October: a month in pictures

more mini pics

10.10.10

10.10.10

A pretty memorable date, no?

Mike headed to work nice and early (5 a.m. start - ugh), and the kids and I slept in a bit.

Then it was off to McDonald's (in our pajamas!).

Our dear friend Karie was running in the Chicago Marathon today! I was in Chicago last year when Karie ran a 1/2 marathon there. It's an on-going joke regarding her step-brother Mike, his wife Sara, and myself taking a walk to McDonald's for breakfast while Karie was running 13.1 miles. But Karie did a fantastic job at that 1/2 marathon, and I promised to keep up the tradition of supporting her by indulging in McD's breakfast sandwiches. Two breakfast sandwiches today, one for each 13.1 miles Karie was logging in the books!

After breakfast, we headed back home to get ready for Grandpa John's 80th birthday celebration. Before getting all the kids into the shower, I took a step in my own fitness routine.
I am now officially registered for the Indianapolis Monumental 5K on November 6th!
Thanks for the inspiration, Karie. You've been so encouraging of all of my small efforts, all while continuing to challenge yourself to the next level.

I finally got everyone dressed and ready, and we headed for Grandpa's party.

This is my Great-Aunt Yolande, my Grandma Marlys's twin sister.

Totsie

The kids being silly outside.

Me & the girls.

Grandpa John, looking at some old family pictures.

My uncle Bruce snapped a lot of pictures of everyone, including one of all the kids with Grandpa & me. Hoping to add that here as soon as he gets those uploaded for us. Sitting at home relaxing now, with spaghetti on the stove and football on the television. Windows open, fans on, loving fall! Happy 10.10.10, everyone.

part 4: fun at the beach

Sandy Point State Park

Just what the Doctor ordered after all the craziness of our vacation beginning.

Not quite Ocean City, but it had sun, sand, and water, and that's all we needed!

We woke up Sunday morning, packed our picnic cooler, and off we went.

The Bay Bridge is a pretty awesome site. I'm glad to say that we didn't have to cross it, though.

I think I might have done alright with it, except for the fact that traffic was at a total stand-still. Yikes!

Kaden wasn't too sure at first, but he ventured in and out and was keeping Mike on his toes!

Now Mike isn't much for water unless it's in the bath or a pool. If he can't see the bottom, he doesn't want to be wading in. (Very interesting story about Mike's first trip to Bloomington, which involved a trip to Lake Lemon and Mike wading in after me in his boxer briefs on a dare....) But Mike was really enjoying himself during this trip! He wanted me to document how far he ventured out into the water, so here you are:

When Kaden wasn't in the water, he was digging up sand and rocks to collect

or snacking on sandy Cheez-Its.

While I was sitting out on the towels with Kaden, I noticed Mike's sister and her kids walking past us up the beach. If you know me well enough to be reading this blog, you know that there has been quite a bit of tension among the members of Mike's family. Mike and I continue to make the decisions that we believe to be in the best interests of our children. And in that spirit, after my initial reaction of anger/frustration, I suggested to Mike that he call his sister and direct her to where we were at. Just because the adults are having differences of opinion doesn't mean that our kids can't enjoy a day at the beach together. And enjoy themselves, they did!

Mike was SO excited to capture this picture of the sailboat and the lighthouse.

And the kids really wanted to take this seagull home.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

It's not too often that we get pictures of all the Russell grand kids together.

And we almost didn't because Kaden was very disinterested in picture taking.

But what makes it even better is Mike's little head bobbing in the background!

And another favorite: the whole family at the beach!

We loaded up into the car, sweaty, sandy, and hot, and drove back to the hotel. After freshening up and putting on our nice clothes, we headed to Don Pablos for dinner. Maybe it was all the sand and swimming, but that was one of the best meals I'd had in a long time!

All in all, it was a truly wonderful day. I started packing up suitcases after dinner so we'd be ready to load-and-go Monday morning....

part 3: it's gettin' hot in here

Our Saturday morning began with a trip to Target to pick up some new flip flops for Hannah and some more appropriate wedding clothes for Mike. Breakfast from the Starbucks and then off for Washington, D.C.!

