School is in!

School is back in! We had a great summer, but we were all ready for school to start again. Bruce was ready to hang out with kids his age and talk Minecraft and Pokemon all day. Phoebe was excited to start junior kindergarten with Bruce's former teacher, who she idolizes. And I am ready for some one-on-one time with Oliver! (As well as some blogging and work while he sleeps.)

 We celebrated our last few days of summer in style. We headed for the White Mountains and went for a hike...

 ...requiring large amounts of chocolate-filled trail mix.

 We hiked to some waterfalls and Phoebe and Scott even went for a little dip in the frigid water.

 Bruce found this awesome tree growing atop a boulder.

On Labor Day, we headed to New Haven for the New Haven 20K. This race has been on my bucket list for awhile; it is the USATF 20K National Championships, so it is always very competitive. Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative: it was hot and very humid. I felt like I was melting after the first 5K! I had a few really awful miles, but pulled it together in the end for a 1:28:13 - 31st female. I am not proud of that time, but no one ran the time they intended. Someone even said the winning time was the slowest in 30-something years! Next race up is the Akron Half Marathon and I am hoping it will be a little cooler so I can go a little faster!

School's In!

School has officially started. Bruce had orientation earlier this week where we toured the school (hula hoops in the gym! sweet-o playground!) and got to know the teachers. Today was the first real day, though, when I could drop him off and leave. I've heard lots of moms describe their meltdowns and tears after this momentous occasion, but that was not my experience. I gave Bruce a hug (although he was looking in the other direction, distracted by the train tracks and Legos) and walked to a park, where I pushed Phoebe in a swing for awhile. Once she was thoroughly tired, we came home and she took an uninterrupted nap while I caught up on emails and resumed the job hunt. Then I went grocery shopping - just me and Phoebe - which was a very nice change, especially after this experience...
Scott's birthday was earlier this week. We made him a German chocolate cake complete with cholesterol, but we didn't have his gift ready for him. We picked it up yesterday, along with a couple jars of baby food, at Walmart. You know how they have those rotating bag-o-matics that are just so fun to spin? While I was paying, Bruce couldn't help himself and he gave it a good spin. My bags went flying in all directions and I spent the next few minutes cleaning up glass and pureed chicken-broccoli-whatever baby food off all my other purchases while repeating the phrase, "I will not get angry." Thankfully, I'd tucked Scott's gift in my diaper bag, so it escaped the baby food disaster.

We got Scott an iPod Touch. It is so cool that it deserves its own blog post, so that's all I'm saying about that just now.