November 12, 2016 I ran my first (and possibly only) full marathon.  26.2 miles of torture.  It was hard.  It hurt.  I started with Joanna.  I lost Joanna at mile 4.  I found her again at about mile 6.  And then I lost her for good near the halfway point.  My dad popped up to run a bit with me.  I made the mistake of trying to eat gummy bears while running.  I cried.  I called Beth.  I stopped to pet a pug.  I cried some more.  I texted Ben.  I cried some more.  I fell into Lisa's arms.  Mollie M came to see me and walked with us for a bit.  Lisa got me through 3 miles.  I stopped to take a picture.  My dad popped up to run with me again. I walked a lot.  But I ran down that hill to the finish.  I did it!  I finished a marathon!  And now I never have to do it again if I don't want to.
 




 And a couple of days later Mollie B and I went for a walk together and showed up in matching outfits with our Richmond Marathon jackets and finisher hats!  We're pretty proud of our accomplishment!

We visited Grandma D and Rufus' house while Jada and Jenessa were there, too.  These girls always have so much fun together.
 Paige and Virginia headed to the bus stop before school.
 Ashtree hanging out in our bed.  This cat has changed so much since we lost Jefferson it's not even funny.  Our formerly antisocial cat now loves to hang out and get petted.  And she's always hanging out with us in our bed at night before the girls go to bed.
 As we try to do every year we went to Cox Farms with the Holts.  We had a beautiful fall day to enjoy the slides, animals and wagon ride.

This year we did a different kind of family reunion.  Instead of meeting in West Virginia, we all met up in Bristol, VA/TN for the Virginia Tech vs. University of Tennessee football game.  The world's largest college football game ever!



 Saturday morning I woke up with a horrible migraine.  I had some coffee, took some medicine and tried laying down to get rid of it.  It wasn't overly helpful, but then Lloyd's friends who were going to the game with us showed up.  One of them, Jason, is a physical therapist and worked on my neck for me.  He loosened it up enough that between that and the medicine it took the edge off the headache.  Jason was a Godsend that day.

We went up to the cabin where the Stivers and Umbarger families were staying for lunch and family pictures and then we headed off to Bristol to tailgate.  I spent most of the day sitting in the shade of the cars drinking water trying to help my headache.  Everyone else enjoying playing cornhole, running around and hanging out.  John grilled up some burger and hot dogs and we all at and had a great time.  After dinner it was time to head over to the speedway.

When we got to our seats we all had cards with instructions on them.  We all held up one of our cards during the National Anthem and this is what the other side of the stadium looked like.
And after that we all had another card to hold up- these representing the two schools who were playing in the game.  This is what the other side of the stadium looked like- our side was similar, just for Tennessee Vols instead of VT Hokies.
Each end of the racetrack had some cars set up on it, including a VT car (with Frank Beamer's number on it) at our end of a UT car (with Peyton Manning's number on it) at the other end.
The game started out well for Virginia Tech, but then they seemed to forget how to score and ended up getting beat 45-24.  We watched most of the game, but left shortly before it ended so we could get back to the car and head back to the cabin.

This is proof that our children can sleep ANYWHERE.  It was LOUD in that speedway, but that didn't stop Virginia from laying down on my lap and going to sleep.
Even though it was a short trip to Bristol, we had a great time hanging out with the family and Lloyd's friends, even if his friends are Hokies.  It's pretty cool to know that we were part of a world record setting crowd.

As usual, I took a picture of the girls by the school sign when we went to Open House to meet their teacher, Mrs. Kott.
 And apparently between Open House and the first day of school we went to a Nationals' game.  This game was a lot of fun and went into extra innings.
 During the 10th inning (I think) a foul ball was hit into our section and Paige managed to get it!
(I'm finally making this post when we are only 2 weeks away from them starting 4th grade.  It's crazy how fast time goes by.)

Yay for Disney World!  We spent a week at Disney World with Dee and Dude.  It was just the vacation we all needed after losing Jefferson.  It was an amazingly awesome trip and I agree that Disney World may very well be the Happiest Place on Earth!


Day 1: Hollywood Studios
Our first full day we spent at Hollywood Studios.  We started the day with The Rock N Roller Coaster and loved it!  Then it was on to a day of rides and meeting characters.  The four of us went back to the hotel for awhile in the afternoon for naps (much needed naps) and then went back to Hollywood Studios for dinner and the Star Wars fireworks.  After the fireworks we headed back to the hotel and to bed.

Day 2: Magic Kingdom
We started our second day at Disney World with breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table in her castle.  We got to meet Cinderella on our way in and then got to meet most of the other princesses during breakfast.  After breakfast the girls changed out of their princess dresses and we headed off to more rides!  We spent the day exploring the Magic Kingdom and taking everything in.  We tried to watch the after parade down Main Street, but it rained so they cancelled it.  So instead we went and met Tinkerbell and Mickey Mouse!



Day 3: EPCOT
EPCOT, oh, EPCOT.  Suffice to say that EPCOT was not our favorite of the four parks.  We spent Wednesday in EPCOT and it was hot as can be that day.  And EPCOT has no shade, we discovered.  We started our day at EPCOT with Test Track, which was awesome!  We all loved it.  Then we did Soarin' which was also amazing!  And, pretty much, those were the highlights of EPCOT for us.  Mission: Space was a bit much for all of us, but I think we're all impressed that my mom managed to keep her breakfast down after that one.  The four of us again went to the hotel for awhile in the afternoon to rest and then were all grumpy after that.  We went back to EPCOT for dinner and then my mom offered to take the girls for the night so Ben and I could get a break.  We all ended up going to the same place (to the Finding Nemo ride), but we were there at slightly different times so we only saw each other for a minute.  We stayed for the fireworks and then headed back to the hotel and met back there.


Day 4: Animal Kingdom
Animal Kingdom was awesome!  We went to the Lion King show which was amazing.   Then we went on the safari.  It didn't quite compare to the actual African safari that my parents' went on, but it was still pretty impressive.  We rode Expedition: Everest and all really enjoyed that.  We did Kali River Rapids and got nice and wet, which actually felt pretty good since it was hot.  And then not long after that it poured down rain on us!  But it worked out for us again because we ducked into a building and in there we got to meet Mickey and Minnie.  Then we got ready to head out so that we could get back to the hotel for the luau, but on the way out we passed the sign for "It's Tough to be a Bug" and I asked if we could do it real quick before we left.  Then look Ben gave me was not the best, but we did and loved it and we're all glad we did it.  Then we headed back to the hotel and got ready for the luau that was Paige's main request for the trip.