What's new?

What's new over here is that we had an absolutely fantastic weekend with Amy, Leah, and Karen (and Steve, Chad, Sophie and Evie, and Eddie).  Amy and Karen and I ran our 3.5 miles together on Saturday.  It was (honestly said) great fun.  It was perfect weather - low 60s with clear blue skies - and my first time running outside since we started training two weeks ago.  And, you know, they have hills in that part of the country.  Serious hills.  We don't have any to speak of on the coast where we live, so I was quite nervous about that.  But I actually did okay.  We took a few short walking breaks, but finished strong and were very proud of ourselves.

We also had a very exciting experience Saturday morning.  I found out (mid trip to see animals and have a hay ride on a farm with the kiddos) that I had a flat tire.  I pull into a store parking lot and a random guy (whom we for the rest of eternity will refer to as Touched By an Angel guy) not only found the screw that popped my tire, but pulled it out, patched it with a plug he "happened to have in his car" and then drove 15 minutes to grab his own air pump from home to pump my tire back up.  So, from finding out that I had a popped, flat tire to being back on the road again was no more than a half an hour.  And with two two year olds asking where the animals are, that's a really big deal.  Thanks, TBA-Superman-Saver of Saturday!

We got to the farm without further incident, only to find out that because of a death in the family, the farm was not open officially.  They offered us a free pumpkin for the kids and free passes for next year.  We got out, took a few pictures of the kids by the pumpkins and decided to ask if the guy knew of another farm close by where we could see animals, because the kids were still very concernedly asking where the animals were.  He said, "Oh, we've got plenty of animals!  Just walk up that hill over yonder and you can see them by the red barn."   So, with no one else at the farm and no entrance fee, we got to see the animals and take a pumpkin home and get free passes for next year (though we did give our condolences for the family...that did put a slight morbid damper on things).  For Busy Bee and Sophie, that was all they cared about and for we adults, it was a much appreciated (second!) fix to our not-at-all ruined Saturday. 

We had much more eating, laughing, reminiscing, talking, and watching Busy Bee and Sophie bond and become BFF.  So cute.  I love those girls so much and I'm so thankful that we live in driving distance - at least for a little while.  We also determined that once Sweets retires (or ETSes, depending on what happens in the future) from the Army that where they live will be our Someday destination.  We even picked out houses on our run.  :)  Fun, fun, fun. 

And now, for a change of pace and a bit of a treat, I'll leave you with a few pictures of my sweet Busy Bee. 

Showing off his new Elmo book.  He's saying "cheese" and looking away from the camera.  Classic Busy Bee.

New Cookie Monster slippers are all the rage around here.

Busy Bee busy playing.

I love that sweet boy!