This summer.

I've been away. 

Not to any place in particular; just, you know, around. Busy with kids, afternoon parks, therapies, soccer and piano. Busy with work, little bit of traveling. Busy with Life. And maybe you missed reading new posts. Maybe you didn't. But, a lot happened this summer. A lot of cool, interesting, beautiful, special things. No big beach trips or European vacations for us. But lots of family time, old friend time, new friend time, explorations and developments. 

Sam, oh our Sam. He deserves a post of his own for all the mind-blowing things he's surprising with us with lately. I forget that he's almost THREE, but in my mind he's still clinging to my leg and nuzzling in my lap. But in just a few weeks he'll be off to preschool. Our big boy. Our hearts are so full of this little being. 

And Adam. What a mind in that kid. The other day he described a color Lego he was looking for as the color of the "inside of a banana". His little 5-and-a-half year old brain may not know this color as, say, beige or off-white, but he created this beautiful description to tell me the color he was needing. I'll post about him, too. He's our big Kindergartener now. (And the coolest things about it are the bus and recess.) 

Highlights of our summer as follows:

This girl. Oh my, this little girl. Niece Annabelle Lynn arrives and time is flying too fast. I've already missed bunches of her growing -- she's already rolling and giggling and smiling -- and I don't like it one bit!

This man. My husband is the best at finding little adventures for us to go and explore locally. It's one of the things I love most about him -- his excitement to just Go. Explore. Find. Create an adventure out of an ordinary Saturday when I may want to stay home and catch up on laundry. But he drags me out and I never regret spending the day, usually outside in the beautiful weather, with the 3 of the most important boys in my life.

This job. I'm grateful for my work and the work culture that puts employees first and allows me to balance home with career without too many demands. Occasionally I travel, and this summer brought me to Chicago. M took me there 15 years ago for a Reds-Cubs baseball game, and we returned 10 years later with our 11-month old after Christmas to see the city in lights. But I hadn't really looked at the city itself or introduced myself to the skyline or really felt the city life like this trip. A riverboat architectural tour by myself was really awe-inspiring. Chicago, you won me over. But next time someone else drives me there.

These people. People who make it a point to be a part of your life. People who check in, not just with what you are doing but how you are doing. I'm so grateful. They may never know how much I appreciate them all for making the time and effort and the distance to be with us.

This community. This summer our city really shined with the MLB All-Star weekend. We loved exploring the redesigned riverfront and taking part in some of the festivities. We also made a point to take in local events, fun attractions and new establishments in the surrounding community.

These boots. If you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that Adam hardly went anywhere this summer without this Crocs snow boots. These were definitely his footwear of choice, even in 90-degree weather. Go ahead and look back. Hiking, fishing, parks, and yes, even the water splash pad. As my sister said, "those dang boots!"

The Holiday Season 2014

Christmas was much fun this year! Adam is such a fun age to really enjoy all the festivities, magic and anticipation of Christmas. 

We started December with what has become tradition with my sister's family -- the annual Horse-Drawn Carriage festival in downtown Lebanon. Or, as my brother-in-law would call it, the annual street-fair-of-food-in-the-cold. This is typically followed by some outlet mall shopping to kick of the season of buying!

And as the days and weeks wore on, everything started to look more like Christmas as we prepared our hearts for the special occasion.

We shared a special Christmas morning with just our little family of 4 this year. Sam wasn't overly impressed with the occasion; in fact, a couple of times he handed me the remote control, as if to say, can we just watch some tv instead?. Adam, however, loved the whole morning, especially all his new books and his new winter coat. Later that day we loaded up for Gramma and Grampa's house for a much more active holiday celebration the next morning. (On the drive down, Adam asked why Santa didn't bring him a tanker truck, as he asked. Fortunately Gramma and Aunt Angie came to the rescue with new trucks for him to play with!)

And each year we make it a point to capture an annual holiday family photo, and it's always pretty comical setting up the timer, getting everyone in position, and taking a few times to get the right shot. Next year we'll be squeezing another little one into this photo, as niece Annabelle is due in the spring!

We've taken this photo 3 of the last 4 years, and I hope we're able to keep up the tradition for years to come. (We may eventually need a larger couch, however.)

After all the festivities we rewarded ourselves with a lot of relaxation and family time.

We returned home to host more family for a holiday dinner, followed by a real low-key New Year's Eve.

We are anxious to see what 2015 has in store for our home and yours. We look forward to welcoming a new niece, teaching Adam to ride a 2-wheeler, sending our 5-year old off to kindergarten (!), training for more races and activities, and continuing with Sam's speech and social development to hopefully hear those first sweet words real soon.

Hoping your hearts were as full as ours this year -- all our best for 2015.

Thanksgiving Week 2014

Who doesn't love November? One of my favorite months, of sure, especially since the past couple of years our friends from Florida have come up for Thanksgiving. This year we made sure to take the whole week off to spend it with them. With their 2 little ones, and my sister's little ones, we had 6 kids aged 5 and under that needed to be entertained.

