Run For Your Lives

It should be mentioned that the whole zombie obsession is not isolated to appropriate holidays. Several months ago Sam was looking for a 5k to run (his first) and happened upon Run For Your Lives-- a 5k obstacle course with zombies. He signed up and started training.
When the day came, we decided to make it a family event. We loaded up our car and started on what should have been a two hour drive. This was the inaugural race, so some of the parking and traffic logistics were sketchy. We got about three miles away from the race when we hit stopped traffic. There were so many people trying to get to the race on tiny rural roads and not a big enough parking lot, and it ended up taking us over two more hours to drive the last three miles to the race. Needless to say, Sam's wave time was long passed by the time we checked in and picked up his packet. He was supposed to start at 1:30 but didn't make it onto the course until after 4:30. They had to reorganize things and let runners start whenever they wanted to allow the maximum number of participants through, but they did have to close the course at dark, so there were tons of people who didn't get to run. Quite the fiasco.
Despite the absolute nightmare of driving, parking, shuttling, etc., we had a blast. Bria loved cheering on the other runners as we waited for Sam to cross the finish line, and the whole thing really solidified her love of zombies. (Though our mantra for the day was "it's funny, not scary" to stave off any freak-outs or future nightmares.) And we were so proud of Sam who made it through the entire race with one remaining flag attached, deeming him a human survivor.

Bria enjoyed quite the spread of fried foods at the Apocalypse Party.

 Coming around the bend, approaching the finish line.

Crossing the finish line.

 Bria was not thrilled about any physical contact with a mud-covered Sam.

 Describing the scene, post-race.

Post Apocalyptic Halloween

There might be a little bit of a zombie craze at our house of late. Several months ago Bria inherited a zombie book from her cousins (they were too scared of it), and since then, Bria has adopted her dad's love of the undead. So it was only natural we were a family of zombies for Halloween.

Halloween extended over two nights: first, the trunk-or-treat.

And for the real thing we headed out for some old school trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Bria took a much more hands-on approach with her makeup, and the results were . . . artistic. Not sure it channeled zombie as much as hodgepodge weirdness, but she was proud of herself, and that's what matters (plus she was still universally recognized as a zombie).

The festive night ended with a good ol' hunt for human flesh. Sam was dressed up in his Shaun costume, and in the end, Bria the Zombie triumphed.

 

George would be proud.

Highlights

I'm more than a bit behind on blogging, so here is a long overview of the last two months-- at least for the sake of the grandparents.

We survived an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week-- my first of both. I actually didn't feel the earthquake; I was on a bus in DC and must have thought any rumbling was from my mode of transportation. The hurricane was pretty mild by the time it reached us, but our window frames leaked tons of water into our apartment. This tree right outside saw the worst damage and had to be removed.

Bria's favorite place to play is now the sad, lonely tree stump. I guess it makes a good stage?


For labor day weekend, we went to Ocean City again. It was the weekend after the hurricane, so the beach was pretty empty. We had a great time until Sam crashed while body surfing. He maintains it was worth it, though.

Sam was working nights for a while, so we took advantage of his being home during the week to do fun things like visit the Old Post Office Tower for an awesome view of the city.

Bria discovered this little statue right outside the library, and now every visit is flanked by some play time with "those little children."

We finally made it to the National Book Festival this year. Sam took Bria around to meet all her favorite PBS characters while I listened to Julianne Moore speak and do a reading.

After the festival, we headed to a Nationals game with Sam's brother and nephew Marc and Myles. Bria is really into posing lately, and I have no idea where she got the idea.

I visited friends in Wisconsin where I ate tons of amazing food, stayed up so late, and finally saw Wicked. I also let Elisa take embarrassing pictures of me.

We stayed with Marc and Jenn's kids for a weekend. We always have a great time with them, and this was no exception. We cheered Colin on at his baseball game, went apple picking, watched movies, and ate tons of junk food. (What good are a young aunt and uncle if not for a fun time?)

I have a weakness for buying small pumpkins all October, and this year is no exception. Bria has a small collection in our family room, some of which we've covered in glitter. She loves her pumpkins.

We went to our favorite Natural History Museum and found out Tuesdays are the magical day to get free admission to the butterfly sanctuary. We saw tons of butterflies-- some as big as Bria's face and all sorts of vibrant colors. It was awesome!

And Bria continues to grow and get old. It's crazy.

Classes

Bria is taking a dance class and an art class this fall at our local rec center. I decided to not enroll her in preschool (mostly because I didn't know how early they do registration out here, and I missed it), but these classes add some structure to our week and provide a simple introduction to classroom-style learning. She loves both classes, and it's been fascinating to watch her interact with her classmates and teachers. This girl has always marched to the beat of her own drum, and it's quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen watching her dance around the room.

 bria is the last dancer on the right

 art class

vanilla sky*

*first person to connect the reference wins a prize.

Six

Six years ago (today!) when Sam and I got married, we were young and crazy, head-over-heels in love with each other. Today I would probably say the exact same thing-- not quite as young, but considering how young we were back then, I think we still qualify. And if I felt lucky back then (for finding someone so perfect for me), it's nothing compared to how I feel now.

Take Me Down to [Ocean] City

After the glitz and glamor faded from the memory of our lovely beach trip to Chesapeake in June, we decided we needed to get back to the sea. But we decided to up the excitement this time by driving to Ocean City, Maryland. The drive there took over 3 hours, but we quickly forgot our boredom and stiff legs once we set foot on the sand.

We spent all day lounging on the beach, soaking up the sun and the perfect weather (hovering just below 90 degrees all day). We made sure to include the requisite sessions of burying each other in the sand.

The waves were awesome-- probably the biggest I've ever seen in my incredibly limited wave history. Sam spent several large chunks of time body surfing, but my one attempt left me topless on the very crowded beach for several seconds, so kept my feet firmly planted on sand after that.

Bria alternated between nervous and enamored when it came to the waves. In one particularly terrifying incident, she was swept under a huge wave, getting carried about 10 feet up the beach, all tossed and tangled under the water. We sprinted to her as I shrieked in a Mama Bear voice, but once we caught up to her, she jumped into Sam's grasp, arms outstretched and yelled "I DID IT!" I nearly cried from fear, but remain just so happy it wasn't a traumatizing experience.

We packed tons of food so we could stay on the beach until dinner time. Then we packed up, showered off, put on less sandy clothes and grabbed some pizza on the boardwalk.

After dinner we walked around the boardwalk, stopping along the way for various entertainers. This guy was playing the steel drum and let kids come up and play his other instruments. Bria showed virtually no emotion while shaking the maracas and tambourine in time to the songs, but was ecstatic telling us all about it when she finished.

Just after bedtime hit and our parking meter ran out, we called it a day. We picked up some deep fried oreos on our way to the car (yum!) and started the long drive home.