While trying to plan a surprise 50th birthday party for my mom, we knew that it would not be an easy task to get away with completely surprising her! So we set out to create a surprise that would really throw her off. Invitations were sent for a champagne brunch pajama party to be held at 9am Sunday morning. Mom was suspecting that something would be done for her, but she never saw it coming!

Sunday morning I "ran out to the car" to get a recipe for Mike, who was supposedly making her a special birthday breakfast. Instead, I met all of the party guests out in the parking area outside of my parents' house. My mom was sitting at the kitchen table on her new laptop with her back to the living room and front door, so she didn't see any of the people streaming into the room. She didn't hear us because Mike and I were pretending to fight as we yelled to each other from the kitchen to the living room. Mom turned around to tell us to stop fighting and everyone yelled "Surprise!" I have never seen her so shocked in my whole life. We got her good!!!!

Other than the pajama party, we also visited the Brookfield Zoo, which Benjamin loved. For some reason the highlight for him was seeing the tigers, which he talked about the whole time we were there! Then we went out to the Schnitzelplatz restaurant for an Oktoberfest dinner. After we finished our meal, one of the waiters was walking around dressed as a German woman in a ridiculous costume, handing out beaded necklaces. I wanted to get a necklace so we all waved him over to the table. Little did I know that the necklace was an entry to a competition up in front of the whole restaurant where the band was playing. I had no idea what I was in for and was getting more and more nervous when the waiter came back with a tray of baby bottles...that were filled with BEER! 5 women (I was one of them) and 5 men were going to compete in drinking their baby bottle faster than the others. Not one to disppoint audiences, I gave it my all and ended up the female winner! The waiter came by with our prizes and I was delighted to see that I had won a Schnitzelplatz beer mug and a T-shirt that says, "Happiness is drinking German beer." How perfect! We had a wonderful weekend in Chicago and were so glad to give Mom a fun and surprising 50th birthday!

As you can see from our flickr photos, Mike's relay race went splendidly. He ran in a team for the Great River Ragnar Relay Race. Mike and the other 11 people on his team ran a total of 198 miles from Lacrosse, WI to St. Paul, MN in just under 34 hours. Just to give you an idea of how grueling this was, Mike ran UP A BLUFF for 7.1 miles at 2:30 AM in the DARK! Very impressive! He compared it to adventure racing and said that he had a blast doing it.

Mike isn't the only Schmitt who ran in a race last weekend. I raced in the MN State Fair Milk Run 5k race on Sunday. Fortunately it was a gorgeous day! The course was much hillier than I had anticipated, but I had an awesome time and ran a great race. My return to the racing world (the last race I ran was back in Sept 2003) has inspired me to keep running and I cannot wait for my next race!

We spent a few hours wandering around the state fair after the race was over while Benjamin was able to hang out with his Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt. Here is a classic Benjamin story: At dinner that night we were trying to teach him Grandma and Grandpa's first names. First, we told him that Grandpa's name is Bert. He said "Grandpa Bert!" just fine. Then we asked him what Grandma's name is and he responded immediately with, "GRANDMA ERNIE!" We got quite a laugh out of that one! I think that now Cindy will forever be known as Grandma Ernie to Benjamin! :-)

Speaking of Bert and Ernie...I took Benjamin to see Sesame Street Live Friday night while Mike was doing his relay race. I went down to the Civic Center to pick up tickets Friday afternoon and thanks to a cancellation, I was able to get FRONT ROW, DEAD CENTER seats for us! It was awesome!! The characters danced right in front of us and even came by and said Hi to Benjamin. He just loved it and is still talking about seeing Elmo!

Both Mike and I had the extreme pleasure of helping with the planning for a visit by Kathrine Switzer to Mayo and the Running Room this week. She came and spoke at Mayo Clinic Monday night where Mike and I helped to sell her book. Mike even was able to go to dinner with her and a few of my colleagues (I was relieving the babysitter). Then Tuesday morning Mike led a run with her from the Running Room.

If you don't know who Kathrine is, she is the first female to ever enter and run the Boston Marathon. She ran it back in 1967 before women were officially allowed to run in the race and at a time when it was believed that women were not capable of running more than 200 meters (2 laps around the track). She was also instrumental in getting the women's marathon recognized as an Olympic sport (though it took a while -- the first time women ran it was at the 1984 Olympics). Kathrine is a spitfire and was incredibly entertaining and very gracious to us for helping her out. Mike had an awesome time sharing his running story with her and just talking the talk with a fellow marathoner. It was a great experience!

Okay, its no secret that Mike and I were (are) theatre kids. So I guess it didn't come as a big surprise that Benjamin has really taken to listening to my collection of showtunes in the car. His favorite is Ragtime and he just loves the opening number. He asks to listen to it all of the time and wants it played over and over. We showed off his musical skills to Mom and Dad while driving back to Rochester from the St. Paul Irish Fest this weekend. Dad was able to capture it on film...check it out:

It has been a while, I know (MOM!)...but I just haven't felt motivated to come on here and write anything. Mostly, it has been the uploading of the photos that I have been avoiding. Okay, well to be completely honest, I have had my nose stuck in the latest Harry Potter and couldn't be bothered. Hey, it was a great book and now that I am done reading it, here I am!

Erin's baby shower was a success! Mom and I worked really hard (with help from Cicely and Grandma on various things) on the favors and decorations and they looked fab, if I don't say so myself! The room was just adorable and I think everyone had a great time. I posted the picture of Erin, Cicely and I because who knows when we will get another one of these. There are many other pictures from the event on our flickr site.

Mike and I spent a weekend away this past Saturday and Sunday. As a Christmas present, Mike's parents gave us a gift certificate to a B&B in Sparta, WI. We went down on Saturday and kayaked 4 1/2 hours near there in Ontario, WI on the (appropriately named -- if you know that Dad and I were once in a tribe with this name) Kickapoo River. The water was very shallow due to no recent rain and because the weather was so beautiful, there were all sorts of strange people in canoes out there. But we had a great time and it was nice to get away. Benjamin stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt and I think they probably had more fun than they let on about.

