The Difference is Obvious

Bonus post this week - Jon has been sending us some of the pictures he took, and Mark and I LOVE them. As you can see, he is amazing. As for me, I just like to take breaks from work to look at my girl, so figured I would share some with you. Please Santa - bring me a camera like this...

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday night, and we're back hanging out on the couch. We seemed to cram all of our activities into today rather than spread them over the whole weekend, and so we're a pretty tired bunch right now. Earlier we had to wake Sawyer up from her nap just so she'd go back to bed at a semi-normal time tonight...and she was not pleased. So anyway, today we hit up brunch at a local cafe, and then busted out to the suburbs to meet up with some friends and go to a local pumpkin patch/zoo. Had SUCH a great time there. It was the perfect size for both girls who got to see a bunch of farm animals - Sawyer moo'd at almost all of them - played with the pumpkins, and just walked around in general. We were especially lucky because our friend Jon is an amazing photographer and was taking pics of Sawyer, and the three of us. We'll share them when we get them, but Mark and I are pretty excited. I got to use his camera to take a few shots of their family - one of them anyway - and I WANT one...it takes great pictures. In the meantime, we'll share some pics that we took. Here's Mark dazzling the camera...

Sawyer peeking through her scarecrow head...

Kind of amazed by her pumpkin...

Sitting in the baby pumpkin patch...

Sadly, we never ended up buying our pumpkins while we were there because it was getting a little late and we had two more stops. We ended up visiting some other friends who live near the pumpkin patch, and then heading to a very late lunch. So no pumpkins to show for our trip to the patch...but lots of good times and pictures.

Reader Count

Can those of you who read this do me a favor? I am curious as to how many people read our blog. If you are reading this, can you please check the "interesting" box below? Just a test for fun. Thanks!

Scenes From a Mall

We made the trip to Des Moines to run marathon #8 this past weekend. Since everyone has seen pictures of me running already, we thought we would try to get some other things captured from the excursion. That's the capital building above. It sits on a cool hill on the east side of the city like a castle - pretty neat I thought. Iowa City is on the way to Des Moines. The timing was such that we needed to stop for lunch and some playtime there and we stumbled upon a pretty cool merry-go-round. Here are a few videos from our play time...

First Ride

More To Her Liking

She'd Rather Watch

Race day was perfect from my perspective - 60 and Sunny. Since Grandma and Grandpa Harris were able to make the trip to Iowa, I had a whole lotta support on the track. I saw them twice and my girls 3 times! They helped me get a personal record time and have the best race experience so far. Grandma & Grandpa Harris were able to take a side trip to Marshalltown, IA where Grandma grew up and see the two houses she grew up in, schools she went to, the hospital she was born in, and a couple of favorite restaurants that were there after more than 30 years. She reported that some things had changed, but it was nice to see other things still in place. As for future races - We are already planning the next two trips to Fargo, ND and Ft. Collins, CO in May of next year. These may be solo trips, but my girls are always on my mind...

Giggles

Extra Videos and Pics

Bears kissing Elk

Peacock

She feels my pain....

Showing off minor skills

Polar Bears

Milwaukee's Best

Our continuous journey across the US continues. I had a quick trip to Seattle this week for work - not even there 36 hours - and this weekend Mark, Sawyer and I all hopped in the car and headed up to Milwaukee. It was a jam packed day and a half. Our primary purpose for being there was the marathon - Mark has now finished #7 and we are so proud of him....and tired. As I write this Sawyer is down for the count, Mark passed out a little after 8p, and as soon as Mad Men is over I give myself two minutes to be asleep. This is Mark about 1/4 mile from the finish line...4 1/2 hours!

Our main activity Saturday was the Milwaukee Zoo, and we are really glad we went...you can get much closer to the animals than in Chicago, and it's a LOT less crowded. It could also be that Sawyer's a bit older, but I think it's safe to say the three of us had a lot of fun. We started out with the penguins, and were all of four feet from them. [I'm going to show you some of our animal pics just because I like them so much.]

The best part was Sawyer's reaction. It was mostly older kids and parents near us who were quiet. Sawyer was all sorts of excited though and kept grunting/pointing. Can you tell by the picture below or is it just me remembering? We couldn't get her to turn towards me for a picture as that would take her attention away from the birds.

I won't bore you with commentary on the whole zoo, but we got some good reactions from Sawyer for most of the animals, and even taught Sawyer to "Roar" like a bear. When Mark gets a chance he'll post some video. Unfortunately our little bear decided no afternoon nap in the hotel, so it made for a very early night.

All bundled up to watch her Dad cross the finish...

Sawyer spent a lot of time walking around the park. Now that she's on the move, it's tough to keep her in the stroller.