So, road trip! First up was Mammoth Caves National Park, which was a whole day trip to eastern Kentucky. We left the little girls and took just the boys. It was a couple hour drive of snack-giving, toy-sharing, game-playing, are-we-there-yet question-answering and a quick Cracker Barrel breakfast before our tour. Friend Ryan had been studying caves so it was a great way to roll in some educational fun into their vacation. We took the Frozen Niagara tour, which takes visitors to the most decorated areas of the caves. We saw lots of stalactites and stalagmites and the tour length was just right for 4 & 5 year old attention spans. Highlights for the boys were the bus ride to the cave entrance, the cave crickets (which look like spiders on the ceiling), turning the lights out inside the cave, and asking our guide questions (including can you turn the lights out again). Our ranger was very patient and kind when their little hands kept shooting up to ask a question, and I was quite proud of them for their thoughtful (and relevant!) inquiries.

Ready to go

Some of the draperies down below

The natural cave entrance

Inside the house there's only so much room for running around, and boys need space! We took them to an apple orchard on a cooold day, but these kiddos stayed warm by all the climbing and jumping.

And speaking of jumping, we tried out Sky Zone another day, and that was so fun! Even Sam had a great time running across all the trampolines and even took a dive in the foam block pit. Adam wants to wear his special trampoline socks just about every day.

And we filled up all the in-between times with plenty of playing, dressing up, and birthday pancakes for Stella's 3rd birthday.

Oh, and of course, the main event, Thanksgiving itself: 1 fried turkey, 1 roasted turkey, 1 smoked turkey breast and 24 people!

I hope your table was surrounded by much love!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Autumn Wrap-Up

When you look outside and see this....

you know you're behind on updating about our Autumn. It was a really pretty Fall this year, and we did so many things to enjoy the weather.

Evans Apple Orchard

With Aunt Amy and family and Grandpa Dave on perhaps the hottest day of the season -- Adam was a sweaty, dirty mess by the end but had so much fun. We never actually left the play area to go to the orchard itself.

Horse-Daze

This is a really neat event annually held by the county parks system. It features all kinds of horse-related activities and games, including horse rides, horse grooming, an equestrian course for kids to jump themselves, face painting, a hayride, food and more. The event raises money for the public horse trails around the county.

Pumpkin Run & Fall Festival

We'd been looking for a 5k for Adam to do, as part of the mile-per-year plan Michael has for Adam. Last year, when Adam was 3 years old, he ran his first 5k. Three years, three miles. This year we needed a four mile race, which don't really exist, but we found a small community 5k that also had a 1-mile family walk. The Pumpkin Run is sponsored by the local YMCA and was held in the quaint river town of Franklin, Ohio.

First up was the Family Walk, and Michael and Adam headed out quickly. Sam was itching to get out of his stroller so I let him loose on the course as well and he pretty much completed the distance all on his own.  Following this race was the Pumpkin Run with several costumed participants. Aunt Angie and Kevin joined us for this race. I pushed Sam and Michael ran with Adam. Four miles completed all on his own!

Following the race was the town's Fall Festival with street food, craft vendors, kid rides and presentations by local groups. It was a perfect Fall day to be outside enjoying the event, and cousin Jake was able to come play with us.

Halloween

Halloween snuck up on me this year, and once again I was staying up late to finish Adam's Halloween costume. He'd wanted to be a mummy for a long tim but the closer the day came he kept changing his mind. I made the final decision for him and threw together a mummy costume using liner fabric I had on hand, ripped it up and dyed it with tea, and attached it to a t-shirt and pants. For Sam, we recycled the frog costume Adam wore at the same age.

We had tickets to go see Garth Brooks in concert Rupp Arena at 10:30 Halloween night, so we drove down to Lexington to join the cousins for trick-or-treating before the show.

Mother Nature didn't tell Autumn that her season was over before the first snow fall came mid-November (4 inches!), and we lost a tree in our yard due to the weight of the snow and ice on tree branches that still had leaves.

Our November ended quite busy with Sam's birthday (2!) and an active Thanksgiving week with friends from Florida. Posts on those to come!

Bourbon Chase 2014

So for the last couple of years Michael has done this relay race called the Bourbon Chase. It takes place in Kentucky along the famous Bourbon Trail; it is a 12-person team, 200-mile continuous race. Last year my sister Angie participated and kept telling me how fun it was and that I had to join the team this year. I didn't know which sounded worse -- the idea of running in the dark along country roads alone in the wee hours of the morning with a headlamp or enduring broken sleep in the back of a van. But hey, they are all fun people and I can be talked into anything. Sign me up!

This is how it works -- Each team has 2 vans of 6 runners. Van 1 (ours) runs 6 legs, then Van 2 takes over while Van 1 rests and recovers. We cheer our runner at the start of the leg, drive the 5-7 miles to the next exchange spot and waited for him/her there. Then we sit and talk and check emails and take a nap and hydrate and eat and use the port-a-potty and debate the weather and running apparel, and then our next runner gets warmed up and prepped. When we see our runner we are there to greet him and cheer the next one of us on the start of the next leg. And we do it all over again. After 5 or 6 hours of this we meet up with our other van and pass off to them for the next 6 legs.We alternate 3 times with each runner running 3 legs over the course of 200 miles.

