Fun With Friends

Guess where we went recently with some friends?  Right.  Nags Head Woods.  I swear we do other fun stuff, but apparently I only take my camera with me when we got to Nags Head Woods.  Oh, well.  At least I take it somewhere.

This time we walked 2 trails with 4 kids.  They did pretty good for most of the way but nearly gave out completely when we weren't quite back at the car yet!  These kids were crazy.  Totally silly.  Lots of fun!  I'll let the pictures do the talking.  Just check out how many times I tried to get a picture of all of them looking at me at the same time.  Never happened.

Everyone is saying, "Cheeeeese!" but looking in in all sorts of directions.

Close!  But still looking all over the place!

Maybe the best attempt, but I'm not sure what Kingston is looking at.

And then in another location, Kingston is completely turned around.

And now Riley is turned around and Austin is about to bolt!

Oh, whatever!

Just forget it!

Oh, Austin.  This was good except you are tired of sitting still!

Good times with good friends.  These are my running partners' kids.  Austin belongs to Mallory, and Riley and Sophie belong to Michelle.  The plan is to play in our backyard this Saturday so that the kids can run around and the moms can pick which race we are going to train for next!

Mission Accomplished!

Today, I ran a marathon.  The Yuengling Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA, to be specific.  It was great.  Totally great.  And I will be sore for days!

We drove up to VA yesterday for a leisurely day of shopping and hanging out.  We first went to the Race Expo to pick up our packets.

My race bib.  I love that random people know your name and can "personally" cheer for you.

Mallory, me and Michelle.  The best running partners EVER!

After the Expo we went to lunch at Baker's Crust. Yum! But it took forever. We only had time for Trader Joe's and Target before heading to our hotel.  We got our act together and put on a few more layers (it got COLD!) before heading out to a great dinner at Isle of Capri.  Yum again!

The girls, ready for dinner!

The view from the front door of our hotel.  We got a little silly and a lot like 3 middle school girls at a slumber party!  The only difference-we didn't stay up all night giggling.  We were asleep by 9:30!

This morning we woke up before our alarm went off and got dressed for the race.  We were lookin' good!  We got a lot of comments about our shamrock tights along the course!

The shamrock capris.  Yikes!  Cute little shamrocks around the knees. . . Giant oversized shamrocks around the thighs and butt! ;)

The wind was howling, the temperature was really cold, and we started 15 minutes late.  Other than that, the start was great!  Mallory was not able to run, due to some health problems, so she was able to take a few pictures of us along the way. 

Can you believe there was someone else wearing the shamrocks?  The girl in the shorts was not with us!

The first 20 miles were fine.  It was after that that things got pretty tough.  We started to walk through the water stations and walked maybe a tenth of a mile another time, just to get through it.  We knew that Mallory was going to meet us at mile 23 and run us in the final 3 and I have never been so happy to see someone in all my life!  She was there at just the right time.  Michelle moved on ahead a bit and Mallory stayed right with me.  She even took my picture!

I don't really look like I've run 25 of 26.2 miles!  But I promise I was feeling it!

The last 2 miles were like torture, if I'm being honest!  Thank goodness I had Mallory with me or I might have started walking.  She encouraged me to finish strong, and finish strong I did.  My final time was 4:59:23.  My goal was to run it in less than 5 hours and I accomplished my goal!  Hooray!  I'm very pleased with myself.

I ran a marathon today.  I can't believe I just wrote that.  And I plan to write it again some time in the future.  Just not the near future!  Or even the sort of near future!  It will be a while but I think I will do it again.  I feel amazing.  Even if I can't walk tomorrow!

Personality

Kingston totally cracks me up.  On a regular basis.  I'm sure everyone thinks their kid is the cutest and the funniest, but I think Kingston really has a great personality and a hilarious sense of humor.  He clearly gets his good looks and his wittiness from his mama.  Clearly.

In January, the whole family went to the Great Wolf Lodge.  We went with another family and we had a really great time.  Kingston loved the kiddie pool but was not super pumped about the big slides that he ended up having to go down all by himself.  He never got upset or cried, he just didn't want to do them again!  When we talk about it, he says, "Weeeeell, I just like the little slides!"



Curren and Kingston getting ready to hit the park!  Kingston says, "I'm wearing my gobbles!"

We have been having self-proclaimed "Fun Fridays" with one of my oldest friends, Bird, and her two little girls.  Every week we try to do something new and fun and so far Friday has lived up to its name!  A few weeks ago we went to a Mommy and Me indoor camping party.  The kids were asked to wear their PJ's and be ready for s'mores, stories and crafts.  We were ready! 

Flannel PJ's, flip flops, and his "Packpack."  He wore this all day. 

No Fun Friday this week since Bird has the flu.  Ugh!  Sorry, Birdie!  Hope you feel better soon!  I'm left to figure out what to do with my funny kid all by myself!  I'm sure he will keep me entertained.  He's already been running around naked, giggling and dancing and spanking his own "butt-butt butterbean."  He is clothed now, so we will see what comes next!

A Hiking We Will Go

We went for another little hike through Nags Head Woods recently. This time Dada was invited and came along! Everyone had a great time. We are looking forward to more hikes when the weather finally decides to warm up for good. It is perfect for a whole family outting, as well as a great way to burn off some energy. And since we are "changing our naps" these days (which Kingston says every day and I have taken to mean he wants to skip his nap), I like to make sure he is good and tired and ready to go to bed earlier than usual.

Chase me!

The one-legged pose.

A great family shot, even if it does look like an advertisement for SmartWater! Too bad I'm too lazy to edit my photos. . .

