I think the title says it all. We spent the majority of this weekend holed up in our house in our pajamas and bath robes. Sad as that may be, it sure did feel good! All of us have had some form of a cold over the course of the past week and all weekend, so it was good to have the time to recover.

We did manage to shower and get dressed Saturday night though for a big night out. Our neighbors, Katie and Jason, invited us out to dinner for Katie's birthday.

They had a babysitter come over to their house so Ethan and Benjamin could play together and the four of us enjoyed a nice adult dinner at a new restaurant in town, Twigs. It was an awesome meal and a very fun night out! I think that the two little guys had a good time as well watching movies and running around like crazy men!

I guess we also did get dressed on Sunday because miracle of miracles, we ventured out to a store and bought a new kitchen/dining room table!! For those of you who have not been to our house in the last year or so, you may not be familiar with the deathtrap we currently are using as a table in our kitchen. Mike bought the table approximately 9 years ago when he moved into our old apartment. It was from Montgomery Ward (yep, remember that good old store!?) and the chairs never really were all that stable (that's an understatement). We are so very excited for the delivery on Wednesday!

I just have to comment on what a grown-up little boy we have at our house lately. Benjamin is constantly impressing us with his language, personality and the things he's able to do at this age. Most notably is his quick adjustment to being completely potty-trained. I have to give him all the credit on this one! The whole process went so fast, it seems. Of course it is one of those things that you can look back on and remember as being easy (kind of like childbirth) but really going through it there were some tough spots. Most specifically peeing in a toy aisle at Shopko on day 1. But once he "got it," he luckily has never looked back. In fact sometime right after Christmas, he asked to stop wearing pull-ups to bed. HE asked. So every morning since then, without fail he has woken up with a dry pair of underpants. Of course, he still is excited about his ability, so he askes us every morning to "feel his pants," something that outrightly scared his Uncle Andy on a recent visit! He just thrives on his ability to do something all by himself. We picked up a videogame system for him when we returned a duplicate Christmas present and it is awesome to see him playing his games like a pro. I remember really struggling with our Atari system at the age of probably 10 and here is my 3 year old operating a joystick to make Spiderman swing from his webs. I can't even imagine what he'll be able to do when he's 10.

We also have been noticing that sometimes listening to him or looking at his expressions are like reflections in a mirror for us. The little facial ticks he has when he's telling a story are beginning to look more and more like exactly what we must look like. He also hears EVERYTHING. If he is in the same room when we are having a conversation from anything as simple as what we did today at work or something as serious as his bad behavior, he hears it...and remembers. We really have to be on our toes. A couple of days ago he told me that I was "driving him crazy!" No doubt something I've said in reference to someone while talking to Mike. He's growing up so fast and I know that some big occasions are just right around the corner for him, like his first day of school, which I know will be exciting and also sad for us. But the more I see of this little gentleman, the more I know that he is so completely and utterly capable of not only succeeding on his own without us but also will most certainly excel at anything he does!

Yet another funny from him...
Benjamin: I really like pancakes.
Grandpa Ed: These pancakes are the best!
Benjamin: ...forget the rest!

The last of the Schmitt brothers has tied the knot. Andy and Jennifer were married on Saturday in Cottage Grove. Mike was a groomsman and Benjamin was the ring bearer, which he was very honored to be. He just loved his tuxedo! When we went to pick the tuxes up, he danced in front of the mirrors singing. Many of you have probably seen the video of his walk down the aisle over at Mom and Dad's blog, but in case you haven't, you can see it here: Ringbearer Video Basically what happened was that Jennifer told Benjamin that when it was his turn to go, he was going to be the leader and she would follow him. Well, he thought that meant that she'd be coming behind him right away, so he kept looking back to see if she was coming. As soon as he heard people laughing, the little ham decided to keep up his routine the whole way down the aisle. It took him a while, but he eventually got there!

Here is a video of Andy and Jennifer making their vows. You can hear Benjamin in the background trying to talk to me, I really tried to get him to stay quiet, but he IS three afterall!

The reception was at the Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter in Stillwater. We ate German food, drank German beers and enjoyed the tasty cakes I made for the occasion. There was a slight pirate theme to the whole wedding and so the bride and groom requested not only a tiered wedding cake (my first attempt), but also a treasure chest cake.

It was hours and hours of work, but I think the treasure chest turned out great! It is a french vanilla cake with chai tea buttercream covered in white fondant that I painted to look like wood. Everything on the cake is edible, I made the jewelry, coins and map out of fondant. The other cake was tiers of french vanilla and german chocolate with vanilla buttercream, just what the couple wanted. I brought it up from Rochester in pieces and constructed it and decorated it the night before the wedding. I drove them to the reception location early in the morning on Saturday with a bunch of knots in my stomach, afraid that they'd fall over or something equally as destructive would happen. Luckily they both make it there in one piece!

