GOTG 5K

The seasons of Girls on the Go (GOTG) and Young Men in Motion (YMIM) wrapped up with a 5K on Saturday morning. The run was held at a local middle school and run in the neighborhood streets. It was a low key event, only serving the youth programs at three local elementary schools. Keely chose James as her buddy runner, which meant I was to run with Quinn. He missed it though since he was attending his first Boy Scout campout, so that meant Keely ended up with two buddy runners.



She did really well, running almost the entire time. She complained of a stitch or two, but pushed through. I honestly think it's because James was with us...he doesn't take the complaining and makes her push on, where I would probably say it's okay to walk a bit, all the while irritated in my head that we are walking :) In any event, the first part of the run was two loops around the neighborhood and then a small loop to get back to the start/finish line. I was timing us, and we were making great time...too great actually, so much that I thought we cheated or the course was too short. We finished in 27 minutes, 15 seconds. An amazing 5K time for not only Keely, but me as well! When we got home, James mapped the course and it turns out it was only 2.9 miles. It was still great time...had we ran the extra two tenths, we still would have finished under 30 minutes. Keely finished first of the GOTG participants from her school, and also beat all of the boys from YMIM from her school. A great day overall! We missed Quinn, but it was fun to spend time with just Keely and to enjoy running together on a crisp April morning.

The Best of Friends

By my recollection, Jess and I met the summer after 4th grade when we were both campers at Manalapan Recreation (or what we called Rec for sure).  I was 10, she was about to turn or just had turned 11.  We didn't go to the same school at the time, but we met up in middle and high school.  No matter how much time passes or how far apart we are, we always fall right back in line with each other.  We've spanned different colleges, different states, have been leading arguably different lives - but our friendship has remained true and pure.  We are now both 35, and we marvel that it has been 25 years.

We are both thrilled to finally be living on the same coast...the closest we have lived to each other since we were in high school.  We visited New York in November for the kids' TV debut (which was made possible by Jess) and they made a trip to DC this weekend to stay with us, and do some sightseeing.  We have created a bit of a monster with Keely (Keyak as Ethan calls her) and Ethan...a bit of an obsession.  Ethan just loves her, and was so excited to be seeing her again this weekend.  They spent most of the time together.  She was such a diligent babysitter, waking up much earlier than usual to hang with E, and taking such good care of him.  She even took a bath with him (her in a bathing suit, of course) and I question who enjoyed that bath more.  There was much laughter and good conversations, and Jess and Jon got to experience the bliss of having older children around to care for the little one so that they could relax and chat as adults get to do when their kids get older.  We braved some pretty cool April weather on Saturday to explore DC...walking around the Washington Monument and WWII Memorial.  We followed that with some museum hopping, from American History (love that First Ladies exhibit) to Natural History (the Titanoboa exhibit is pretty cool, along with the old favorites) and then a bit of the Castle and the surrounding gardens.  After some downtime back at the Donovan homestead, we headed back out for an early dinner in Old Town Alexandria.  This was Jon's idea, and thanks to Jess and yelp.com we found what will most definitely be a repeat dinner establishment for us...the Columbia Firehouse.  We walked down to get some cupcakes from what will most definitely not be a repeat bakery for us (they weren't worth the calories) and then down to the water.  We didn't get rained on, and it was a busy but fun day.

Their visit was so much fun, and we wished it would have been a bit longer but it was really perfect.  We're already talking about another meet-up...Philadelphia is being discussed or maybe we will be NY bound again.  It's so great that we are both so close to Amtrak. 

And I've just had the realization that I can credit Rec for both my soul mate and my lifelong best friend.  It's unlikely that James and I would have met without Rec and while it's likely that Jess and I would have, it's still where we can credit the beginning of that friendship.  How amazing!

Blast from the Past

When we were in New Jersey for Thanksgiving, we took advantage of a nice warm day after the holiday to explore Holmdel Park with Grandma and Grandpa.  The kids haven't been to Longstreet Farm before and we walked around to see the horses, cows, pigs, sheep, etc. and all of the historic buildings.  After the farm, we headed up to one of the many playgrounds to let the kids play.  While we were there, I wanted to do some investigation of times past.  James and I used to visit HP when we were dating, often having picnics there and hiking through the woods.  On one trip, we carved our names into a tree as many teenagers do.  I've always wondered if it weathered the years, and if we could even find the exact location.  So as we walked through the woods this November, I looked at the many trees and read names hoping to find ours.  After a few tries, and a bit off the beaten path, I found it!  I was so excited.  We hadn't dated the carving, but I estimate it to be about 19 years old - sometime from 1992 or 1993.  Thank goodness Grandma had her camera to snap a few photos of our historic find!  The kids wanted us to carve their names below, but we didn't have a knife so we will have to go back another time to add them to the record.

What a fun record of our relationship - as James and I embark upon 20 years together, I am glad to see that it has survived the test of time and I look forward to going back in another 20 years to see if it's still there!

Happy Halloween!

Another Halloween has come and gone.  I often wonder when will be the last of the dressing up, trick or treating, carving pumpkins.  I'm sure we have a few more years.  I actually don't really like Halloween....it's gotten so much bigger than when we were kids. 

This year, Keely decided on a vampire.  Quinn was a wizard, only fitting after it became the year of Harry Potter for us.  We had no idea how many trick or treaters to expect, and I was disappointed because we had a lot of candy left over. 

The kids went out about 6:30 and got about 1.5 hours in, doing the circle near our house and a loop around our block.  Quinn went with his best bud Jack and another boy from his new class, Tyler.  Keely went with Julia and another little girl in the neighborhood.  Actually they all started out together but ended up splitting up.  I was the designated trick or treat parent, and James stayed home to hand out candy.  He dressed up for the first time in the 18 years I have known him (actually, I think he dressed up in college once but I wasn't there so that doesn't count).  He didn't scare many kids, despite the blood flowing down his scary mask. 

The kids got a lot of candy...as usual Keely ate a lot along the way.  Quinn ate not one piece.  When we got back to J&J's house, Quinn would not empty his bag and trade the way the other boys were doing.  Keely dumped out the remains of her bag and gave it to Jack.  She's so funny! 

Oh, another tidbit - Quinn got tired of his robe about halfway through, went home and changed into a ninja mask with sword.  The boys also had a funny experience at one home - it's actually our adjacent back neighbors - when they went up to say trick or treat, they were told that they needed to give candy to the homeowners instead of getting candy.  It's a group home so we aren't dealing with typical homeowners here, but we all thought that was a little strange! 

So Halloween has come and gone, and with it begins the official holiday season!  I can't believe it is now November and we are rapdily heading towards Thanksgiving and making Christmas plans!

Just Another Day?

I'm sure everyone has said this on their birthday...it's just another day. I know I have. And when you get caught up in life, it can seem like just another day.

Today is James' birthday. He is 35 years old. I have celebrated each birthday with him since he turned 18 years old. That's a lot of birthdays! He thinks it's just another day but I disagree. Without this day, he would not be here. Without this day, there would be no us. I would not be who I am today. There would be no Quinn, no Keely. Not even Callie or Rudy. We as a family would not exist. I refuse to think of this as just another day. I refuse to think of a world that does not contain the things I love most about it.

This is most definitely NOT just another day. Happy Birthday my love!