Children's Museum of Oak Ridge

When my mom visited us in July she took Dylan to the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge. I hadn't even heard of the museum until we got a coupon for a free childrens entry at the Farragut 4th of July parade. I looked the museum up online and it looked like a place Dylan would love. And I was right, he did, he talked about it for days after he went with Grandma and still remembered it when I asked him if he wanted to go again this past weekend.
He loves the life size dollhouse, train, and rocket rooms. There is really stuff to do for kids of all ages and adults. The museum is in an old elementary school building and is huge. I would definitely recommend if you have kids and live in the Knoxville/Oak Ridge/East TN area to plan a visit!

Checking out the rocket

One of my favorite signs/billboards from when Oak Ridge was the "Secret City".

"Hello, Grandma?"

Putting on a puppet show...

Making lunch in the dollhouse kitchen

The back of the dollhouse. 

It's perfectly child size. Dylan opening the door at the dollhouse. 

The train engine just outside of the train room. 

Already a runner...

Dylan has started to ask Dave if he can go running with him. Usually Dave meets his running group, so it's out of the question for Dylan to go run with them. However, sometimes Dave just runs from our house. Dylan really wanted to go with him a few weeks ago, so I suggested they run around our neighborhood before Dave went out on his actual run.
Dylan had such a great time. As I am sure you know he is super active and unless he is watching tv he is moving. He did a great job running with Dave and even made it up the steep hills in our neighborhood.

Pumpkin Farm!

We had a great time at Oakes Farm again this year. They expanded their "Back 40" area to include more activities for the kids. Dylan LOVED the kids corn maze and went through it with Dave multiple times. We also watched the staff shoot a pumpkin from the cannon, played in the bounce house, visited the petting zoo and went down the slides. It was a busy afternoon and we all had a great time. We even got a pumpkin!

On the hay rack ride to pick out a pumpkin!

Are we there yet?

Dylan found one!

See my stomach isn't that huge, if the pumpkin covers it up it can't be that big!

We found our pumpkin!

Dylan's favorite part, the corn maze!

Consulting the map. 

Dance Party

Dylan (aka Captain America) had a great time with his friends Brandon (Scooby Doo) and Andrew (Darth Vader) at the Boo at the Zoo dance party!

Chicago Marathon

Marathon #8 is in the books! Dave and Andrew headed up to Chicago on Friday, October 5th for the 35th Annual Bank of American Chicago Marathon. They ran the race for Team Salute and both raised over $600 (each) for the charity (a big thank-you to everyone who donated!)! On Saturday they went to McCormick Place for packet pick up (along with the 45,000 other people running the race!). They also attended a Team Salute luncheon and were able to meet some of the people that would be in their start corral and hear inspiring stories from soldiers that Team Salute has helped.

All of the guys stayed with my sister, Dana and her husband, Paul. Dana even cooked for them on Saturday night! :) Paul was nice enough to get up at the crack of dawn and drive them to the starting point of the race too. Generally the guys are running a little behind on race mornings even after preparing the night before. It was also the coldest weather they have run a race in. Omaha was also cold, but not as cold as Chicago. Cold is definitely better to run the race in though, so I don't think they were complaining too much.

This race was tougher than Omaha, I don't think the course was more difficult though. Dave had problems the entire race, he was not feeling well for some reason. (I am hoping he isn't contagious!) However, he did seem to recover after the race and on Sunday night. The guys went to eat at a favorite place of ours, The Bad Apple Bar. They have the BEST burger menu and a huge selection of beers. Their fried cheese is also the best I've ever had. If you're in Chicago, it's a place you don't want to miss!
(Thanks to Paul and Dana for the photos!)

   

Omaha Marathon

I figured I had better get this post up before Dave leaves for the Chicago marathon on Friday!

 The Omaha Marathon was Sunday, September 23rd. Dave and Andrew arrived in Omaha the Thursday before the race and were entertained by Kyle and Amie and other family and friends until race day. Andrew was able to experience such Midwestern specialties as a swamp dog donkey burger in Neola, as well as actual cuisine at M's Pub in Omaha. I'm glad they took him to M's Pub first ;)

On to the marathon, along with Dave and Andrew, Dave's friend from high school, Andrew (I know another Andrew, we'll call him Andy for this post) also ran the marathon. The weather was perfect for the marathon, cool to start off, in the 40's and then warming up to the 60's by the time they finished. It was certainly much cooler than these guys are used to, but it worked in their favor, Andrew and Andy had personal bests in the race! Andrew ran his race in 3:40 and Andy shaved 20 minutes off his time from his first marathon! Dave came in 2 minutes past his personal best at 4:09, which is still awesome. The next race is Chicago on Sunday, good luck guys!

 Here are some photos from the race (thanks Sherrie and Carolyn!)

Tball photos!

Dylan had team and individual tball photos last Saturday before his game. While he was a ham before the photos were taken (and of course while I was taking photos) he did listen to the photographer when it was time to smile for the camera.
Here are a few of my photos: