Philadelphia Marathon

On Sunday November 21st Alan ran his first marathon. He has been training for it for months and the day finally came! Alan's parents came down to see him run his race. We left at %am to get down to Philly.

There is Alan all pumped and ready to go at 4:30am. We put his bib number on and all. I love that they actually put his name on his bib. This was really nice because when the racers were running you could cheer them on by calling out their name!

Getting ready for the race to start.

They had all these UPS trucks set up for the runners to store their things in while they ran. I thought this was pretty neat!

They grey corral. They grouped runners by what they thought their finish time would be. Alan was in the grey. He estimated he would finish at around 4 hours.

In the corral getting in the zone and waiting for the race to begin.

Where's Alan?

The sheer number of runners was phenomenal. Their were people running the marathon (26.2 miles) and people running a half marathon (13.1). There were about 20,000 runners. That is a lot of people!

Alan at the halfway point at about 14 miles. Going strong!

I found Waldo! A lot of people dress in funny costumes and such to run. There was a guy who labeled himself as Sexy Beast. There was a batgirl and some people in tutu's. The craziest person I saw was a guy wearing a cape and running in sandals. You have got to be out of your mind to run 26.2 miles in sandals!

Almost there! Here he is right near the finish line. Go Alan Go!

He did it!

Alan did awesome! He reached his goal of a little under 4 hours. His watch read that he did the race in 3 hours 55 minutes. The official time that came through was 3 hours and 57 minutes. Great job! He came in 3,769th place out of 10,256 racers. I have never been more proud of him!

19 Months

Yes I am still behind. Yes I am still posting things that should have been posted in July. But hey I am trying! I didn't get a very good picture of them for their 19 month shot. They are becoming pretty busy and can't possibly sit still to humor Mom for a minute together for a picture. Sigh. I guess I should get used to it!

See how excited we are!?! Yea they are just bursting with joy. Ha!

Let's play!

When I was in college I spent several semesters photographing playgrounds. I love playgrounds. Not only are they something of most people's youth, they are so colorful and full of life. In school I mainly photographed them without children. Mainly because I could get some abstract pictures but also because I did not want upset parents coming after me!


Well I decided to take my camera to the playground. I think my camera needs some tlc (and I really do need to learn it in manual) but I had fun!

Home again on our porch. I think Levi decided it was an anti camera sort of day! Oh well hopefully next time!

Picnic

Our last afternoon and evening with Melissa, John, and Kieran we spent at their campground. We went over and had a little grill out and then went swimming. Alan and I decided we will not ba camping with our 3 anytime soon. At home they go 3 different directions but they are usually confined to something. Not so much out in the woods. I was exhausted when we got home!

Also trying to keep 4 1 year olds on a blanket to eat dinner was a huge challenge just in of itself!

We had so much fun with Melissa, John, and Kieran. I really wished they lived closer so we could see them more often! I can't wait till we get to see them again. By then they will have an adorable little girl as well as Kieran! I also need to get together with Liss, Chris, and Silas. Some day soon I hope!

Sesame Place

Back in July we took the kids to Sesame Place with Melissa, John, and Kieran. We decided to do the dry stuff first and went to the rides. The first thing we decided to do was the carousel. Well when the kids rode the carousel at Giggleberry fair Levi was the only one who liked it. So we decided that Alan would just take Levi and I would wait with the other 2 off to the side. Well Levi freaked out. He screamed and carried on throughout the whole ride. I felt so bad for Levi and for Alan.

After the carousel we went to a little playground and let them run around. From there we went to a little bounce area with big foam blocks. They really enjoyed running around and playing there with the other kids. Next we went to Big Birds balloon race. Basically just "hot air balloons" that you ride up and down in. Alan was still remembering the last ride so I took Nathan on the ride. He seemed iffy but never voiced his opinion. He was too short to really see anything though which I think made a difference.

Next we went to meet some characters. We got our picture taken with Big Bird! Elmo was out too but of course as we came around he went in for a break. We waited to Kieran could see him since he is fond of Elmo. Then was dinner. After dinner we went on one more ride so Paige could have a turn. We decided on Elmo's flying fish. Well Paige loved it! After she wanted to go on the swings. I told her when she was older.

Then we donned our suits to go play in the water part of the park. They had a blast! I need to still get my pics developed from the waterpark. I took a waterproof camera in with us to there. Some day when I remember to take it in I will get those pics back. All in all we had a great time. We went around 4pm and left around 8pm. I think it worked out really well for us. Wasn't too hot and the kids had a nap beforehand. Win win!

Levi before the carousel started to move....kinda iffy about it.

Paige and Nathan watching the carousel with Mommy.

John playing in the playground with the kids!

Bouncing along.

Paige playing with the blocks.