After all of that wedding excitement, Mike and I had a chance to sleep in on Sunday and we actually met up with the honeymooners for lunch before they drove off to their honeymoon spot. Then we drove out to Mound to spend the rest of the weekend and all day Monday at Mom and Dad's. This should be our last weekend of driving up to the twin cities for a while, so maybe now we can actually have people drive to Rochester to see us!

The entire Schmitt clan gathered at Cindy and Bert's house for our Christmas celebration on New Years Day. The big kids participated in a mystery gift game where we all passed around these crazy wrapped presents as Bert read us a story full of the words "left" and "right." The presents were passed around and at the end of the story we were able to keep the one we ended up with. Mike scored a cookbook and I got a bunch of miscellaneous foods.

For the rest of the day we did our annual "sixer mixer," Aunt Alice came over, we opened presents and had a nice meal. The house sure is filling up with people on these occasions! Benjamin and AJ enjoyed opening all of their presents. All of the adults exchanged names this year for our gift exchange. Mike and I bought presents for Jen and Katie, Jen had my name and Andy had Mike's. We received some really great gifts!

The next day we relaxed with Cindy who had the day off and then went over to Joe and Jen's house for an overnight visit. The boys ran around like madmen and Mike and I were able to snuggle with our Godson, John. Jen and I snuck out for some shopping while Mike watched all three boys by himself. He really enjoyed spending quality time with all of them and it was great that Jen and I were able to have some girly time too!! We spent the rest of the weekend at Cindy and Bert's and even had a chance to go out to an awesome sushi dinner by ourselves Saturday night. We headed home on Sunday once again to a quiet house and now all of us are back to our routines. It won't last for long though, as we have a very exciting event approaching: Andy and Jennifer's wedding. This coming weekend are the bachelor/bachelorette parties and the wedding is on the 17th. Not sure if I mentioned this before here, but I am making their wedding cakes. I already did a practice round for one and am very exciting to show off my decorating skills!!

On the running front, Mike is in the midst of starting some serious events soon. He is doing the St. Paul Winter Carnival Half Marathon on the 26th and then the planning will finally come together for the Lace Up Against Breast Cancer Half Marathon, which he is helping to plan. For that event he is also participating in the Rochester Winterfest Trifecta. On February 14 he will run up 26 stories of a building for the Cabin Fever Stair Climb and will jump into a lake for the Polar Bear Plunge followed up by the Lace Up Half Marathon on the morning of February 15. Crazy huh?? All of the events benefit charities and all are great causes. If you're interested in sponsoring Mike, email him! We are both also planning for a couple of major running events for this spring. Mike is planning on running the Colorado Marathon on May 3 and I am planning to signup for the Madison Half Marathon which is May 24. Let the training commence!

Benjamin's response to the Chimpanzee Riding on a Segway video...(unfortunately Flickr cut the video short, but you'll get the idea)

What can I say? Christmas is over and we are all a little disappointed and relieved. Were were able to sneak in a couple of days at home in between our travels, but from December 23-January 4 we were go-go-going!

Mike had some extra vacation days to use up before the end of the year, so he was able to take a few days before Christmas off along with me, which was great. We worked really hard to not make present shopping stressful this year and I think it turned out to be really enjoyable actually. Christmas Eve was a great day. I made pierogis for our Christmas dinner at Mom and Dad's and Mike prepared for our special Christmas Eve dinner. Before we went to church that evening, we drove around Rochester looking at the Holiday lighting contest entries and winners. Benjamin oooh'ed and ahhhh'ed at every house. We went to the mass with the children's choir which Benjamin always enjoys. Father even brings up all of the little kids (there are hundreds!) to the altar to talk to them about Christmas, it is so cute. After church we went home and Mike finished up dinner. The meal was AMAZING. He made fresh mussels in a garlic-ey, onion-ey sauce with veggies and a great salad. It was one of those meals that you always remember, definitely in the top 5 greatest meals we've ever had. Benjamin had one of his favorites - grilled cheese and tater tots. Funny enough, we had planned on getting him McDonald's (a big step for Mike), but every single McDonald's was closed!!