Other than those two things, there isn't much going on here. It has been hot and very dry in Rochester, but we don't mind. Mike ran 6 miles of hills tonight in 85 degree weather with some pretty bad humidity, but he said it went really well. There's nothing like a little extreme Minnesota (summer OR winter) weather to prepare you for marathons!

It is just a short time before Benjamin and I board a plane to Chicago for the weekend, but I've been meaning to get the newest photos online and blog, so here it is.

Last weekend I travelled down to Winona to visit friends from college for a fun-filled night. I finally got to see my friend Tina's baby, Eleanor, who is adorable! Tina and Samantha and I went to LaCrosse as a kind of post-baby-celebration. We had a great time. Mike and Benjamin drove down on Sunday and we all were able to hang out for a while.

Earlier in the week we surprised Mike's Mom for her birthday by showing up for dinner...and staying for two nights! While up in the cities, we played with AJ and Benjamin's uncles/aunt and even snuck in a little time away for some drinks and dinner with Joe and Jen.

The 4th was relaxing, we didn't really do very much. Mike ran a 5 mile race in Stewartville that morning and Benjamin and I came out to watch. He did really well despite some pretty bad humidity. Other than that, we just grilled some hot dogs and spent some time watching Benjamin play in his new sandbox from G&G Andrews.

The newest batch of photos also includes some shots of the All Comers Track Meet, which Benjamin has run in twice. The Rochester Track Club puts this event on for kids of all ages. We're still trying to get Benjamin to run the full length of the race by himself, he gets kind of overwhelmed with the whole thing. His favorite part is getting a mark from a marker on his hand at the end (a way for the volunteers to know he got a ribbon), he thinks it makes him very special!

As I said before, we are off to Chicago in just a couple of hours. We are throwing Erin a baby shower on Saturday and all sorts of out of town family will be in. Benjamin can't wait to see his "Great Ahma"!!!

The last couple of weeks have been very hectic for all of us. It has taken me that long to put any recent pictures on our photo site, so now there are a lot of new pics there.

Benjamin turned two on the 27th. Mike and I went to his daycare that day to celebrate with all of his friends. We brought party hats and cupcakes for everyone to enjoy. Benjamin was in love with the attention, especially when everyone sang Happy Birthday to him! That night our friends Eric, Reese and Sidney came over to help us celebrate some more. Benjamin was able to eat a second cupcake that night and was popular enough to receive many singing phone calls and one video call as well. We had his birthday party on the following Saturday, the 30th. Family drove all the way in from Illinois and Wisconsin. We had gorgeous weather, Mike made fabulous food, and everyone had a great time! Sunday was a very relaxing day for all of us. Benjamin spent time playing in his new sandbox and using all of his new toys and we just enjoyed sitting out in the yard without feeling like we had 100 things we should be doing. Benjamin is in his new BIG BOY bed, which he just loves. He has been sleeping so well in it, too. It is hard for us to walk into his nursery and not see his crib, he is growing up soo fast.

I also uploaded pictures from father's day. We had a picnic at a lake with Mike's parents, Dan and Jennifer. While I was out of town for a work-related conference, Mike and Benjamin went to a party to say farewell to some of Mike's running friends who are moving back to Norway. Benjamin had fun running all over the house and yard at the party.

The day before father's day was the annual cemetery walk for Rochesterfest, which I like to participate in. This year I not only played a character, but I also wrote my own script for the day. Basically this involves standing on a grave for about 4 hours in god-awful heat, reciting the same 6 minute script over and over to groups of about 20 people. It is grueling, but I love it.

I think that is about it. We are glad to have the month of June be done and gone, as it was a really rough one for both Mike and I. And now we have some exciting things to look forward to in July and beyond: including Erin's baby shower, a weekend away for Mike and I, more camping trips, a huge relay race for Mike, the state fair, and many visits with family and friends.

So Mike and I participated in an awesome fundraiser this Saturday. The Rochester Public Library Foundation organized an "Amuzing Race" (based on the tv show, The Amazing Race, of which we are big fans). We were in a team of four with my good friend Lora and her brother Lance. The organization and efficiency of the race was unbelievable. We raced around Rochester from location to location collecting clues and completing challenges. We built a birdhouse, did orienteering in the woods, caught fly balls while attached to teammates, flew paper airplanes, seached VIN numbers on a car dealership lot, and had a WHOLE lot of fun! We unfortunately didn't win the race, which was likely due to a large number of things that slowed us down, including Mike taking a fly ball in the stomach (OUCH!). We did come in 19th place out of 35 teams and we are already strategizing next year's race!!

We once again visited the German American Institute in St. Paul which hosted a Sommerfest on their grounds on Sunday. Some of the Schmitt clan met us out there for German food and drink. Uncle Andy and Jennifer took Benjamin on a horse-drawn carriage ride, which he really enjoyed. We all had a great time sitting outside on a beautiful day, listening to the German bands!

We survived our first camping trip with Benjamin and had a great time! We went to Frontenac State Park with the Olsons and Skalskys on Friday night and stayed through Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, it rained on and off all weekend, but we did sneak in a hike in the sunshine and two great campfires! Benjamin was a trooper. Though he did do his share of exploring, he loved camping with his two buddies: Sidney and Reese. He slept really well both nights in the tent and enjoyed eating smores by the campfire! We are already looking forward to our next camping trip!

We just had an exhausting, but very fun weekend!! Grandma and Grandpa Andrews came up to visit Friday night and then Uncle Joe, Auntie Jen and AJ came down on Saturday. Mike and Joe ran the Med City Half Marathon Sunday morning and both ran faster than they had expected! We hung out with everyone all weekend with nice weather, it was great! We have some pictures on our Flickr site that we took and I also included some of the pictures from Mom and Dad because they were just too good!!

Our adorable nephew, AJ, is a musical talent! Here he is singing Neil Diamond's
"Song Sung Blue," this child is amazing!!

