Thanksgiving and Birthday Fun!

We have had a great November, between Thanksgiving, my 24th birthday, and Cameron getting accepted to Nurse Anesthesia school!

I put the pictures in the reverse order and don't want to fix them, so start at the bottom and work your way up...

The last day of November we got a letter in the mail saying that Cameron had been accepted to Nurse Anesthesia school at Case Western University here in Cleveland. It is really a great school(ranked #6 in the nation for Nurse Anesthesia) and was our top choice. He will begin the program in August and it's 28months long. It will be a long 28 months, but So worth it. After he graduates from school, he has agreed to work for the Cleveland Clinic as a Nurse Anesthetist for the time that he was in the program, so we will be here for another 28 months after school. So about 5 more years in all. It will be a really good opportunity for him to get a couple years of work experience under his belt before we hopefully move back to Washington.
We are so excited that we didn't have to move to some random new place and that we can stay with our ward and all our friends here in Cleveland. It is such a blessing to get in here and we are so grateful for this opportunity. Thanks for everyone's thoughts, prayers, and support through the application process!

they have a little viewing deck on top of the restaurant, so we tried to take a picture of us and the view. This was the best we got.

the view right out the window!! So pretty

We told the waitress to take a picture with the view in the background, but she obviously didn't understand (:

At our table. We were in a raised booth that gave us the perfect view.

Shrimp stuffed crab cakes for our appetizer

Cameron's food...Blackened Hawaiian Mahi Mahi

Purple Peruvian Mashed Potatoes, Avocado Salsa

This was my food. Hearth Oven Roasted Cedar Planked Organic Salmon

With Braised Organic Spinach and Rosemary Roasted New Potatoes(copied and pasted from the menu(: )

We got our virgin drinks and we ready to go!

Cameron's last big present of the day was making arrangements for our neighbors to take the monitor after Grant was in bed and taking me to dinner. It wasn't just Applebees either. Apparently he had read about this restaurant in a magazine while he was waiting for me to do a urine sample at a dr appt before Grant was born. He said he wanted to take me last year, but it was still just too crazy with Grant being so little. So he made reservations a while ago and wouldn't tell me where we were going. It is called Pier W and is literally on Lake Erie. i guess in the magazine it was rated the best view in Cleveland, and that was well deserved. You looked out the windows and there is just water and then the downtown skyline. It was all lit up and SO pretty. I LOVED it!!

Here we are just before leaving our house

Shay took me out to lunch at an awesome place I had never been before. It was really good food and even better company!

After we ate, we walked over to the running store to look for some winter running gear. We always have fun trying everything on...

This was another awesome present that Cameron surprised me with. He got us tickets to a Cirque Du Soleil show that is coming to Cleveland in the spring. We have seen a couple of them in Las Vegas and I always love them, and i'm sure this one will be great too.

Cameron got me these beautiful flowers. He listened when I had casually said that I like Costco flowers, so he got them from there. I loved them.

Tessa took the camera and decided to go on a little photo shoot!

a sample of her work

the delicious food!

Some of the group relaxing after dinner

trapped!

After our morning run Jill and the girls and Grant and I went to watch the husbands play some turkey bowl football.

It was freezing, so we didn't stay for the whole thing, but it was fun getting to watch for a bit.

Grant playing

starting the game

So cute of Callie and Grant

Shay, Mamie and I started out Thanksgiving with our very own 5 mile turkey trot. It was a great way to start out the day.

Halloween Festivities

We actually carved pumpkins this year. It was fun, especially when we realized that we had not done it once in the past 5 years that Cameron and I have been together. We thought Grant would love the gooey insides of the pumpkins, but he really didn't want much to do with any of it. He ended up running around the house like a wild man until Cameron and I had finished ours. On Halloween, we went Trick-or-Treating in Bay Village with the Coils. It was lots of fun, especially seeing how much fun their kids were having since they actually knew what was going on. Grant was Dumbo this year and had an ADORABLE costume. Everyone LOVED him and one couple even stopped us and asked if they could take a picture with him. They said they were from Germany and they don't have Halloween there and wanted to show all their friends how cute Grant was. It was funny. I can just imagine a picture of Grant being passed around in Germany to people who don't even know him and laughing and saying how cute he is. We only actually took Grant up to a few doors since he didn't know any better and we didn't want the candy around our house. It was a fun night and I can't wait until Grant knows what is going on and is really excited about the night.

Grant likes standing on our step stool to help us cook.

