The 5th Mile

I DID IT!

Background...I started running in college. I never paid attention to how far or fast I ran, only to the amount of time I spent on the treadmill. At my best, I would run for an hour. In January, when Leah and Allen decided to start training for their marathon, I decided to start tracking my stats and set a goal for myself: 5 miles at a pace of 6 miles an hour. DON'T LAUGH! I'm not athletic and I'm used to running at a pace of about 5.4.

Now it's November and I FINALLY ran 5 miles (at 5.9...time to attack my pace)! It feels like I finished a marathon. I have no aspirations of even running a half marathon much less a marathon. It's such a great feeling to achieve a goal no matter how inconsequential. I think I will bask in it for a while.

Now it seems like 5 miles is so small (although I've only done it once!). What shall my next goal be???!!!

Air Show

With a name like Ace, sometimes it's eerie how much he likes airplanes. Like his name was chosen for him. I know the Lord is going to give him a new name in Heaven but He's going to be hard pressed to find one more appropriate.

B promised to take Ace to see the Blue Angels two months ago and Ace has been able to talk of little else since. Here they are fixing to go into a plan that is used to monitor hurricanes.B even bought Ace earphones to protect his little ears from the loud engines. We wished we would have had some. You have no idea how loud these things are until you are right beside them.
Precious and SOOOOOOOO typical Ace.

It surprised me how much I liked looking at all of the old planes and watching them fly.

Ace loves his Uncle James.

A close second to airplanes, Ace loves cars and he ALWAYS points out a Hummer when he sees one. This little go-cart of a Hummer thrilled him.

Here, Ace is in the cockpit of the hurricane plane. He always insists on being buckled up whenever he's behind a wheel.

Our little pilot was pooped so he didn't actually get to see the Blue Angels fly. We won't miss it next year.

We had such a great time and Ace got to see a P-51 which is what his Paw Paw flew (my Mom's Dad). Turns out his great-grandpa on through Jonathan's dad was also a pilot. Maybe it's in the blood although, watching all of the planes do tricks and fly so fast, it will be terrifying if Ace does become a pilot. I wanted to lose my breakfast just watching. Can't wait to go back.

Trick or Treat

Pilot Ace started off Halloween at a Trunk-or-Treat down the highway. He loved going to each trunk and used his adorable manners telling everyone "thank you."

We came home, ate pizza, then started off again. I was a stewardess to his pilot. This photo doesn't show my enormous gold wings (courtesy of Honey). I tried to tease my hair but it only make me look like a stewardess-post-non-stop-24hr-flight-to-somewhere.

He was all grins even though most houses were out of candy by the time we set out. Our neighborhood kids must have started early this year. Ace really didn't care. He just loved walking around.

Here was his entourage: Honey in a crab costume and B as Frankenstein (not pictured: Gabby and Mommy - photographer).

Once we got back home, Ace had even more fun giving out candy to trick-or-treaters. He handed out hand-FULLS of candy and always picked one out for himself after closing the door. Pooped and in his Sashi's lap.

This is what happens when your toddler has too much candy. (In case you are wondering what he's yelling, he keeps saying, "Cheese" because I have the camera pointed at him. What a good boy!)

GREAT times!

Happy Halloween!

We've got our candy and our costumes and we're READY!

Hope yours is sweet and safe!

More Potty Talk

Three days in a row Ace has pee peed on the potty in the morning!

LeLe (Leah) gave him potty stickers and a potty chart last year for his birthday and we are just now getting it out. The potty chart sits above the toilet roll and Ace INSISTS on holding it too his chest and saying, "That's MY potty chart."

He gets one sticker on each hand and one on the chart for each success. Good thing LeLe gave us a pack of 124 dinosaur stickers.

He's so proud of himself and so am I. I think Thanksgiving is going to be the big week of concentrated training but, in the meantime, he gets put on the potty about four times a day to try. Wish me luck!!! (I'm hoping to get a poop soon. Every time he has a poopy diaper he raises his hiny out of his diaper saying, "Mommy get it, get it." As if he hasn't been in a poopy diaper for more than 5 minutes!)

Balloon Festival

Since I take all of our family photos with Ace's yearly scrapbook in mind, we came home from the Balloon Festival with over 100 photos! And we only stayed 4 hours! Here's Mr. Cute.

He got a lot of compliments on his jacket (thanks B!).
Jonathan did some fabulous photography of all the balloons in the air.

Daddy was a REALLY good sport to get up before 5am to get us out there to see the balloons launch.

Typical Ace at the moment. I can't get him to look at the camera like he used to. But I figure he'll still want pictures of him and his parents when he gets older.

Halfway through the balloon show, Ace decided he'd rather "hide" than watch. Luckily, we brought a blanket for him to hide under.

Future astronaut?

Future speaker?

The balloon launch was at the NASA offices. They opened their auditorium and guess who took right to the microphone and cried when I quit holding him up to it.

This kid loves a stage.

We had a great time but were sooooo pooped. I even fell asleep on the way home! So did Ace. And we BOTH took even longer naps when we got home. Jonathan and I thought Ace would have enjoyed the balloons a lot more than he did but we sure loved it.

This weekend, we're taking Ace to the air show and, since airplanes are Ace's favorite, we are expecting a big reaction.

"I Gotcha One."

Those are the sweetest words I'm hearing lately. I'll ask Ace, "Do you have a kiss for me?" He turns around and says, "I gotcha one" and puckers up the softest, sweetest lips for me.

Makes me MELT.