Family shot, take 2. The lighting was better in the first, but the composition is better in this one, if you want to get technical about it.

Handsome hiker.

We hiked about a mile and that was a plenty this time. There are a few more trails that are longer that we will try later. We had to ease Dada into it!

And on a totally different note, we have less than 2 weeks until our Marathon. Zoinks! (I've been watching waaaay to much Scooby Doo recently.) I think we are ready but I'm not totally sure!

Odds and Ends

• Kingston and I recently went on a "hike" through Nags Head Woods with some friends. It was tons of fun and I look forward to doing it again soon when it permanently warms up.
• Nigel is in Jamaica for the week on a much-needed surf trip with some of his best guy friends. We miss him a lot and look forward to seeing him on Tuesday.
• While Nigel has been gone, Kingston has been sick. He didn't go to Mrs. Cindy's house either day he was supposed to this week since he had a fever and was out of sorts. I think he had the croup, which is no fun for anyone.
• I have had to get creative with my training this week (yeah, I'm training for a full marathon). Luckily, I'm only supposed to run 3 miles each weekday run this week and 15 miles on Sunday. I've got the Sunday run covered already but I had to do some thinking to get the other runs in. I refused to take a pitiful, sick kid to the Child Watch at the Y for a workout so I looked to family to save the day! Aunt Freda watched him for 30 minutes on Wednesday after we had haircuts in Manteo so that I could run. Then tonight my dad came over to stay with Kingston while I did a quick run. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to take Kingston to the Y in the morning to get out of the house and complete my weekday runs.
• Mom, you are not allowed to leave town at the same time as Nigel ever again. Thanks for understanding.
• We switched to DIRECTV and now have a DVR. Oh, DVR, where have you been all my life? When Nigel returns he won't be able to complain about how much I'm on my computer. Now he will wonder if I will ever stop watching TV! I have recorded, watched, paused and re-watched too much TV in the last 2 days. Oops.
• I watch Jersey Shore. I'm sorry, but I do. And now I can DVR it.
• Able (the dog) ran away while the DIRECTV guy was installing. He came back, like he always does, but his time covered in poop. Great! So now I have a really annoying dog who misses Nigel, who sleeps in my bed and will not allow me to give him a bath or even wipe him down sufficiently, who smells bad. Really bad.
• I am proud of myself. I have inspired a few people, I think! Since running the 1/2 marathon in November, I have inspired my mom and aunt to walk a 1/2 marathon here in April. I have inspired my girls Lars and Ball to run a 1/2 marathon in Atlanta in March. I have inspired my dad to get back into running after years off and now he is running frequent races and is in great shape. And I have inspired myself to run a full marathon in Virginia Beach in March.
• That is that for now.

In the Meadow. . .

. . . we probably could have built a snowman, but that would have required me to actually put my hands in the cold, wet, white stuff. I don't really do snow. I'd be fine with it if it wasn't so cold and wet. I'm just sayin'. It may have a lot to do with the fact that I never have the appropriate clothing to wear in the snow. Neither does Kingston, but that didn't seem to get him down. Cotton gloves, denim pants, shoes, not boots. Oh, well. We tried.

Kingston enjoyed the snow. In fact, he loves it so much that he still has to stick his hand in the few remaining piles on the porch on the way to the car, every single time. And then tells me that his hand is cold. Exactly, Bud. That is why I don't touch the stuff.

Birthday Boy!

This is Kingston.

He is 3 years old now. He requested a birthday party with silly hats, balloons and cupcakes. Done. Except I guess the hats I bought (and paid nearly $5 for-ugh!) must not have been silly enough because he opened them but didn't want to wear them or pass them out. But we did have balloons and cupcakes and friends over to play.

Cupcakes. Thomas colors, since I was too lazy to figure out how to make a Thomas cake.

And friends. Liam is his best buddy from Mrs. Cindy's house. He kept saying to Nigel, "Dada. This is Liam. This is Liam, Dada."

We played outside for a few minutes before presents and cupcakes. I was totally impressed with Joseph's whiffleball skills! He made contact with the ball nearly every pitch. He has way better hand-eye coordination than I. And he only bonked the dog in the head with the ball or the bat twice! Success!

My favorite picture! (Except for the fact that the only part of Jo-Jo in the picture is his hand.) The reason this is my favorite picture is because of the look on Dallas' face and the fact that she has her hand over Kiran's mouth. He was trying to blow out the candle and got a little upset at the fact that it wasn't "Kee-kee's turn" to blow it out! Dallas was not having it, as you can tell. Classic!

And what is a birthday party that doesn't involve icing on your nose?

And Kingston got to open presents. Clearly his favorite part.

He had lot of help.

I wanted to take a picture of all of the boys (and Liam's sweet sister, Sophie). I knew better. I really did. But I wanted to try anyway. It was a lot like herding cats, as they say. This is the only picture that has at least a part of everyone in it. See that green elbow? That was Liam. He wasn't having it.

This was as close as we got. Oh, well. We had a fun time at Kingston's 3rd birthday party. He has a really sweet group of little buddies that are welcome to come over to play any time.


And then Monday was Kingston's actual birthday. I can't believe my big boy is 3! I surprised him with a birthday donut in bed!

We had a family birthday party in the evening that included, but was not limited to, hanging out without pants on, homemade pizzas, performing songs while strumming a guitar, opening lots of presents, and pooping on the floor.

But more on that another time once Nana emails me the pictures.

Happy birthday, Kingston Dylan Haynes! You are my favorite little boy in the whole, wide world. You amaze me every day with your wit, intelligence, peace and charm. I am so proud of you and I look forward to celebrating lots and lots more birthdays with you.