Family in town...and Happy Father's Day!

My mom came into town last Sunday and family has slowly rolled in all week long. Mom stayed home with the girls Mon, Tues an Wed and I took Thursday off and had Friday as a Flex day. Thursday we hit up the pool and then my Aunt Gail (mom's sister) & Uncle Thomas came in from Austin, TX. My sister and her kids arrived Thursday night as well. We ate a lot of Mike's cooking, going for walks, enjoying the sun and playing lots of games at night.

Had to post this pic...mom and I went for a walk and Izzy had a meltdown all while Laney Bug stared at her big sis like, "Really, you have these fits too?!?" Classic.
Mom did lots of fun, creative projects with the girls, per usual. Making popsicles, crafts and finger jello were just a few activities.

Laney at the water table

Sisters at the pool

Mom and buggy

Izzy's last gymnastics class until August. We took the summer off so we could do swim class. Izzy was in rare form this night...she brought her "A" game for us and it was so much fun to watch her shine and perform all her tricks.

Balancing

Friday we spent a good portion of the day at the pool and I'm sorry to say I only took ONE pictures. So very unlike me. However, Laney was not in the best of moods so I was a bit frazzled. I ended up taking her home (and leaving with her favorite Uncle Thomas!) while I returned to the pool to enjoy the WATER SLIDES with my sister. So fun.

Saturday morning my sister and my niece joined me on the Monon; Kim walked about 5 miles while Taylor and I ran 9 miles. It was a heater outside, but thankfully we got a VERY early start to avoid the heat and humidity. Izzy had swim class and then we rushed home to greet yet more family. My cousin drove down with her family from Toledo and spent the entire day at our house. We did a mini family reunion like this about 2 years ago...so we knew a fun day was in store for us.

Relaxing in the shade

Bug!

The girls enjoying the pool

Lovies enjoying some adult beverages

Almost all of my mom's family...only missing Tara and her crew

My cousin, Cindy, teaches Zumba and brought along with her some of the coin skirts they dance in. She gave Izzy one of these and it was a big hit. Izzy loves to 1. Dance and 2. Play dress-up. Major hit.

Aunt Gail and Laney

Laney and Cindy

Sunday morning everyone took off, so my mom and Mike and I headed to the pool (yes, that makes 4 days in a row at the pool - YAY!) for one final day in the sun. Again, I didn't take many pics...but the highlight was that Izzy went down a new, enclosed, winding slide all by herself! She's an old pro at the kiddie slide and has now graduated to the bigger kids' slide...so fun!

Sunday night my mom offered to watch the girls while Mike and I enjoyed a date night. We had great adult time while mom had a movie/popcorn night with the girls.

Self portrait at the end of a fun Father's Day! Happy Father's Day to all our dads and especially to Mikey!!!

Flowergirl dress...

Izzy is in her cousins wedding in September (Tim & Danielle) and it was time to go dress fitting for her flower girl dress. Let's just say she was chomping at the bit to get the dress on!

Soooo excited
And a touch bashful

Funny faces

Pretending? Regardless...she was so sad that she had to take the dress off. Izzy asked if she wasn't a flower girl anymore because the dress was coming off. Poor girl. Had to explain to her we had to order the dress and we could wear it in a few months. Too cute!

Wedding & Dancing

Yesterday after swim class we headed up to Fort Wayne to celebrate Mike's step sister's wedding. We'd been prepping Izzy for the wedding all week, as it'd be her first wedding and no doubt a fun time for her. Every time we mentioned Andrea's wedding, Izzy's eyes would get big and she'd say, "I'm going to be the flower girl!" You see, Izzy will be a flower girl, but not until September at Tim & Danielle's wedding. They sent her a package complete with a flower girl t-shirt and book. We've been reading her the book to prepare her for her role...but it seems that as soon as we said we're going to a wedding this weekend, she got confused. Let's just say Izzy was beyond excited about seeing a real, live flower girl at the ceremony! She wouldn't nap, as she was too excited! We left Laney with Bob & Laura, as she goes to bed around 7 and it'd be no fun (for her or for us) had we brought her.
By the time we got into the car headed to the ceremony, Izzy crashes. Nice timing, right? So we kept her in the car another 20 minutes once we got there so she could snooze. It was going to be a long night!
Izzy had to stand on her chair to get a good eye on the flower girl, Sophia.

Andrea and her dad...she made for one stunning bride!

Ceremony site was at the Rose Gardens and it, too, was quite a beautiful site!

At the reception with Daddy...look at her big blues!
Izzy was finally able to meet the flower girl...they danced the night away!
Taking a break (it was probably 10pm here...3 hours past her bedtime!)
Izzy "borrowed" the maracas from the band...
...and shook them while dancing to their music! What a fun night!!!