We spent our last weekend visiting Mike's family in Menasha, Wisconsin. We stayed with Mike's godparents, Aunt Loretta and Uncle Harold, and were joined by Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt for the trip. Benjamin's Great Aunt Monica, cousins Kevin and Brenda, their significant others and kids also came out for a barbecue and trip to the zoo on Saturday. Benjamin had a great time playing with his cousins, Tristan and Austin!! We had fun going to the N.E.W. Zoo in Green Bay, as you can see in our new photos on the Flickr account. Only another month before Benjamin turns 2!! We can hardly believe that the time is almost here, yet when we see how much he is growing and learning everyday, it seems very real.

Memorial Day Weekend is in a few days. Mike and his brother Joe are gearing up to run the half marathon at the Med City Marathon on Sunday. Grandma and Grandpa Andrews are also coming up for the weekend to hang out with us and we are very much looking forward to having a relaxing weekend here with everyone!

For Mother's Day, I decided that it would be fun to take Benjamin to the brand new Curious George exhibit at the Minnesota Children's Museum, so the three of us trekked up to the Twin Cities Sunday afternoon. We ate an awesome lunch in the Marketplace of the St. Paul Macy's, which is right down the street from the museum. Then we spent a couple of hours running around all of the exhibits (I'm not sure who had more fun, us or Benjamin!). After the museum, we drove to Midtown Global Market, where they have many many different ethnic food stalls, grocery stores and other things for sale. We picked up some amazing food and then headed over to Izzy's Ice Cream in St. Paul for our dessert...YUM! It was a wonderful day and we were able to visit 3 places that we have always wanted to go to, but never had the chance! Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there! I hope your day was as fantastic as mine...

Here is a video of Benjamin and I making a music video at the museum...

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Andrews this last weekend in Illinois. We had a great time and we were able to spend a little time with some of my aunts/uncles/cousins. Benjamin became completely infatuated with Grandpa's guitars and here is a video of him showing off his music talents. Just an fyi: in case you don't yet know, he has taken to calling both of his Grandmas "Ahma" and his Grandpas "Ahmpa." My Mom filmed this video and that's why he yells out "Ahma!" at the end. What a ham!

I should also have some pictures posted later today from the past couple of weeks.

We've had some problems with our site recently, but it looks like things are up and running again. Don't you just love technology??

We are back from an exciting adventure in Boston and abroad. Hopefully all of our faithful readers now know that Mike finished the race with an awesome time (3 hours, 26 minutes and 21 seconds)!! Unfortunately, the weather in the northeast US decided to turn for the worse the day before the race, so he was forced to run (and we were forced to spectate) in less than ideal conditions. It was somewhere in the lower 40's, rainy and REALLY windy. When we greeted Mike after the finish line, we could hardly even stand upright with the forceful wind. It was crazy. We were blessed to have both sets of our parents and two of Mike's brothers along for our adventure. To celebrate Mike's achievement, we dined at Legal Seafoods on some tasty seafood and champagne.

After spending three nights in Boston for the race, the three of us took a side trip out to Cape Cod. Lucky for us, the lovely weather continued and as we were told, the area experienced one of the worst April storms ever. However, we made the best of the situation and enjoyed ourselves regardless. We ate lots of seafood, drove to the tip of the cape (Provincetown) and took in all of the amazing summer houses throughout all of the quaint towns. Later we drove back toward Boston and stopped in Plymouth to see the rock and the Mayflower II. The weather improved and the sun was shining that day. Benjamin loved seeing all of the boats! Also, I think his new favorite animal is a "Lobfer (lobster)." He is still talking about them! Back in Boston we toured the Samuel Adams Brewery and visited Harvard University and the surrounding area. Of course, after we left Boston, their weather jumped up into summer-like temperatures. Ah well, Murphy's Law, I guess (thanks MOM).

I have posted lots of pictures from our trip on our photo website (you can see some samples througout this posting). And I also have added a couple of videos to our YouTube account.

This picture is of some ads for the marathon that are apparently up all over Boston right now. I wanted to post this here to first of all get everyone excited for what is to be the biggest race of Mike's life and secondly to encourage Mike to keep up his excitement!! It can be easy to focus on the pain of training or the stress affiliated with planning for the race but when it comes down to it, the most important thing is that he is accomplishing a life's dream and a goal that most people will never reach. Back in 2005 he was defeated by a short 48 seconds while trying to qualify for this race. He overcame his own demons and came back to Chicago in 2006 to finally achieve his goal. Now the only thing he has left to do is to taste the sweet feeling of finishing the most elite marathon in the world.

Good luck Mike!

***Update***
For the third year, cable network Versus (channel 35 in Rochester) will provide complete, live, national Boston Marathon coverage from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CT. A same-day, encore presentation of the Versus telecast will air from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. CT.

Grandma and Grandpa Andrews visited this weekend. We had a nice and relaxing time with them. Grandma shot this video at a restaurant in town that had a band playing...

We've been so busy enjoying the beautiful weather lately that we haven't had time to blog or upload pictures! There are a couple new pictures on flickr from the last couple of days and we hope to have a great video of Benjamin uploaded soon!

Benjamin is just amazing. He learns so much in a day; he is always surprising us! He has always loved to look at books, but now he is very into listening to the stories. Every single night, without fail, he asks to "rock??" He really prefers it if Daddy rocks with him, but he settles for Mommy occasionally, too. He loves to have us hold him in the rocking chair in his room and read him books from his collection. We play some soft music and put a low lamp on and before you know it, he's ready for bed. Mike participated in a series of classes at IBM about early childhood literacy and development and as a follow up to what he has learned in the class, they've asked to come to the house to film "rocking time." Benjamin is joining his Mom and Dad in the multi-media-celebrity world!! Heehee.

Grandma and Grandpa Andrews are coming up for a visit this weekend, hopefully the warmer temperatures continue! The next weekend is A.J.'s 2nd birthday and Easter, so it will be a full weekend of fun!!

Here are some really cute pictures from this weekend. We spent some time with Mike's family up in the Twin Cities. Benjamin was able to be crazy with his cousin and see all of his Uncles and Aunt as well as Grandma and Grandpa! Mike, Dan and Katie also ran the St. Patrick's Day Human Race in St. Paul. It was a very nice weekend.

www.flickr.com

We're baaaack...

The Schmitts are back in the USA! We had a great time in England!! We have had some photos posted on our flickr site for a couple of days already, so go check them out.

