Busy Labor Day Weekend

We had an amazingly busy Labor Day weekend at the Williams Ranch.  On Saturday, Jordan and I both ran in the UW-Platteville Cross Country Alumni Run.  I was the oldest female alumni that ran, but I did rather well...beating several people.  Jordan did a great job ...especially since he just started running again on August 9!!  Paisley and both grandparents cheered us both on.  It was so great to see old friends again.  We attended the Alumni Picnic, and got ready for Sunday.

On Sunday, we had several people over to our house for games and food.  It was a great day, and fun was had by all!  We had a food boil.  We cooked shrimp, potatoes, sweet corn and brats outside in turkey fryers.  We had tables and chairs set up outside with brown paper covering all of the tables.  When the food was done, the guys dumped it on the tables.  Everyone pulled up a chair, and dug in!  That's right...no plates or forks.  Ketchup, ranch dressing, butter, and shrimp sauce all just was squeezed onto the table.  It was quite a sight!!

On Monday morning, I ran a half marathon in Dubuque.  I had a goal of averaging 8:00 miles for the 13.1 miles.  If you know anything about Dubuque, you know it is hilly, and I knew the last 7 miles were going to be tough.  I went too fast during the flat first 6 miles, and the hilly miles 7, 8, 9 were tough.  I was in rough shape near the end, but I did manage to beat my goal.  I ran the race in about 1:42:00!!  I also placed 3rd in my age group!  Jordan, Paisley, and both my mom and dad and Jordan's mom were there cheering me on!

Following the race, we came home and power napped, as we were all pretty tired.  We picked up the house from the previous day, and made two batches of cookies.  The UW-Platteville cross country team takes scenic runs on Mondays, and one of their runs just happens to go right by our house.  Each year (this is the 3rd year) we have them over to our house after their run for cookies and lemonade.  Jordan and I don't really know any of the current runners, but we enjoy doing this.  One of the girls (Ann Tank) fell in love with Paisley and Paisley really enjoyed her energy and enthusiasm for playing.  We actually got her number to possibly babysit sometime!!

We are definitely ready for bed, so pictures will have to wait for a couple of days to be posted.  We need to go back to work to rest from the weekend!

Door County Vacation!

Last week we spent the week in Door County with some friends and their families.  We rented two houses and loved every minute of it.  We biked a 10 mile trail at Peninsula State Park twice.  One day it was just Jordan, Paisley and me, and the next day it was 11 of us.  Paisley loved the biking. 

We also visited Whitefish Sand Dunes Beach.  It was gorgeous!  It was quite the hike to the beach, but it was definitely worth it.  The water was cooler than what we're used to at the pool, so we didn't actually do a whole lot of swimming.  It was shallow enough for us to walk out pretty far without getting too wet.  This was also Paisley's first experience with sand and her bare feet.  She wasn't sure what to think at first, but she enjoyed playing on the beach with her sand toys. 

Every morning I went for a run with a different route that I had found.  The "backroads" were filled with beautiful vacation home that had amazing views.  Every day I would come back and tell Jordan about a new house that I had found.  It was a great change of pace.

We were able to spend a lot of time relaxing and enjoying good company.  Paisley played really well with Charlie and Halle.  Halle is 4 months older than Paisley, so there was a good amount of playing, as well as a good amount of fighting over toys.  Charlie is 5, and Paisley loves him.  Whenever she needed to be calmed down, Charlie as well as Griffin were right there.  Paisley even learned to say, "Charlie."

All in all, we had a great time.  It wasn't so busy that we felt like we were running all over, and it was also filled with a lot of memories.  We plan to go again next year.

Ferryville Cabin 2010

For the 3rd year in a row, we spent 3 nights with two of our favorite families.  We always have a blast together, and the kids seem to get along also.  This is a weekend in which the females battle the males in many different games...board games and lawn games.  However, our favorite and most comical is always Sing Star...a type of karaoke game in which you battle against another person.  The past two years we have brought babysitters along so that we can have some fun without the kids.  We are also able to spend time with our kids too.  As always we had a blast, and the time went too quickly. 

4th of July

Unfortunately there were no fireworks on the 4th of July, but we managed to have a good time at the parade.  Paisley even had her first freezie-pop.  She must have had too much fun because she ended up sick at the end of the night.  Luckily it didn't last too long.

Staying Organized

We have a new addition to our living room.  Jordan's uncle Reuben has made many things for us.  He is the one who made Jordan's gun cabinet, my quilt rack, and our garbage bin.  He just finished a beautiful toy chest that can also serve as a seat.  We can finally have most of the toys put away, and our living room only looks like a small toy store.  Paisley really enjoys it...she actually thinks it is a toy itself.

Fun at the Park

Yesterday afternoon we made a stop at a different park in Benton.  This park had a lot of different "rides" for Paisley to try out.  Her favorite is still the slide...even though she couldn't make it down the big twirly slide by herself.  We tried, but she ended up twisting around and hitting her head.  She really does enjoy being outside.  She will look out the window and say, "Side...side."

Her newest fascination is that she tells stories and then laughs at them.  We have no idea what she is saying, but she thinks it is pretty funny.  We laugh along with her, and she loves it.  She also will put a bag over her shoulder or put our shoes on and say, "Bye!  Bye!"  She then will come over and try to give us a kiss.  It is adorable!!

First Day of Summer!!

Since today is the first day of summer and the humidity made it feel really sticky, we decided to visit the Shullsburg pool for the first time this summer.  Paisley wasn't too excited.  She had a death-grip on me, but she did start to relax after awhile.  We made it back to the shallow end, and she actually sat on the first step all by herself.  She actually seemed to be enjoying herself at that point...the point that we were going to leave.  We decided that we just need to take her more often.  It should be a fun summer!!