Busy Memorial Day Weekend

What a weekend! This weekend pretty much marked our super busy summer and not being home at all on the weekends.

We decided to go to Illinois to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Siebert! Usually, we don't leave to head down there on Friday after work just based on traffic, but this time we decided to give it a try. Anybody who knows Leah knows she's a TERRIBLE traveler, and she hates being in her car seat for anything longer than 10 minutes. The drive usually takes between 2 -2.5 hours to make it down there but this time it took us a lot longer. 2 detours and 1 stop for a diaper change took us almost 3 hours to get there. Leah was screaming the whole way, kicking seats and just being as grumpy as could be. Car traveling is the worst!

When we got to Grandma and Grandpas, Uncle Matt and Aunt Jess were there with the twins! It was the first time any of us got to see the little peanuts so we were pretty excited! They are growing a lot, but are still pretty tiny. At 3 weeks old, neither of them weigh as much as Leah did when she was born-giant baby :) The twins are so adorable, and Leah just couldn't get enough of them. I'm pretty sure she can't tell the difference between the two-and who could? Layla has a head full of dark hair and Drake is bald....Someday she'll get it:)

                                            Drake, Leah and Layla. 1st pic of all 3 together.

      
The next day we decided to make the trip to Chicago to take Leah to the Shedd Aquarium. I hadn't been to the aquarium in 5 years or so, so I was pretty excited to make this trip. I was a little worried about our little travel terror, but we decided to try out the DVD player in Grandma's van. She did very well! I wish the darn thing would work in our car. Oh well.

                                                                    Ready to go!

Leah had so much fun at the aquarium! She liked looking at all the cool fish and the jelly exhibit, but she probably had the most fun with the penguins. She recently watched Happy Feet so she's sort of in a penguin thing now. They had a little kids play place where little ones could dress up like penguins and slide down slides. How fun! Leah wore the penguin suit for about a minute then decided she had had enough. Then it was off to the whale and dolphin show. So fun! We had great seats so Leah could walk around between the 5 of us and not get too restless. She liked looking at the animals, but I probably enjoyed it more than she did :) On the way home from Chicago, Leah did the unthinkable-she fell asleep in the car! Leah hasn't fallen asleep in the car in YEARS! For real, I don't think she's fallen asleep in a car since she was 6 months old or so. This kid does NOT sleep in the car!

My little penguin:)

Leah and Grandpa

Leah and her bestie!

                                               Best part of the trip! Konked out!
Sunday we found ourselves just lounging around the house. We played inside most of the day with her grocery cart and the Sesame Street animals, but in the after noon we went out and played in the pool! The pool was actually pretty cold for as warm as it was, but Leah didn't care. She had a lot of fun chasing the floating fish, sitting in her canoe and throwing balls into the basketball hoop. Then, on Sunday night, we let Leah experience S'mores for the first time. Surprisingly, she wasn't a big fan. Ryan and I are though so we had fun making them. Leah spent most of that time chasing around Ryan's cat.

Fishing!

In her canoe

Taste testing the S'mores

                                          Leah's other bestie-Ry's cat:)
Monday-Memorial Day! What a hot day! We decided to take Leah to the parade which was just a block from Grandpa and Grandma's house. Leah drove her little blue car there and was planning to sit in it the whole time but she freaked out when the fire trucks passed and retreated to my arms. We taught her to wave at all the people passing so she could get candy, but she was a little bummed that we wouldn't let her have any at the time. It was just too hot and I didn't want her to have to spend the rest of the day in chocolate covered clothes. The one thing she did get to have was a freezy pop that some very smart people were handing out. She loved it! She also loved the cheerleaders who were twirling batons and dancing.

Leah ready to watch the parade from her little blue car

                                                    Thanks Grandma for helping with the freezy pop!
Again after the parade we went swimming. The pool was a little warmer this time, but not much :) After a nap, we decided to head back to Madison. This drive went much better as Leah was pretty worn out from her weekend with Grandma, Grandpa and Melissa.

It was a great weekend! Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa! We had so much fun! Love you guys!!

Amy

Layla and Drake

Lucky Leah got cousins last week! Leah just loves babies, and after baby Penguin she has been excitedly awaitng her cousins.