Here is a not-so-brief synopsis of our trip:
We flew out of Minneapolis on Monday (2/12) to Chicago where we caught a flight that just managed to get out of O'Hare before the big snowstorm hit. The flight to London was long and uneventful. Benjamin did really well during the flight, sleeping a bunch and watching some of his movies. When we landed in London, I realized that I had left Benjamin's passport on the plane and went through a huge ordeal to get it back so that we could be processed through passport control. Needless to say, we were happy to finally meet up with Roland who helped us carry our luggage by tube to the flat that he shares with Cicely and a roommate. We arrived at the flat around 3pm on Tuesday. Benjamin and I desperately needed naps and so we slept for a couple of hours. Next the four of us went down to the pub where we had a drink and FINALLY got to meet Cicely! After enjoying the pub, we went back to the flat for some Indian takeaway, which both Mike and I had been craving for YEARS! Yum.

On Wednesday, both Roland and Cicely had to work, so we were on our own. We decided to go to Harrods to shop around and visit a special guitar exhibit at the store. We had planned on going to the London Aquarium after that, but since we were having so much fun wandering around the toy and kitchen sections of Harrods, we never did. Then we met Roland and Cicely at Rainforest Cafe where we had a very nice Valentine's Day Dinner.

Thursday we traveled by train to Winchester, where we once lived. I had made arrangements for us to stay at a studio B&B, which was above the garage of a very lovely home where the owners lived. This allowed Benjamin to run about and be as loud and he wanted to be without disturbing anyone. The owners were even nice enough to give us a portable crib and toys for Benjamin! We met an old friend at Ask, one of our favorite restaurants, for dinner and then walked down to our favorite pub. Benjamin loved the Black Boy Pub, which is decorated in a very eclectic style, including a stuffed "doggie" on the floor. Benjamin and I left Mike to enjoy his friends while we went back to the B&B to get some sleep. The next day we had our full English breakfast and then walked into the city center to see the sights. Benjamin had fun playing at the park near the Mayor's house and we were able to walk around the Cathedral, where I even saw one of my old co-workers (who remembered me!!). We had lunch at a pub and walked up to our old house, which was EXACTLY the same as we left it. That evening, after taking the train back to London, Cicely made us some tasty lasagna, which allowed us to stay home and get some much-needed relaxation.

On Saturday Cicely and Roland accompanied us to Cambridge where we met Cicely's Mom for lunch and did some sightseeing of the colleges and river area. After spending a nice day being guided around the city, we took the train back to London and had dinner at Giraffe, a very cool restaurant that we really loved.

After taking some pictures at key London landmarks, we visited Greenwich on Sunday, where the Cutty Sark is usually docked, but the ship is currently under repair. Roland, Mike and Benjamin trekked up to the Royal Observatory to see the Prime Meridian while Cicely and I did some shopping. We also walked through the Maritime museum, had Sunday lunch at a pub and ate some yummy crepes from a street vendor. We headed back to the flat after a full day of sightseeing to pack up our bags and relax before our early morning departure. Cicely very graciously helped us with our luggage and kept us from getting stressed out about traveling on our trip back to the airport, even though it was her day off. The flight from the UK was about 2 hours longer than the flight to the UK, so it took some real strength to make it the whole flight. By the time we landed in Chicago and departed to Minneapolis, we were all on edge. Jen picked us up at the airport Monday evening and took us back to the house for some yummy Chinese food and then we headed back to Rochester. We were all sound asleep by 8:00pm and up again this morning at 6:00am feeling unexpectedly refreshed!! I’m sure it will be an early evening again for all of us!

All in all, we had an excellent vacation and really loved spending time with Roland and Cicely. We were able to experience things we loved about the country all over again and even discovered some new things. We also accomplished something we have always dreamed of doing: traveling overseas with our children. It wasn’t always easy, but in the end, it was completely worth it. We can’t wait for Benjamin to be able to look back at the pictures and know that he was able to fly to another country before he even turned two!!

We have had the pleasure of hosting AJ at our house for the past 4 days. Benjamin has been having so much fun hanging out with his cousin, that I am sure he doesn't want AJ to go back home!! We did so many fun things and had a great time. I took some pictures of the two guys and they're on our flickr page...check them out!

Mike also ran the St. Paul Winter Carnival Half Marathon this weekend. He finished with an outstanding time!! Congrats to Mike...onto Boston!

Benjamin and I went out into the cold today to have some fun in the snow we received this weekend. We enjoyed walking up and down the sidewalk looking at the snow. Benjamin even tried to walk through the snow, but got stuck and needed some help from Mom. This wasn't his first experience in the snow, but it is the first one we documented. I'll have a video of the experience online soon!

Those of you who knew me when I was growing up might remember that I had a certain affinity for ranch dressing. It must be genetic:

For those of you who don't know, I threw Mike a 30th birthday party on Saturday. He knew he was getting a party, but didn't know any of the details! The party had an England theme because his present from Benjamin and I is a trip to England in February. Everyone was asked to dress up as an England character or personality and our guests really met the challenge! We had Mary Poppins and Bert the chimney sweeper, Dr. Who, Ozzy Osbourne, Supernanny, Elton John, Bridget Jones, the Beatles, lots of soccer players and fans and many many more creative costumes. I was very impressed! I made Shepherd's Pie, which I am told was very tasty and served many other English-treats! The party was a big success, as you can see by the photos online at our Flickr page. Now we just have to figure out all of the details of our trip to London!!!!

Here is a video of Mike blowing out his many many many candles!

Here is Benjamin enjoying his new kazoo, which he got from his Great Uncle Steve and Great Aunt Elaine for Christmas!

This one is of Benjamin and AJ having a good time together!

Merry Christmas everybody! We survived our Christmas trip to Illinois and are back home now enjoying all of our wonderful presents!

We drove down Friday night and spent Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews. We visited Brookfield Zoo for Holiday Magic and had a great time. Great Grandma Murphy flew in on Sunday and Benjamin really had fun hanging out with her. We spent hours opening up all of our presents on Christmas morning and the Coopers, Murphys, and Williamses all came over that afternoon. It was great to see all of my family. We really loved being able to share some great laughs with them as well.

