Nana's Visit and Half Marathon

Nana and Aly playing in the front yard.
Sean was digging his hole.

Big hug to Nana.

Mike with the marathon banner before the race.

Feeling a little nervous.

Going for a strong finish! Almost to the finish line.

He made it! Resting after the race.

This is my Daddy!

Post marathon feast at Goldberg's.

Sean playing with Daddy's iPhone.

My mother-in-law Jan, aka Nana, paid her bi-annual visit this weekend. She arrived on Thursday mid day and left late Saturday night. It was a short visit, but we jam packed it with lots of quality time together. Mike, Nana and Alyson went to Toysrus on Friday to buy presents for all children. Aly and Saya received cute little princess purses which they like to carry around, Noah got a Halloween themed book and Sean is now a lucky owner of Buz Lightyear figure. Sean hasn't let it go ever since he go it. I bought him Woody the last time he filled his sticker chart (he gets a sticker when he does something nice), so he now can play like Andy, the boy who owns Woody and Buz in Toy Story movies.

There is one another reason for Nana's visit this particular weekend. Mike had his first half marathon race on Saturday. She didn't want to miss it for anything even though that meant her flight back was a red eye.

Mike did great on the race! He did better than he thought and finished at 1 hr 49 minutes. The forecast that day was 70% rain. When the crowd of 200 hobbled off the starting line, it was a steady drizzle. By the time I got home to take shower, it was pouring. Jan, Sean and I went to the finish point an hour and half to the race and just as we were looking for a place to park, we spotted Mike running. We parked the car and stood by the path to cheer him on. He later told us that he was in pain and feeling miserable, but seeing us gave him a big boost.

It was an exhilarating experience for him and he is so glad he's done it. It was also inspiring for me to see all these people pushing themselves hard and winning the race (everyone's a winner!) There is no looking back in the Campbell's household. We are seeing more races to come in the future for both Mike and I.

Thank you, Nana, for coming. We are looking forward to seeing you again in spring!