Friday night, as usual, had a slow start. John and some of the boys were on the couch watching sports (even rugby at one time) and I was wrestling with Colton and Ryan on the floor. Poor Josh was so hungry and kept saying he wanted pizza. And it would have been so easy to just order a pizza (especially since it was chilly and rainy outside), but no, John and I felt like going out somewhere. So John had Siri give him some pizza place ideas and into the car we went!
The place that he picked (based on tons of great reviews)
was pretty far away – about 25 minutes.
But we had a nice car ride – the kids were good and John and I got to
talk a little. When we got off the
highway, we realized that we were in a pretty shady area of town. We decided that we were going to drive by the
place, and if it looked bad, we were outta there! But when we drove by, it looked nice, and
full of people, so in we went!
As we were led to our seats, I heard someone say “Debbie! John!” and looked over to see our
brother-in-law there with his brother, uncle and dad. What’s funny is that we live in the same
suburb as John’s sister, and even seeing them out there at any time would be
weird, let alone 25 minutes away from our houses! After we got settled in, he told us how his
family had been coming to that pizza place for years and years and how much he
loved it. And he was right – the pizza
was great! And the kids were good! And there was sports on the TV, so the boys
were happy! It was a great evening :)
Saturday morning we got up and because it was rainy outside,
John cancelled Ryan’s football practice.
I quickly got my list together and we all headed to the grocery store
(after taking Kylie to gymnastics).
After we got home, I spent the whole day doing laundry :( I also got applesauce cooking in the crockpot
and then started cooking our huge dinner in the late afternoon.
John and Suzie were running the ½ marathon on Sunday, and
they had picked a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs as their carb-load that
night. And of course, you know me, I
have to make everything homemade! It was
an amazing dinner (although I was extremely exhausted!). I made a Bolognese sauce, Pioneer Woman’s meatballs
and sauce, and homemade garlic bread. We
also had authentic Italian pasta that Suzie had brought back as a gift for my
Dad from Italy. It was a wonderful
dinner that was followed by homemade apple crisp.
After dinner, we got the kids ready and into bed (it was going
to be an early morning!) and then I stayed up and got all the dishes finished
off and everything packed up that I thought we would need. While the high on Sunday was going to be 65
and partly cloudy, the time we were going to be outside cheering the runners on
it was going to be 40 degrees at the highest.
So I pulled out winter coats and blankets and hats and gloves. Thankfully, my parents agreed to watch Colton
while we were gone, so I didn’t need to worry about packing extra stuff for
him.
Sunday morning John and Suzie left around 5:45 and I was up
shortly thereafter. I got myself ready
and then got the kids up and told them that if we left the house on time, we
would stop at Tim Horton’s to get hot chocolate and Timbits. They all got dressed in the shirts that I had
bought for them with no complaints. They
were fabulous and we only left about 5 minutes late. We stopped and got the hot chocolate and
donuts and we were on our way!
We drove over to a little city that the runners would be
running through and found a little parking lot that didn’t have many cars in
it. We parked the car and loaded our
arms up with blankets and drinks and coats and headed to the street. The police officer confirmed with me that the
runners would be running right by us, so we set up camp and waited. The first of the runners started coming
through so we stood up and got our signs ready.
Then globs and globs of runners started coming through and I was so worried
that we were going to miss them! Luckily
I had told John about where we would be (around miles 5 or 6), but he didn’t
know what side of the road we would be on, let alone exactly where we would
be. It was getting late, and I was about
ready to finally admit that we missed them when all of sudden I saw my sister
running up to me! And then John was
right behind her, shedding his gloves for me to take back with us.
After this, the kids went back to their blanket and drank
their hot chocolate while we waited for a break so that we could cross the road
to get to our car. I finally realized
that we were never going to find a large break, so I prepped the kids and we
all ran across right when I saw a small break.
We loaded up in the car and headed off for downtown so that we could see
them at the finish line!
We got parked easily and made our way through the madness of
people. We were able to find an area
where we could see the big screen of runners coming through and Kylie saw Suzie’s
and John’s name flash across the screen as having crossed the finish line. So we made our way back through the people
and met up with them at the end of their path of free food :) I was so proud of them!
After that we all headed home for a short break before we
had to load up the car for the boys’ football games. It went way too fast :) Thankfully, the weather had turned absolutely
gorgeous and it was awesome sitting outside watching each boy’s football
game. Colton actually fell asleep in the
car on the way there and stayed asleep through the transfer of getting him into
the stroller and about ¾ of Ryan’s game!
After the football games (which they both won and both
scored in and Joshie had an interception), we headed home, caught up with the
neighbors for a few minutes, and then headed out for dinner. We went to the Pub and it was one of the best
dinner experiences I’ve ever had! Since
there were so many of us (Cindy joined us for dinner), we got to sit at the tap
table, which means there were beer taps on our table. The other cool thing was that it was off in
its own little room, with other smaller, kid-size tables around it. The kids ate and played while we ate and
drank. The food was awesome and the overall
evening was wonderful!
After dinner we took the kids to Barnes and Noble and they
picked out some books. Joshie has really
started reading more and more (it had gotten to be such a fight with him) now
that he’s picking out his own books and thinking about what he wants to
read. After B&N it was home to baths
and showers and some time to just relax before crashing. And I do mean crashing! John and I were so beat from all of the day’s
activities :)
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