I have added all of our photos to our flickr site, so please check them out. We have our next Christmas celebration with the Schmitt clan later this week and we can't wait! It has been a wonderful Christmas for us all!!

I know, I know, it has been a while. Our Christmas preparations are taking up much of our free time! I just wanted to give an update though (since Mom asked...).

We had a very nice Thanksgiving at the Schmitt house with nearly the whole family (Katie and Jennifer both were at home for the holiday). Benjamin really enjoyed his Thanksgiving food, even for leftovers! Mike, Joe and Dan ran an 8k race the morning of the holiday and had a blast doing it! Luckily the weather was pretty nice. That weekend we also visited the Minnesota History Center for a Baseball in America exhibit with Bert and Dan and were excited to find that the museum is fantastic! Andy met us out at a kids playzone near where he lives and he also accompanied us to a trip to the mall to see Santa. Benjamin isn't currently a big Santa fan. He cried as soon as he got closer than 4 feet away.

I celebrated my birthday on the 19th with a visit to the Minnesota Science Museum's Body Works exhibit and a very very nice dinner at Heartland Restaurant in St. Paul. We were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Andrews in town to hang out with Benjamin while we celebrated. Shortly before my birthday I found out that I was awarded a scholarship from the University of Minnesota, where I am studying for my masters degree in Adult Education, so that was a nice birthday treat for me!!

Mike is busy preparing his training schedule for Boston and also is teaching a running class at the Running Room, a localish running store that offers clinics. He is teaching the "How to Run a 5K" class and is really enjoying it. We are all off this Friday and will be traveling up for a visit to see Joe, Jen and AJ, for which we are very excited!

Benjamin is enjoying himself in daycare in the toddler room. We have begun to notice that some part of his transition has had a positive effect on his language because in the last week he has begun picking up so many words and is really becoming quite the smarty pants. Just today he began FINALLY saying the name of his most favorite character in the whole world, Elmo. He also absolutely adores animals and can tell us what noises many of them make.

We are all so excited for Christmas, which will be spent in Illinois this year. Our tree went up the weekend after Thanksgiving without too much incident. Benjamin likes to look at it, but doesn't really get into it too much...yet.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and wish you all good luck in your Christmas shopping!!!

By now I am sure all of our avid readers are aware of our little adventure last week. We spent 4 nights at the hospital with Benjamin because he was having difficulty breathing due to a virus which eventually turned into pneumonia. Thankfully, he is doing much better now and really only has a slight cough to show for what he went through. We were lucky that some of Mike's family members were able to come down and visit us, which I know lifted Benjamin's spirits and helped us by letting us get some sleep and keeping us company, too.

Grandma Andrews flew up Wednesday morning to stay with Benjamin during the day on Wednesday and Thursday so that Mike and I could go back to work. It is so great that she can use her days off to spend time with Benjamin even though she has to travel far to be here. I know that they are having a great time!! Grandpa will be coming on Friday, so he will be able to spend some time here as well.

It is hard to believe that it is mid-November already! Thanksgiving is next week and then Christmas is going to slowly creep up on us. Craziness. We already had our first major blizzard here while Benjamin was in the hospital, so we feel mentally prepared for winter. Now I just have to find time to take down my outside Halloween decorations, haha!

Even though Halloween is still one day away, we celebrated a little early at a party at Joe and Jen's. We got to wear our new homemade costumes and I think they were a hit! Benjamin didn't enjoy wearing his hood, but had it on long enough to snap a couple of pictures. If you can't tell from the picture, we dressed up as The Peanuts. Benjamin is Snoopy, I'm Lucy, and Mike is Charlie Brown. We were able to spend a little time with the uncles, aunt, and AJ. Benjamin absolutely loves his cousin!! He gives him tons of hugs and gets SO excited when he comes in the room. It is a real treat to see him light up so much!! Sunday night all of the Schmitt brothers and their significant others went to a Ghosts, Graves, and Caves tour in St. Paul which was very very cool! It really got us in the mood for Halloween!!! There are lots of pictures on flickr from the weekend, so check them out!!

Well, we are back from Chicago after an exciting, but tiring weekend! I haven't had the chance to get all of our pictures onto flickr yet, but will plan on doing that tonight. However, I did upload a couple of things to our youtube site, so here they are:

The first is a video of Benjamin on a pony ride at Sonny Acres (a pumpkin patch).

And the second...well, you will just have to see for yourself:
(the music is from Benjamin's music class cd!)

It is official...Mike qualified for Boston!!!!!
His time was 3:10:37, which falls under the required time of 3:10:59 or below!!

Anyone up for a trip??
Mark your calendars...April 16, 2007.....

(pictures to come).

Well, we are off to Chicago for the big marathon weekend...but before we go, I want to leave everyone with this cute tiny video that I took of Benjamin talking on the phone...enjoy!

Aside from our horrible experience at Sears Portrait Studios last night, Benjamin took some really nice fall pictures. Here is one of the proofs (the others are on flickr):

Our new camera arrived on Saturday while we were visiting Decorah, Iowa with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews! We took the opportunity to visit a local park and take some pictures of Benjamin enjoying the beautiful day! We only have the small memory card that came with the camera for now, so these pictures are all we have. I am sure that there will be many more photo postings to follow though...we have a lot of lost camera time to make up!! :-)

It is finally autumn here and the leaves are turning all of their beautiful colors. Andy and Jennifer came down this weekend and we all went to an orchard tour at Whitewater Orchard in St. Charles. We went to this tour last year and really enjoyed it, so we had to go again! This time they gave us big bags to collect a variety of apples off of the trees. Last year we had to use our pockets! Benjamin loves digging into whole apples and can even polish off one on his own! We still don't have a camera, so the pictures posted on the flickr site are graciously donated by Jennifer.

