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!