Benjamin was eager to get to bed - or rather to wake up on Christmas morning - so we put out the cookies, milk and carrots for the big man and his crew and Benjamin made record time getting into bed and falling asleep with no complaints. Mike and I refilled our wine glasses and got to work at putting all of the presents under the tree. We actually were off to bed early with excitement as well! Morning came quickly, but thankfully Benjamin didn't wake up too early (7:30).

First he opened his stocking and then we all headed downstairs to the tree. I think Benjamin's first gift open was his guitar, which he was very excited about. He also got his "Mickey Mouse thing," Batman shoes and mask/cape, some workbooks, games and even underwear. Santa was very good to all of us! I got a new messenger bag for riding my bike to work and am registered for a class on how to use my camera. Mike got lots of spices, some Yak Tracks (for running in the snow), some cool clothes and his favorite movie - Spirit of the Marathon, which is about the 2005 Chicago Marathon. After all of the presents were open, we ate breakfast and packed up the car to head up to Grandma Chris and Grandpa Ed's house in Mound.

We enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas day at Mom and Dad's. We started off by opening our stockings. Poor Benjamin, his was so small! Then we ate an awesome meal, which included the pierogis that I made. I think they would have made my Grandma Andrzejewski proud! After letting the food digest, we started in on the mound of presents under the tree. Once again, Santa was very good to us all! Mom and Dad were the lucky recipients of adirondack chairs for their backyard fire pit along with many accessories for nights out by the fire.

Mom and Dad were our kind hosts for a few more days of hanging out and then we drove back to Rochester on Sunday to spend three days at home playing with all of our goodies. On Wednesday we dropped Benjamin off with Grandma Chris while we spent New Years Eve celebrating at Dan and Katie's house. For being relatively new at hosting events at their own house, Dan and Katie sure do know how to throw a party! We had a great time. The next morning Mike and I dragged ourselves out of bed and drove into downtown Minneapolis for the Team Ortho Polar Dash 5k race. It was cold, but not horrible and though the course was unexpectedly tough, we both had a great run. Mike even came in 17th place out of almost 400 runners, just seconds away from 2nd place in his age group. The course was really scenic, along the river just behind the Mill City Museum and new Guthrie theatre. We ran under the new 35W bridge and along an area which is still covered with debris from the tragedy. It was a very solemn experience. After the race we met up with Mom, Dad and Benjamin and then made our way over to the Schmitt house for Christmas #2.

To be continued...

I know that I usually take the time to blog on Tuesdays, but with this week being the week of Christmas, I figured I better take the time to do our weekly entry when I've got time!!

Our friends/next door neighbors invited us along with a few other friends over to their house for a Christmas party on Friday evening. A surprise guest was rumored to be coming as well and we were all excited! Benjamin and I baked eggless gingerbread cookies to decorate at the party and even decorated some of them beforehand to eat ourselves. Katie and Jason had quite a spread of goodies to eat and all of the kids enjoyed running around and decorating cookies. After dinner, a knock at the door signaled the important visitors - Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus!! The kind people willing to dress up and let our kids sit on their laps were the parents of Katie and Jason's live-in Nanny, Melissa (she also was one of Benjamin's teachers at daycare before she left to watch Ethan full-time). Some of the kids were more open to socializing with the Clauses than others, but luckily Benjamin was one of the more comfortable of the bunch. He was able to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas and Santa even had a couple of small fun gifts for him. It was a wonderful evening!!

On Saturday we received a sizeable amount of snow in a blizzard that lasted pretty much all day. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I think we have about 2 feet of snow on the ground around our house right now. So much snow has fallen that we have run out of room on either side of our driveway for the shoveled snow. Unfortunately, as Sunday approached, so did very very very cold temperatures and I think our high for today was -11 degrees with a -40 windchill. SICK! So we couldn't even enjoy all of that snow.

Even with the horrible weather, we still were able to get out and do some Christmas shopping, visit the library and have dinner out on Saturday. However, on Sunday with the cold temps we decided to just stay home and catch up on some projects. Mike reorganized some cabinets, Benjamin caught up on his artwork and I made 1/2 of a practice cake for Andy and Jennifer's wedding. It was a very productive day.

I know that I keep saying this, but I cannot believe how close the holidays are now. THREE days until Christmas! Ai yi yi!! It should be a fun one though, we are all excited. We still have some wrapping to do and I have to make some Andrzejewski meat pierogis to bring up to Mom and Dad's! Mmmmmm.

We had a very low-key weekend, which actually began at lunchtime on Friday because Mike is trying to use up his vacation days before the end of the year. He had a 1/2 day off on Friday and the whole day off on Monday. We had so much fun just staying indoors and snuggling up while the temperatures outside reached lows of -6 degrees with a -30 degree windchill. We were able to sneak out to get some Christmas shopping done and Mike went to a holiday gathering with some running friends Saturday night.