The before pictures

Grant not wanting to help scoop out the insides

scooping out Grant's pumpkin

I love this picture. This was after Grant made it clear that he did not want to touch the gooey stuff, but he definitely wanted to stay in charge of the whole process. Here he was directing Cameron on exactly how to make his pumpkin.

scooping out my pumpkin

haha, this one catches me off guard every time. Cameron and I were hard at work on our pumpkins and Grant was running around the house moving random toys around(you can see a measuring cup and a caterpillar next to him). Anyway, I heard a rip of velcro and when I turned around Grant had his diaper(we had just put it on him a few minutes before, so it was very clean), in his hands and was running at full speed doing some sort of Indian chant. It was hilarious, so Cameron grabbed the camera and got these pictures of the episode.

Sorry, some full frontal nudity... He must have been getting a little shy and was trying to cover his face.

Grant helping me carve

The whole family with our finished pumpkins

An owl on a tree branch(mine), a frowny face(Grant's) and a spider in a spider web(Cameron's)

This was Halloween night. We borrowed the wagon from the Coils and as soon as we put Grant in it, he laid back and was totally relaxed and kicked back the rest of the night.

It was SOO cute and we had a billion people stop and say how adorable and funny it was. He would just stick his hand up in the air when people would pass, kinda saying "what's up?"

cute close up

just chillin and checking everything out

cutest Dumbo ever!

Love this shot...

Grant looking not-so-happy to be in his costume

Cincinnati Half Marathon

On October 22nd I did my FIRST half marathon. I say first with such emphasis because I think I am hooked and want to do more! Four of my friends and I had been training since mid-July and after many EARLY Saturday morning runs, the big day finally came. We drove down to Cincinnati on Friday the 21st and checked into the hotel(we actually stayed in Tennessee, just on the other side of the river from Ohio). Then we drove downtown to pick up packets with shirts, bibs, and timing chips. After that we headed back to the hotel. We got a little side tracked on our way back when our GPS took us to a random small road that led to the river and said "board ferry". Cameron was very excited for this little adventure and we ended up riding for free because we had no idea what we were doing and got on before we knew you had to have cash, which we didn't, so the people were nice and felt bad for the dumb out-of-towners and let us stay on. We had ordered pizza with the Coils, but they ended up LOSING our order and after making some heated phone calls and talking to the manager, we got the pizza for free(yay). We at the pizza when it FINALLY got there and went to bed shortly after that. Sara, Shay and I planned to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 6:45am to head downtown for the race together. We met up and headed to the race start. It was FREEZING... like literally. I didn't bring a jacket with me or wear long pants or long sleeves because I knew I wouldn't want them once I was a few miles into the race, but that made waiting for the start very cold and seem longer than it actually was. We really didn't do much waiting around. Just went to the bathroom in a line about 60 people long, and then got lined up a few minutes after that. It took me 4 or 5 miles just to get to the point that I could feel my fingers and toes again. After that I was able to get into a pretty good groove and felt totally fine... UNTIL miles 12 and 13. Those were killer and I was just tired. I definitely owe making it to the end and running the whole way to my friend Mamie who ran the whole way with me and we definitely pushed each other when we needed it. I also owe ALOT to Shay and Sara for being my moral support through it all. We have seen each other through a lot of rough days(running and not) and I could not have done it without them. I think overall the race went really well for being my first one. I was happy with my time (2:21:19.2), and it was just so fun to do with friends and see all our husbands and kids cheering us on at the finish line.

Grant on the drive down to Cincinnati. I made the mistake of giving him the whole can of baby cheeto things... but it kept him happy for a while, so whatever.

Cameron took this picture on his phone while I was getting my race packet. I liked it and Cameron said Grant loved the leaves and was running around like a wild man in the huge field of grass by the packet pickup.

After picking up my packet we walked around the cool park by the river. This is the guy Cincinnati is named after.

watching the ferry come to pick us up

on the ferry crossing the river

Mamie and I running the last 50 yards to the finish line.

Grant and I RIGHT after crossing the finish line. I could barely hold him (:

oh, and look at his shirt! It says "Run Mommy Run" We actually got it in some hand-me-down clothes by chance and it was PERFECT. I loved it!

Thanks Mamie!

Me, Shay and Sara

YAY! WE DID IT!!!

The whole group that did it

After the race...Even though it was pretty chilly, it was VERY sunny. That's why Grant isn't

looking at the camera and I am squinting pretty bad.

The next half marathon has already been scoped out. I am going to train for it, but am going to register as soon as I know if Cameron and I will even be living here in May so I can do it. Getting pumped already!