Go Chris, GO!

The biggest news of the weekend? Chris finished his Seattle Marathon in 3:25, almost a full hour faster than his time last year (blog post from last year here).  

 Can you see him waving at me through the crowd at the start? He's been training a lot more AND more importantly, dropped 25 pounds from last year's race weight. I know, I know, I have no idea where he was hiding that 25 pounds because he was in shape last year. I secretly think that he's losing all the weight, hoping to intersect my weight when I hit month 9 with our Bramble Baby 2. There are choice bad words for men that do tricks like that.

Jamisen and I kept busy while Daddy was running. We explored the Seattle Children's Museum thoroughly! There was a lot to see, including holes where animals burrow. Jamisen was fearless, going into the dark, dark hole until he popped out the other end. I was pretty delighted to see him (after all, what if the hole had a trap-door and really was an elaborate child smuggling ring that only picked little blue-eyed, strawberry-blonde boys?) 

 We played for 2 hours until it was time to go get Daddy and then, imagine our surprise when we walked to the appointed meeting place 15 minutes early to find Daddy waiting for us! He finished a full 35 minutes ahead of his goal time, and a full 55 minutes ahead of his time last year. We were so proud of him!

The salmon are making their annual migration in Washington state, going back to their birthplaces to spawn (and then die soon thereafter). Despite the incredible 'liquid sunshine' display the PNW gave us, the entire Faiola family clan ventured on a hike to see the salmon run. Jamisen was intrigued by the majestic creatures and thankfully didn't seem to notice many of them weren't really moving anymore.That's code for: there were dead fish everywhere, on the banks, smelling horrible as they decayed.

Does his outfit remind you of Paddington Bear? It kept him mostly dry but his pants still got soaked. He was such a little trooper, walking an entire half mile in pouring rain, without complaint. He mostly looked shell-shocked but game for the trip.

Clearly, we did not starve at Thanksgiving. We were also joined this year by Granddog Toby (Erik's contribution to the grandchild mix), who feasted on Pumpkin Apple pancakes for breakfast. The entire family, well, except Chris who is mostly forced into it, is vegetarian so our Thanksgiving celebrations involve lots of pasta and vegetables. They sound simple but they don't end up all that healthy, thanks to the happy helpings of cheese we always put on everything.

It was sure nice to go to Grandma and Grandpa Faiola's house for a few days because Grandma took care of Jamisen almost the entire time, leaving me to lounge luxuriously on the couch and read (with a slightly guilty conscience since so many of the Bramble Berry team worked all weekend to ship out orders). I finished two books (I'll admit, they were trash books - the new Clive Cussler and the new one in the YA Matched series. I went through a phase after 'Hunger Games' when I read a lot of YA.). We also saw 'Life of Pi' (I read the book and felt like the move was pretty true to the book plot line) and played some fierce 'Settlers of Catan' games after Jamisen went to bed at night. It was such a treat to have Grandma (and Grandpa) take on all the heavy duty parenting tasks (I didn't change a poopy diaper for three days!) that we might need to make Thanksgiving at their house a tradition.