John's Moose Marathon and Finn's 2 year Stats

Luke the Ninja at Andy's 4th birthday

Our good friend, Andy Bakken (left in bright yellow and black standing), celebrated his 4th birthday with a Ninjago party. The boys had lots of fun playing games, running around, and "fighting" with Ninja foam swords.  Never a dull (or quiet) moment.  

Finn and his cupcake at Andy's party

This was a tricky week for Finn as he watched all three older brothers head to school.  We packed up a backpack for him as well because he wanted so badly to have a "kakkak (backpack) and bus (ride the bus)."

"Bye Mom, I go school!"  Sidenote-Aunt Jennifer gave us those cute baseball backpacks when Luke and Liam were born.  They have been around the block just a few times!

John ran a trail marathon up near Duluth, MN

John and his buddies ran the Moose Mountain Trail Marathon over the weekend in honor of their running friend, Greg Riebe, who passed away suddenly in January leaving behind a wife and two young children.  This was Greg's favorite race and one that he ran just last year and placed 2nd Masters overall.

John ran a trail marathon called Moose Mountain over the weekend and finished in 5 hours 48 minutes.  The course was hilly, rugged, remote, and consisted entirely of trail running.  Here is the description of the race that is given on their website:
The Moose Mountain Marathon is a point-to-point (100% trail) Marathon which traverses the Sawtooth Mountain Range on the Superior Hiking Trail in the far reaches northern Minnesota .  The course parallels Lake Superior, the greatest freshwater lake in the world, climbs to near 2000′ peaks with breath-taking vistas of the lake and inland forests and crosses countless whitewater rivers and serene streams while meandering through mystic Boreal forests.  

Not your average race at all.  Thankfully, he finished and other than some soreness he enjoyed it.  He ran the race in memory of his friend, Greg who passed away earlier this year.  Several friends from their running group all went up to run the race and many placed in the top 10 finishers.  

In other news, Finn had his two year check up last week.  He is definitely our biggest child thus far.  Luke and Aiden are the only ones that are somewhat comparable, but I only provided Luke as a comparison below because Aiden is slightly smaller than Luke at all time points so far.  The biggest difference with Finn is that he is very tall for his age.  He doesn't look (or talk) like your average two year old.  Now I know why he is going through all my clothes so quickly!  Finn is talking all the time and knows lots of words and even a few colors.  He understands what we are saying very well and is quite smart.  

Finn (age 2)
Height:  36 1/4 inches
Weight:  34 3/4 lbs

Luke (age 2)
Height:  35 1/2 inches
Weight:  31.6 lbs

It will be interesting to follow the stats as the boys get older and bigger, but for now Finn seems to be heading in the direction of being pretty big!