Half Marathons and More Music

This past weekend Noah and I ran in the Millinocket Marathon (the half) for the second time, only this year it was to complete the Sea to Summit series we started with the MDI half marathon in October.  It was not the most ideal conditions. It was 4 degrees at the start line, the Golden Road was frozen and icy, and the wind coming off the mountain made running up the Golden Road brutal to say the least.  We got off to a rocky start with Noah more or less having a panic attack when he realized it was hard to breathe when the air was so cold and your body wasn't yet warmed up.  Once we made it past the first 1.5/2 miles we started to warm up and we could feel our toes again.  It felt long and we were both discouraged that we ran at a much slower pace than we knew we could, but given the conditions our bodies just wouldn't do it.  Around mile 12 or 13 I think I remember saying, "Noah, this is the worst thing we have ever done."  BUT, we did finish in a respectable time given the conditions and completed our goal!

Before the start of the marathon they held a kids fun run down Main Street and back.  Ben had no interest in it, but James and Audrey were excited and couldn't wait.  We even tried to actively persuade them to not participate given how cold it was and how early we would have to be there, but they (Audrey) were not to be denied this race.  They both did an awesome job and Audrey had one of the coolest running pictures ever of her taken;)

This week also brought tree decorating as well as another concert.  This time it was Noah's orchestra and chorus concert at the high school.  It is always so impressive to see how much progress they have made in just a few short months with both chorus and orchestra.  Noah did an awesome job and we are so proud of how hard he has worked to keep up despite being gone for almost a month this fall!

Santas and Violins

This weekend Gabe join Hillary, Cody, and crew for Sunday River's annual Santa Ski.  We have so much snow that it was nearly impossible to pass up.  The sleet/rain on that day was not the best, but they had a fun time regardless.

James had his 4th grade Christmas violin concert tonight and did an awesome job.  He loves playing the violin and we are so proud of how much he has learned so far this year!

Thanksgiving and Chester Greenwood Day

Given that Thanksgiving was just a few days after our arrival home, it was a bit of a whirlwind and I have never been less prepared, never the less, it all worked out just great.  Nannie and Harold came to join us as well as Brian, Kristen, Noel, Gabe, and Will.  It was a bit crazy, but great at the same time, but with all of the kids we completely forgot to take even one picture, oh well!

This past weekend Farmington celebrated Chester Greenwood day. Gabe juggled in the parade and Ben and Audrey were eager to be the banner holders this time around.  It was cold, but not frigid so a great time was had by all.  This is also the day that we get our Christmas tree and have our once a year lunch at the Chinese restaurant. They didn't have quite big enough trees at the lot we normally buy from, but we did eventually find what we were looking for and got it inside before Gabe started another long stretch at work.

Also since being home from our trip the turkeys have made a comeback and visit our yard at least once a day if not more often.  You can also see that we have so much snow already!  We haven't seen the ground since before we left in October;)

Fall Road Trip- 2018 VA and PA

With Noah finally feeling better and no signs of anyone else developing any other illness, I pat myself on the back for containing all illnesses to one kid and we continued on with our trip.  The "original" plan was to visit part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and/or Shenandoah National Park... both were completely closed due to winter weather. Ironically, our neighbor, Kristen, grew up right in the area we were staying so she had lots of suggestions for us from her family.
Our first stop was at Land Bridge, VA.  The kids were excited about the history of the land bridge, but disappointed that the bat cave was closed for the winter.

The Safari Park of Virginia was a crazy unique experience for us. You literally stay in your car and feed the animals as you drive around the park.  The animals all come right up to your car! We learned quickly not to stop and feed anything with horns... the alpacas were also crazy persistent and insisted on running beside the car.  We did have a super fun time and will remember it for a long time!

We drove a few more hours and made another stop at the Luray Caves.  We very much lucked out that it was homeschool week at the caves so admission was super cheap.  The caves were so impressive. The pictures don't do it justice.  There was an amazingly still reflecting pool looked like it wasn't even there.  We were exhausted, but had such a cool day.

We started Friday at a local diner in Gettysburg and to our surprise there were so many people dressed in Confederate and Union garb.  The kids were pretty blown away and James, especially, insisted to peppering the people with super detailed historical questions.  It was like he walked into a room full of living historical heroes. Luckily I was able to redirect them all by pointing out that they are all just regular people trying to eat breakfast.  As it turns out, we just happened to be in Gettysburg  for Remembrance Weekend which celebrates Lincoln giving the Gettysburg Address.  There is a huge parade and people come from all over. We could have spent several days here, but we did squeeze so much into one day.  This was an awesome way to reinforce all of our work with the Civil War. We spent a few hours listening to the audio tour and checking out the sites.  The highlight was Joshua Chamberlin's stand at Little Round Top.  It was cool to see this history come to life for them.

After Gettysburg the plan was to make our way to Scranton, but we couldn't pass Hershey's Chocolate World without making a stop.  The kids pulled it together and got a second wind when chocolate was involved;)  The highlight here was definitely the chocolate tasting.  The kids claim themselves connoisseurs now;)

Today we got up and decided to make one final push to make it home tonight. It was a long haul, but everyone was ready to be home after almost a month.  We made it safely and drove over 5,000 miles and were welcomed home to several inches of snow covering the ground!