Anniversary All-Day

Happy 29th Anniversary to us!

We started the morning at 5:30 a.m. because Dan, Marty, Lizzie and Erika were 

running a half marathon! Dan was surprised I wanted to get up that early and go.

But of course I wanted to cheer them on! (And he has got up early to cheer me on lots of time!)

They are so inspiring!

Dan sprained his ankle a couple weeks ago which was so frustrating as it l

imited his training in the critical weeks before the race. 

But he healed quickly and committed to keep working and ended up doing really well!

In spite of shin splints and not having as much time to train, 

Marty was committed to participating and finishing, regardless.

13.1 miles is a long way to run with grit alone, but he did it! So proud of him.

Lizzie had knee pain during her training that halted her distance for a while, 

but through patience was able to find solutions and continue making progress. 

Lizzie said her sister, Erika, was the most prepared, but  in the middle of the race was hit by 

a dire bathroom need and no bathroom available!

The moral of these stories is how like life they are.

In spite of planning and preparing, we ultimately are going to hit obstacles.

They may set us back, but its up to us to decide if we let the obstacles defeat us or not. 

Finishing is a pretty great feeling!

Even better when the path hasn't been easy. It makes the accomplishment even sweeter

because YOU DID IT!

Dan and Mark (Lizzie's dad) decided to run back and find Marty and finish the race with him.

They found him with about only three-quarters of a mile left and ran with him to the end.

Mark was a great coach, encouraging him all the way to the finish line!

Congrats you guys on an amazing accomplishment!!

13.1!

After the race, Dan was ready to go home and get in the ice bath.

Nick had a lacrosse game in LOGAN (ugh, so far away!) and we were disappointed it was too far to drive to watch him with the race in the morning.

But when we got in the car after the race, we realized if we drove directly there, 

we could make it to Logan in time for game start.

I thought there was no way Dan would want to drive for an hour and half so tired,

but he wanted to and so did I. 

Go 49!

(He's on the right, in white, with the long hair.)

In his last tournament he made five goals over three games. 

So he gets a lot of playing time and is so fun to watch.

He plays Attack most of the time. A little bit of Midi in the last quarter.

And even the face-offs a bunch of times.

I remember when he was in 5th grade, I was so surprised to see how aggressive he was on the field.

He is pretty low-key otherwise and I realized the kid finds fire when competing in sports.

He even got in the penalty box this time. But it was a lame call because he and his opponent crashed into each other and both fell down. But the other team was down 12-5 so I think they needed any opportunities to score as they could get.

Happy Anniversary, Dan!

That night we celebrated our Anniversary dinner at Bartolo's 

with Nicholas, Michelle, Brent, Jay Paul and Ethan,

who were in town for Morgan's graduation.

Pretty great to be surrounded by people we love.