Giving Thanks

At the beginning of the month, I came up with the idea of having Nate write on leaves what things he is thankful for - we displayed them over the fireplace.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we volunteered with our church at Feed My Starving Children - a Christian organization that boxes up food for kids in different countries. We made 90 some boxes, enough to feed 53 kids for a whole year!

Nate and I poured in the protein 

I'm glad Nate is old enough now to go to places where we can do charity work - it's wonderful to open your eyes and really learn to appreciate the things we take for granted.

We had a good Thanksgiving spent with our families and tons of yummy grub in our tummies. Now, to no surprise, the kids are very excited for the month of December. In typical Thanksgiving week tradition, we visited Zoolights at our local zoo.

Made from milk and water cartons. As many as we go through each week, we should have a few of these trees at our house!

Nate was pretty brave that evening- he enjoyed the inner tube ride

...and rode a camel!

...so I was brave and rode the zoo's small zipline! Good thing there wasn't time to dwell on how strong ropes are.

Just today, Eddie the Elf arrived at our house. I love anything that enforces good behavior! Nate is very aware that he is being watched and reported on.

Thanks to a relative, I'm inspired  to try and do RACK's (Random Acts of Kindness) each day - maybe as simple as holding the door for someone to paying for someone's coffee. Good thing to show the kids, too. So today was our first day -

Candy cane bombed the movie theater parking lot

And now, this first full week of December, leaves my marathon one week away. It's time to start resting and carb-ing up!

Soccer Party

Nate was suppose to have had his last soccer game of the session today, but because of our rainy weather (wow!) it was cancelled. Quickly, I came up with the idea of a party for the kids instead. It was nice to get away from the field and let the kids play with each other in a different way!

Coaches!

Giving boys their medals

Yay Hornets!

In ways I'm a little relieved the session is over. I felt like a fish out of water right up to the end, I just feel sort of bad they didn't have a head coach with more experience who maybe could have guided them better. We tried our best! Most of the team is new to soccer unlike a lot of teams we played. I hope I have at least helped with some groundwork :)

Nate is registered for soccer again next session, this time with a different league that is closer to home (and would allow for more kids from his school to be in).

My Sister's Cabin

We were thrilled last weekend to get the opportunity to use my sister's cabin for the first time - I don't think news has spread too far, but my older sister bought a cabin in Flagstaff (a town a few hours north of us) to have to rent out to people (and secretly use when it's not!) Surprisingly, but thankfully, no one rented it out this past Veteran's Day weekend so me and the boys took advantage of it. We were excited to get out of the city and enjoy cabin life for a few days!

Large deck - we all loved that!

Floor to ceiling windows. So spacious!

Welcome home!

We also liked their fenced in backyard

I made the boys a Scavenger Hunt nature game

We arrived Saturday afternoon and hung out until that evening - we have found ourselves a pizza joint up there we like (that sits close to train tracks, perfect for the boys!) They are really into the Polar Express this year so I tried to get tickets for us to ride it that night--their first weekend open--but was a little surprised that it was sold out :( I didn't think people would be too interested in it so early. Guess I need to plan way earlier for next time! (Pssst....they will be getting Polar Express tickets for next year for Christmas this year!)
Instead we visited the Lowell Observatory that evening, the boys had a good time looking through telescopes to see planets/moon and stars. Afterwards, mama got to enjoy the jacuzzi tub and some hot chocolate. Yay!

Sunday was quite busy - we started with visiting/walking around Sunset Crater (a dormant volcano) then went on to see Bearizona, a drive thru/get out and walk around wilderness park. There were lots of black bears (hence the name!)

Bison (during the drive thru)

Bear out in the wild! (drive thru- pictures aren't so great because we had to keep windows up)

We still took the boys to see the Polar Express train - it was all they would talk about (and watched in the car).

The morning we went to leave the boys enjoyed some caves while I finished packing (and enjoyed some peaceful time at the cabin).

The boys loved our weekend spent outside in the beautiful weather. We're already looking forward to visiting another time!

Women's Half Marathon...and Other Fun Pictures !

This past weekend I completed my fourth half marathon race! I've liked this one that I've done now the last two years because it's all women, not as many people, a man in uniform puts the medal around your neck...and even better this year, we got some bubbly at the end! What a nice treat after hours of running!
I did pretty well for the first almost nine miles- didn't stop to walk once! That in itself is an improvement, then I noticed that I was catching up to the 2:15 (two hours, fifteen minutes) pacer, which is another good improvement over past years! However, at mile 9 a toe started bothering me...when I got home I noticed it was because I had two bloody blisters at the top :( That was a bummer. That put a damper in my running spirit the rest of the race and I ended up finishing at my typical, normal time. 

I can't believe I'm now beginning my LAST month of training! My marathon is only a month away. If I'm being honest...I've been slacking this last month in training. It's too late to try "making up miles", I just need to work hard these next three weeks before I have to start tapering off. Definately the nerves are starting to set in...

In other happy news, I got the professional pictures from my photo shoot, hooray! (By the way, I promise this is the last time I'll bring it up!) I've been SO persistant in bugging the photographer and owner of the hair salon for these pictures...I'm glad I was, because I think they turned out great! I'm relieved I don't need to bother them anymore. I'm happy to have these to treasure!

Halloween!

The boys were certainly excited when Halloween came around yesterday. Once again this year I decided to dress up with the boys...though they literally didn't know until about thirty seconds before they put on their costumes what they were going to be. I decided this year that we were going to be Greasers! As in I was going to be a Pink Lady and they were going to be T-Birds from the movie "Grease". Trying to understand, Nate wondered if that meant he got to fly. Hmmm....not quite. I showed him a few clips from the movie and he got all excited.

My mom,dad, sister and BIL came to join us in the festivities- my sister even joined in on the fun!

Let's go!

We were out for about 45 minutes...which seemed like plenty of time. Nate's bag was beginning to sag and poor Aaron's handle on his bucket continuously was detaching. They had plenty of candy!

Yum, yum! Lollipops are my favorite this year!

After we came back Nathan enjoyed helping pass out candy for a bit too.

Earlier in the day, I made the boys Halloween themed lunches. Lunchtime was as creative as I got! I didn't do anything special for breakfast or dinner...

Aaron's lunch : grilled cheese 'fingers', pumpkin shaped with fruit, and 'blood clots' (watermelon) He also got a little Halloween note :)

Nate's lunch for school : pumpkin shaped PBJ, homemade granola bar, pumpkin shaped fruit, 'bloody' yogurt with raisins as eyes, a Halloween note and 'mummy milk'

Now of course the kids are all about eating candy! Ok, mom and dad are, too....