Monument Ave 10k

Last year I had so much fun running the Monument Ave 10k that I decided to do it again. A few weeks before the race we discovered that I was pregnant and I figured since I had been preparing for the 10k for a while, my body would be fine (and it was).

It was a great race despite the drizzle of rain most of the race. It's always fun to have such a cheering squad waiting for you near the finish line.

Crossing the finish line. I was a little bummed when I realized I was just barely over my time from last year (I wanted to do it faster), but then Chuck reminded me that I just ran a 10k 9 weeks pregnant, so I felt better. 

I'm so grateful for Heidi & Josh and my sister Christine all did the race with me. It's become a fun tradition for our family. Can two years in a row become a tradition already so that now we need to do it every year?

We hit up Sweet Frog on the way home which is always a hit with cousins, but not such a hit with a preggo lady that just ran a 10k. Chuck had to pull off the side of the road for me to puke on the way home.

Grammy & Papa

We were able to welcome Grammy & Papa home from their 18 month LDS mission to Congo, Africa. The girls were so excited to see them after getting to see them only on Skype for so many months.

After many hugs, kisses, and tears the first stop was a hot chocolate from Starbucks.

Then the remainder of our few days with them revolved around food...steak dinner with vegetables not from a can, yummy OJ, whole milk, yogurt, hot dogs.

They were very jet lagged and fell asleep often, but we managed to do some fun Christmas festivities. We toured the state Capitol building and the Governor's mansion.

We then made a few stops along the RVA Tacky Light's tour.

A week with cousins

Back in December, Chuck's cousin David passed away. To enable Chuck's sisters to be able to go to the services in Utah, I watched my niece and nephew for a few days. We had a great time playing together. I had a 6, 4, 3, and two 2 yr olds for 5 days. It was exhausting.

Zetta was the little princess who wanted to be in dress ups all day long. Charly enjoyed having a super buddy with Houston.

My aunt and I took the kids to the Festival Of Lights at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens.

The favorite discovery of all was the train display. Around the outside of the display were buttons the kids could push to make some of the figurines or buildings do things. One button made a house smoke from fire then the fire truck would come. It was awesome!

We wore those kids out. It was so much fun.

When Hock and his brother came to pick up the kids at the end of the week we acted out the nativity story together several times so that everyone could take turns with different roles.

We then took a chilly stroll down by the James before they headed back to NC and stopped by the Richmond Battlefield National Park building.

My girls know right where to go for the Civil War dressups in the National Park building.

Grand Illumination

This year we decided to watch the Grand Illumination in downtown Richmond from afar. The last two years we were right in the middle of it all. I really liked this new view point.

We took a picnic dinner, including hot chocolate, and went to the VA War Memorial for a great view of the city skyline. We got there just in the nick of time to watch the city light up. It was fabulous. NO crowds,  literally on two other people on the hill by us.

We briefly walked around the memorial.

Then we headed to the Jefferson Hotel to see the Christmas decorations.

Fall Leaves

I love fall and the beautiful colors all around. We had a great time playing in the leaves and even had fun trying to clean them all up.

This tree is in the yard across the street. We took these gorgeous pictures of this tree one foggy fall morning. After taking the pictures, our neighbor told us that us he planted that tree after their first child was born and now they have uprooted and moved it to three different homes. We didn't realize that it had such sentimental value, but now they have some fun pictures of it.

Each of the girls had a great time taking turns using the leaf blower.

Then they decided to just have a dance party while Chuck and I continued to work.

Charly was so cute shaking her hips back and forth.

Richmond Zoo

On a teacher workday back in November I took the girls to the Richmond Metro Zoo with some friends. The weather was fabulous and we had so much fun. 

Feeding the giraffes and the goats were a huge hit. The giraffes tongues were so long and they would just reach and reach for that food. Notice the goat standing on the donkey's back in the top right picture. He obviously didn't want to fight the crowd on the lower end of the fence. What a nice friend that donkey is.

These kids see each multiple times a day and cherish every minute they get to spend together.

The fall leaves were gorgeous.

Proof that I can overcome fears for my children and purposely walk inside an inclosed space full of birds. My heart starts racing just thinking about it.

I love this zoo because you can see a lot of animals pretty close up. It was such a fun day.

October

Tiffany (Chuck's only sister left in CA) came to the East coast for a few weeks. She and Char (who recently moved to NC) came up to Richmond for a few days.

Our newest niece - Zelda. Crazy picture of her, but great of Tiffany.

Brooklyn and Charly had so much fun playing together.

I love this picture of Charly. She loves babies so much.

Char, Tiffany, and I went to Time Out for Women while they were here. I took a picnic and had lunch on the top of the parking deck with a fun view of the city. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Chuck and Wayne who took care of the girls so that we could go. It was great.

Rafting down the James

Thanks to Living Social (and Riverside Outfitters) we went go rafting down the James River. It was so much fun! 

One of the great things about Richmond, you can go river rafting through the middle of downtown.
We got a completely different view from the river of our favorite parts of the city. Did you know that Richmond is the only major city in America with Class IV rapids going through the city?

The best part of the trip was the very end, where we stopped and "surfed" the Pipeline Rapids (my favorite place in the city and home to the blue heron rookery). We had used up our camera by then, so no pictures. That's what happens when you are used to unlimited digital picture taking.

Even better is that Riverside Outfitters offered another deal through Living Social, so we are going again in 2 weeks. Next time we are taking more water cameras.