Last weekend included a trip to Carlisle for Flickr Francis' Meet the Thompsons Party. The party was scheduled because his extended family is just too large to all fit in one house. So we split the family up so that each "branch" could have their own party to celebrate.
What a freakin' cute kid! So active and loving. It is always so awesome to see how great Brian and Bridgette are with him. Being in Carlisle with the entire family was really fun. It doesn't happen as often as we would like, so when it works out for all of our schedules, it is a really happy time.
Simon came along and did well with the baby and all the children he encountered at the party. He was super tired because the morning before we drove out to Carlisle, we went to Freedom Park, which includes a 20-acre off-leash area for dogs, and visited my friend Amanda and her dog Jake. Here's a photo of tired-out Jake (an 8 year-old dog) and Simon (the one year-old) in Amanda's back yard.
(Unfortunately, we didn't snap many photos in Carlisle, so you will have to take our word for how fun it was!)
This past weekend, we participated in Ragnar. It is a 183-mile relay. Twelve people, two vans, 183-miles from Columbia, Maryland to Washington, D.C. Fun stuff. Not much sleep, but it was super fun to hang out with friends and run through the county side. Our half of the team (as seen above -- l-r, Allison, Laura, Joshua, Mike, Carrie and Patrick) started running at 9am on Friday morning. We were finished with our legs around 2pm on Saturday afternoon. Joshua and I both ran 15 miles. Below is Joshua starting his last leg along the C&O canal. Too beautiful.
Lots of adventuring: getting lost rather often, seeing signs like the one below, Mike and Allison helping a gal who broke her ankle while running, all the rain we endured, sleeping in an extremely smelly van, .....
Our group, DON'T WAIT UP!, was creative with our van decorations. Can you tell the theme of the decorations? I'll give you a hint about what the pictures are showing: cave man in an ice flow, Heinz Ketchup, Tom Brady, an amoeba, The Pokey Little Puppy, snail.
Yeah, we are all slow things. Just jokin' about how fast we were expecting to run. Although, our team rocked each of our legs. Patrick is such a consistent well-paced runner, Carrie is the most determined, Allison looks the most chill for how fast and far she can run, Mike is just plain fast, Joshua is able to get through anything and I was told by another team that I run "elegantly but with a big smile, like a hostess at a party who is about to serve some lemonade."
Here we are during one of the night legs.
Heather was kind enough to watch Simon for the weekend. They both seemed happy and relaxed when we picked him up. It was really great that she was able to do that for us!
Next weekend: Beach weekend with my college girlfriends! Joshua is excited to enjoy another weekend at home with the pup and the kitty.