It has been a while since I posted last, I know. We've been very busy and also don't currently have a working camera, which pretty much prompts me to come on here and share the latest photos or video of Benjamin. We had a fun time over the past two weekends. The weekend before last Benjamin and AJ got to hang out together with Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt while all of us big kids were able to go out and have some child-less fun. The girls (except Katie, who had to work, booo) went to a tea luncheon at McHattie's Victorian Teahouse in Woodbury, which was very tasty and so fun. The boys all went to the St. Paul Gangster tour, which they described as "hillarious!" Then we all met up for Oktoberfest at the Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter in Stillwater. Benjamin and AJ kept themselves busy by chasing each other up and down the hallway and laughing hysterically! They are so much fun together, though Benjamin has a knack for pushing around his cousin a bit, haha.

This weekend we stayed home in Rochester, but Dan and Katie visited. They had only planned on coming down Friday night, but ended up staying until Sunday! We had a great time and visited a local apple orchard/pumpkin patch while the weather was beautiful on Sunday! Dan got a new job at HealthPartners, which he will be starting on October 9th, so we did a little celebrating with him. Yesterday, Benjamin and I took a trip to an outlet mall which is about an hour outside of Rochester. It was the most perfect autumn day and we had fun walking around outside to each of the shops. I just love fall!!!

Little Benjamin sure is on the go lately! He is sporting a brand new pair of Stride Rite shoes and is now walking everywhere! This morning he WALKED up all 10 stairs on the way into daycare!! He's so proud of his walking accomplishments. He giggles and smiles while walking all around.

Mike and I are nearly finished installing our kitchen floor. Speaking of being proud...we have done it all by ourselves and it looks great! It feels so good to be close to finishing such a major home improvement (well, major for us, anyway...we are no Uncle Terry!).

Last weekend Mike ran the Rochester Track Club Half Marathon, a pretty major race in the season here. He finished at 1:31:41 (a 7 min pace), a personal record! He's been training so hard for the Chicago Marathon (Oct 22) and is very pumped to conquer his goal this year!!

We went to the State Fair on Friday. Benjamin was able to travel around in his new kid carrier backpack, which worked out great! We didn't have to hit anybody in the ankles with our stroller and were able to go in and out of the crowds without any problems. We met up with Uncle Joe, Aunt Jen and AJ and Jen's family there, which was great! AJ is getting to be such a big boy!

Grandma and Grandpa Andrews visited us all weekend. We celebrated Grandma's (last) birthday with a trip to one of our favorite restaurants, the Redwood Room. The weekend was relaxing and everyone had a great time!

In case you had any doubts about Benjamin's walking ability, we have provided a montage of video...

It finally came time to bring Benjamin in for his first haircut last Friday. We were hesitant to do it because we didn't want to lose all of his cute curls. At first he was scared and very unsure of the whole situation. He cried when the hairdresser sprayed him with water and started to cut his hair, but she acted quickly and gave him a sucker, which calmed him down. He soaked the gown with his sucker drool though, which you can see in the last picture on our flickr site. It is amazing how much the haircut turned him into a little boy, he looks so grown up now! We're not sure if his curls will come back, but now he's ready to take on the world with his new 'do!

We've finally recovered from our exciting travels which started (for Benjamin and I) two Thursdays ago. Benjamin had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews Thursday and Friday nights and I enjoyed my alone time in my hotel as well. We had dinner with Aunt Arlene at Texas Roadhouse (yum!) on Saturday and spent Sunday with the WHOLE Schmitt clan! It was great to see all of Mike's aunts, uncles, and cousins! We visited downtown Elmhurst where they have painted trains all over that the kids all really enjoyed (pictures are on flickr). We then travelled up to East Troy, Wisconsin where we stayed at Pine Ridge cottage, which was a very beautiful cabin in the woods on a private lake. We didn't do a whole lot while there except swim and eat, which allowed us to really relax. AJ and Benjamin played and played and played! I didn't take any still pictures while we were there, but we did take some video of us swimming and also the boys playing, which I hope to have on flickr soon.

We've had quite the baby boom amongst our friends lately! Four babies in two weeks!! Our neighbors and very good friends, Katie and Jason had their son, Ethan Walter (8 lbs, 1 oz) who is SO adorable! Kristen and Jamie had their son, Gavin Presley (8 lbs, 11 oz) early Sunday morning. Stacey and Joe Brus had their daughter, Katelyn Adeline (6 lbs, 1 oz) on the 9th and Samantha and Jacob had their daugter, Nora June (5 lbs, 6 oz) yesterday afternoon. All of the babies actually came before their due dates...these lucky moms didn't have to wait a week beyond their date like we did! Haha. Congrats to everyone!!!!

Okay...so maybe you can't officially call it walking yet, but Benjamin has taken his first steps! It is truly amazing how much babies can change in a day! One day he was crawling and hanging onto everything and the next he is standing on his own and trying to take his first steps. He's growing so fast!

We're off to Chicago today by plane...I'm going to try to go it alone. I have a conference near O'Hare for a couple of days so Benjamin gets to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews. Then we will be going to Mike's Uncle Francis and Aunt Agnes's 40th Wedding Anniversary party and then up to Wisconsin to a lovely cottage with the Schmitt-side. Hopefully there will be no throwing up on this vacation and temperatures should be below 95 degrees!!

We spent the past weekend in the Wisconsin Dells with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews at a lovely condo. Of course, no Schmitt-Andrews vacation is ever a dull event and this one was no different. Temperatures were near 100 degrees, which prevented us from being outside much during the day. We visited the Dells Deer Park without incident, though it was VERY hot. It was when we got to a restaurant for dinner afterwards that the drama began. It turns out that Benjamin had a terrible stomach virus and he got sick at the restaurant. We had to go back to the condo where he seemed to recover, but during the night got sick again. We had planned to go out on a pontoon boat that we rented all morning on Sunday, but Benjamin was still a bit lethargic from his illness, so I stayed behind with him while my parents and Mike went fishing. The good news is that Mike caught his first fish...woohoo!!! When they got back from fishing, we all went to a winery for a wine tasting and then to dinner at the Essen Haus, a German restaurant. Just when we thought that Benjamin was better and our vacation was turning around, I came down with the same virus! Monday morning the other four seemingly healthy people spent some fun time in the pool while I stayed back and slept. We all drove home Monday afternoon and at various times on Monday night, Mike and my parents all came down with the virus, too. Though the vacation didn't go as planned, we all had a great time and we enjoyed spending time with each other!

