Lacy's: Turkey Trots Jingle Bells and Everything in Between

Alright...so I've been getting really lazy about all this. I take pictures at every event, but wait weeks to post them. By the time I get around to it, I'm left with so many pics and no desire to write about every activity. So, once again I present a picture post that brings me up to date with all that has happened since the start of November to today.

Saturday November 17th. The 32nd Annual Turkey Trot. This marked my one year anniversary of distance running. Last year at the Turkey Trot I completed my first 10 mile run. Since, I have obviously continued with the sport and learned to love it. Last year Kenton completed the Turkey Trot and as you can see by his absence in these pictures, long distance running was not his "thang."

My Dad competed in the two mile (2nd place...mind you) and caught up with me at mile 7 to finish out the trot. He helped me run it in at a new personal record of 1:22, good enough to receive a 5th place plaque.

Landon Scott Grattopp turned two!!!! Our sweetie pie nephew had his big 2nd birthday on the

22nd( Thanksgiving). He celebrated a few weeks earlier at Gymboree. Miss Kari (aka Mommy) serenaded us all as the kids had a blast ruling the gym.
Landon dug into his "Man in the yellow hat" cake pulling out every M&M.. yummy!!

Thanksgiving!!!! We hosted our first Thanksgiving. Up at 6:30 dressing a bird and doing our best to get all the trimmings on the table by 2:00. (or 2:30ish..who's counting?)

We had a nice time stuffing our tummies and listening to Grandma talk...

As a little kid my sister and I felt like we had to wait forever to put up the tree, so as a "I'm all grown up and can do what I want" move Kenton and I started putting up the tree Thanksgiving weekend the first year we were married. That way we didn't have to wait the whole week that my parents made us wait, which in kid time was FOR-EV-VER!!!

We decked the hall with all the trimming we own, including several new ones. We collected several new ornaments from all our vacations this year and had fun going, "oh, look..wasn't that fun?" Judah continued the tradition of picking out one new ornament and he chose the "sharp tooth" or T-Rex to match his "long neck" from last year.

I got a new one too. I figured running two marathons this year was eventful enough to capture the memory on a Christmas ball!

Jingle Bell Run, December 1st.

It was a warm but nasty day. Wind howling and rain spitting all over. My Dad convinced many of his spin class buds to give it a whirl, one of them held a very special place in my heart. In the group picture you'll see me receiving bunny ears from my childhood hero. I'm about to divulge a dark secret few know about me. You see, after I saw Mighty Ducks something happened to me that I can't quite explain. I became the biggest fan of ice hockey you'd ever find in the great plains of Kansas. Eventually prayers were heard and ice hockey came back to this great state and I was hooked. My dad started taking me and Lindsay to all the games and a particular goalie became our idol.

Yes, that small man next to me is the one and only Bobby Desjardins.

As my Dad introduced me to that man who's picture once hung on my wall, who I would listen to sports commentators portrayals of his away games saves, who's name I would chant with the rest of the arena ("Bob-bee...Bob-bee"), I felt pretty foolish but happy to meet the really nice man who was just as embarrassed as I was to hear the truth about my affinity for him.

So, there you have it the curtain was pulled back and the great wizard was nothing more than just a really nice guy!

So once I got over being star struck, the gun went off and we ran!

I love winter races because less people show up and average Joes like me pull off 4th overall finishes and a gold jingle bell for finishing first in my age group (30:16 for a four mile).

My Dad was right behind me to snatch a silver bell (30:49). We both made print in the Eagle...tiny print...but print none the less!!

My mom ran the one mile and I thought I'd let Judah give it a try. Assuming he'd give up and need to stop, we entered as bandits. The little monkey ran the whole thing!

Mom finished in a nice time and little man ran it in in 14 minutes!!!!
I was so proud of him... maybe I'll get a new running partner soon!!

All who ran walked away with medals that day. Judah got his when they said all kids 12 and under come on up. My mom got hers when Kenton asked the lady passing out kids medals if her efforts were worth a little medal and she was happy to give my mom a little medal!!

"We're ALL Winners!!!"

This Saturday we went to Readers Theater at the Library and watched Judah play the Troll in "The 3 Billy Goats Gruff." As he exclaimed, "I'm gonna eat you for my breakfast," I was seeing a glimpse into the future.... look out big screen! I also was hoping that his skills would make a nice retirement for his proud parents!

We followed up with a trip to the children's theater to see "Toyland." It was a great show and Nick was taking requests after the show. So, our big boy in his new short haircut was happy to say hi to the guy, only because he was passing out candy!