Author Archives: AJ

Thanksgiving

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We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  I was off and so we got to spend quality time together.  Thursday we went on our traditional walk of the Great Dismal Swamp.  Brooke, unfortunately, did not enjoy herself very much at all this year, but we managed to snap a few good pictures.  After a long nap while Laura and I cooked, Brooke was in a much better mood and we went to the Zappas’ family home for dinner.  Brooke had a lot of fun playing with her friend Adrianna and there was a lot of good food to eat.

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Around and Around She Goes

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Brooke enjoyed having Oma here this last week.  Oma slept on the mattress in our living room and Brooke really liked playing on it.  She would flop herself down on it, jump around and just have fun playing on the mattress.  Today she kept hopping on it, walking across the mattress and then hopped off it, only to repeat it again and again.

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The Homestead

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Over this last week, Laura and I were able to get away for a toddler free vacation.  It was our first time leaving Brooke alone with someone else overnight, and she did really well with Oma.  We went to The Homestead, a nice resort in the Allegheny mountains of the western part of Virginia.  While we were there, not only did we relax and sleep for almost 12 hours the first night, but we also took advantage of all the outdoor activities they had.

The first day we went to the Jefferson Pools and soaked in them, caught afternoon tea, followed by some mini-golf, and then dinner at Canyon Ranch Cafe.  After a rejuvenating sleep, we went Skeet shooting, and for Laura’s first time she did quite well.  Afterwards we had a delicious lunch looking over the mountains and horseback riding.  It was so nice out we decided to take a 2 mile hike to our next destination which was archery.  I did pretty well and got them all in the center once.  We caught tea again with southern pimento sandwiches then decided to relax for the evening with an hour in the outdoor hot tub and heated pool.  This night we had dinner in the main dining room and got all dressed up to meet the dress code.  The third day we tried our hand at sport clays which were a lot of fun trying to shoot a target from the woods instead of seeing it from the tower.  Then we went on another hike and enjoyed the southern style porch while waiting on our second try at horseback riding.  I liked the slower pace of my second horse a little better than George from the first day.  Laura had booked us a treat that afternoon – we went to the Canyon Ranch Spa for time relaxing in their spa garden.  It was basically an outdoor pool, hot tub, sauna area, but also had rain showers and of course the natural hot springs that have been used since 1766.  Then we had a couples massage and enjoyed a relaxing dinner at Jefferson’s restaurant.  Our final day we checked out early and enjoyed a hike of the stream of hot springs that feeds the town of Hot Springs and Warm Springs before driving home to see our Brooke.

We had a wonderful time relaxing and Oma said Brooke was a perfect angel in our absence.  Oma was great and sent us no less than 6 pictures a day of what Brooke.  We regularly checked for photo updates between activities.  Oma didn’t mind us calling to see what Brooke was up to.  We even skyped with Brooke and she was so happy to see us.  By the 4th day, we were ready to leave and she was ready to have us home.  It was nice to take care of us for a short while, but it will be a long time before we leave our baby again, maybe when she is eight or ten years old.  It’s hard to leave a girl as wonderful as Brooke, but we are glad we had some fun alone time.

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Halloween

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Brooke has had a very eventful Halloween.  It started yesterday with stroller trick-or-treating and carving pumpkins.  Laura carved two pumpkins using a drill for one of them and I carved a jack o’lantern and a ‘B’ for Brooke’s pumpkin.  We had fun picking our pumpkins off the vine earlier this month.

Today Brooke got to do stroller trick-or-treating again and then we went to the library for a special Halloween storytime with a craft and, you guessed it, more trick-or-treating.  However, we were most excited for tonight.  We dressed up as a family as Despicable Me’s Gru and minions.  Brooke loved trick-or-treating and really enjoyed going up to everyone’s door and most of all grabbing handfuls of goodies.  We got lots of compliments from our neighbors on our costumes.  Brooke ate at least 5 pieces of chocolate while going door to door.  She was one happy toddler.

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Laura Runs the Marine Corps Marathon

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In March, after finishing the Shamrock Half Marathon, Laura decided that she wanted to train for a marathon.  She’s done several races over the last few years, a handful of half marathon’s and multiple other shorter ones too.  When she made up her mind that she wanted to run a marathon, she said it would be her one and only, and chose the Marine Corps Marathon.  So she put in the time, lots of it, almost 6 months training and burning through shoes.  Finally the weekend came when all of her training was done, and all that was left was a family vacation to Washington DC to support Laura’s goal.  We headed out a few days early to get in some sightseeing.

After our drive up to DC, we went to Laura’s packet pick up the first night and got to see a bunch of the other runners and look around the expo.  Laura picked up her runners bib and got some cool memorabilia as well.  The second day we thought we’d treat Brooke to the National Zoo as she loves seeing animals and running around.  We had a great time seeing the elephants, pandas, and a seal show among other animals.  The day took a turn though when Brooke took a hard fall at the zoo and busted up her lip.  Every vacation needs a little flexibility in it, and while we didn’t plan it, we had a trip to the Children’s Hospital for Brooke to get liquid stitches to her lip.  We finally made it back to the hotel several hours after Brooke’s normal nap time and poor Brooke got to take a well deserved nap.  She woke up cranky, but a nice walk around the White House and the National Mall, followed by delicious burgers and shakes seemed to make everything better.

The next day we toured the mall again, going to the National Gallery of Art and the National Botanic Garden.  Then we ate delicious fry bread at the American Indian museum; they almost didn’t let us in when they saw it was Brooke, but we assured them that she had on a sturdy diaper.  That evening, Brooke and I took a nice walk to the World War II memorial while Laura got ready for her big day and rested.  We came back to the hotel to a home cooked meal, pasta for Laura to carbo load on.

Finally the big day had arrived.  By the time Brooke and I were up, Laura had already started the marathon.  We made our way out on to the course and caught up with her around mile 16 and 17.  She was looking as strong as ever.  Brooke had a hard time seeing her Mommy run away, she just wanted to be with her, but Daddy was a good second choice.

We made it through the crowds to the finish line and saw Laura coming through the runners corral, she had done it!  Laura finished the Marine Corps Marathon with a time of 5 hours 25 minutes and 37 seconds.  What a feat!  After that long and tiring run, all she wanted to do was go home and rest; unfortunately there was so many people that the subway line to go home was backed out of the subway station and on to the street for several hundred feet.  We ended up walking a mile uphill to get to a less crowded station.  That night we celebrated Laura’s accomplishment with delicious pizza at home.

Brooke and I are both extremely proud of Laura and all that she has done with her training over the last several months and completing the marathon.  Congratulations Laura!

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