Aunt Jess and Uncle Matt got pregnant with twins, and Leah has slowly been trying to understand the concept of babies and that they live in a mommy's tummy, but then she was excited to learn that there were 2 babies! We had never gotten to see Jess pregnant, so it wasn't too often that we talked to Leah about it-she just knew she was getting baby cousins.

On Wednesday, May 2 the babies were born via c-section. The whole day I kept asking Leah "Are you getting cousins today?" and she would say yes and was so happy! "What are the babies names?" "Layla and Drake!" It was just adorable as they are both names she can say very well. I showed her pictures and she kept asking to hold them. Someday, Leah:)

When we went to the store that night Leah became upset as she thought we were going to see Layla and Drake-sorry sweetie! They were over 2 hours away so we haven't seen them yet.

The next night we got to Skype with them at the hospital. Leah was in love! She got to see her Grandma and Grandpa and the babies! Jess looked great, though I'm assuming she felt anything but. Uncle Matt took charge of the diapers as Drake pooped, then peed on Matt during the change and then spit up after he was clean. The trifecta of diaper changes:) Many more to come there Matt:)

We won't get to see the twins for another few weeks until Memorial Day weekend as we are just far too busy this month. Actually we will only have 2 free weekends from now until the end of August.

Leah already loves her little cousins and can't wait to hold/see them! I'm elated to have a niece and nephew, and Ryan of course is too. I can't wait to see what its really like to be an Aunt-Jennifer says it's amazing :)

We love you Layla and Drake! Congrats Matt and Jess-you are in for the most exciting ride of your lives:)

Love,
Amy Ryan and Leah

Crazylegs 2012

Ah, Running! It's been a good year to run so far as it has been pretty darn nice out. I don't really run outside when it rains/snows-maybe next year!

I ran the Crazylegs 8km on Saturday April 28. I had an ankle injury 2 weeks before the race and I had fears that I wouldn't be able to run. I was plagued by ankle injuries for years from about 7th grade until my first year in College, it was only after I quit sports that I finally had no more injuries. I was never really a fast healer and they just seemed to linger and linger forever! So when I hurt my ankle I was really bummed. Not only did my ankle seriously hurt, but I knew I was going to have to take a week off from running. Usually, a week off from running wouldn't be too big of a deal, but with only 2 weeks until the race I was super nervous. I hadn't really been training enough so I was hoping to cram it all in in those last 2 weeks-BACKFIRE!

So I took a week off, bough some tape and an ankle brace and a resistance band to try and get my ankle back so I could run the race. It didn't work too bad and I was back to running 1 week before the race. I was feeling good, running over 5 miles a day 3 times that last week.

 I had it planned to have my Dad, Ry and Leah all come down to watch and for Leah to see the UW band play and Bucky Badger. Wouldn't you know it-it was cold and raining on the day of the race. So Ry dropped me off and headed home as it was far too cold for Leah. I ended up standing in the cold for over and hour because they start the runners in waves. Lettered AA-ZZ each wave starts about 2 minutes after the group ahead of them. I was in LL, which on my bib lookes like 11, so I actually spent 30 minutes walking around the State Capitol trying to find number 11 :)

My wave started around 10:40 and I took off feeling great. There were insane hills-curse you Observitory Drive! And so much mud! As people run in front of you they splash up mud all over you. Nice. The run went well, and I felt good! My ankle held up great! The run started at the Capitol, up Observitory drive, down by the softball fields, under University Ave and ended at the 50 yard line of Camp Randall Stadium. It was great to be able to run past the softball fields where we won State in softball as a Junior in high school (I don't like to mention the next year where we came in 2nd too much ). And to finish on the football field was pretty cool too.

I finnished the race in 47.40, which is actually 2 minutes faster than I had run while training. 5 miles in 47 minutes made me super happy! Sadly, I have no pictures because nobody was there to take them and buying a picture would cost about $30, and I don't like most of the pictures anyway:)

So now I'll be taking a week or so off to recover and then I begin to train for the Half Marathon in October. Updates and aditional race info to follow!


Amy