October 2015

October....fun trip to Boston/New Hampshire to visit family/friends and for Sam to run his first marathon! A day of crazy rain drove us to the Children's Museum in Boston on our first day of vacation. We had a great time there, but I ended up losing my wedding ring in the bubble area, and it was never found:( Turned a fun trip into a bummer!

 Shelby drove down with her little guys to go to the museum with us. They had a great time. It was an AMAZING museum!

 And my cousin Elisha and her family were nice enough to host us for a couple days in their gorgeous home in the suburbs of Boston.

And then we visited this cool farm in the area with my friend and old roomie, Libby!

 Then we visited my friend/pseudo-cousin and her family and parents in Newburyport. So good to see her and her parents (got to know them quite well on my mission in Bulgaria)...LOVE THEM! Pictures on my phone...coming. And more pictures that the amazing photographer Eva and her son took at the end of the post...

Then we headed to New Hampshire for the marathon. We rented an awesome little cabin, for a great deal!, with Joe and Shelby, right on the lake that the marathon ran around. It was AWESOME! And while it was COLD, like 40s-50s, (esp. since the day we left Philly it had been in the 80s) it was perfect running weather for Sam's race! And we had fun cheering him on...

 And Sam finished strong on a super hilly marathon, with 4:09:__. He felt great and we were so proud of him. Joe was going to run the marathon with Sam, but had major knee issues during training, and decided it was best to sit it out. But he did run the last 3 or 4 miles with Sam.

And then we drove back to the cabin and as we parked the car it started smoking and steaming and was totally over-heated! We ended up getting it towed (thank heavens for AAA!) and had to hang out at Joe and Shelby's for an extra 3 days, waiting for the car to get fixed. We were originally planning on driving home Sunday afternoon, but weren't able to hit the road until Wednesday afternoon. The girls missed a bit too much school, but oh well. We just felt bad for Joe and Shelby, in their little apartment, and with a brand new baby! But they were great hosts, and we had a good time catching up with them more. And we got to watch conference on Sunday, which was really nice.

And it turned out that was wrong with our car couldn't even actually be fixed at the shop where we had it towed, and they couldn't get the part anywhere in NH for another week, so the mechanic did a jimmy-rig good enough to get us home. Then we took the van into the dealership, where we'd had some recalled items replaced a couple months earlier, and turns out they hadn't installed one of the parts correctly, which is what caused our problem. So they fixed it for free...sweet! Except we still had to drop $180 in NH for the jimmy-rig fix! Lame!

Then the day after we got home, just in the nick of time, Aubrey and Howie came to visit! We had fun seeing sights in Philly, checking out local skate parks with Howie (Ben being very keen on learning how to skate with his little skateboard), and just hanging out. Aubrey and Howie spent a day exploring NYC on their own. And all the rest of my pictures are on my phone....coming...

 And then Halloween was upon us....good fun!

 

 I spent most of the day being grateful that I wasn't at the hospital having surgery this year! So grateful to be melanoma free (as far as I know:)!

And here is the photo-shoot with Eva and her son....they're amazing!

 And that's my Eva!

And more pics from Sam's phone....

Walden Pond

 THE KOLEVI!!!!

 Newburyport has some amazing beauty....good view from my morning run.

 Waiting to cheer Sam on in his marathon...

Our car getting towed away....which extended our trip by 3 whole days!

 The chaos of cramming 2 families into a little 2-bedroom apartment....

 Concord, NH beauty...

 This little girl having a tantrum about something on our walk...

 Back in PA, a visit to Peace Vally Reservoir on the Saturday that Howie and Aubrey spent in NYC. I was still able to run at this point, and went for a delightful run around the lake while Sam walked with the kids....

 Visiting Valley Forge with Aubrey and Howie....

 Then Bonnie and Britt were here for a few days too! Happy Birthday to Britt:)

 Perfect entertainment...

 At the Halloween Chili cook-off...this is how Samantha and Ben entertained themselves when they didn't want to eat anymore. Samantha is a scrappy little wrestler...