UEA Staycation

We had the 4-day UEA/fall break last week, but I had accidentally scheduled a half-marathon right in the middle of it.  So, we were stuck IN town.  While we were around, we did some fun stuff to try to make up for not going anywhere "out of town."

Before we started the fun stuff, we had to check some things off our to-do lists.  We did some yard work, we cleaned our rooms, and we got our family pictures taken since it had been a couple of YEARS since we did it.  It was kind of spur-of-the moment and just at an indoor photographers since 'tis the season for family pictures, but still counts!

I was hustling around getting everyone ready, then realized we had to leave NOW or we were going to be late.  I herded everyone to the car, grabbed my shoes on the way out the door and drove to the place barefoot.  I grabbed my shoes to go inside, and....they did not match.  Not even close.  And they were both the same foot:

Uh.....oops.  How big of a dork am I?  Lucky for me there was a Famous Footwear across the parking lot, so I ran over there and speed-purchased some new shoes.  The girl at the register had to ask me about the fashion statement I was making and she thought the whole thing was pretty dang funny.  I guess it was.  "But hey," she said, "At least you got some new shoes out of it!"  The girl speaks truth.

While I was frantically buying shoes, the kids got started on their modeling.  Some of the pictures turned out pretty cute.

Here are the kids pretending to be sweet and normal:

 Then letting their real selves show:

 The whole bunch of us:

 Arden, complete with braces.  They tried to get her to take some "serious" non-smiling pictures, and she is really, really bad at it.  Smiling is best anyway, right?

Cora likes to smile.  She was actually full-on-open-mouth laughing in quite a few, which is fun but makes her pretty eyes all squinty.  I like this one:

 One of Dax's front teeth was pretty loose and hanging crooked.  He really, really didn't want me to pull it out, even though I begged and pleaded.  I didn't want to have to sit on top of my boy and wrestle his tooth from his jaw just so we could get some cute gap-tooth pictures.  He looks fine from far away though, right?  Cute boy.

Up close, things are a little but wonky.  Oh well.  It kind of looks like there is a gap already.

We also made a visit to the corn maze at Black Island Farms.

 The kids LOVE these hay bale slides and could play on them for hours (this is the small one).  I don't know why they are so much more fun than regular slides, but they are.

 Arden is getting a little old for the cow train, but she still likes it.

 The sun set over the corn before we got into the maze.  By the time we ate dinner and headed into the maze, it was pretty much pitch black dark.  We could not see the map, so we wandered aimlessly, letting the kids guide the way.  We thought we might be in there for quite a while, but we found our way through surprisingly fast.  I was completely turned around and had no idea we were close to the end and then suddenly we were out!  I was half expecting them to have to send a search party after us, so YAY for us.

We did one more big slide, hit the bouncy house, watched the pig races, chose some pumpkins then finally headed home.

My half-marathon was on Saturday, and the weather was PERFECT!   My sister Val did the race with me,and it was so fun to have her to talk to while we waited for the race to start.  We didn't run together though because I was on a mission to try to beat the record I swore I wouldn't try to beat.  I smashed it!  (For full disclosure this course is what you call "aided."  The first 6 miles are downhill through Emigration Canyon and the last 2 miles of this race are downhill into Memory Grove Park. There are some wicked uphills in miles 7-11 as we run around the Avenues though.  The last big hill kicked my trash and I had to speed-walk up that one...stupid uphills.  They kill me.)

 I stopped my Garmin as soon as I hit 13.1, when I was still up the road a little from the finish line.  My actual chip time was 1:50:15, but still, pretty good (at least good for me), since my old PR was 1:54:00.  It was a fun race, and tons of people dressed up in costumes.  I was wonder woman again, but didn't take any pictures of myself, sorry.

The kids (and Preston) all did the kids race.  My parents came to watch us all, which was nice of them.  Here are the fast finishers!

Arden was determined to beat Dax, and she did it!  Dax is passing her up in height (and passed her long ago in weight), but Arden didn't let him pass her in this race.  Cora brought up the rear with Preston running along with her.  After the race was over, we all headed to Chili's to replace some calories.  

It was a fun weekend!