Not Just Another 4 Day Weekend...

I love fall. 

 I love the colors of the changing of the leaves.

I love picking apples.

I love carving pumpkins. 

I love Columbus Day Weekend!

Columbus Day weekend brings the Scarecrow Festival.  I had planned to spend the entire weekend at the festival...

Friday went according to plan (sort of)...

 The boys and I woke up and walked over to the festival.

The boys rode the carnival rides...

Ben even went on this one (Sorry Dad, I know you don't approve of carnival rides).

We saw some amazing scarecrows. 

Does it still count as a "scarecrow" if there isn't any hay?

Everything was going to plan until I received a call on Friday night....

~~~

Do you have that friend that you cannot say "No" to?

The type that can suggest that you can run 26.2 miles and you believe her...

You know the one I am talking about...

My friend called me up and said that she had an extra bib to the Chicago Marathon and she thought I should run it with her...

(Please keep in mind that as of two years ago, I had never run more than 3 miles.  Granted, recently, I had been running with some girls who were training for the Fox Valley Marathon.  I trained with the girls but opted out of the "long runs.")

Well, I couldn't say, "No."

So, my weekend switched from leisurely enjoying the fall festivities to gearing up to run a ...marathon.

~~~

I e-mailed a few friends to let them know my plans...

(One of my friends thought I was joking)

I borrowed my neighbor's I-pod...

(If I couldn't run with her stories, I could run with her music)

I bought lots of Gu...

and

drank lots of water.

On Sunday, I met my friends in Chicago.

I -pods ready, I entered the queue for the 4:30:00 pace group.

and I ran...

and ran...

and ran...

I ran for 5:03:22 or 26.2 miles.

I finished! We finished!

While it wasn't the weekend I planned. 

 It was absolutely amazing. 

I am so thankful that I "got to" do it.

A Night Under the Stars

I have a friend who built a dance floor in her back yard.

(Well, technically her neighbor, Phil,  “built” the dance floor but she painted it and staged it.)

Then she set a table.

Yep, those pie pans and bread pans are our dinner plates.

Then she invited a group of her friends for a fun night out under the stars.

Glamorized country wear was mandatory.

After a few visits here…

She announced that she hired a line dancing instructor to help some of her city folk friends through the night.

Guess who is from Texas (she obviously didn’t need an instructor).

The Brits weren’t quite sure what to make of all of this.

It took some time…

But eventually we got the hang of it…

and had a wonderful evening under the stars.

Thanks Kasey, our hats are off to you and Brian.