Benjamin has been very into learning his letters lately. He constantly asks us questions like "What letter does towel start with?" He is able to read all of the alphabet letters now, so he's been moving onto recognizing short words and writing the letters. We use a white board to show him a letter and then he copies it. After practicing individual letters with us for a while, he was able to write his whole name on his own. The letters are a bit askew, but he gets the idea.

Mike introduced Benjamin to some of his GI Joe toys from his childhood as well this weekend. They spent nearly all day on Monday playing with them together, it was great. Benjamin calls it "playing trucks" and they both love to make all of those sound effects that only boys can make! When Mike brought the box of toys up from the downstairs storage closet, Benjamin was beyond excited. I think it was really special time for Mike.

Benjamin wanted to share this with the internet - it is his favorite video and we all love to sing along.

Benjamin has taken to quickly relearning all of the Christmas carols he knew last year. It is amazing how short-term a toddler's memory can be. He totally does not remember last year's Christmas AT ALL. So though it has been slightly repetative for us to reteach him all of these things, it also provides an opportunity to relive the most special moments all over again. We decorated the Christmas tree last week and every single ornament was brand new to him. Each time we pulled off the tissue paper that protects them in their storage boxes, Benjamin would let out a hearty "COOL!" Every glimpse of Christmas lights out of his car window is just as exciting. He's always on the lookout for a Frosty or blow up Santa or some facinating decoration. Last year we took him to a Macy's store in Illinois for their Breakfast with Santa event along with my parents. He was pretty scared of Santa back then. Well, really he was scared of anyone in a costume. Mom and Dad are living up here now, so we were hoping that the Macy's stores in the Twin Cities did the same event. Luckily, sometime before Thanksgiving Mom found an ad in the paper and immediately secured tickets to the breakfast at the Ridgedale Mall Macy's in Minnetonka. Once again we were highly impressed with the event! It was held in the restaurant attached to the store, which is just gorgeous. The Santa there was very cute and they even had elves on hand for face-painting and balloon hats/animals. The breakfast was okay - french toast, bacon and eggs. Benjamin had a blast, well ALL of us had a blast. He was definitely less afraid of Santa this year and more just in awe of him. All of the kids were given Christmas Wish List to fill out with what you wanted to ask Santa for and Benjamin/Grandma Chris dutifully filled it out and gave it to Santa. I wonder if he'll make the connection between those items and the ones he finds under the tree.

Mike and I once again ran the Reindeer Run race (how many synonyms of RUN can I get into one sentence!) around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis again. Katie tagged along this year as well.

It was cold and snowing first thing in the morning, but eventually the snow stopped and the sun came out, it was beautiful. There are quite literally thousands of people who run this race - many of them in elaborate costumes. It is lots of fun! After the race Katie and Dan had us over for some tasty chili at their new-ish home. We spent the rest of the weekend at Mom and Dad's watching football, dodging the snow and relaxing.

Benjamin started some preschool classes last Friday through Community Education. His daycare is also a preschool, so he won't attend a separate school until he goes to Kindergarden, but these classes give him an opportunity to learn and make friends outside of the daycare center. This week they learned all about Hanukkah and they will continue to learn about holiday celebrations around the world. So far we are big fans!

I honestly don't know how it can be that Christmas is only a little more than 2 weeks away. I am not ready! It certainly looks like Christmastime outside lately though - we just received another 7 inches of snow last night on top of the couple we already had. Time to pull out the sled!!!

Well, as you can tell, the Familie Schmitt blog has a new look - which is possibly temporary for now until I can figure out a way to do what I really want to do with it. I was tired of the old green look, hence the change. Anyhoo, onto the more interesting stuff...(warning: this is gonna be a long one)

We celebrated Thanksgiving and did a variety of other things with the Schmitt family last week. It was quite a "marathon weekend" sans a marathon! We drove up to Cottage Grove on Wednesday night and Mike and I wandered down to Hastings for the evening to pick up packets/register for the Gobble Gait 8k race. We knew it was going to be a really fun race with the race headquarters at a bar and registration volunteers all rockin' beers at packet pickup! The race was at 8:30am Thanksgiving morning.

Dan, Katie, Mike and I braved the cold start area with approximately 2,000 other runners. The course is a nice loop around Hastings with the beginning running along the Mississippi River, which was quite scenic. There were a couple of real steep hills along the course and a nice downhill, but overall it was very fun and a nice way to sneak in some exercise before gobbling down our turkey. Cindy made a tasty Thanksgiving meal, which we all enjoyed. Andy and Jennifer along with her Mom and Stepdad joined us later in the evening for pie after we played a couple heated rounds of Left Right Center with Great Aunt Alice, Bert and Cindy.

