The First 20 Books of 2014

I started keeping track of the books I read last year (see here and here), and it has already been useful as a reference and fun to look back on. So for future posterity, here are the books read I have read so far as of the midway point of the year: 

1. The Hypnotist's Love Story, by Liane Moriarty -  I read two of Liane Moriarty's books last year, The Husband's Secret and What Alice Forgot, which were both wonderful. This novel was published in between those and I would say that it was solid but nothing extraordinary, although it did offer an interesting narrative from a (female) stalker's point of view. 

2. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson - This book was later chosen as the K-State Book Network book for Fall 2014, but I read it in January when I was at home with a stomach bug. Word to the wise: Never, ever, ever read a story about a cholera epidemic while you have a stomach bug unless you are absolutely, positively sure you do not have any latent hypochondriac tendencies. 

*3. The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton (read 53%, plus Wikipedia and lots of articles) -  I love Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome, but admit that I had never heard of this novel about a provincial Midwestern family whose daughter attempts to climb into New York society life until our book group read it. I liked the book all right but could not get excited about finishing it once our book group discussion had passed, but I did read enough secondary sources about the book that I sort of feel like there is no need to finish it now, either.

4. The Last Anniversary, by Liane Moriarty - This was one of Liane Moriarty's earliest novels and is a different narrative style than some of the others, with shifting viewpoints from an array of characters who all live or who are tied to an Australian island with a famous historic missing baby case at its core. The book itself is light and airy but deals with some heavy themes, although everything is tied up with a nice bow at the end. 

5. Hands Free Mama, by Rachel Macy Stafford - I started reading Rachel Stafford's blog by the same name (Hands Free Mama) after seeing several excellent articles that others had re-posted, particularly the article on "I Love To Watch You Play" (aka, the six most important words you can say in sports). I would say that the book itself could probably be reduced to one long blog post, but I love reading the reminders of living in the moment without distractions when we interact with our children. 

*6. Selected Stories, by Alice Munro (read 10 of 28) - Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature this year and I had never, ever heard of this Canadian short story writer (or had any idea that the Nobel Prize was very often awarded to short-story writers). In this 700+ page book, I only read 10 of the 28 stories before our book group met, but was struck by how beautiful, powerful, and multi-layered her writing is. 

7. Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed, by Glennon Doyle Melton - I stumbled across this book while reading an Amazon review for Hands Free Mama that mentioned that this book was a more "real" reflection on parenting. Was it ever! I loved the honest voice and so many of the themes in here - the idea that we are all beautiful warriors, that people who need help don't look like people who need help, that one of the most important gifts we can offer is to be a Radical Truth Teller. Reading this book introduced me to the blog Momastery, which has been life-changing in many ways, including encouraging me to write my "Living a Medicated Life" blog post (see here). 

8. Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint, by Nadia Bolz-Weber - This spiritual memoir of an eccentric ELCA pastor was recommended by blogger Rachel Held Evans as the best book on religion in 2013, and I can see way. Real, honest, and unflinching as the author discusses her faith journey. 

9. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, and Other Things that Happened, by Allie Brosh - This book is based on the blog by the same name, which is utterly hilarious. A very fast, fun read with hilarious artwork - and the two chapters in the middle on depression are one of the best depictions of this issue that I have ever seen. 

10. All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood, by Jennifer Senior - This is an excellent book that scared the crap out of me. The author combines vignettes with academic studies to paint a picture of why parents today feel so much stress. Chapters include baby years, marriage, middle childhood - and the teenage years, in which I learn that most parents - especially mothers - hate parenting teenagers. Rock on!  

11. Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell - This novel is marketed as a Young Adult book but I think it might be just as, if not more, poignant for adults, particularly its setting in the 1980s. A sweet novel with dark themes that changes narratives between two teenagers who are in love for the first time. And not anywhere near as cheesy as that previous sentence makes it sound. 

*12. A Burnable Book, by Bruce Holsinger - A novel by an academic medieval scholar set in England and Italy in the 1380s, featuring real (but fictionalized) characters such as Geoffrey Chauncer and John Gower. I loved both the story itself (a murder mystery with multiple layers) as well as all of the true-to-life detail of the medieval period; Will is reading it now and loves it, too. We decided that it is similar to a much more readable version of The Name of the Rose. 