Benjamin has learned his first song! He knows the chorus part of Old Macdonald and sings it constantly, haha.

We were very busy this weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Andrews drove up to hang out with Benjamin at the St. John the Evangelist Block Party (our church), which was headlined by Soul Asylum. The little guy missed the big show, but was able to get lots of good food and fun in before bedtime. We stayed at the show with friends and enjoyed a beautiful evening outside watching the band. We are headed to the Wisconsin Dells this weekend with G&G A and are very much looking forward to getting away!

Well, Happy 4th of July to everyone! The three of us spent a fabulous five days together over the holiday weekend and it was awesome! We spent time just hanging out, drove down to Winona to see good friends, ate Cambodian food at an engagment party of sorts, cooked tasty food, had visitors, and watched a great firework display! What a wonderful time!

For the fourth, we had our friends Sam and Jake over for the day and then we went to The Olson's house for their own personal firework display! Benjamin's first exposure to fireworks actually went great! He was a bit concerned about the noises, but was a great little guy! I am adding a video of the event below.

Benjamin had his 12 month doctor's appointment on Friday and he is doing great! The doctor was very impressed with his cruising skills and the fact that he's totally off of bottles. He weighs in at 23 lbs and is 29.5 inches tall. Completely in the 50th percentile for both height and weight!! He has started to stand all on his own, but has yet to take a step. We keep thinking it will happen soon, but then we remember how long it seemed like he was close to rolling over...haha.

Benjamin had a very exciting birthday! Mom and Dad came to visit him for lunch at daycare with cupcakes and birthday hats for all of the babies...it was so cute! Benjamin really loved his cupcake and so did all of his friends! We took lots of pictures and I will try to post them tonight...

Grandma and Grandpa Andrews and Great Grandma Murphy all called him to sing him Happy Birthday! How special!! He even got on the phone with Grandma and Grandpa to show them his new skill...he can take the phone, put it up to his ear and say "Hiiiiiii!" I bet he won't know what to do with himself now that all of the excitement is over! I guess he's left to just enjoy all of his cool new toys!!

My parents scanned in some old photos (and I mean OLD photos...Happy Birthday Dad!) of my Dad from when he was little. Here is a little comparison of the two June birthday buddies...scary!

We celebrated Benjamin's first birthday this weekend with family and friends. It was a successful party and so much fun to see everyone! Thanks again to everyone who made it.

As you can see by this picture, Benjamin really enjoyed his cake, which Mommy made to look like a page from his favorite book, "That's Not My Robot!" While holding it up for pictures, he started to dig right in on the frosting and loved every bit!! We will be adding more pictures to come from other people who took some at the party, so keep an eye out!!


After everyone left on Sunday, Mike ran a 5k race for the Ronald McDonald House, so Benjamin and I hung out. I made this video of him saying his (possible) third word...listen carefully...

Mike celebrated his first Father's Day this weekend! We had an excellent day with his family at Minnehaha Falls park in Minneapolis. Mike received the poster here in the picture from Benjamin and I. It is made up of pictures of Mike and Benjamin throughout the past year. He also got a Dr. Suess Book called "Hop on Pop!"

On Saturday I performed in the Rochesterfest Cemetery Walk as a dead person from Rochester's history. I had SO much fun and acted my little heart out for 17 separate groups! What a tiring day!!! Joe had a graduation party on Saturday as well so Mike and Benjamin went up to the cities for that, a parade and also so that Mike could watch the US World Cup team tie with Italy. Thursday will be a big day for the US team who plays Ghana. We're very excited!

We had a wonderful weekend! Saturday we went up to the twin cities for Deutsche Tage with Joe, Jen, AJ, Andy and Jennifer. We ate amazing German food, danced around to an oom-pa-pa band, and enjoyed being outside (even though the weather was unseasonably cold). Then the whole crew followed us down to Rochester where we spent Saturday night and Sunday playing and having fun with family. Benjamin and AJ finally got to spend some quality time together and they really had fun playing and making trouble. Joe and Andy helped Mike install a new faucet in our kitchen, which looks great and works wondefully!! It was so great to spend time with everyone, it is hard to get back to the grind this week. Benjamin's birthday is quickly approaching and we're all getting ready for the big day!!!

Joe graduated with his bachelor's degree in Business and Information Technology this Sunday from St. Mary's University. It is a great achievement to go back to school like he did with a full-time job and a family, we are so proud of him! Benjamin had fun seeing his cousin and the whole family!

Saturday night Mike and I went to a murder mystery dinner at our friends' house (Laura and Eric). It had a mardi gras theme and we all had fun roles to play. Of course, it is verrrry unlike us to get into the whole costuming and characterization part of it all, but we had fun anyway! ;-) Eric turned out to be the murderer, which was a relief to me because I was the murderer at the last mystery that I performed in with the Historical Society! I would have begun to think I was being typecast! Here is a picture of the whole ecclectic group:

Our next weekend includes a trip to Deutche Tage, which is an annual event by the German American Institute in St. Paul. There is no doubt that we have some good German food and beer in our future! Joe, Jen and AJ are traveling back to Rochester with us after that and will be spending the night and all day Sunday with us, we are very excited! Benjamin can't wait to share his pool with AJ if the weather is nice!!

We made it through our whirlwind weekend! We flew down to Chicago early Friday morning and spent the day hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Andrews. Saturday morning was Stephanie's high school graduation from Fenwick and her party followed. After the party, we drove back to Minnesota with G&G A. and arrived at about 12:30pm. Mike got up Sunday morning and ran a 2 person relay in the Med City Marathon in 90 degree heat! G&G A. left Monday afternoon after a very long and exciting weekend. We had such a great time seeing family on Sunday! Benjamin even met his Great Uncle Steve from California for the first time!

G&G A bought him a blowup pool which we ALL used on the hot day we had on Sunday! Benjamin loved splashing around and playing with his beach ball. He is getting SIX new teeth in right now so as you can expect, he has some touchy moments. We are all looking forward to his big birthday bash in just ONE month!! Eeek!

A bunch of new pictures are online on Flickr...