On Friday I busied myself with baking cakes for Jennifer bridal shower, but we were all very excited all day for a big surprise. Jen had reserved tickets for the three of us, along with Joe, Jen and AJ to ride on the Polar Express! We didn't tell either boy about what we were doing, but dressed them in their pajamas and drove out to Lakeville to the train depot. Funny enough, both boys passed out in our respective cars on the way. When they woke up we let them in on the surprise and although they were still a little groggy from their naps, they were extremely excited. The event itself was so well done. The depot was all decked out in holiday decorations, a tv showing the movie, toys for the kids to play with and a mini-train for the kids to ride on throughout the parking lot. When their mini-train ride was finishing up, the big train pulled up and I honestly have never seen the boys so excited! It was magical. We walked to the Polar Express and a conductor asked each child their name and checked to make sure they were on his "list." Then we boarded the train and took our seats on a commuter car (which suspiciously looked like a Burlington Northern car).

High schoolers dressed up like elves led some games and songs and later a woman read the Polar Express book to us. The elves also handed out cookies and hot chocolate ("HOT! HOT! HOT! Oooh we got it! Hot, hot, hot - Hot chocolate!") to everyone. After all of this excitement, Santa and Mrs Claus made their way into our car and spent time talking with each child individually. If they proved to Santa that they believed they were given a sleigh bell (just kidding, all the kids got bells). Benjamin was just thrilled with the whole thing, what an awesome experience for all of us.

Saturday was Jennifer's bridal shower. Andy is the last Schmitt boy to get married and so she will be the last sister-in-law addition to the family and all of us females are thrilled to finally even it up (with the exception of all of those darn grandSONS)! Katie, Jen and I threw the shower, which had a winter wonderland theme, at Jen's house. I finished the cake Saturday morning and successfully drove it to Jen's house without any damage, though for once I had to not drive like a Chicagoan to get it there in one piece! Everyone had a great time and Jennifer and Andy received some awesome and unique gifts. When the shower was over the entire family drove out to Stillwater to celebrate Alice's 90th birthday.
After dinner Mike, Dan, Katie, Jen and I were able to spend some adult time away from kids and we had a blast! We finished up our weekend by watching the Packers game on Sunday at Cindy and Bert's.

Our Christmas tree and holiday decorations are all finally out and we feel finally like the Christmas season is upon us. Benjamin is full of questions about every little thing to do with the holiday and we are trying to do our best at answering them. But how does one explain to a 3 year old exactly what myrrh is - I'm not even sure I completely know! As the good Catholic family we are, my family celebrates St. Nicholas Day, which is a tradition Mike and I have taken on as well. Benjamin will have a full stocking, but I'm sure even more questions - "did Santa fill our stockings" - "no, St. Nick did" - "what is the difference between Santa and St. Nick?"

OH BOY!

Benjamin: "Daddy, can I watch a movie?"
Mike: "Absolutely!"
Benjamin: (obviously not understanding) "After Lucy???"

Despite feeling extremely under the weather, I packed up the bags Friday afternoon so we could travel up to the twin cities for a busy weekend. First we drove up to Mound to stay with Grandma Chris and Grandpa Ed. Mom and I were supposed to go to a craft fair Friday afternoon, but I wasn't up for it, so we just spent a relaxing evening at their house. We also ate some magical Thai food that had some crazy healing powers because I was feeling much better when I got up Saturday morning. We had big plans to meet Joe, Jen, AJ and John at Macy's in Minneapolis for our yearly tradition of visiting Santa and seeing the Auditorium display. We met them about 10:30 and went straight up to the "A Day in the Life of an Elf" display, which luckily didn't have too much of line yet.

I think the boys really enjoyed seeing the animated figures of elves dancing around. After winding our way through the colorful scenes, we hopped in another line, this time to see the big man in the red suit. The Santa there this year was definitely better than we've seen in a while and it was the first time the 2 older boys could sit on his lap by themselves, without crying! Benjamin was able to tell Santa that he wants a "Mickey Mouse toy" (no idea what that means!) and a "REAL guitar." I was able to get some really great pictures with my new fancy camera!!

After our Macy's excursion, we went back to Joe and Jen's for a neat treat - they brought in a lady to do a Traveling Vineyard party. You are able to taste and order 5 wines and then there are cheeses and chocolates and stuff to munch on. It was really fun! Later that night my three lovely sisters-in-law took me out to celebrate my birthday. They surprised me with reservations at W.A. Frost & Company in St. Paul. The food was awesome and the ambience was so fancy! We dined like queens.