The route was straight forward, just as Ray had described it, and we had relatively little traffic. Unfortunately, our car started to over heat on our way into the city! So, with the temperature in the upper 90s, we rolled down the windows, cranked up the heat, and prayed for the best! Mike had a new thermostat with him for the car, but had left all of the tools he had packed at his mom's house since space was at such a premium. A few phone calls and he had the groom's mechanic set available for his use after the wedding. We made it safely into D.C., found a parking spot and hopped out to enjoy the sites of the Nation's Capital!

As we approached the Washington Monument and I began snapping pictures, I realized with a sinking heart that my memory card wasn't in the camera!! I had room for about 5 pictures! I scrolled through the saved pictures and deleted as many as I could. Thank goodness for cell phones to help capture some extra images!

I used to live in Maryland, and I think that we made a couple of trips into D.C. I distinctly remember one trip when I forgot my tennis shoes and got horrible blisters from my sandals. And even though I'd been there before, there's just something very awe inspiring about the buildings in D.C. And sharing that with our kids was even more amazing!

All of the people in blue shirts in the picture below were part of a World War II veterans group.

Very humbling.

Look closely, there's Marine One!

Leah's Kindergarten class had studied a lot of architecture last year, and she really seemed to enjoy talking about whether the buildings were new or old and looking at all of the ornate carvings, such as these eagles.

The walk from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial didn't seem that long. But the walk back ... was really long! We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to the car, and it was later than we had hoped it would be. (No surprise there! This is the Russell family we're talking about!) And, of course, traffic was worse since it was afternoon. Traffic which did NOT help our over-heating car.

Mike was very resourceful, putting the car in neutral when we were stopped and keeping the RPMs up. But it was HOT and it was tense and it was very nerve wracking. No one wants to break down away from home ... but in Washington D.C. when you're supposed to be in your hotel getting ready for a wedding?!?!

We finally rolled into the hotel, a hot, sweaty, tired mess of people with roughly 80 minutes to shower, dress, and feed 4 children and 3 adults and make it to a wedding!

Mike braved a trip to Wendy's for food while I showered all the kids, ironed all of our clothes, and Torrie showered. While the kids ate (and I continued to iron) Mike showered and then it was my turn. We were ready to roll out of the hotel just in the nick of time. Mike was driving in his undershirt, since we were still driving with the heat on and I didn't want him to have pit stains walking down the aisle! We pulled into the church parking lot approximately 5 minutes before the wedding was supposed to start! While Mike was putting his shirt and tie on in the parking lot, the rest of us rushed in to assure Robin that Mike had arrived and grab seats. Whew!

After a lovely ceremony (in a lovely air conditioned church), we waited for the bride and groom to return to the church and took a picture of the entire Russell clan that was present at the time. While everyone else made their way to the reception, we detoured for a couple jugs of water and a memory card for the camera.

After adding a gallon and one half of water to the car, were finally able to put the air conditioning back on and relax! Unfortunately, my bad luck streak didn't ease up quite enough ... I had grabbed the wrong kind of memory card and my camera wouldn't read it! So, while we had managed to get enough pictures of our trip in D.C., we have only two pictures from the wedding reception. I wish I'd had enough memory on the camera to get a video of Mike's super-fast changing of the thermostat in the car - which he did in his shirt and tie during the wedding reception!

Once we knew the car was really fixed, we were able to relax and really enjoy the celebration of Ryan & Erin's wedding. The kids danced up a storm ... Cody has some pretty slick moves!

Daddy & Kaden:
Mommy & Leah:

After a REALLY long day, we headed back to the hotel. Late night wedding receptions always call for late night pizza, and then it was bedtime. We had planned to venture to Ocean City, Maryland on Sunday, but decided not to push our luck or our budget. Ray came to the rescue again and suggested Sandy Point State Park in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay that was much closer and still fit our need for a beach!