Doe Down, Grandma and Grandpa & East River Run

The title of this post are high points of the weekend for Chris, Jackson and myself, respectively.

First Chris. As the title "subtly" alludes to, Chris shot a doe on Saturday at 5:30 pm with his bow at 25 yards. He (we!) now have 2 buck tags for gun deer season. Needless to say, he smiled the remainder of the weekend.

Now for Jackson. On Saturday, while Chris hunted, Jackson and I went to Appleton to see my parents. Its been 2 weeks since we've hung out with them and that's too long for everyone. Jackson misses them terrible and lights up the second I say their names, me too! We all went shopping at a furniture store for my Grandma's 80th birthday gift. I'll post more on that once her birthday has past (November 29th). After that my Dad took Jackson on a walk and my Mom and I went to Fava Tea Company. She's looking at getting into teas and I'm semi-addicted to them so we spent about 45 minutes smelling and talking tea. I know, kind of makes me a dork but I can't help that addition; that's why it's an addiction. After our tea "fix" we went back to the condo for dinner and playtime. Jackson played hard. This became glaringly obvious when on the way home it only took him one minute to fall asleep (mouth wide open - see photo). Sunday Jackson discovered free falling off the back of the couch. This is only going to get worse...


Sunday was the day of one of my high points. As most of you who read this know, tea isn't my only addiction (I have a few), running is as well. So at 9 am I put on a long sleeve shirt and shorts and headed to the East River Trail for a 6 mile run. What I wasn't prepared for was how 42 degrees would feel coupled with 15 mph winds, an open landscape and no sun. Lets just say the first 2 miles my muscles were not happy with me. I met Jackson and Chris at a coffee shop right off the trail (Ledgeview Park) and enjoyed a hot cup of, what else....tea (citrus oolong for those who care).

The rest of our weekend was spent catching up on the million little things that fall off the plate during the week: cleaning leaves from landscaping, cleaning the house, paying bills, laundry...you know the fun stuff : )

This Wednesday I'm heading to Missouri to see my brother and Mara. I'm going solo and staying through Saturday. We took Jackson on this trip when he was 3 months old and it was a bit rough, to say the least. He was colicy, I was nursing, lots of stops, lots of crying....I don't need to go on do I? Now at 1 1/2 years old he would go nuts being strapped in for that long and I couldn't do that to the little guy. The trip would quickly go from 10 hours to 13 or more, no thanks. Anyway, I'm making the trip because I've missed Mike and Mara terribly since they moved from Milwaukee. Now that I know they're moving to Phoenix and taking my new baby nephew with them I have to make the most of the time they are "close". What's 10 hours in a car versus 29 hours when they're in AZ!