October, part 2

I was looking through the pictures I transferred off my camera and realized that my last October post was not the entire month of October!  How could I have forgotten Nate's first marathon?!

We drove up to Joliet and parked in one of the last Metra stops.  I highly recommend doing this if you're heading to Chicago.  The train is much quicker than Amtrak, and cheaper.  And parking is basically free!

First stop, FOOD!  We had yummy fish tacos at one of the first restaurants we found.

Then on to the Marathon Expo hall.  Nate had to pick up his race packet.

We found the World Vision (the team Nate was running with) booth!  And many others.  Thankfully we weren't pulled into the trap of the overpriced race merchandise : )

But we did stand in line to get Nate's very own picture with the Nike computer thing.  I don't know why people were doing this, but it felt like something we were supposed to do!

We then strolled around Chicago, killing time until heading to Nate's friend's apartment.

The view from Bryan's apartment.  Jaw.  Drop.

And then, early the next morning, the race was on!  The wheelchairs came first, then the professional runners, and then...

Hubby!  He was so excited to see me that he stopped for a kiss and a picture.  I think his adrenaline was racing.  (this was about mile 10)

This picture here was at mile 20-something.  He smiled at me and gave me his hydration pack, and then kept hobbling along!

Because 50,000-ish people were running the race, I missed seeing him cross the finish.  In fact, we didn't find each other until he had been done for an hour.  Boo!  But we finally met up in the World Vision tent and got our free slices of Lou Malnati's pizza.  (he finished his race in about 3 hours and 50 minutes, under the goal he had of 4 hours!)

Later in the month Oma and Opa came for a visit.  No visit from Opa would be complete without a trip to Woody's!!!!

Our neighborhood Halloween parade was going on when they were in town, so Oma and Opa got to see our little Mermaids all dressed up!

LOVE!

The girls absolutely adored the North Pekin fire truck.  Anni had to be drug off, several times!

And finally Halloween itself came around.  It was pouring down rain and absolutely miserable outside.

But we decided to give it a go.  We maybe lasted 45 minutes.  Maybe.  The girls were shivering, but at least we tried.  And we had absolutely no trick-or-treaters come to the house, so we had plenty of candy for all!!!