We are enjoying the nice weather lately with swinging on Benjamin's swing and playing with the neighbors. Benjamin is quite fond of the swing but isn't too into the slide just yet when he goes on it by himself.

He is crawling everywhere and it is just a joy to see him explore new things! He loves to come find Mom and Dad when we are in the kitchen and laughs the whole way. About two weeks ago Benjamin advanced to eating table foods exclusively. Of course, he hasn't yet given up his beloved bottles, but he is using a sippy cup more and more everyday. He loves to feed himself and doesn't really like being fed at all. He eats so well at daycare, they have said that he is their best eater! This Monday he begins his transition to the Infant 2 room at daycare. He will now be in a room with babies that can crawl and most of them can walk. We're hoping he can pick up their good habits!

We had portraits taken on Saturday of this weekend. They turned out quite good, so here is a sneak preview. Proofs of all of the pictures are on our flickr site.

I intended to add our pictures from Easter onto flickr, but somehow only two pictures from Sunday got on here. Argh. I hope to have the Easter pics up very soon.

Benjamin is going to be 10 months on Thursday, which is really nuts. He's getting SO big and is crawling all over the place. He now knows to crawl from room to room, which he really enjoys. He laughs the whole way. It is so cute.

Mike babysat our friend, Lora's two daughters on Sunday while she and I went to rehearsal. He took the three kids to the park and took a couple of pictures, which are now on flickr. We are enjoying the nice weather as much as we can!!!

Benjamin visited the Easter Bunny this weekend, which turned out to be more eventful than expected. We drove up to the Cities to go to AJ's 1st birthday party. AJ had a bad cold which was made worse by his asthma, so Joe took him to urgent care. They ended up calling an ambulance to take him to Children's Hospital because his breathing wasn't improving. They diagnosed him with pneumonia at the hospital and he ended up staying two nights. He is doing much better now though. Poor little guy missed out on almost his whole party. He did get some awesome gifts though, which he can enjoy when he feels better.

We stayed in the cities so that we could visit AJ in the hospital and we heard about a Breakfast with the Easter Bunny while we were up there. We took Benjamin and he had a blast (as you can see in the photos). The rest of our photos from the weekend are on our flickr site.

We hope everyone has a great Easter Holiday!!

Everybody watch out...

Benjamin has begun to crawl. And he's coming to get YOU!

On Monday night, which just happens to be his 9 month birthday, he discovered how fun it is to stick your hand in the little door on the VCR in our living room. He beelined right for it. He had been close for a while, but we could never get him to move beyond a step (knee) or two. Guess the VCR was enough to do it. Now he is crawling to toys, to Mom and Dad, and to various other non-baby proofed things around the house. He isn't into long distances yet, so Daddy-the-marathoner needs to show him how to do the 26.2!

Speaking of Mike and running, we are headed down to Chicago this weekend because Mike is running the Shamrock Shuffle. It is a huge race, even though it is only an 8k. Hopefully the weather holds out so we can all go to see him run!

Our nephew, AJ, turns one in just over a week! It is truly unbelievable! And our good friends' daughter, Sidney, is going to be three soon! These kids grow up toooo fast!! Unreal.

I have some pictures of Benjamin from various miscellaneous days on the camera that I have yet to upload, so I hope to do that tonight. I will post them on flickr asap!

We had some spring weather this weekend on Saturday, it was over 50 degrees! So Benjamin went for a ride in his Radio Flyer wagon and he loved it! Whenever we would stop pulling him, he would rock in the wagon to get it to move again! What a hoot. Grandma and Grandpa Andrews came up to Rochester for a visit and to babysit Benjamin while Mommy and Daddy went out for a night. On Monday, a blizzard hit and we were left with 6-8 inches of snow and very cold temperatures...no more wagon riding for now! We are actually expecting another snow storm tonight and another 6-8 inches is possible. Argh.

Benjamin finally rolled over somewhere other than his crib this weekend. Grandpa even captured it on film! He also has recently begun to learn what it means when I say "Benjamin, No-No." It is so funny. He cries immediately when I say it to him. He doesn't, however, seem to mind when Daddy says it. Looks like I'm already the bad cop, haha.

I started my new job last week and am absolutely LOVING it! I am working on some facinating projects and really like my Monday and Friday off-days. I get to be home with the baby AND spend time working at something I like, which is the best.

Benjamin has officially mastered pulling himself up on things to stand. He was a determined little guy and tried and tried and finally got it down perfectly last night! He's getting so big! He is soo close to crawling too, he has been moving backwards for a long time, but now is rocking forward. He never sits still, he is always trying to be on the go. It won't be long before the gates and cabinet locks go up! We really can't wait!

He missed his first Oscars Party this weekend because he decided to sleep 12.5 hours and went to bed at 6:00pm before everyone arrived. The party was a success, even if he wasn't present. This year was our sixth party (minus the one we missed when we lived in England). They are so fun! Thanks to everyone who made it!!

We are back from Florida! We had a great time!! Benjamin got to spend some quality time with Great Grandma, Great Uncle Mark and Great Aunt Debbie. We took Benjamin to the beach for the first time and let him play with (and eat, haha) the sand. Grandma was able to show him off to all the ladies of her condo complex, Kalmia. He's certainly a lady killer with his curly hair and blue eyes. They all fell in love. We also took a trip to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo with Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie. Benjamin saw all sorts of fun animals, including a baby elephant that was born in October. Mike and I enjoyed countless tasty seafood meals, including a famous grouper sandwich on multiple occasions! The warm weather lifted our spirits, but it was hard to come back home and throw on our winter coats once again. Here is a picture of Benjamin and Great Grandma playing in the sand! :-)

We just got Benjamin's pictures taken at Sears this week. Here is one of them:

Benjamin is now rolling over. He's a bit behind on this milestone, but we'll forgive him! We found out that he was capable of this maneuver when we began finding him on his back after putting him to bed on his tummy. One morning I went in and turned him back onto his tummy and he flipped right over onto his back again! Hooray!

We are getting mentally ready for our much needed vacation later this month! The cold weather, stressful jobs, etc are making us look forward to sunny Florida!!