family pics

i wanted to get family / maternity pics done before baby jo arrived. i had never had maternity pics done (now i know why) and i wanted to get a few family shots outside in the beautiful fall colors! we had camron brady do them and she did an amazing job! it took a while to get them, because of course the weather didn't cooperate! it was a stormy, rainy, windy day on our first attempt! we rescheduled for a few days later, which was supposed to be a nice, not rainy day. only it wasn't. it was sunny and nice until the rain started at 3:30.....we were meeting at 4:00. go figure. so we changed locations and headed out to starved rock to hopefully get a few shots....even if they had to be inside.

luckily, once we got there, the rain subsided and we were able to go outside! phew! it still wasn't they greatest weather, but at this point, i wasn't about to complain! and once we saw the final product, there was absolutely nothing to complain about!

my favorites are the ones of the girls! i was not impressed with my hair that day - the rain did not help either! and of course i felt like a house, but that's to be expected when you're 9 months pregnant i suppose! regardless, we love the pics!!!

himes' 60th anniversary party

after mckenna's birthday party we went straight to another party....a 60th anniversary party for nick's relatives, rollie and shirley himes! what a great time! they were a little reluctant at first, but once the girls made it out to the dance floor, we couldn't get them off of it!! they had the best time! they talked about how much fun they had all day sunday!

 

mckenna's 2nd birthday

nick's neice, the adorable miss mckenna, turned 2 this year! and we got to celebrate with her!! what a fun time! mckenna is a such a hoot!!

 

the girls just hanging out, listening to some tunes!

 

isn't she just the cutest thing?!

 

 

 

trying out her new bike!!

nick's nephew tre!! such a cutie!!

mckenna and her pa!

chicago marathon

on october 7th, my amazing brother, matt, ran his second marathon in chicago!! my mom and i were able to head up there for the day to cheer him on!! what an awesome experience!!

 

matt and i before the race!

 

mom and matt!

 

this was at the very start....well, right around mile 2. the wheelchair racers go first! pretty amazing!!

 

and here come the elite runners....whoever won the race was probably in this group and they set a course record....2 hours and 4 minutes!! that's 26.2 miles in just over 2 hours!! wow!! that's just crazy!

 

 

so we had our plan all set up as to where we would go to try to see matt. the first stop was right around 2 miles (the pics above)....we missed him there! in our defense, the runners were still pretty crowded since it was so close to the start!

 

so off we went to our second stop....just before the halfway mark. we got there in plenty of time, got a great spot and waited.....and waited and waited and waited.....and then i got the text update that matt had reached the halfway point....uh oh! that means he flew by us yet again! darn it!! we have no idea how we missed him! we were watching so closely for him! grrrr.....

 

we had one last chance to catch him. we made it to our designated spot (i believe around mile 16), found a place to stand where we could sort of see the runners, and waited and within a few minutes, there he was....

here comes matt....red shirt, gray shorts, blue shoes and black hat! go matt!!!

 

we yelled for him, thinking there was no chance that he'd hear us, but he did! yahoo!

matt and his friend rick after completing the chicago marathon!!

 

we are so so proud of matt!! he is such an inspiration!!!

jonomac orchard

i always try to make a trip to an orchard in the fall with the girls. as much as we love boggio's, it's nice to get away to other places too if we can! so this year we decided to head up towards dekalb, to jonomac orchard in malta, il (don't worry, we've never heard of it either until now! lol!) what a nice place! the girls had a ton of fun!! and they have apple cider slushies.....yum!! all apple cider should be in the form of slushies!! haha!

 

 

 

the big slide! i think charlie could have stayed on this all day!

the giant bouncy pillow! these are awesome!! (and as you can see, the weather was a little more summer-like than fall! but i guess that's what happens in illinois!)

ah, the corn maze.....i could take them or leave them, but we usually do it anyway. here there were 2 halves, so we started with the first half. there were questions along the way letting us know we were going the right way and we did pretty good until about the 5th or 6th checkpoint and then it got a little hairy. the girls were tired, it was hot, we were lost. and then we found out there were maps! oops! guess we shoulda grabbed one of those! so we kinda followed some peeps with maps and nick managed to get us out of there! thank goodness!

the spider web!!

 

"i'll take you for a ride in my big green tractor"

yeeee-haw!!

 

 

the girls got to feed the animals.....

.....and then they got to go in their cages and pet them!

 

the giant chair!!

i can't remember what they were doing, but i'm guessing they were being some kind of animals! lol!

 

the apple launcher! neither of the girls wanted to try it so nick and i did! it was pretty cool! and not as easy as one might think! haha!

 

waiting to watch the giant pumpkin canon!

 

man, this thing shoots far!!! glad we were around to see it! it was neat!

 

and just before we left, the girls went for a ride on the apple barrel train!

 

what a fun day!! i can't wait til next  year!!