Runner's World Thanksgiving Challenge

For the second year in a row, I completed the Runner's World Thanksgiving Challenge.  The idea is to run at least one mile every day from Thanksgiving until New Year's Day.  Last year, the weather was pretty cooperative up until the last few days when the storm came in on Christmas Day bringing us snow and no power for one week.  Thankfully, between the treadmill at the hotel and Brad's parents, I finished out the challenge.  This year, the weather tried to throw a monkey wrench into my plans much earlier on with the ice but even if it was more of a walk than a run, I got the distance in and kept the streak going.  I actually started this year two days before Thanksgiving and kept going after New Year's.  I had intended to go to 50 days but on day 41, we had rain coupled with cold so I called it at 40.  Doing this challenge the past years has definitely been a great motivation for getting out on days that I would normally sit it out and it may have actually made me a little more tolerant of running the cold.

Playing at the Park

We have had the weirdest pattern of weather this winter although I'm not going to complain too much because the warm days have tended to fall on the weekends with cold weather during the week.  Unfortunately the cold weather during the week has prevented the kids from getting to play outside so we took advantage when we had the chance.  Emma has been asking to go down to the park and we finally had a combination of dry and warm so off we went.  Our friends, Caroline and Emily met up with us, which made the afternoon even more fun.

 

 

 

Ice Skating

Emma was invited to an ice skating party for her friend Emory's 6th birthday party.  She was so excited about ice skating leading up to the party but as soon as we walked into the skating rink, she panicked and did not want to get out on the ice.  Thankfully we were able to convince her to give it a try and within about 10 minutes, she was ready to try it alone without holding my hand.  Brad stopped by so he could get some photos.  Josh decided he wanted to try but about as soon as he got on the ice, he had decided that was enough.  The kids all had a great time and were so interested in ice skating that they missed out on the cake.  Their loss because I can attest to the fact that it was very good!

 

After the party, Emma went home with her friend Heidi for her first sleepover with Heidi and Juliana. She was so excited that she was old enough to go sleep at a friends house without Mommy or Daddy.  From all reports, the girls did great and might have actually gotten some sleep. 

New Year's Eve/Day

New Year's Eve was a low key event around this house although we did get to enjoy the company of our friend, Meredith.  We had a yummy brisket with mashed potatoes made from a new recipe Brad came across.  The mashed potatoes were so, so good.  We had a nice evening and the kids, of course, loved having an extra person around to entertain.  There were obviously some discussions about the ball dropping on New Year's Eve in Josh's class at school so he thought he needed to stay up until midnight.  Since that was not going to happen, we told him we would DVR the ball drop so he could watch it the next morning.  What a bust that turned out to be since they barely even showed the ball dropping.  Glad I didn't wait up either.  At any rate, welcome 2014!

 

Toltec Mounds

Over Christmas break, Caroline Kolb came over one day to hang out with Emma.  In the morning, the girls played and we made some snacks. 

 

Since it turned out to be a fairly nice day, after lunch, we decided to go on a little field trip.  I was looking at the parks website and came across Toltec Mounds.  We hadn't been out there before so I gave the girls the choice of going there or to the zoo.  Most kids probably would have chosen the zoo but these two were so excited about the idea of Indian ruins so off we went.  When we got there, we first watched a little 10 minute introductory video.  Emma and Caroline soaked it in and even repeated some of the facts that they learned while we were out there.  Before heading out to see the mounds, we looked at some artifacts.  Then, we were off on our ~0.7 mile "hike".  You would have thought we were trekking uphill both ways instead of on a totally flat, paved trail but we had fun and enjoyed being outside.