*13. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones - A Pulitzer-Prize winning novel that I had never heard of - yet another reason why I am thankful for my book group, since I am sure that even if I had stumbled across this book, I probably would have given up after initially finding it hard to get into. The novel is excellent, rich, well-written, and well worth reading, though, and offers a very interesting perspective on pre-Civil War America: the tale of a black slave-owner in the south, from many different characters' perspective. 

*14. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn - This non-fiction account of problems faced by women around the world was written by New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof and his wife and former professional colleague, Sheryl WuDunn. The book is depressing but easy to read, with very personal vignettes surrounding women that they have encountered around the world facing issues such as sex trafficking, child marriage, fistulas, genital mutilation, rape, and much more. Eye-opening and a call to action. 

15. The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, by Maria Shriver - This was a free Kindle download for my phone at one point, and I started reading it on a plane when finished with my current reading material. The book makes a good point - lots of statistics and facts about women living in poverty - but is fairly repetitive.  

16. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte - One of my favorite novels, EVER! Why did it take me until this year to read it?!? I started reading it last year on my Kindle and got about 30% of the way through, and then somehow set it aside for other books. I cannot believe it took me this long to return to it. This incredible novel focusing on a coming-of-age, Gothic story of 1850s England with a strong and unconventional (for the time) female character is sometimes classified as the "first modern novel" and transcends time. And I can totally see why. 

17. Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, by Barbara Ehrenreich - I have read several of Barbara Ehrenreich's earlier works, such as Nickel and Dimed; while her earlier works focused on personal "undercover" accounts, this one is less personal (although the leading chapter focuses on her breast cancer experience) and focuses more on the history and dissemination of the positive thinking movement. I actually enjoyed the book and did not think that it was "negative," just showing the limits of any type of thinking on actual outcomes. 

18. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand - Another book that I started last year that somehow, inexplicably, took me until this year to finish. Highly recommended - this non-fiction account by the author of Seabiscuit focuses on Louis Zamperini and follows his tale as an Olympian, armed services member, castaway, P.O.W., and ultimately, survivor. 

19. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), by Mindy Kaling - A very fast read written by the comedian Mindy Kaling, famous as a writer on The Office and now as the tour de force behind The Mindy Project. I felt like the book itself was very light and fluffy, but it was a good vacation read with many life-out-loud parts. 

20. Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First Century Parenting, by Drew Magary - A series of essays and personal vignettes on parenting....but written by a father. I feel like fathers' voices are largely absent from our national conversations on parenting, and this hilarious, often crass, always real voice was a welcome addition. Strong language but extremely funny and often quite insightful on so many of the absurdities of parenting, with some of the most poignant passages on his D.U.I. and his premature son's time in the N.I.C.U. 

* = Adult Book Group Book 

What good - or bad - books have you read recently?? 

Estes Park Marathon

This weekend was an amazing event with amazing people...the Estes Park Marathon! This Sunday, June 22nd was the one-year "Life Anniversary" of our friend Chad; last year on this date, he suffered a sudden cardiac death event while out running, that was aborted thanks to the fast actions of his fellow runners and EMS and fire department personnel. A group of eight of us from church decided to run/walk the Estes Park half and full marathon this year in celebration of life. Thanks to Brenda/Nonnie's awesomeness in coming out to Manhattan to watch our kids, Will and I were able to make the trip together with our friends. What a great time of celebrating life! 

Friday morning, our friend Sarah picked us up for our drive to Estes Park, along with Amy and Abby. Nonnie got a picture of our departing crew. Poor Sarah has horrible car sickness unless she is driving, which is awful for Sarah, but great for the rest of us since that meant that someone else did the driving on our trip, woo hoo! 

Road trip!! We had perfect weather the whole weekend and the drive was no exception.

We stopped in Hays to pick up Andrea, who had been visiting a friend there. We took advantage of the extra people around to get documentation of our group of six riding in Sarah's van.

We stopped for lunch in Colby, the "Oasis on the Planes," and ate at the giant Subway/Qdoba/truck stop, where Abby took the opportunity to also pick up an invisible ink activity book.

