it's a fall thing::

One thing that makes Ohio amazing is the Fall. It's without a doubt my most favorite season! just like that time i talked about it here. Watching summer come to an end and Fall slowly creeps in and changes everything. it's as if mother nature takes her magic wand and very slowly transform nature around us! it.is.beautiful! this year i especially took note of how amazing and beautiful our Fall was! we had some really warm days which is always a bonus when you know the doom of freezing cold weather is just around the corner! we always took full advantage of every warm day spending all our time outside!

dear ohio fall, i love you.

September :: Visitors

Back in September....yes September! my wonderful parents came to visit us! we had THE BEST TIME! and of course i wanted to get it documented. better late than never!



our first stop when they came was Campus and we hit up the Horseshoe (aka the football stadium).





brody and papa climbed way up to have a good view of everything!



We showed my parents one of brody's favorite friday night things to do! the High School football games! we have a high school just a block away from our house. And brody lovesssss to sit and watch the entire game!





and of course we hit up Jeni's ice cream! Yumm! Papa and grandma even bought brody his own ice cream cone! so fun!









we drove up to Sandusky Ohio and went to the #1 Amusement park in the Nation for a little roller coaster riding! We took turns and my parents would watch brody while we went on a ride and then my parents would go on a ride. Brody LOVED all the kid rides!





we hit up the Amish country - we went to Yoder's Amish Farm, ate at the Durdutchman and went to Heini's Cheese Factory! we also had a lovely adventure driving home and the main road was shut down and we had to detour and got lost! but no worries we finally found our way to the highway! good times!





we took them downtown to the Utopiary Gardens which are amazing and beauitful! and also to the replica of Columbus's Santa Maria.







and of course we went to the Zoo, which they loved!



of course besides seeing all the sites - we ate lots of yummy food! brody got loads of loves and attention from grandma and papa and we just loved having them be here with us!

Thanks for such a great week Grandma and Papa! We love you!!!

These Buckeyes got the RUNS::

back on the weekend of november 4th....my beautiful friends (by the way, i only have beauitful friends!) and i happily jumped in the car and drove to Indianapolis to run a HALF MARATHON. let me first tell you that my friends are AMAZING and pretty much any other awesome word you can think of! we all trained for 12 weeks and did weekend long runs together. our friend Ellen had never - NEVER even ran ONE mile in her life, and 12 weeks later she RAN (no walking) RAN 13.1 miles. once again AMAZING!

of course i documented our entire weekend in photos::


(Ellen, Me and Heather)

just before we left for our drive to Indy.



We stayed right downtown so that it would be easy to get to the start line the day of the race. we stayed in a super nice suite - where we each had our own bed. it was sweeeet! and this was our view from our hotel window - Lucas Oil Stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play football.





after we checked into our hotel, we headed over to the convention center where we had to go pick up our race packets that would have our timing chips, race shirt and bib numbers. we were excited, if you couldn't tell!



once we were good to go for our race it was time to go find dinner! we knew there were typical choices of places to enjoy a nice dinner. but we decided to be adventurous (not always the best idea the night before a race) and try something "local". we googled lots of places to eat and found an Italian resturant that had way good reviews, 5 stars, been voted Indys best italian food for like 10+ years, totally authentic, you get the idea. sounded great! well, pretty sure the first sign of "dont eat here" should of been the gun shots in the windows. (for reals) but we just laughed about it. the bread and salad were divine! the main dishes were blak! and we paid a high pretty penny for some not good food. sob! we knew we had to make up for our "authentic" italian food by hitting up... where else?





the Melting Pot of course! i mean let's be honest, who doesn't want to huck themselves full of chocolate and berries, and cake, brownies and marshamallows, 10 hours before a big event? it sure didn't stop us and we had a BLAST! Oh and it was so yummy!

after rolling out to the car and getting back to our hotel we got all of our stuff ready for the morning and of course had to have a dance party before bed! it's. a. must! we hit the hay and we were welcomed by a 6am wake up call that we did not request. boo! even though we were planning on getting up at 6:30, that 30 extra minutes would have been lovely. but at the same time because we were very unhappy about that wake up call we got $45 dollars taken off our bill. halla! it had to be mentioned! (thank you ellen). :)



my bib # - i save my bibs from all my races. this one gotta added to the bunch!


(These Buckeyes Got The RUNS)

Ellen is fabulous and made us super cute shirts for race day! we knew we wanted to stay linked to our Ohio State roots and represent - so we can up this saying "These Buckeyes Got The RUNS", and Ellen brough it to life!



and of course we had to have our names on our shirts too!



after getting all ready we headed over to the start line, and it was freezing cold! a lovely 30 degrees and wind!! but we were so pumped it didn't matter! after waiting in line for the porta potties and streching and getting in our spot we were ready for the count down. and we were OFF.....



thanks to Heather for carrying my camera in her ultra hip runners fanny pack (the coolest thing ever, seriously) of course we took pictures! and this may be the last time i ever get to blog, because it just so happens that Heather is going to kill me for posting her uber happy running face. (heather, your reading this and you are beautiful and remember you love me) but to make up for it - i posted me and my giantness between my two tiny cute little running friends.

it's kinda crazy to me the adrenaline rush you get from a race! it is not stop goodness!!
the first few miles for me felt sooooo cold and the wind was killing me! i hate the cold! but once we got to mile 3 it seriously felt like every mile went by so fast! there were so many awesome people cheering us on ALL ALONG the race course. we ran all through downtown Indianapolis and way cute, beauitful neighborhoods. but around/before mile 10 we had to go to the bathroom - i have never been in a race where there were seriously NO porta potties anywhere! we kept going and going and no such luck, we finally found some bushes in a parking lot. lovely. but we didnt care! and after that things were much better!!

and 13.1 miles later...



we did it!!! awe the pure bliss of victory! there is nothing better than finishing a goal! i felt the same way after my first half. so accomplished! and so proud that we ran the entire thing!



our friend Addie had found us at the start line among 13,000 runners! and ran with us up until our little "potty break". thanks to her for taking our finish line picture!









besides receiving a medal at the end of the race - the food is always happiness! and of course i had to document my happiness with food!

after noshing down on yummy food in the freezing cold, we made it back to our hotel were we lounged in our warm hotel room and took nice long hot showers!! we did it! and it was fabulous! i never thought i would like running with others. i'm kinda a lone runner. but i wouldn't have choosen to run this race any other way or with anyone else! (i actually wouldn't of even done the race, if they hadn't). i think they amazing and strong! and i love them more than they know!



and now we can check off that we did Indianapolis Half Marathon! we definitely ran it out of Indy! because after all...These Buckeyes got the RUNS!!

Mission Log :: I have landed on a strange planet

To Infinity and Beyond!!

i find that there is nothing more magical than making fun memories as a family! i have millions of special thoughts and memories i hold in my heart - it is so fun to look at a picture and see the changes just 2 years has brought! i thought it would be fun to look back at past halloweens...



my little bear at 17 months old



my little monkey at 5 month old