I'm In- FOR REAL

I got my Boston Marathon confirmation email yesterday late afternoon.  Yeah!  I was starting to stress, as I was getting asked by a fellow team Aquaphor teammate who signed up on Friday too.  She was 1300 people before me, and that was just in a matter of minutes on Friday, but still, it took me over 24 hours later to receive my confirmation than she did.  I was getting worried that since I had moved, it might have caused confusion since my city changed.  I was listed as being from MI on my race results, but my application said I lived in KY.  I don't know if this caused the delay or that if it really took that long to go through 1300 applicants.  The f/b page said that people would be informed on Monday, and it wasn't until pretty late on Tuesday.  I was ready to email them about this potential issue with verification, and when I logged on, it was there! Yeah!

Well, this means for sure I won't be at Deer Creek.  I want to be super careful I don't burn myself out this winter, and I think a tri would be a really bad idea right now.  Keira got invited to a birthday party here that weekend, and Soren's birthday is next week.  With the hours Ryan has been working, we need a Saturday to spend as a family.  I went out of town without him last weekend due to work.  It was sort of an epic weekend.  I got to have my near perfect Saturday.  Had Ryan been able to come, it would have been perfect. It was sort of crazy to be perfect, but we had a blast. It went like this:

 Run 6 miles with Valerie in Novi, drive to Canton for shower and get kids ready for church, attend baptism of neice in Ann Arbor, change, head to Novi again for the Tollgate Fall Open House (a farm run by MSU), hit REI to buy new roof rack, Three Cedars Farm in Salem, Delhi Metropark in Ann Arbor (again) for nephew's birthday party, in laws house for rest of birthday party, and then back to Canton to sleep.  It was sort of nuts, but a blast.

On Sunday, we went to church, and then to Parmenters.  Parmenters has THE BEST cider.  Hands down, no comparison.  I can say this because we did a side by side taste test of Three Cedars and Parmenters, because I brought them both back to KY in a cooler.  We didn't finish our Plymouth Orchard's cider because it was too tart, and Huber's, which is in IN here, is very sweet right now, almost too sweet.  I had a sample of that at the market where I got my mums.  Perhaps we will head out there this weekend.

Anyway, this past weekend gave me that fix of MI fall that I was in dire need of.  We will be back in less than a month for the Detroit half.  I took over 200 pictures of the kids this weekend.  If you want the full run down, you can check out my personal blog, but here are a few highlights:

 This is corn kernels.  Keira LOVED it.  Soren wasn't as enthralled, and spent time on the mini tractor track that went around it. 

 Soren struggled with the heavy tractors, but Keira had it down.

Parmenters had a 30 minute wait for their cider.  The kids were going nuts waiting to play on this train -it is an unpainted version of the 3 Cedars, no idea who had theirs first, but we have been going to Parmenters longer.  A tree fell on this train last year, but it survived.  That was a sad day for the kids.

We need to find a wooden play train in KY, but we have a pumpkin fest coming up at Keira's school.  That is going to help me put off decorating the outside of the house too much for fall, as we can buy our pumpkins through the school, as well as hay bales and cornstalks.  Not sure if we are getting a hay bale, but I NEED some cornstalks for this awesome front porch of ours. 

Finally, Soren totally hates the gym now that Keira is in school.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I don't want to go in the evenings, because the gym is way to crowded, and Keira needs the downtime after school.  It isn't fair to her to be in school all day without me and then go to the playroom without me.  I miss her when she is at school already.  I am going to bribe him with Chick Fil A tomorrow afterwords, since I am doing my long run indoors, hopefully I can get in 12 miles before running out of time.  We ran at home yesterday and today, and I only swam for a short time in the gym today.  We may take Friday off.  I am really bummed because I hate that he is so unhappy, so it isn't so easy for me to work out anymore.  He loved the gym in MI so much, and it bothers me to see him so sad.  I know a lot of it is just because he misses Keira.  We checked out the Y today where my neighbors go, because they have small children his age, but it is almost twice the cost, and he didn't seem overly excited about it either.  When we went, there were no children his age at all.  He can be in the bigger kids room next week, after his birthday, and they have a train table in the toddler area, but I just don't know.  It will save me some gas money, but not a ton, because we drive out towards the old gym to do all of our shopping.  We usually stop at Meijer, costco, ect, on our way home from the gym since they are near the halfway point.  So, we will only cut out about half of our driving, and the Y is a few miles in the opposite direction, so the drive to the grocery store from there is about as far as the house to the gym.  Ugh, what to do?  They are going to send me some free passes in the mail to the Y, but I am almost afraid to use them.  What if Soren LOVES it and we don't switch?  Also, I have to give at least 30 days notice to cancel my existing membership, and I have to do it before the first of the month.  Like, I have until next Friday to have October be my last month there.