After much more driving through the boring flatness of western Kansas and eastern Colorado, we finally saw mountains and eventually arrived at our destination: Estes Park. The mountains were gorgeous and the dry, crisp weather was quite welcome after the heat and humidity back in Manhattan.

Beautiful stream running in back of the main Estes Park strip.

The five girls in Sarah's van!

We ate at Ed's Cantina, a locally-owned Mexican restaurant with delicious (and fast) dishes such as fish tacos. They even brought out water for the table in a giant Tequila bottle. We texted this picture below to our friend Jenny as evidence of our debauchery, but she wasn't buying it.

After dinner, we headed over to our accommodations...YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park Center! Will and I have stayed several times at its sister YMCA center, Snow Mountain Ranch, but neither of us had ever been to this one.

Elk are very common here. Very, very common. I think we actually saw more elk on our trip than we did squirrels. Perhaps this is why local restaurants feel no shame in serving "elk burgers."

Our room! Oh, our room. Let's just say that this was true to the joke before our trip that this was Adult Church Camp. This room had beds for six people: a double bed and two sets of bunk beds. That was it. The bathroom sink was out in the open as well, to the left of this picture. We were not only able to sleep six here, we even made it up to eight on Saturday night when Jenny and Andy drove down and slept on air mattresses on the floor. We joked that it wasn't quite clear why we decided on one room when perhaps two rooms would have been more sensible, but I am very glad that we were truly able to experience Adult Church Camp all together and it wouldn't have been the same if we were split up.

Will's contribution to our trip: a power strip for the room. This was very important, and kind of funny to see all six of our Apple iPhones lined up here.

We awoke on Saturday morning and after a buffet breakfast in the dining center (where we were behind a large youth group who really were here for church camp), we headed over to packet pick-up. The Estes Park Marathon is a pretty small event - there were around 180 people entered in the full marathon, 400 in the half - and had a very charming small-town feeling. Packet pick-up was held in the cafeteria of the local high school and all of the volunteers were quite sweet and wonderful.

It's official! The bib numbers appeared to be alphabetical. I also discovered that I had inadvertently ordered Will a woman's shirt, but the race organizers took pity on him and allowed him to switch from the hot pink, v-neck shirt to the more masculine one.

The gang's all here!! Andy and Jenny drove down from Fort Collins, where they were staying with some college friends, to meet us at the high school. Yay!

The high school is very close to the Stanley Hotel, made famous by its use in the movie The Shining. Sadly, the hotel is not actually isolated, unlike its portrayal in the movie.

Next stop: Rocky Mountain National Park. Part of the race course literally ran right next to the boundaries of the park, but Saturday afternoon was our big chance to see it.

We decided on a picnic lunch and Amy very sweetly purchased a plethora of picnic supplies from Safeway for us all. Will convinced Andy that they should split this ginormous sandwich below.

After a brief spell of rain, we ventured out to explore the Hidden Valley area of our picnic.

Hidden Valley is off of Trail Ridge Road, which goes all the way up and over the mountain in RMNP. We all drove up to the top of the road and stopped to explore at the Alpine Visitor Center.

When Will and I were here just three weeks ago, the path to the top of the mountain was closed, but not today! There were still snow banks all around but the path itself was clear. Our gang decided that hiking to the top would be the best way to prepare for the higher altitude.

Beautiful views looking down.

We made it to the top! And to truly be at the "top," it was important that we stand on top of large rocks.

Our whole crew! It was quite windy at the top, perhaps even windier than some of the crazy times out at the Konza Prairie.

Over 12,000 feet! We were comforted by the fact that the Estes Park Marathon was held at a measly 8,000 feet.

Next up: Will, Amy, Sarah and I drove further to the west side of the park with hopes of spotting a moose. We did see three moose off into the distance and were very happy with our wildlife spotting. Then, something magical happened. We spotted a mama and baby moose in the forest and pulled up to a rest stop about a mile further down the road. Will became a "touron" (tourist/moron) and walked over to the picnic tables to see if he could get a better view of the moose team, while the rest of us followed closely behind. All of a sudden, the mama and baby bounded out of the forest and came right next to us by the picnic tables. We should have been scared but they did not seem frightened by our presence and the whole moment at the time just had an aura of magic and awe.

