daniel had fun playing with the little pumpkins and climbing in the vines to get to the pumpkins that were bigger than him!

 We let Daniel pick out our pumpkin this year. He was so cute walking around checking them all :)

We tried to take pictures but between the sun being in Dan's face and being far more interested in the pumpkins, this was the best we could get but he sure did have fun! He also tried apple cider for the time time and he LOVED that! He's never had juice before so it really was a treat. Maybe next year we'll take him on a hay ride too :) I love the fall and all of the fun things we get to go do!

East Coast Trip: day 9

We ended our East Coast adventure in Charleston, SC. We didn't choose the best weekend to be in Charleston since it was the same weekend that hurricane Joaquin decided to flood South Carolina. I had been away from my baby boy for 10 days though and not even a hurricane was going to keep me from seeing my little Daniel! The good part was that Daniel got lots of time to spend with Stacey and Doug too. This was his first time meeting them. Since we were stuck in the house all day Saturday, Dan had lots of time to get to know them. He was a bit wary at first but he gradually warmed up to both of them. I think with more time he would've gotten better but he did let both of them pick him up and hold him and climbed up into there laps to look at pictures on there phone. 

So on the trip Stacey brought a little lion "Louie". We had fun taking him out at the different stops and taking his picture on the trip. When we got to Charleston, Stacey gave Louie to Daniel.

On Friday Mike, Stacey and Doug went downtown. They took a tour of the Yorktown and drove around the battery as the flooding was starting. I think they really enjoyed the Yorktown. They also went to the beach so they could see the ocean one more time before going back to Vegas. It was a great trip and we loved getting to spend time with them. I have never been so happy to sleep in my own bed again though. Although possibly not as happy as Josh who was sleeping on pull out couches but still I was pretty happy! We are also very grateful that we didn't have any problems getting home through the hurricane. They closed the roads through Columbia about an hour after we drove through so I'm very grateful we were safe.

Thanks for the fun trip guys! I hope everyone had as much fun as we did :) Next time as West coast road trip I think!

East Coast Trip part 8: Washington DC day 2

Tuesday morning we woke up to another yummy breakfast and then headed back into the city. Tuesday it was supposed to rain so we planned indoor activities for the majority of the day.  It was a good thing we walked the mall and saw all the monuments the day before.

Our first stop was the White House. I don't care if you like the president or not, this is a historic house and a lot of very important things have happened here and its pretty cool to be there and think of all those things. It was nice though because it was early so there weren't protesters or too many tourists out yet.

The back of the White House from the washington monument

The first museum of the day was the American History Museum. We've been here before but this time 2 of the sides were closed. The first floor was new but its under renovation on the other two floors. Since we knew what we liked, we just looked at what we're interested in and then just sat and waited for Stacey and Doug to look at the other exhibits.

We started out learning about Presidential history. It was one of the more interesting sections of the museum and one of the biggest.

Lincoln's hat he was wearing when he died

 We also saw some of the dresses worn by the First Ladies of the country. Just Stacey and I looked at these while the guys waited.

On the second floor we found a statue of George Washington and an exhibit dedicated to the Star Spangled Banner. I wasn't feeling well so we didn't go inside this exhibit. The flag they had outside was really pretty though.

The next area was all about the history of transportation. It had boats, trains and cars. Its a huge area and has a lot of cool stuff. Mike and Josh had a lot of fun playing with the mannequins. Mike and Joshua's favorite area was the inventions which I admit was really cool. I wish we had started there so we wouldn't have been so tired by that point.

Once we were done Stacey and Doug got lunch while Mike, Josh and I headed over to the Natural History museum. This is my favorite smithsonian, I only wish I had been feeling better that day. One benefit to going to these museums a lot was that we've seen everything. Since the dinosaur section is being renovated I was pretty disappointed. We really liked all of the ocean creatures and information on the first floor though.

Giant squid

They do have two of the dinosaurs on display right now and lucky for us they happen to be our favorites. The T-Rex and the triceratops :) so even though I felt awful, this cheered me up a bit.

When we left the museum we found out it was raining so we walked back to the car in the rain. On the way we stopped at Ford's Theater. We didn't go inside but it was pretty cool to see and we saw the house across the street where Lincoln died after he was shot.

On our way out of DC we drove by Union Station. Its an awesome looking building.

It took a while to get out of the city because the traffic was awful but once we did we had a nice relaxing night before driving back to SC. It was a great trip but exhausted doesn't even begin to describe how I felt by Tuesday night. It was really nice to have a rest day on Thursday before going down to Charleston.