Happy little birthday elves!

Many birthdays! Giuseppe, Grandma J, AND Daddy!

The big day!

It was a great day for a race! The rain held out (mostly, the downpour anyway) until after the race! Jenny and I got to run the Akron Marathon race together! A dream come true! I was excited to qualify finally for Boston and Jenny had an AMAZING marathon debut!

Notice the middle-of-the-night lighting in the first few photos! Today was one of the first times Anna and Carla were holding hands, so cute! Also, note Carla coloring! She's getting so big! Anna and Carla had a ball with Jenny's whole cheering squad who wore awesome "RUN JEN RUN" t-shirts! Thanks for the support gang! AND thank you Jenny for an amazing summer/fall of training with you! Thanks too for the photos of us -- I can't believe I didn't get one! Thank goodness you did!

Dinner together was fun and hot tub recovery felt pretty amazing (also missing photos)! What a great day!

Bill Rodgers and Writing!

Yeah! It was SO awesome to see Jenny after all of our long-distance, long-distance training! Here at the Akron Marathon Expo, we (Jenny, Emma, Luke, me, and Anna) got to talk with the legendary Bill Rodgers (repeat winner of the Boston and NY marathons, and record holder of the American marathon in the 70s). Very inspiring!

In other news: Anna wrote her first note, sentence, card! it was to Anna Fiscus:) Very exciting!
(see upper right corner of photo)

Snuggly baby girl

Lying around together :)

NYC here we come!

Can you believe we flew to NYC on September 11th? Surprisingly the flight was full! Mom and I got to see Michael, Dr. Oz, and the Big Apple! Dr. Oz is my favorite show -- he is the greatest! And it was so fun that Michael got to come to the show too! It was a perfect show for BOTh Michael and I -- Dr Oz talked about breathing, practicing yoga, and eating avocados!

Here we are in Times Square! Many fun adventures and memories!
Thanks Mom! I love you!

Carla...

Running away with toilet paper, dancing on the steps, and walking down the steps, so cute.

Our Monkey

Loves to climb AND loves BANANAS!

Carla's favorite things

1. Playgrounds

It's becoming clearer as I go through photos, and it makes sense because at home she climbs ...anything she can: a table, book shelf, toilet, big rocking horse, the stairs (on the outside of the railing)...you name it! So yeah, playgrounds are a great place for our little monkey!

Sea Shell Creation