The baby moose, just staring at us.

The moose pair then scampered onto a stream, where they put on quite a show with posing and playing in the water for all of the gathering visitors to ooh and awe over. There was a tense moment when it wasn't clear whether the baby moose would make it across the stream, but thankfully all ended well.

Playing in the water. This is truly one of the most magical things that I have ever seen.

That night, we all carb-loaded by dining at a local Italian restaurant, Mama Rosa. Lots of spaghetti, baked pasta, and garlic bread for all. Oh, and water. Gallons and gallons of water.

Sunday morning was the big event!! Our alarm clock went off even before the crack of dawn, at 4:30 a.m. Amazingly, not only did we sleep eight people in our room the night before, we even managed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night without stepping on anyone. We took this and the moose as a good omen that all was going to be great! Andy, Jenny, Will, Amy, and I road over in the "marathon" car, while Sarah, Abby, and Andrea followed a little later in the "half marathon" car. Estes Park High School had opened their doors to let people hang out inside before the start, which was wonderful. Then, 6:00 a.m. came...and the marathoners were off!! The half marathon started shortly later, at 6:20 a.m.

Amy, Jenny, and I have been training together since February for this event and it was exhilarating (and kind of surreal) that it was actually here. After our crazy hot and hilly 18-mile "adversity walk" a few weeks ago, the 40ish degree weather at the beginning felt amazing.

View on the course! This was after the first long uphill and when we started a long downhill, so around mile 9 on the course. We were still all feeling great. We were still feeling great at the halfway 13.1 mile point, and had turned in our fastest half marathon compared to what we had done in training to date.

While we were out walking, the boys were running the marathon...and finishing! Will and Andy ran it together and finished in 4:19. Will loved running with Andy and said he felt a million times better than at the end of the Garmin marathon, and that he never hit the wall this time.

Finished! Andy took this picture and I stole it because it makes me smile.

And this wasn't the only thing going on...back in Kansas, our amazing friend Heather was gathering people from church to take pictures with the hashtag for our race weekend, #cb4life (Chad Bunger For Life). This was one of the many pictures that she texted to us during the race. Amy let me store my phone in her Camelbak and noticed it buzzing around mile 15.6. I pulled it out to look at it and just about cried seeing all of the pictures of everyone sending their support and love. Heather and our church family are amazing.

There are no pictures the rest of the race because, well, it kind of wasn't as fun the last 10+ miles. Here are random thoughts that we had:

1. A half marathon is, like, 65 times easier than a full marathon.
2. The scenery was beautiful.
3. But, what the heck was up with cars on the course!??! With no lanes dedicated to the race or even cones out the warn the cars?
4. Dodging cars and jumping into the shoulder periodically is exhausting.
5. The volunteers were wonderful. So very sweet. I cannot overstate and sweet and encouraging all of the aid station workers were.
6. Our favorites were Danny the Cheerleader and Unnamed Fifteen Year Old Wrestler.
7. The last 2 miles of the race seemed to take forever.
8. We planned to all cross the finish line together, holding hands.
9. The last bit of the race finished on a 3/4 lap around the high school track.
10. The last 100 yards, we all grabbed hands, raised them up high, and jogged toward the finish line together. There was not a dry eye among the three of us. So emotional thinking of how far we had come together, that we were here, and that, most importantly, we were all alive.

The finish! This race advertises itself as "walker friendly" with a 7-hour cutoff. We were thrilled to meet this goal, coming in at 6:56:46!!

Me, Jenny, and Amy, sitting in the grass and so happy to be off our feet. I love these girls so much and I grin every time I see this picture.

Our whole crew!! Abby, Sarah, and Andrea had a fantastic time in the half, finishing in 3:47! They were awesome cheerleaders for the rest of us and I feel bad that no one was there to see them finish. I am so proud of all of them for how hard they had trained and for having a fantastic race - love them all! They also got to see the finish of Larry Macon, the Marathon Maniac who holds the world record for the most marathoners run in a year...255. We at first thought that was wrong and that he had run 255 marathons in his lifetime. Oh, no...255 in 2013, and over 1,300 in his lifetime to date. Crazy.

