Top of the Rock

In October Larry and Wanda, along with two of Wanda's sisters, were vacationing for the week in Branson. They invited us down to visit and go to Top of the Rock with them. It wast  a beautiful day and a really fun time. We had a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant and took in the pretty scenery via a golf cart tour. The trees had just started to change colors for the fall, perfect timing for us to be there. I had wanted to go to Top of the Rock for quite a while and am so glad I got a chance to. Ross and I plan to go back in the spring, sans kids, to enjoy it a little more!

From left to right:
Walt and Marilyn (Wanda's sister), Connie (Wanda's sister), Ross, Lucy, Molly, Libby, Wanda, Larry

This is a sinkhole that opened up on the golf course.

Lingo From A Lifetime Ago

This past summer I saw a friend who I had not seen in quite a while. Her name is Kris and I first met her in 2001 when I started teaching step classes at a local gym. We became pretty good friends, seeing each other during class and hanging out together outside of class. We both got into running at the same time and wound up doing the 2006 Chicago Marathon together. After that, we kind of drifted apart and weren't as close as we'd been before. We saw each other every now and then and got reconnected via Facebook a few years back.

Well, Kris stopped by my garage sale this past June and we talked for probably 45 minutes. We filled each other in on our lives, but probably the most of our conversation was spent talking about running. She is still running regularly and loves it very much. She's done a few more marathons after the one we did together, and has now gotten into trail running, and running l-o-n-g distance races. As we were talking, she kept using running terms that, back in the day, would have flowed out of my mouth as easily as they did hers...road race, getting my miles in, did ___ (insert a specific race name), trail running, and several other terms that have slipped my mind now. Most of those terms would make sense only to someone who is in the running culture. I was listening to her just nodding my head and asking questions or commenting on what she was saying and at the same time thinking about how different my life was now compared to then when I was living her world, so to say.

It seems like I'm fighting an uphill battle trying to get back into running! I haven't run regularly since I was pregnant with Lucy, so over five years now. I've gone through spurts where I've started a running schedule (like 2-3 days a week) but it hasn't stuck. I've either been too lazy to get out of bed early (5:30am) and run, a kid has been sick and kept me up overnight, I've been sick, or I just haven't wanted to! Some day maybe I'll get back into a good running routine and that lingo will be like second nature to me, but for now I'll take the running days that I can get and the lingo of my life now....do you have to go potty, let's go to preschool, pick up your toys.......

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken with the Ward/Herndon/Wiseman family last weekend. And the best part of the pictures....they were completely free! We used a tripod and my iPhone 7+, using the portrait/depth effect setting and I think they turned out great for what we needed! We were at my sister's house in Joplin and the tree we used as a background was right in her yard. It was a cloudy day, which is actually perfect for picture taking, I think. I love pictures and put a very high value on them and was so happy with how these turned out! They're not perfect, but they're great for free!

The process went pretty well, except for a small meltdown by Lucy. It was kind of wet out and her boots and socks got wet, which made for an unhappy little girl. After we got her shoes and socks changed out, though, it got a little better!

Oh and today's my birthday, too! :)  :)  :)  :) 

Halloween Fun!

We've had a lot of Halloween fun over the last few weeks! The girls decided (with a little bit of my help) to dress up as Strawberry Shortcake and Blueberry Muffin. I ordered their costumes and thought they looked pretty cute!

Lucy was also really excited about Halloween and loved all the "smooky" as she called them decorations that were out and about. She thought it was a lot of fun. I just have fall decor, not any Halloween decor, so guess I should hit the after-the-holiday sales looking for cheap Halloween decorations to have for next year!

Here's what all we did for Halloween:

On Tuesday, October 24, Lucy got to wear her Halloween costume to dance class and then ended up wearing it all day long!

On Wednesday, October 25, Lucy had a Fall Festival at her preschool and got to wear her costume to school and had a really fun time playing games, painting a pumpkin, and trying different Halloween snacks.

On Thursday, October 26, we (well, Ross) carved a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. This was the first time we'd done this as a family and I think the girls really liked it!

On Friday, October 27, Ross' work had trick-or-treating for kids in their building. I was quite impressed with all the decorating they did! It was pretty neat and the girls got A LOT of candy! It was a very fun time! Then that evening we went to dinner with some friends and then went to a local small town "Halloween Haunt" set up in their city hall building. It was a good time playing games and trunk-or-treating.

On Sunday, October 29, our church had its annual Harvest Party where we had a chili dinner, got to play games, watch fireworks and trunk-or-treat again.

Then finally on Halloween, October 31, we trick-or-treated at the library for their Halloween story time, had a jack-o-lantern pizza for dinner and then went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with Gumma and Poppy. It was a really fun time and the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves! I think Molly really liked the trick-or-treating part!

Just one of the decorated hallways at Ross' work. All of the other hallways were decorated just this much or even more! I was quite impressed with the work that went into making it such a fun event!

All the candy from Ross' work!

At the Battlefield City Haunt with friends Maren (the mermaid) and Amelie (the tootsie roll). Our girls love playing with them and are great friend! We're good friends with their parents, so it's a win-win situation!

Lucy's "smooky" spider pose. :)

This was a big blow-up slide. We were very surprised that Lucy went down it, as she usually gets scared doing things like this. We were very proud of her for doing so!

Sweet little Molly riding the cow train at our church event.

Blueberry Muffin and Strawberry Shortcake trick-or-treating at the library!

Our jack-o-lantern pizza from Papa Murphys! Such a fun idea and so good, too!