Wild Week!

Last week we had the opportunity to send a package to our boy in Ethiopia.   Another traveling family was kind enough to take some pictures to him and promised to take pictures of him while they are there. We can't wait to see updated photos!

After our great news on Friday, we couldn't help but follow it up with a fabulous weekend. We were very pleasantly surprised to receive our court date assignment on Friday. We were so far down on the list of people who were waiting and the dates seemed to be coming so slowly, we had really resigned ourselves to waiting a long time. So, we were thrilled when Natalie called on Friday. We didn't have much time to process our news though as we had a busy weekend planned. Here are some of the highlights of our weekend:

Friday night we trick-or-treated and celebrated my dad's 70th birthday. My brother surprised my dad and came in from Louisville to spend the weekend with us.  We baked Pa a giant remote control cake as his favorite past time definitely involves a recliner and a sporting event.



Saturday we spent the day at a local tourism farm. They have a great "back forty" set up with all kinds of fun activities. We had beautiful weather and everyone had a blast.

Here are Ryan and the kids jumping on an enormous jumping pillow.  I think Ryan liked it as much as the kids!

Lily and Aunt Dawn had a great time riding in the cow barrels pulled by the ginormous lawn tractor thingy.  Dawn wasn't so sure it would meet any safety standards!

Grandma braved a ride in Susie Q!

Grandpa endured getting dumped out of the hillside tube slide.

Isaac and I had fun playing in the jumbo corn box.

Sunday, we all headed to downtown Raleigh to cheer Ryan on as he ran his first marathon. He beat his goal of 4:30 by about 5 minutes. We then gorged ourselves at the Olive Garden to celebrate his accomplishment. It took several dinner table conversations to convince the kids that daddy would be victorious just by finishing and that finishing first was not his goal. We were all very proud of him.

Go Daddy!

Crossing the finish line!

So, for the next few weeks, we are trying to complete a few projects before the holidays take off full force. We're hoping that we'll be following taking down the Christmas tree with packing our suitcases for our trip to Ethiopia!