2015 Boo Ball

We enjoyed another fun Boo Ball tonight. For the first time, Matt and I just sort of hung out by ourselves while our kids ran around all night. Donovan and Howie volunteered at one of the game stations most of the night, and they let Rex hang around them. Nina danced up a storm with her friends and Cameron was somewhere the whole time. We just aren't sure where.

Nina won an award for the most original costume.

Cameron had a hard time deciding how to accessorize his Captain America costume. 

The Library Costume Parade

Today was another one of those "lasts" for me. Ever since we moved to Littleton, I have taken my kids to storytime on Thursday mornings at 10:30. I've blocked out that time slot for almost 12 years, and luckily I still have about 6 months left before Rex is done. But the sad thing about today is that this is the last Halloween costume parade I will get to go to at the library. Unless I turn really creepy and go watch random kids next year. 

Today Rex invited his bestie Tera to come along. They got their little trick-or-treating bags and made their way through the library. 

Then they ended up downstairs for some songs and stories.  

And they ended with some juice and cookies. I will definitely miss this next year. 

A Fun Costume Run

Matt missed out on some fun tonight! But someone has to pay the bills. And our race entry fees. 

Tonight the kids and I participated in the Hoofin it Through the Hollows race at Dekoevend Park. Everyone dressed up and 5/6 of us ran the race. I'm not normally a fan of dressing up, but I got talked into doing it this time. I'm glad I did too, it really did make it more fun. I ran with Howie to help pace him and he finished super strong and got 4th in his age group. Cameron worked hard and also finished 4th in his age group. Nina enjoyed running with some music and finished the race with a big smile on her face. Donovan ran an awesome race and placed 3rd, which was good enough for a prize. We all enjoyed the hot chocolate, s'mores and Anthony's pizza. I hope Matt can join us next year!!

Star Wars at the Library

Have I ever mentioned how much I love our library? Aside from the huge selection of books and movies, the storytimes and the summer reading programs, they also host a ton of other special events like this one tonight.  Matt had taken the older 2 boys to watch Antman while I took the youngers to the Southglenn trick-or-treat event.  We met up at the library for our Star Wars fix.  

One you got used to the nasty B.O. smell, you could enjoy the characters, the trivia, the movie clips, the games, the food and the overall excitement in the air. I don't know if Matt or the kids were more excited! And I'd like to note that Howie was also in attendance, he just doesn't like characters in costume. 

Trick-or-Treating at Southglenn

Tonight we met Michelle, Kinnan and Kendall at the Southglenn mall for their annual Trick-or-Treating event.  It was very well attended, and we especially saw a lot of Hopkins friends there.  Almost every single store had something to hand out, and several had special coupons for the adults.  There were face painters in a few different spots so we hardly had to wait in line for these masterpieces:

There was also a pretty neat Ghost Busters haunted house.  We will have to rent Ghost Busters later, I guess we are failing as parents because my kids haven't heard of this movie before.  

Our Marathon Man

When Matt turned 40, he made a goal that he would run another marathon this year. He wanted to do better than his first marathon. And he wanted to beat Oprah. Early in the year he talked about doing the Rock 'n Roll marathon, but we never pulled the trigger and signed him up. I found a half marathon that I wanted to run on Labor Day, and Matt did it to try to get his training going. But it wasn't until 5 weeks before the Rock 'n Roll marathon that we officially signed him up. He tried to train the best he could while coaching 2 soccer teams and doing some reffing on the side. He was usually able to run about 4 times a week - little 4-5 mile runs with a long run on Saturday. The longest run he was able to get in was 14 miles with Justin Marshall two weeks before the race. Then he got a 9 mile run in late in the evening a week before. Yesterday, the day before his race he reffed 2 soccer games! Then came race day! We decided we would support him as a family. We plotted out all the places we thought we could park and wait for him. The course was along a trail that wasn't always accessible. 

So we dropped him off way up north and went to our first stop. We had plenty of time to make some signs and get in position

And we were excited to see him here at mile 2. 

He seemed happy and full of energy. That was a good sign!

We made our way to another spot about 6 miles into the race. More high fives for our favorite runner. 

At the halfway point Matt was right on track, running a steady 9:30 pace. 

When we were plotting out our stops, Matt felt like he would probably need a gu around mile 18. He wasn't sure how he would be feeling at that point. We were shocked when we saw him in the distance about 10 minutes ahead of when we thought we would see him!  He told us he felt pretty good still. 

I didn't get a picture of the second to last spot that we saw him. At mile 22 he ran all the way up a hill that we saw tons of people walking. As he passed us he said he was starting to feel tired. I couldn't believe how awesome he was doing!!

Then we saw him .2 miles from the finish line. Howie, Nina and Cameron ran with him the rest of the way, even across the finish line. His time was incredible!! He got a 4:15:09!!! 

Matt told me that at mile 23 he saw the pace runner for a 4:15 time coming up behind him. He hadn't realized how fast he was going and when he saw that he could actually finish in 4:15, he told himself he would stay with them. At mile 25 he was starting to fall behind the pacer and he was struggling to keep running. With a half mile to go, the pacer turned around and encouraged Matt to pick it up a little bit. Then he saw is and the kids encouraged him to finish strong. I am so proud of Matt and how amazing he did today! All of the kids were proud of him too!! 

And not 1 minute after this picture, Rex got lost and we spent 20 minutes frantically trying to find him. Turns out he went and sat on a bench when he couldn't find us and started crying. A race volunteer saw him and brought him over to the information tent. I went to that tent to ask for help finding him and there he was playing on an iPad. I'm so so glad we found him!

Friday Night Football - Broncos edition

Littleton High School got selected for the "Broncos Game of the Week".  Basically, this meant that there would be several Broncos related activities going on before the game.  There were some booths with face painting, little handouts, a few trophies on display, opportunities to meet Miles and some Broncos cheerleaders, as well as a few former players.  There were some current practice squad players too who took time to play with and talk to kids.  We were able to convince a couple of our kids to stand in line to take some pictures with Miles.  And of course, Nina wanted to get a picture with the cheerleaders.  

Catching Grasshoppers

During halftime of the Bronco's game today Matt took all the kids down to the trail to gather some food for our poor, neglected geckos.  Rex is a champion grasshopper catcher!  The other kids would spot the bugs, then call Rex over to catch them.  Quite the system.  It was so nice to get out and enjoy the weather, while spending some fun time together.