2 kids laying down? yea those are my boys. They ran into each other and then ended up laying down laughing.

Big Bird!

Nathan

Paige and I on the flying fish.

Getting ready to go.

Yay Sesame Place! Funny story. When I was taking this picture as we were leaving people stopped to watch and this one couple came up to me and told me that their picture should be in the Sesame Place calender. haha.

We had a great time. Not sure we will ever get back there since it will cost us too much money once they are 2. This year they were free which didn't make it too bad. Maybe some day we will make it back there. We shall see. We had a great time and I would highly recommend taking a trip there! I can still remember going there as a kid and it was still fun even being an adult!

I have lost my mojo

And I have no clue where to find it! I haven't really been in the mood to post on top of the fact that I have been really busy. I am not sure exactly what the problem is but I have been somewhat avoiding my blog. I am not sure if it is time, or I got so far behind that I will never catch up, or part of me is kinda iffy about the new look. I just need a swift kick in tha pants! Which I guess I kinda got since I had 2 people wanting to know why I hadn't blogged in 22 days. Wow who knew it had been that long!?! So I am going to attempt once again to get caught up and post more pics and such. And just to sweeten you up a little since it has been a while I will post a pic just for you!

This is my 3 getting themselves in trouble. My main trouble maker is Levi with Nathan pulling in close second since he wants to do what Levi does. I swear they are in cahoots with one another! Paige and I were reading books in the living room and I heard screaming coming from the playroom. Now screaming is not uncommon in this household but Paige and I decided to go check and see what was going on. This is what we walked in on......

Nathan is happily swinging his legs on top of the shelf. Levi however somehow got himself pinned between the shelf and the sliding glass doors. And like any good mother I grabbed my camera to get a picture! Ah toddlers. They are so much fun!

Daddy Cam

On Sunday Melissa and her little family went to Philadelphia for the day. I had a festival I was going to for work so that left the kids home with Daddy. They had lots of fun playing outside and going for a walk. Here are some Daddy cam pics!

My parents got us this bench to partition off our half of the front porch. Our neighbor has many fun things on his porch the kids like to get into.

Levi

Nathan

Paige

Swim time

When I last posted I was talking about our wonderful visit with Melissa and her family at the beginning of July. That Saturday morning we went to Ringing Rocks and had a great time. After nap time we went to my parents house for a little swim party and pizza. It was nice to let the kids run around outside and just hang out. Kieran is quite the little fish!

Paige and Daddy

Nathan swimming with Grammy

Levi and Pop-pop

Heeeeee yaaaaaa with this Daddy!

It's a Levi monster!

What's this cool looking thing?

After swimming we played outside a bit. Kieran's favorite thing was the play house. We could barely pry him out of it so he could eat!

Swings!

Mmmmmmm Pizza!

Time is escaping me yet again

Ok it is time to catch up and stay on top of the blog. I am over a month behind and it's not pretty! So be prepared for several new posts the next few days or so. I plan to catch up and then hopefully stay on top of it! So here goes nothing! :)

Ringing Rocks

The day after our play date with Kieran, Melissa and John wanted to go see Ringing Rocks. I was all for except one minor detail. How the heck would I take 3 toddlers to Ringing Rocks!?! For those of you that don't know Ringing Rocks is a park in my area that has basically a huge field full of boulders or "rocks" if you will. If you bring a hammer and go out into the boulder field and hit the rocks you can get different tones of of the rocks and make them ring. It is very neat! There is also a hiking path that leads up to waterfalls. So again I as myself how would I take 3 toddlers? Even with Alan there they still outnumber us. Until they are much older I think we will be coming across this problem more and more.

So I decided to meet Melissa, John, and Kieran at Ringing Rocks and bring along Levi. He is more adventurous of the 3 and I thought he would have a blast. I was right! He loved walking around and climbing on the rocks. When we were walking back Kieran decided to make it his goal to sit on every rock we came upon! Haha. Levi and I were up ahead and Levi kept saying go go! Too funny!

Kieran is trying to "ring" some rocks. Levi is climbing around!

Kieran and John ringing some rocks.

Levi ringing some rocks.

Levi is my anti stranger kid. I handed him to Melissa to put him on a rock with Kieran so we could take a picture. Well Levi was less than thrilled to be picked up by someone he didn't know! Poor kid! :) I also love how Kieran is looking at him like what is wrong with you?

Levi on the rocks a little miffed cause of the previous picture. Haha.

Levi climbed onto this rock on his own so we plunked Kieran next to him real quick so we could get a picture!

We hiked down to the falls. Here are the falls with John taking a picture of the falls. This is a close as I could get safely with Levi. :)

We had an awesome time and I can't wait till my trio is old enough to take all 3 together. They will have so much fun!