Marathon Training is underway...

My 18 week marathon training started this week. I've been looking forward to this for 5 years, ever since Mike ran the Chicago Marathon in 2005. Being a spectator there inspired me, but the timing just wasn't right for me. Fertility treatments were my focus, not running. So here I am, a mother to two darling girls, and training for my first full marathon.

I've had about 4 weeks *off* since the Mini Marathon in May, but have kept up running and cross training to keep my endurance up. This weekend is my first long run consisting of 8 miles. Funny, 8 miles was near the end of my 1/2 marathon training and now it's my first long run. I've been seeking out running partners everywhere I turn as I know a partner will be my greatest asset in making it through my long Saturday morning runs. Some of these runs will be out of town and therefore I will have to run alone. Like the 19 miles I'm going to have to run on the country roads of Southern Michigan during family camp in September. Now that should be interesting.

The planning that goes into the training on a daily basis is consuming my every thought: What pace will I aim for today? What route will I run today? Have I taken in enough fluids/calories to get me through today's run? Is it going to rain? Do I need a hat/sunscreen? I mean, the list goes on and on. And the planner in me LOVES every minute of it.

Since training for a marathon is nearly another full time job, other areas of my life will be receiving less of my time (read: Mike, Izzy & Delaney). Mike has already been 100% on board with me being gone for 2+ hours every Saturday morning and one evening a week. He has trained for this before and knows what goes into it. He's making sacrifices of his own time so I can do this for me. There's no way we could both be training for the same marathon at the same time. Anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge the amazing husband I have that recognizes this has been a personal goal ever since I started training with him in 2005 for Chicago, only to be told by my doctor that I had to stop running if I wanted to get pregnant.

We accomplished our goal of having a family...and now it's time to reach my next goal: crossing the finish line in Chicago on 10.10.10.

I'm running 19 miles this week. At my peak training I'll be running 36 miles a week.

One mile at a time...

Swim Lessons, Man Olympics & Sisters

This is going to be a long post...and a random one, at that. Bear with me. This is just a cute picture of Laney Bug learning to walk with a push-behind toy. She's super close!

Izzy's gymnastics classes are on hold until the Fall, as we have signed her up for swim lessons at the Monon center all summer. Class was supposed to be held outdoors; however, the weather was lackluster all day Saturday. Please excuse how horribly the pictures turned out at the indoor pool:

Swimming to get toys and putting them in the basket

Diving for toys
Saturday afternoon my girlfriend Lori came over for most of the day to watch the girls while we had a Funster event. Each of the year's events are completely and totally random and this one did not disappoint. We went to the 1st Annual Man Olympics (think Beer Olympics for charity). Our team was called the Spotted Cow (Mike & Clay both have family in Janesville, Wisconsin and their fave beer is Spotted Cow).

The day's events consisted of 8 events: Relay, Yard Poker, Slime Hunt, Tug-of-War, Dodgeball, Cornhole, Trike 500, Ladder Golf, Beer Pong and Water Balloon Assault. I am not making this up. In fact, the group who hosted and created this idea are a group of physicians. Drunk physicians. Ha! Here was the trophy, which we did not win:

This was a very well-organized event:

Scoreboard

Sober Relay: consisted of doing crazy things such as smashing egg on your head, pouring beer down your britches, and chugging a beer.

Mike & Maggie had to do a wheelbarrow

In between events

Front of the house hosted the Trike race:

We were up against another team, each of us had to do two laps and in between the laps we had to chug a PBR. Nice.
Water Balloon Assault: catapulting water (& paint)-filled balloons at a human target!

Mid-day drinking the team mascot beer

Dodgeball: If you got out, in order to get back in you had to chug a beer.

We had SO much fun and are looking forward to competing again next year. I have never been a part of anything like this and must say I was a bit nervous about a full day of drinking, as I don't get out much these days. Mike and I had a blast and couldn't have done it without Lori's help with the girls and Jeremy's picking us up at night. Thanks guys!

Sunday was pretty low-key. Mike worked in the yard while the girls and I went to Jaime's house for a playdate. After naps we headed to the pool for a few hours. And tonight the girls were in rare form, snuggling and wrestling and laughing hysterically at each other. Mike and I literally just sat back and watched them have nothing short of some silly sister time. I love how close they are getting!

Jammy time fun

After Laney went to bed, I was sorting through my jewelry drawer and Izzy wanted to try everything on. She is so stinkin' cute...she always pulls up a stool and "puts on" my makeup and jewelry. Had to snap a pic of this:

Too cute!