I must have pushed myself a little too far on Saturday with my cold because I felt even worse on Sunday, so I spent the day napping at Mom and Dad's house while everyone (Mike, Andy, Bert, Dan, Benjamin, Mom and Dad) watched the Packers/Bears game. The Schmitts were happy with the Packers win.

Tomorrow's the big 3-0 for me. Wonder if I'll feel any different - maybe weaker knees, fading memory, a little more gray hair!? Haha!!

I was surprised with an early 30th birthday party this weekend thrown so brilliantly by Mike and my parents. The theme was the 1970's and several people really got into the spirit by dressing up! It was awesome!! My cousins Roland and Cicely and my friends Kristen and Jamie with their little guy, Gavin, even drove up from Illinois for the party, I couldn't believe it!

My friend Lora and I went scrapbooking all day on Saturday, which was really fun. I didn't know what was coming, but I had been expecting that something may possibly be happening. People kept trying to throw me off track though and it was working pretty well, I just wasn't sure what to expect! When she suggested going out for dinner afterward, I kinda thought maybe a party was planned, but still didn't know for sure. I may have had my suspicions but I was certainly surprised to a) see so many people there and b) see my husband dressed up like Mork from Mork and Mindy, haha!! The party was at my favorite restaurant, Whistle Binkies. Mom and Dad had blown up HUGE photos of me through the years and decorated the walls with them, it was so funny.

The cake even had a classic picture of me on it! Mike put together a Jessica trivia game for everyone to play and the winners (Kristen and Jamie) got a Bozo the Clown record - one my childhood favorites!


Benjamin was busy with all of his friends at the party - Sidney, Reese, AJ, Ethan and Gavin all danced to the 70's music and played together so well. I received so many cool and generous gifts, but the best was from Mike and Benjamin. They got me the new camera I had been hoping for!!

I have been spending lots of time practicing with it. I think Benjamin is already tired of me taking his picture. You can see some of my handiwork on our flickr site. The camera does so many cool things!

Fortunately, for me, my birthday season is not over yet! I have a celebration planned for Saturday by my sisters-in-law and I am even treating myself with a couple of days off of work on my actual birthdate and the day after. I'm trying to stretch this thing out as long as I can......

What a busy Halloween weekend we had!

Benjamin was pretty sick all last week with a fever on and off, so we took it easy Friday (Halloween) during the day. Luckily, he felt better in the evening and he was well enough to trick-or-treat for about an hour or so in our neighborhood. Mike and I also dressed up in our costumes before taking him out and we got some pretty nice comments from the people in our neighborhood about all of our costumes. Mike was Marty McFly from Back to the Future, I was Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy and Benjamin wore his homemade T-Rex costume. We all looked great!

After roaming the streets, we packed up and headed over to Laura and Eric's house for a small Halloween party with the kids and adults. Everyone there looked great in their costumes, especially Jen and Nate who got extra crafty this year, dressing up as a crayon and Rubix Cube!

On Saturday morning, we were supposed to depart for the Tomah/Sparta area for the Rails-to-Trails Marathon that Mike was planning to run, but Benjamin was still pretty sick. Luckily, Grandma Chris and Grandpa Ed came to the rescue and drove down to stay with Benjamin at our house until we got back on Sunday. So Mike and I had an unexpected night away, which gave Mike the opportunity to get a night of uninterrupted sleep, for which we were both grateful! The race began at 8am on Sunday. It was a perfect day weather-wise for running, though the wind did pick up a little toward the end of the race. While Mike was off with some of our Rochester running friends who were also running the half marathon, I drove to my spectating spot (in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin!). I had big plans for an awesome cheering station with Benjamin's cd player, a cd full of fun running songs, a pink wig, a red boa and some cowbells. When the batteries pooped out about 4 minutes into the cd, I should have known that the great day we had hoped for was not to be! I cheered my heart out for Mike, our friends and the other runners at about miles 4 and 7 of the half (I think) and mile 20 of the full. When Mike ran up to me for the second time, at about mile 20, he told me that his "wheels were coming off" and he was cramping up big time. After he passed, I got in the car and raced down to the finish line/mile 23 (yes, they made the runners run PAST the finish line for their last 5k of the race, just cruel). Mike looked pretty haggard at mile 23, but he was probably going to pull off the 3h:45min run that he had planned on. Unfortunately after he passed us the cramping got worse and he added some more time to his finish of 3h:57min. I know he is disheartened at his performance, but he learned so much about his limits and what not to do/what to do for next time. This was his ninth marathon and to wait until now to turn in a bad race is pretty darn good, I think! He is planning to do the Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins in May for his next race.

