Thanksgiving, part 1

As has become a family tradition, we drove to Detroit to celebrate Thanksgiving with Joe's dad and his sisters/their families. This was our fifth year going to Detroit, fourth year driving roundtrip and taking part in the Turkey Trot, third year with Joseph, second year driving a minivan, and first year with Madeline and spending a night in a hotel room with two kids!

We made it to Toledo, Ohio, which is less than an hour outside of downtown Detroit. We opted to stop because it was getting late for the kids' bedtime, and the hotels were much more reasonably priced than those in downtown Detroit. Our schedule was fairly relaxed, as we were just planning to get to the Cobo Center at noon for packet pickup for the Turkey Trot the following morning, and then had to be at the airport at 1pm to pick Mike up.

The kids did quite well, although it took Joseph a while to settle down and fall asleep, since he'd been in the car all day and was excited to play in the room and bounce on his own queen sized bed. Finally, though, he calmed down and both kids fell asleep.

The next morning, Joseph had fun cuddling with Maddie, who had recently started liking sitting propped up with pillows. She did well, but at the end of November was still waking every 2.5-3 hours to eat, after her approximately 5 hour stretch. Luckily, Joseph never woke up when she did, probably because I had her in the pack 'n play right next to my side of the bed, so I could take care of her as soon as I heard her stirring.

Wednesday night Lisa, Dan, Linda and their kids all arrived at Joe 5's house, and we spent some time visiting, eating dinner, and planning out the schedule for the next morning. I was unsure whether I would leave Madeline at the house with Mike, who was watching Benton and Claire, or whether I would just bring her with us. I wasn't able to pump enough to leave a bottle, and the forecast was quite warm (for Detroit at least!) so we opted to bring her along and take her for her first race.

The little kids all participated in the Mashed Potato Mile, which happened before the start of the 5k and 10k races. This was Joseph's first year actually running the race, and he did great!

We got separated from Lisa, Dan, James and Ruth, so I didn't get "action" shots of them, but we stayed relatively close to Linda and Ethan, which gave Joseph the added support he needed when he started getting tired. Ethan did great this year!

Joseph definitely started to slow way down and didn't want to finish, but Joe wouldn't let him give up. So he unzipped his coat, took a water break, and kept on plugging along.

Finish line in sight! Like a true Jeppson, he ran the whole way to the finish (the red flags marked the finish line). We were so proud of him!

This year all of the finishers received medals. At least, they were supposed to, but the race organizers ran out before everyone had finished. I think the warm weather and lure of a medal made this race attendance much higher than anticipated, and there were definitely issues at the finish line!

Here's our group of mile runners!

Madeline fell asleep during the mile, and stayed asleep for the entire 5k, which I ran instead of the 10k since I was pushing the stroller. I had never taken her running before, so I wasn't sure how long she'd stay asleep, and didn't want to get stuck on the course with a hungry baby! 

Dan took all of the kids back to the house in one van, while Lisa, Linda, Joe, Madeline and I stayed for the 5k and 10k races. We had barely enough time after finishing the mile to get back to the start of the races, and actually the first wave of finishers had already started coming before we were able to make it to the starting line. Thank goodness for chip timing! Except it didn't matter this year, as there was so much congestion at the finish line, the crowd had to slow to a walk, and it took me over 5 minutes to walk the last tenth of a mile.

Madeline "wearing" my finisher's medal. We hung out while waiting for Lisa, Linda and Joe to finish the 10k, and then headed back to Joe 5's house for our traditional Thanksgiving afternoon of lounging around and eating a fantastic dinner!