Pumpkins and Marathons

Playing in the hay at the pumpkin patch/apple orchard

Aiden on the left and Luke on the right. AJ calls it the "b-bus"

One of the many pictures we tried to take with all the pumpkins

Liam picked a green pumpkin (his favorite color)

Corn Maze

600 lb pumpkin

Jumping on the "jumping pillow"

Cow Train

Let the fun begin!

We made our annual trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch recently. I imagine that the boys and I will go back again before the season is over, but this was our big trip with Daddy. We were trying to take advantage of some very nice weather with warmer than average temperatures just in case it snows in October. The boys really loved it this year and were very excited to pick out their own pumpkins, ride on the "cow train", pet a few animals, and play in the hay. We also managed to get a few pictures, although none of them seem to have everyone looking at the camera. I need to invest in a photo editing program or something.

In other news, John and I will be running the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday. In case anyone is interested in checking out our progress, you can go to the Twin Cities Marathon website and then to spectator information then athlete tracking. You can then use our bib numbers and/or first and last names to track us during the race. John is #8586 and I am #F1270. In years past, it seems I have always decided to participate in a marathon for some specific reason and I had to think about what my reason was for running this one. I love running and love training, but unlike many people, I am not as much into the hype that surrounds racing. I don't need something to train for to get me to run, I do it because I love it (and it relieves a lot of stress). My first three marathons (Chicago, Charlotte, and Philly) centered around qualifying for Boston. I finally ran Boston in 2006 and then we had three boys and my marathon running and training was pretty much nonexistent. Last year, John convinced me to train for the Twin Cities Marathon (7 months after having a baby?!) so that we could perhaps qualify for Boston and run it together. We achieved that goal and ran Boston this past spring. So, why run another one? That is the question I have been asking myself and will probably be asking once again when I wake up on Monday morning. I decided that the reason I will run another one is simple....Because I CAN. Sounds simple, but a lot of people cannot. Our babysitter, who kept the boys while we trained for Boston, is currently battling breast cancer and can't even consider training for a marathon. We are thankful to have this opportunity to try once again to run 26.2 miles because WE CAN!!