Next order of business: FOOD! We headed back to Estes Park for pizza at Poppy's Pizza, where Andrea took on her second career as a personal trainer/stretcher for all of the marathon walkers (as it turns out, it is quite difficult to completely straighten your leg after walking 26.2 miles).

The whole crew!! I am so proud of each and every one of our friends here. For training hard together, for honoring Chad's life and Jenny's life, for our friendship, for the way that no one here is related by blood but all are related by community and love and mutual support. I think I just might cry again thinking about how incredible this weekend was and all that it symbolized.

Jenny and Andy headed back later Saturday afternoon to Ft. Collins, while the rest of us barely moved until we headed out to Estes Park for one last dinner, followed by an early bedtime. Today on Monday, we departed early from the YMCA and drove back to Kansas, where everyone was a little less sore than yesterday but still quite stiff. We made great time and made it back in plenty of time tonight for Daniel's t-ball game (and Annika's pottery class).

Amazing weekend with amazing people! And a million thanks to Nonnie for letting us enjoy this child-free time with friends.

Keeping It Real

Recently, I have talked with or communicated with several people whose children have had struggles in certain areas, and they have felt very isolated, alone, and that they are the only one who has faced that particular issue. I think we are sometimes hesitant to talk about major or minor challenges that our kids have had, partly because we may fear judgment or embarrassment, but also because we want to protect our kids' privacy, especially as they grow older.

But I think that sometimes, staying silent about issues that our children have faced or ways in which they have been "behind" in a developmental area does a disservice to other parents, by making it seem as though they are all alone in facing in challenges that arise. In an effort to Keep It Real and to provide encouragement to other parents whose children might be encountering the same issues, here are some are of the challenges that our children have had:

10. I took Zoloft (an antidepressant) during the pregnancy of my daughter. Shortly after she was born, several studies came out about babies having withdrawal effects if their mother had taken this drug during the third trimester of pregnancy. These babies were also more likely to have breathing problems. I remember feeling like I had screwed up from the start, but ironically, my child who was exposed to Zoloft during pregnancy and while breastfeeding has had zero breathing problems, while my other child is prone to them all the time. 

9. My daughter was delivered with forceps. There are all kinds of articles about how forceps are the Worst Ever and can cause brain and skull damage, but I actually had a much easier recovery and a healthier baby with this delivery as compared to my completely natural one. 

8. My son did not nurse for almost 24 hours after birth. This was a catastrophe to me at the time because all that I had read talked about the "magical four hours" and that all was lost if you did not nurse in this time, but considering he went on to nurse for two years, it worked out all right. 

7. My daughter was saying zero (0!) words at 18 months, which is several standard deviations below the mean of what is considered "typical." Once she hit two years old, full sentences erupted and language poured forth, but it was a lonely time for a while, especially when well-meaning people would advise us to be sure we were talking to our baby (which was very well-intended but with the implication that we obviously must not be or else our daughter would be talking, which made me feel terrible at the time).

6. My son did not even begin the process of being potty trained until 3 years, 7 months. He was very verbal and would say things like, "I will use the potty when I am an adult. Or when I graduate from college." No amount of incentives would change things - instead, one day out of the blue, he decided to wear underwear and that was that. 

5. Well, except that my son is still not night trained at six years old. I was convinced at first that we must be the only person whose child struggled with this, until talking to people and hearing that this is still common in about 10% of seven-to-ten-year old children, especially boys, and is still well within the realm of "normal."

4. My son had so many behavioral problems at the age of four that we seriously thought we perhaps needed professional help (as it turns out, we did not - many children at four are crazy and make you think you have failed at parenting, but are actually fine). Things so very much better today now that he is six years old - and we as parents really did nothing differently. 

3. My daughter was in occupational therapy and feeding therapy for several years for sensory issues from when she was six until she was eight years old. Fearing judgment, I had denied to myself for years that there was perhaps a problem, but once we started therapy, we watched her make amazing progress - and she is truly a different person today. 

2.My son is still not really reading at the age of six. I kind of feel like we Messed Up since we purposefully decided not to really work with him on how to read before kindergarten with the hope he would be less bored in school. Joke's on us! Perhaps I should be, but I am not really worried because he is so bright and inquisitive and engaged, and I hope this means that when fluent reading emerges, it will flourish. 