Van 1 consisted of me and Michael, my sister Angie, Michael's brother Kevin and his wife Jenny, and Michael's cousin Matthew. Our teammates in the other van consisted of my sister Kim, dear friend Rich, 2 running friends of Rich, and our last-minute replacements that, God love them, volunteered to participate and spend 36 hours with complete strangers! They were awesome and a fun addition to that van.

Race morning (Friday) started out at the Jim Beam Distillery. It's a staggered start with 10 teams going off every 10 minutes. Team Maker's Made Me Do It (that's us!) was one of the first teams at 7am.

Starting from Jim Beam Distillery, much of the run is along remote country roads that go between the distilleries on the Bourbon Trail (the long way around) through some of the most picturesque landscapes Kentucky has to offer. And, oh, Kentucky has hills to offer as well! Some legs have rolling hills and others have steep inclines that are so sharp that you can't even run down them. There was a disadvantage to every leg, whether the hills or distance or random dogs or traffic and city sidewalks. And rain. All of us had at least 1 run in the rain.

At the end of the first 6 legs we made it to Maker's Mark, which is so beautiful and fascinating and worth the visit even if you don't drink the stuff. Maker's is also a highlight because it's the first Van Exchange point and one of the few times we meet up with Van 2 and have our whole team all together.

Our second set (legs 13-18) began after 7 at night and wouldn't wrap up until 1:30 in the morning. Our bodies ached as we donned reflective vests, blinky lights and head lamps and opted for the best wet-weather gear we had, which was pretty futile because we were all soaked to the skin by the end of our legs. Fortunately, though, the temperature was perfect for running and even with the rain we weren't cold during the outings, just while waiting for them to begin.

click to enlarge

The course is marked with signs signaling turns and designating 1 mile to go, but take it from me, it's best to study the course prior to your leg so you don't, hypothetically, take a wrong turn and end up on another leg headed out of town at 12:30 in the morning and run an extra 1.5 miles trying to get back to where you're supposed to be. Just saying.

During our breaks from the race we try to get fed and rested as much as we can. The first break we found an Applebee's for lunch, then tried to nap in the van until it's our turn again. During our second break in the wee hours of the morning we actually drove back to Lexington to crash at a house for 2 hours and dry our clothes before heading back out there. After our final set we grabbed lunch, a shower and much appreciated and needed nap before greeting our team at the finish line to run it in together Saturday evening.

I'll be the first to admit that it wasn't alway fun. My runs were challenging, my quads ached and my body was stiff, and waiting around in a van for hours made me question what everyone else saw in this race. But sometime along those 34 hours my opinion changed. Maybe it was the drama and excitement (and later hilarity) of me getting lost, or my 7-mile final leg along horse farms into Woodford Reserve, or maybe it was the race finish atmosphere in downtown Lexington.

Whatever it was, it's enough to have me already committed to next year's race. But maybe with hill training next time. And van decorations. And coordinated costumes. And a finishing stunt.

As for Jenny, well, this pretty much sums up her decision to return:

Interval	Start Time of Day	Split	Split Pace	Overall Rank
Legs 1-6	7:30:16AM	06:01:18	10:50 min/mi	375/386
Legs 7-12	1:31:34PM	05:40:22	09:36 min/mi	305/386
Legs 13-18	7:11:55PM	06:18:52	11:42 min/mi	359/386
Legs 19-24	1:30:47AM	05:05:41	09:34 min/mi	278/386
Legs 25-30	6:36:27AM	06:12:13	11:15 min/mi	378/386
Legs 31-36	12:48:40PM	5:00:39
Total	5:49:20PM	34:19:05		379/386

12 Runners

200 Miles

7 Distilleries

October 10-11, 2014

Bourbon Chase

Jim Beam • Four Roses • Wild Turkey • Heaven Hill • Woodford Reserve • Maker's Mark • Town Branch

Holiday Roundup

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year... Happy early MLK Day!

We were so busy this holiday season visiting and playing and eating and unwrapping (and cleaning and dieting) that blogging fell by the wayside. We had about four different Christmas celebrations -- the first just our little family of four, then with all the Moreland cousins, then with all the Elder cousins, and then one more Moreland family dinner. It's so wonderful, but also so bustling that sometimes it's hard to sit and enjoy the still quiet of the holiday. 

Just after New Year's (which was a quiet, low key "celebration"), I started thinking about how ironic it is that just as it's time to pack up the decorations for another year is the time that I really have a moment to enjoy them. I'm finally still, content, and appreciative.

First new year's resolution: 

Go slower. Appreciate the little stuff. Take the time. Do less. Just be.

So, in that spirit, I'm going to just let the photos speak for themselves.

Here's a little of what our holidays were like this year.

One last holiday activity -- Train display at the Children's museum. New holiday tradition.

Christmas morning

Christmas with the cousins

Off to Gramma and Grandpa's house.

Annual holiday photo

One last family gathering.

We hope your home was as filled with love. All our best for 2014!