Ben's Thanksgiving Greeting

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Thanksgiving Day

After we got home from the race, showered up, and got the turkey in the oven, it was time to relax and enjoy our family. The Acuff's came over, as did Theresa, Mama Kay and Papa, which gave us a nice total of 15 people! Juliette made sure to catch up with everyone, like a proper hostess. Here she is reading books with Cousin Tim...

Ben and Caroline in their pilgrim and indians hats...

Now Juliette makes sure Cousin Hunter is having fun...

And don't forget Uncle Brandon (and Elmo)...

Then Cousin Andrew taught her how to text...

Finally though, she needed a break from the party and decided to entertain herself with some books - something she loves to do!!

Turkey Trot

Well, the best way to start off Thanksgiving Day is with a 5k Turkey Trot (or a 1/4 mile kids fun run)! Theresa and I ran the 5k in Long Grove - it was pretty cold, but they had hot apple cider at the end of the race, which was good! There were about 1000 runners and we placed 5th and 6th in our respective age groups (out of about 80-85 in each group), so we were pretty happy with the race. Our final time was 24:51. And Ben got to run his first race too - he was soooo excited! His final time was 2:05 - awesome!!

Here are the runners before the race!

Most of the kids in the race were much bigger than he was, and some parents were running with their kids, so I jumped in to help him along. We had a blast and it's hard to tell from this picture, but there was sheer joy and excitement on his face the entire time!

Here he is at the finish line!

And the runners after the races - ready for some warmth and a delicious meal!!

Thanksgiving 2010

I know, I have not posted in a while - things have been busy preparing for the holidays! This year, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house with most of Paul's family. Mama Kay and Papa came up from Tennessee and spent a few days with us, and on Thanksgiving Day, Paul's two sisters and families came up as well. But before we get to that, we had some fun with just Mama Kay and Papa for a few days first...

Here is Papa reading to the kids...

Mama Kay and Juju do an art project together...

On Wednesday, we went to the Children's Museum where they had an exhibit called "A Bug's Life" where they had huge bugs from all over the world that you could hold...Daddy was the only one who would touch the bugs though. Abbey kept saying "We don't like bugs in our house!"...I guess they have witnessed me freak out over bugs a few too many times :)

They also had the Curious George exhibit open, so here is Abbey meeting Curious George!

Ben enjoyed the vet area this time where he got to check on all the sick animals.

This was the first time Juliette really explored the museum and her favorite spot was of course the baby doll room. I think Juliette and Abbey could have spent the entire time in there, although Juliette also just enjoyed the freedom of walking all over the place too.
Rocking...

Cute Video of Juliette

Weekend Happenings

Well, no pictures to post, but I just thought I would let you know what we did this weekend. We spent the night at Aunt Theresa's house on Saturday night as Theresa and I ran the Hot Cider Hustle 8 mile run on Sunday morning. It was pretty cold, but once we got going it was fine. This was the first race we have done together since our Chicago Half Marathon and we weren't exactly training for it, so we weren't sure what to expect. It felt a little tough, but the end result was good. We finished in 1:13 and were happy with that as it wasn't too far off our half marathon pace. Plus, after the race they gave out free hot cider, which was actually very tasty (and I am not usually big on cider). Paul surprised us by showing up with the kids at the end to cheer us on - it was great motivation to finish strong! So, great Job Theresa and thanks for the run!