1. My favorite story about issues with our children: When our children were five and one years old, one day we received two independent phone calls from their experienced daycare/elementary school teacher about two completely different problems. Each discussion began, "I've never seen anything like this!" My daughter had shut down and was refusing to write the letter "K," while my son was hitting everyone at daycare not due to frustration, but due to glee. Oh yes, that's our children....they never read the parenting books on how they were supposed to react, either. (I am proud to report that my son no longer hits people...and my daughter writes the letter "K" regularly.)

And all of this to say - my children are amazing, awesome, healthy, and thriving. They are bright, creative, curious, and unique. There is no one in the world like them - as they would say, just like everyone else. Sometimes it has felt like that if I had done everything "right" there never would have been challenges or developmental lags, but I truly feel that our children are their own unique packages and we never know what will happen. 

My hope is that we can all Keep It Real and be open about the challenges that our children have faced or worries we have had. So if these are issues that your children are facing, take heart - you are so not alone. And odds are, your child will be even better than fine. 

Father's Day Weekend

This is one of the only weekends in June where everyone in our family was in town all weekend. Divine. The big event of Father's Day weekend was that our great friends Matt and Beth were back in town to visit!! Our weekend was devoted to t-ball, a one-mile race, eating out (shocking, I know), sleepovers, park picnics, fountain water play, church, and much laughter with friends and family. 

Following college students' lead, our documentation of the "weekend" began on Thursday night with...Daniel's t-ball game!! We were in Yellowstone for the first game and I was in DC last week, so this was the first game that I saw in person. It was adorable. Daniel's favorite part was batting. 

Daniel rotated between right outfield, catcher, and pitcher. Here he is below in catching position - who needs great fielding when you can at least look ready? :)

Team cheer after the game. Our friend Chad is the head coach and he is doing an awesome job. Yay, boys!

Friday night, Matt, Beth, and their three sweet kids arrived. YAY! Julie and Charlie first met Matt and Beth when they started grad school in 2003; we first met them when we moved to town in 2010, but I feel like we have known them our whole life. We have missed them so very much since they moved to South Dakota in 2012 after Matt finished his PhD and took a job as a professor. Just to show the kind of awesome people they are, Will, Julie and I had signed up to run the Poyntz Avenue Mile on Friday night, a one-mile race straight down the main street in downtown to benefit the high school cross country team...and we were able to convince Matt to join us on 30 minutes' notice.

I stole these pictures from the Poyntz Avenue Mile Facebook page, which I am not sure if is legal, but that's the kind of rebel I am. Here is Matt in the orange shorts below, tearing it up.

Will is in the blue shirt. The boy in the orange shirt is the 12-year-old son of our friends, and he did awesome - finished in sub-6 minutes. Will was thrilled with his own 6:03 finish, and was encouraged that all of this marathon training has not completely turned him into a snail.

Here I am, below. I did not finish last, and, even more, finished ahead of Marvin, the 87-year-old runner de force who is a strong presence at all local races and has beaten me in the last two races I have run in town (he is in the blue shirt in the picture below). I want to be Marvin when I grow up!!

Our friend Christine ran too, and did awesome - finished 9th for the women!

Here is Julie! She was in the "elite" women's division, for women who predicted they would run a sub-6 minute mile. They decided to combine the elite women's race with the elite men's race, so she and another female elite runner were the only women in that race. It was so fun to watch Julie run, since if we were in the same race I would never get to see her finish!

Saturday morning, Christine and I ran 8 miles, which in hindsight was perhaps not the greatest idea since we were both tired from the race the night before, and neither of us had run this far in a while. We made it, though! Will also ran 8 (or 10? It's all the same...) miles with our friend Andy - the two of them are running (not walking) the Estes Park marathon in exactly one week from today, YIKES. After running, we headed back over to the Thorntons for lots of fun outside time with the kids.

The whole gang!! Crazy to see how much everyone has grown - and the fact that Greg and Rowan were not even born when we all met. As you can see, our children were not a fan of pictures, but at least the little ones look super cute.

