My Birthday

This year we went to Ichiro for my birthday
and I got a funny card from my family.



THE END

And then I got this hilarious card
from my parents in the mail today.

I just about died laughing (literally, because i have a cough
and laughing makes me cough and i couldn't stop laughing)
because this is exactly what i felt like doing to Mike on my birthday.

Perfect card.

Extra Time in Baltimore

After leaving Richmond in the late afternoon, we drove up to Dixie Bones for an early dinner. We went to Dixie Bones for the first time last year when we did the Civil War trip for Collin's birthday. Oh my gosh, they have the best food. They had a holiday menu for catering which we totally would have done for Thanksgiving if we were closer.

We would have driven home all in one shot, but Mike didn't think his legs would survive the 7 hour drive. Instead we drove halfway and spent the night in Baltimore. I had reserved a studio with 2 queens and a sofabed. When I asked the lady for a rollaway because our teenagers don't like to share the bed, she said she had something better. We got up to our room on the ninth floor and found that we had a huge 2 bedroom suite. 2 queens in one room and 1 queen in the other. Crazy! And silly Michael decided to sleep on the floor in the closet.

I had wanted to walk around the harbor, the reason why I reserved a room downtown, but Mike was too tired and Michael was too sick. The kids watched a movie while Mike and I slept.

The plan in the morning was to get in the car ASAP and get home in time for church at 1pm so we could see Michael in the primary program. He still was not feeling well and he sounded terrible, so we made the decision to not rush back for church. After breakfast we walked down to the harbor which was just a couple of blocks away.

Nothing was open yet, but we had fun looking around.

Since we had no plan other than to drive home, we started brainstorming ideas of what to do next. As Mike flipped through a book in the hotel room, he saw the Baltimore Museum of Art. Lauren was all over that! No one else was that excited, but we went anyway. It ended up being very interesting!

The first thing we saw were the Cheney Miniature Rooms.

This lady hired a guy to build these rooms for her personal collection.
They are the size of rooms in a doll house.
I think I'll find someone to make me a few of these when I'm older. :)

When we first walked in, a woman explained the map to us and told us the highlights. The first thing she pointed out was "The Cone Collection" on the second floor which Baltimore was known for. We had no idea what she was talking about, but fully expected to see a bunch of cone shaped objects.

Much to our surprise, The Cone Collection, was actually a collection of art that belonged to the Cone sisters. They seemed like really cool ladies. (you'll have to click on the pictures to be able to read the writing) The one thing that was upsetting to Michael though was that they had collected so many nude paintings. The poor kid was walking around covering his eyes! And then we found this great interactive thing that guided you through the ladies' apartment. I helped Michael get through the rooms and let him right into the Blue Room, where they kept all the nudes! Oh, goodness.

I love the Little Dancer. Seriously love her.

(and those are Monets in the background)

Everyone found something they liked.

I think Mike took these pictures. Disturbing stuff.

Lauren was interested in the modern art.

Lauren said that if she did that one on the left, her art teacher
would tell her to add something. It's obviously good enough as it is!

Mike and I liked this one the most.

The Thinker!

We had no idea, but there are various statues of The Thinker.

There was also a special exhibit with all Andy Warhol stuff. No pictures allowed.

We had lunch after seeing the museum, and then headed home. Baltimore was a fun place to visit! We always like seeing new things and new places.


Michael was still very sick on Monday, and actually stayed home from school. He said in his little swollen throat voice, "Mom, can I use your Little E?" Awwww, of course!

Richmond Marathon

Saturday was the big day of the marathon. Mike prepared so much for this race and was hoping to qualify for Boston with this one. The Boston Marathon already filled up (BUMMER), but his time could qualify him for Boston 2012. The only bummer is that Mike's knee started really hurting 2 1/2 weeks before the race. He took a week off, tried running on it and found that it still hurt. I made him go to the doctor at that point. He gave Mike an anti-inflammatory and said to not run for a week. Another week! Ad that would only leave a couple of days before the marathon to see if he would be ok. Well, he followed the doctor's orders and felt good enough to run. What a guy!

The night before the marathon, Michael's throat continued to worsen. He even woke up a few times in the middle of the night. We were debating whether we should take him to an urgent care or not. We still had one more night away from home, and I knew that if it was strep it would only get worse. I drove Mike down to the starting line around 6:30am and told him I would see how Michael was when he woke up.

Michael was still bad in the morning, but I was hoping he could make it through. We had directions to each of the three "party zones" where you could cheer your runner on. Since I let Michael sleep, we missed the 1st point. We tried our best to get over to the 2nd point, but I knew we weren't going to make it. We actually started driving along the course (in reverse), so I decided to pull over and let everyone out. Thank goodness I did! We waited about five minutes and then our runner came along!

Go, Mike GO!!!

(see that he is midair in this shot?)

This was just after the halfway point. That means he had been running for at least 14 miles so far - 1 hr. 40+mins. We couldn't be happier to see him, and he looked really good.

The exchange that took place was funny though. We saw Mike take the gloves from behind him, and I thought he was going to hand them to me, but then he didn't. Michael thought he was reaching out t shake his hand, but Mike was actually trying to pass off his gloves. Michael thought it was so funny!

We all hopped back in the car and
followed Mike a bit over the big bridge.

We didn't quite make it to mile 19, so we
pulled over again JUST in time to see Mike.

He looked like he was hurting, and I got really worried. We were screaming and yelling from across the street and he didn't even hear us. Thank goodness that nice lady pointed us out to him.

After seeing Mike not looking good, I started to worry. He still had 6 miles to go. Would he be alright? And Michael, by the way, was fading . . .

We got over to the finish line with plenty of time to spare, so we walked over and waited for Mike. He needed to get under 3 hrs. 20 mins. That time came and went much to our dismay.

It was cool waiting though and seeing all the people finish. The funny thing is that people were finishing their HALF marathon at the same time Mike was finishing the whole thing. The spectators were all so supportive.

Mike finally came along at 3:28. And he looked like he was REALLY hurting now. He had his hands all flared like you see in the picture. Not good! But he finished strong.

Collin actually got it on video:



Go, Mike!

He was disappointed, but we were proud. Even though he didn't qualify for Boston, he still beat his best time . . . by 5 minutes! Because Boston is already full for 2011, he will run again next year to qualify. It was pretty amazing that he got such a great time after not running the two weeks before the race. His knee actually held up just fine. It was the uphill that slowed him down. Mike started getting bad cramps in his legs and had to walk every other block during the last four miles. He NEVER walks.

Marathon finished, we went back to the hotel so Mike could shower (thank goodness for late check out!). We checked out and drove over to the best urgent care ever. I knew that Michael needed to be seen by the doctor. This place was called KidMed. We don't even have urgent care places near us so I have nothing to compare it to, but this place was NICE.

Michael was so sick.

Fancy, right? Very state of the art.
They even gave Michael a popsicle to suck on while we waited for results.

The little bird chirped (new to us) which meant STREP THROAT. I knew it!
And they even filled his prescription right there. We were impressed.

On to Baltimore . . .