I got news that an acting opportunity that I did a few months ago finally came to fruition recently. The History Center of Olmsted County (the county Rochester is in) is recreating the election of 1872 on their website with a series of taped campaign speeches. I wrote the script for and performed the Victoria Woodhull (first woman to run for president) speech. Visit this website to view the videos and vote in the election! The results are supposed to be revealed on December 1st, hopefully I (Victoria) win!

Jessica set off on a road trip early Friday afternoon and I worked from home while watching Benjamin. She drove to Round Lake, IL to visit The Rogers and attend a concert from a classic band from her youth - NKOTB (aka New Kids on the Block). She had an absolute blast and likened the experience to The Beatles playing at Shea Stadium due to the fact that at certain points in the show it was difficult to hear the music over all the women (notice I didn't say girls) screaming at the top of their lungs for those "heartthrob" boys. The rest of her weekend was spent catching up, lounging around, and overall relaxation. Then on Sunday Jessica got to fulfill part of her obligation of being the maid of honor in Erin's wedding by shopping for bridesmaid dresses.

With Mommy away - I had the awesome opportunity to spend the weekend with Benjamin - just the two guys. I had a lineup sure to fit any child's dream. We woke up early on Saturday morning and made our ever famous farmers market run. Among our top finds were: eggplant, swiss chard, heirloom apples, Japanese Kale. On the downside there were no Brussels Sprouts - they were out before we got there :( From the market we went to coffee with some runner friends and Benjamin's friend Abby.

That afternoon we made our way to Historical Hysterical Halloween being held at The History Center of Olmsted County. Most of the activities took place outside so thankfully it was a gorgeous autumn day. Benjamin got to dress up in his T-Rex costume that Jessica slaved over for the past two weeks. The array of activities consisted of making pumpkin bead necklaces, colored sand art, musical instruments, a spooky schoolhouse, a tractor ride, a train raid, roasting marshmallows. We were there for about 2 hours and left no stone unturned. We spent that night watching old school Scooby Doo and the Muppet Show - two of my (our) favorite classics!

As you may know the weather here in MN turned bitter cold here on Saturday night and wind started howling! That was followed up by a nice dose of rain and yes SNOW on Sunday! I decided rather than sit inside and watch it all come down that we would have our own road trip to Kellogg, MN, home of Lark Toys. They have an exquisitely ornate merry go round with hand carved animals. We rode that



ate pumpkin ice cream (thankfully it contained no egg) , and played with their vast amount of toys all afternoon. Benjamin's favorites were the toy horse along with a puppet stage, and a hand carved wooden circus.




Of course on the way home we just "had" to stop at Pepin Heights apple store to sample their various apple varieties and world class apple cider.

Mommy came home about 5:30 and we spent the rest of the night together as one big happy family.

Apparently Benjamin is all set for Kindergarden, or at least that's what the good people of the Rochester public school system told us on Friday. In our city, kids have to go through a screening process sometime between the time they're 3 years and 3 months and the summer before they begin school. The screening involves a hearing test, vision examination and several small "games" to look at their readiness. He has great hearing, perfect vision (literally) and did really well at the activities. He did struggle with a "repeat after me" game where the teacher said a number and then asked him to repeat it. She started out small -- teacher: "2" Benjamin: "2" teacher: "6" Benjamin: "6" teacher: "9 3" Benjamin: "4 8" teacher: "7 2" Benjamin: "1 5." He just didn't give up, it was so funny. She'd say 2 numbers and he'd come right back with 2 of his own. It wasn't that he isn't capable of repeating her (he did it fine after she explained it in depth to him), but he just had to throw out 2 numbers of his own like it was some kind of one-upping game. He wasn't trying to show his abilities, he was trying to BEAT her at her game!!!

We spent the rest of Friday at Oxbow Park, which has a small zoo, hiking trails and a playground. Since most kids are in school, the place was empty. It was a gorgeous day and it was nice to finally have a Friday free from packing suitcases or cleaning the house for company. I can't even remember the last time Benjamin and I spent a Friday doing something fun!! We even managed to see a porcupine gettin' down:


On Saturday, after Mike's long run with his running group, we drove out to Fountain to spend some time at Drury's furniture looking at extremely beautiful, but extremely overpriced kitchen tables. Then we stopped by an apple orchard and picked up a bag of Courtlands. It was a nice sunny drive to/from Rochester. Sunday morning I went out on a long bike ride through most of town. We are so blessed to have about 60 miles of paved bike trails here for running and cycling. I don't know what Mike nor I would do without them!

