Solid Weekend

We had a very busy and fun weekend. Saturday John and I completed our final long run for marathon training. We went back to where it started, Lunken Airport, and ran the 6 mile loop. It's always nice to do that last run and know the next time you run on the weekend, it will be in the marathon. That night, Emily, Tom and I headed over to the Goff's for Brian's birthday party. There was excellent food, plenty of beer, and a lot of good people there. Unfortunately, my camera stayed behind at our house, so the pictures are all in my head. You should see the one of Brian with the tenderloin, HILARIOUS! Brian is the author of the blog directly to the right of this entry titled "El Goffo's Thoughts on Food and Football".

While shopping for Brian's gift earlier that day, I wandered into Old Navy to get Thomas a hat for the upcoming outdoor/pool time he is going to have. The pictures below show the results of that search. What does not show up is the fact that I went in to buy a $5 hat and ended up buying Tom an entire Summer wardrobe, including a swimsuit. I may need a babysitter next time I go shopping for him.

Tom gives us his best "Blue Steel, come hither" look.

Sunday night we had a nice family dinner at our house. Emily's sister Kate, who was in town from DC, cooked up some homemade Chicken Paad Thai. It was delicious. In the picture below, everyone is getting ready to head home. I am still eating my ice cream, the bowl was that big. Look how happy I am, obviously it was good ice cream.

Bubbly Toes

The evolution of Mr. Thomas:Hey everyone, I like sitting up and checking things out.
No, actually, I prefer eating my toes.

More Rice Cereal, Please!

Dad doesn't like it either!

300 + miles down, now the fun begins.

John and I did our 20 mile long run this past Saturday. It is the unofficial ending of marathon training. (We still have 3 weeks to go, but those are taper runs). John did great on the run and overall is doing fantastic with the training. We have covered a total of 311 miles so far. We celebrated by dropping the kids of with the grandparents and heading out with the ladies for some ribs at The Boathouse. It was a well deserved indulgence, for sure.

This is the tenth time I have trained for a marathon, and every time I am more amazed at how quickly the training goes. At first, in the dead of Winter, it feels like it is going to take forever. You look at your running schedule, see all these numbers, and think, "No way am I going to do all that." Next thing you know, the snow is melting away, you can smell the warm weather and you are wearing shorts and sun tan lotion.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all sunshine and kisses. There are many times when the last thing I wanted to do is go and run 5 miles on my lunch break. Yet, by this point in the training (basically the entire month of April) you don't really think about all those bad runs. All I am seeing now on my running schedule is that BIG 26.2 mile run on May 4th. Hopefully the next 3 weeks go smoothly and John and I have a great run on Marathon Sunday.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us along the way (especially Emily, Tracy, Thomas,Will, and all the Grandparents).

Another Belated Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Matty! (4/5) I am almost a week late on this one.

UA Girls Night Out

Last Friday Emily took a well deserved break from spit up and dirty diapers. She met up with the girls from Ursuline (Class of '95 RULES!) at a restaurant called Chalk. This is the newest place from Cincinnati's BIG time chef, Jean Robert. As you can see in the pictures (thank you Sarah J.), a good time was had by all.

Emily and Sarah decide what drink to order.

Emily thought the bathroom was cool.Kara pointing out the various menu items to enjoy.

Peggy, Emilie, and Siobhan ready for some good food.

Nummy!

This week we started Thomas on rice cereal. It is only a little bit, and only twice a day, but as you can see in the picture, he seems to like the stuff. The best thing about the process is that Tom actually can hold a spoon and put it in his mouth (again...see above). He really seems to understand what a spoon is for and how to use it. I think we have a future Rhodes Scholar in the Anderson family!

Opening Day

Yesterday was an unofficial holiday in Cincinnati, Opening Day for the Reds. For those of you who don't know, the Reds were the first professional baseball team, ever. So Major League Baseball honors that by always having the Reds open up their season at home. The city takes it pretty seriously. We have a HUGE parade, lots of events leading up to the game. It is also the only guaranteed sell out every year, so tickets are hard to come by. Well, this year I was able to secure 4 tickets to the game. So, Emily, Uncle Goffo, and John Gonsior(training for the Pig with me) and I went down to the game. It rained, the Reds lost, the beers cost $7, but we all had a pretty good time. Below are some pictures of John and Thomas getting ready for the game. I got Tom that Adam Dunn jersey for Christmas. He will be wearing it quite a bit this Summer.