Thanksgiving, part 2

Another of our Thanksgiving traditions is to go bowling the day after Thanksgiving. This year we took up three lanes, and once again, Ruthie was the high scorer of the kids, and Grandpa Joe won overall.

Joseph definitely got into bowling more this year. Joe had to help show him how to roll the ball the first time...

but after that, Joseph knew what to do and was pretty insistent that he do it without help.

 I wore Madeline for the whole bowling session, and let her watch facing outward for the first few frames. Turns out, she was a good luck charm - I got a few strikes and spares! Who knew?

Benton and Claire had fun playing with the bowling balls, but generally were happy to hang out, pushing buttons on the scoring machines and toddling around after everyone.

Eventually Madeline tired of helping me bowl, and fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn.

 Aunt Lisa introduced Joseph to coin-operated candy machines for the first time in his life. To be fair, he may have seen these last year, but he wasn't as much of a candy monster back then.

The lighting is horrible, but I figured I might as well just get these posted before more time has passed. Joseph was fine sharing the candy with the other kids, but he still wasn't too sure if they were going to take his when it was his turn to bowl.

We had lots of fun, and managed to get the bowling in before the weather turned ugly. The boys spent the afternoon at the movies while the kids napped, and because they hadn't bought their tickets in advance, ended up having to see a later show than anticipated. Add in a few extra errands, and our evening plans had to be scrapped.

Luckily, Lisa had a great idea to take the kids to a McDonald's with a playspace for dinner and to burn off steam, as it had started to snow lightly and was too cold to play outside. We spent at least an hour there letting the kids play, and then put them to bed before the dads returned home with pizza and a peanut butter pie for our own dinner.

Madeline got way off her sleep schedule while we were in Detroit, even though we tried to keep her sleeping. Eventually, she wouldn't fall asleep unless she was being rocked to sleep, and even then fussed until she passed out. We also lost her long stretch, and it took a couple weeks after we returned home to get her back to sleeping better again.

Final day of our Thanksgiving trip report will be in the next post, as I've got a crying baby to attend to!

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!

Really old pictures - Madeline at 2 months old

So remember when I said I had these pictures but then we got a new router and I couldn't get them off my computer? Well, almost 6 weeks later, here they are! These were taken on Nov 7, Madeline's 2 month birthday. She's definitely grown a lot since then, but these capture her well at 2 months. 

She still loves to shrug her shoulders when she smiles, like she's being bashful and trying to be cute all at the same time.

She was definitely starting to perk up and show us her personality, too.

Such a sweet baby!

Big girl

Look who's big enough for the bumbo seat! And who else is starting to show bits of jealousy... "My turn for pictures, mom!"

Recap of the North Face Endurance Challenge

On Saturday, November 17th, joe and I ran in the North Face Endurance Challenge. Joe had signed up for the 50k with Scotty, and I used a free registration code a few weeks before the race to sign up for the 10k. Thankfully, Jill agreed to spend the night Friday and watch the kids for us, since the races started at 7am.

The morning started off really cool, and it took a solid mile and a half before my legs warmed up and didn't feel numb. This was my longest run this year, so I just focused on the fact that it was a good training run for my upcoming half marathon. The course was a nice winding path through UMKC, brookside, the plaza, Westport and back down the west side of Hyde park.

I didn't have a great race experience, and ended up running slower than I wanted, since I had to add in a number of walking breaks. I finished at about an 11 minute per mile pace, took my medal gratefully and headed through the finish line food tent, which was seriously disappointing. Tricia and I headed home so I could shower and relieve Jill. Luckily the kids did great for her!

We had plenty of time to hang out before heading back to the course to watch Scott and joe finish. We knew 31 miles would take them a long time, but Scott must have had more in the tank as he put some serious distance between himself and Joe. We thought we had plenty of time to make it back to see Scott finish, but apparently the gps app had just enough lag that we walked up seconds after he crossed the finish line. Boo!

Joe was about an hour behind, but we weren't sure when he was going to finish so we just hung out on the finish line. Joseph had been having fun running around with Tricia and watching other kids join their parents to run across the finish, and decided he wanted to also. Except when joe came down the hill and took Joseph's hand, 7 opted not to go. You can see him watching joe round the last corner and run for the finish. All of a sudden, Joseph took off running after him! He ended up running down the finish chute all by himself, and Tricia ran ahead to get Joe's attention so he could catch him. It was rather cute; Joseph didn't stop once!

The day I lost my little boy

Joe set up the Wii tonight to play with Joseph. Turns out, being almost 3 isn't too young to have lots of fun! I'm not sure who enjoyed the games more- Joseph, or Joe, when he realized his son is now old enough for video games. Just another incentive to get the basement in working order as a play space, so they can do what boys do best- hang out together, watching movies, playing video games and ignoring the girls!

First shot at the Wii

He has been playing for 5 minutes. He can already navigate the menu and has caught 3 fish unassisted. I give it an hour before he is better at this than us. Or has lost interest and is trying to hit us with the remote.