Matt with Rowan and Greg. Greg has learned quickly that Matt is The Man.

Getting in on some t-ball action.

For lunch, we all headed to Pizza Hut buffet. The little ones joined us at the "adult" table, but the older kids enjoyed congregating at the "kids' table" behind us.

Greg loves wearing Julie's medals. He picked this one out of a box with many race medals - it was from CIM 2008.

Later in the afternoon, we headed out to the fountains at the Blue Earth Plaza. This is the perfect place for little ones - free, lots of fun, and not a "commitment" like going to the pool involves.

Keagan and Daniel, the Intrepid Explorers.

They were playing some boxing game? Not sure. Definitely on the same Boy Power Destruction! wave length.

Addie and Annika!

Beth with baby Rowan. He was all tuckered out, poor guy.

This is about as far as I got....putting my feet in the water. Anything more would just be crazy.

No weekend would be complete without lots of reading time. Beth read the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" to the kids, which is, incidentally, the book that is quoted the most by Daniel at random times throughout the week.

Julie made us dinner - lasagna. It was so good that it was totally worth taking a picture of this half-eaten pan. The secret is the hot and spicy sausage.

The big event of the evening....SLEEPOVER at our house!! There was also a lot of Lego action, seeing as the family room looks utterly destroyed. The girls slept in Annika's room and got to sleep fairly quickly, but we heard Daniel and Keagan talking and conspiring well into the night.

While the boys held down the fort, the girls went to...4th Annual Girls' Day Out!! So it wasn't a whole day, and it was actually at night, but hey, we did venture to a place slightly above Dairy Queen, which was where we wound up last year. After an attempt at Bourbon and Baker, we ended up at Harry's around 9pm for drinks and dessert. We decided that Harry's was the perfect environment for boring people like us because everyone there was at least 50 years or older and the atmosphere was very quiet and soothing.

Beth decided to order a "boozy coffee" to see if she would perhaps like coffee with some liquor added, but alas, coffee was still coffee. She was determined to drink it all, though, since the drink was rather pricey, and forced herself to down every last drop. ;)

Today was a very important day...Father's Day!! Annika made Will this really sweet homemade book/card. I took a picture of each page because even though we put it in the "save forever" box, odds are that it will still get lost at some point.

After cards and a Very Fancy Breakfast of cinnamon toast (actually, that was the kids...I am not sure Will ate breakfast? Gosh I am good), we headed off to church. Construction on the new addition is beginning tomorrow!

Every man's secret dream on Father's Day....teaching Sunday School! Will and I co-taught the "Games" unit in 1st through 4th grade Sunday School this morning.

Children's Time today featured a pinwheel. This was very, VERY exciting for Daniel.

After church, we picked up some food and headed over to Anneberg Park for a picnic on this beautiful day. It was perfect since the adults could sit and talk, while the kids could all run around inside the fenced playground without fear of being flattened by a car.

Christine and her sweet girls joined us too, yay! Charlie provided endless amounts of entertainment to Lily and Penny with the idea of an Ice Holding Competition.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Matt, Beth, Addie, Keagan, and Rowan after lunch. :( We already miss them so much and look forward to our next reunion. Safe travels back to South Dakota! The rest of us made the whole loop around the pond at Anneberg and saw all kinds of crayfish, turtles, fish, geese, frogs, and other wildlife.

Since Father's Day is All About Eating, our family visited the new Billy Vanilly cupcake shop and each picked out a cupcake to try. Let me just say...Heaven in a box. Heaven.

Annika filled up her page for summer reading at the library, so we stopped by to get her next prize. She was very excited that in addition to a new book, she has a coupon for cookie dough.

Will's big desire for dinner was to have a steak. We headed out to dinner at Little Apple Brewery, since cooking at home would just be crazy talk.

The kids like eating here since you are able to draw with crayons on the table. Daniel drew a top-secret picture of "Dan," his alter-ego ninja, complete with cross bow and Nunchucks.

Annika's alter ego is the Top Secret "Anna." She is a Lego Ninja, too.

Will enjoying his steak. Success!

We are now relaxing and watching a family movie at home. Happy Father's Day, Will! You are an amazing father and I learn so much about how to be a better parent from you every single day. We love you!!