Everywhere you look around here now are shining examples of why living in a place with seasons is great! Soon we will have plenty of examples of why living in a place with seasons is not so great, so we are trying to soak in as much autumn as we can!!

Sunday night Mike watched the Packers while he made us a to-die-for meal of Kale Ragu (I know, it doesn't sound like it, but it was AWESOME!). Benjamin and I napped. Monday was a blustery, rainy day so Benjamin and I stayed home and I began the work on his Halloween costume. If you have even briefly talked to him in the last month and a half, you'll know that he is going to be a T-Rex. He is very very excited. I am praying that he doesn't decide to change his costume choice anytime between now and Halloween. I can just see it now, "No Benjamin you WILL wear the T-Rex costume!! I don't care if you want to be Buzz Lightyear now - Mommy spent 20 HOURS sewing this costume!!" Pray for me.

Mike is ready to begin his big home improvement project for the season: installing our baseboard heater in the basement. We actually bought it last winter, but kind of stalled on putting it in as the warm weather came and we didn't really need it anymore. We are sort of planning on totally redecorating the basement actually, so now with heat, we will actually want to spend time down there!! Just in time for winter and hibernation!

What a perfect day for a wedding! Dan and Katie were married on Saturday and they honestly could not have asked for a more beautiful day, I think.

The weather was gorgeous, the ceremony was so special and the reception was loads of fun. It was also great to see family who came from far away (I'm talkin' to you Duane and Sarah!). Katie was a stunning bride and it was so apparent all day that she and Dan are madly in love. Right now they're in Door County, WI on their honeymoon, hopefully having an excellent time.

Benjamin decided that a wedding celebration would not be complete without injuring himself, so he went ahead and ran into a table in the basement of the church after photos, but before the ceremony. He has a nice black eye and a pretty big cut under his eye that seems to be healing nicely. Being the trooper that he is, he pulled himself together and was a very good boy for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, Mike and I attempted to cheer for the Twin Cities Marathon runners, but rainy weather really mucked up our plans. It was so cold and wet that after standing in the rain for about 10 minutes, we decided to call it quits. We spent the rest of the day indoors, watching football and taking naps. After all of the preparation, it is hard to believe that this weekend is over and Dan and Katie are married! Next wedding to conquer is Andy and Jennifer's in January and we are ready for the challenge! :-)

Give him a digital camera!

My dear Great Aunt Mollie passed away last week. She was an amazing woman whom I have and always will look up to. She worked at the business that she helped create until she was 88 years old! Though she lived a long (she was 95 when she died) and full life, she will be greatly missed. However, we are all left with great memories of her...like how she would slave in the kitchen over her world famous soup that her nieces and nephews all fought over!

I traveled down to Chicago with my Mom and Benjamin for the wake and funeral, which gave us an opportunity to see my family. We enjoyed spending time with Great Grandma and Uncle Mark, who we won't get to see as often as we'd like. Aunt Clarice and Uncle Terry were kind enough to forefit their bedroom for the three of us so we could crash Sunday night.

Mike stayed up in the Twin Cities for Dan's bachelor party on Saturday night and then stuck around to watch the Packers lose on Sunday.

Last night a friend of mine from high school, Rae, came up with her husband on their way to a conference in Fargo. They stayed the night at our house to break up their drive a bit. I hadn't seen her in probably about 10 years, so it was nice to catch up and finally meet her husband!

Everyone is in high gear for the wedding weekend and we are very excited for the big day to finally be here! I will no doubt be back next week with loads of photos and details...stay tuned!

We certainly took the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful not-quite summer, not-quite fall weather that we've been having this weekend. Mike did his usual long run Saturday morning and in the afternoon we visited Northwoods Orchard with our friends and neighbors, the Posts. Benjamin and his best buddy, Ethan ran all over the grounds looking at the animals and picking apples. We also took a wagon ride around the orchard, which was a delight. Oh yah and I did get the lawn mowed afterall!!

I took a long early morning bike ride all over town on Sunday and then it was birthday party day for us with parties for 2 of Benjamin's little friends. Reese turned 4 and celebrated with a party at J.E.T.S. Gym and our neighbor Max had his second birthday party outside in their backyard, two doors down. It was a great relaxing weekend and we were all sad to see it end. Of course, this just means that the exciting things are on horizon are even closer - Dan and Katie's wedding being the first - is only TWO WEEKS away!