I know that it is cliche, but vacation goes by SO FAST. We left for PA after work the Friday before Thanksgiving. The ride down was OK. Leah still will only sleep at most 2 hours in the car, no matter what time it is. She wants to flip over on to her tummy. I don't blame her, sometimes sleeping well in the car is difficult. Ian did really well though. Traffic was pretty bad and I think we arrived around 10:30 or so. Paige was waiting up for us and the kids were so excited to see her and Shane.

The weekend was spent scouting locations for the marathon and attending the marathon on Sunday. It was so exciting to see Don run. I'm so proud of this accomplishment. Granted, it really wasn't fun to have the kids out in the cold and rain on Sunday morning, but Ian's face when he saw his Dad was worth it.

On Monday and Tuesday, we recovered a bit. By this point, Paige and Ian were more like brother and sister as opposed to cousins. They wanted to be together all the time, but fought for most of it. They wanted the same toy usually. Shane just follows the big kids wherever they go and Leah does her own thing. The absolute cutest thing was that a few nights Ian and Paige slept together in her trundle bed clutching battery operated candles. They looked so precious.

Before we knew it it was Thanksgiving. Paige and Shane's cousins, Brendan and Leenie arrived and it was 1 to1 kid to adult ratio. Ian LOVED Brendan (7) and Leeny (6). He thought that they were so cool. He's played with them before, but I'm not sure that he remembers it. The kids didn't think that the food was very exciting, but thanks to Erin, Bill and Louise, we had enough for an army - 2 turkeys even! I was really nice out on Wednesday and Thursday and the kids got to play on the playscape and the trampoline. Well, not Leah. She was the only kid into the eating thing.

Friday was another uneventful day, but it was a perfect vacation and we headed home that night. It was so nice of Bill and Erin to put up with us for a whole week while they managed to host a holiday and work and take care of their kids and paint the downstairs bathroom!

We spent the rest of Thanksgiving weekend doing chores and seeing my parents. I'm looking forward to doing some Christmas decorating in the coming weeks. Ian cannot wait for SANTA!

Don's got a new blog up about Ian being sick. It is pretty good. Also, he is running his first marathon this weekend. I'm proud of him, but I still wonder what happened to that guy I married and who is this crazy "athlete" person that replaced him?

Here's a picture of my pink girl from last week.

November is here. Ugh! Can't we go back to July? Enough complaining....here's some great things that are happening.

1) Don is a little over a week away from his first marathon. That also means that I'm a little over a week away from a week off from work. Yipee!
2) Thanksgiving is coming up! It is my favorite holiday. Plus it is a week with the Penn Corne's. The kids will have a blast.
3) Since Daylight Savings Time ended, the kids are tired really early.
4) Leah is really funny when she fake coughs
5) Ian has a girlfriend...Kaia from school. So far, she doesn't have any bruises.
6) I'm done Christmas shopping for all the kids in our lives. Now I just have my parents, sister and the kids Godparents to do.

On sadder topics, my aunt Helen died last week. She made it to 89 was a great lady. A lot of people don't really get to know their great aunts, but I always felt like she was a third grandma. The last few times I saw her, she was so excited to see Leah and hold her. She just loved kids.