Last Trip of 2024

 I have had the pleasure of attending the national ESP conference in Virginia Beach, VA this week. Also, please forgive my spelling and grammar as I "airport" blog from my cell phone! It was a good conference and I'm ready to get back to work with some new ideas for my job and our state association. The only things better than the conference were the company and location! 

I did learn that just because you are on the beach doesn't mean it will be warm! Sunday through Tuesday it was much warmer in Kansas than Virginia Beach. I cancelled the kayak adventure with dolphins but did get to see a state park, art museum, botanical gardens and the Neptune statue. I'm counting that as a win! 

Jeff came along for the first part of my travels because a good Uber is hard to find. 😉 He should be careful, I could get used to having my own personal driver that also irons my shirts! I'm glad he got to meet some of my work friends from across the state, he is getting a whole new appreciation for the Cooperative Extension Service!

I'm going to miss Halloween trick- or-treating. When I had left the boys still said they were not dressing up. It happens kind of quick, one year you have two boys in costumes and the next year you don't. I hope everyone posts pictures of their kids' costumes. I want to see them! Happy Halloween! 

From many years ago! I think 2019.

I was obsessed with the Bonsai tree garden at the Botanical Garden 

Great work friends are an awesome perk! Brought together by NELD, staying together via ESP!

Good advice!

Also what extension agents need to hear! 

So long Virginia Beach. You were a great host!

Wanna Be Band Mom!

 Last Friday,  Alex's middle school band got to play with the High School. They have been practicing for weeks and it was so fun to watch! I don't bring up marching band too much, because if I get excited about something it does the opposite for the boys. LOL 

I think part of the fun for Alex was hanging out with the High School band members and eating pizza before their show time. I was sitting in the front row and still couldn't see my trumpeter ,but that's OK. I captured lots of smiles before and after! 

I realized I never posted a picture of Daryl's
homecoming dance outfit! His aunt Sofia helped him pick
it out. She is much cooler than mom! 

Officially Cohabitating

 The month long move-in was complete this Saturday. Jeff's family and mine are now officially mingled! The unpacking of boxes will take awhile but so far this arrangement is exactly what we though it would be. Loud and fun when we are all seven in the house, and a little too quite when it is just the two of us. Like the large family that we now are, almost everyone had something to do this weekend. We had a marching band festival, roller derby practice, friend's birthday party, 4-H meeting and practice driving time. In between all of that, the movers got everything in the house. If that isn't a preview into our new life I don't know what would be! 

I know it won't always be easy and it won't always be fun, but it is mostly easy and it is mostly fun. I'll take it! 

Finally got to use the new placemats!

Daryl being Daryl

Jeff's youngest is always creating, this homestead he made was pretty cute!
You should see what he can do with Legos! 

There is now a place for everyone to sit in the living room!
Undecided if the coffee table will stay.....

Little Apple Half Marathon

 Yesterday, I ran my 3rd half marathon of the year and by far my best of the year! I have been pretty good with my training runs getting all but my last long run in. I decided not to go in with any time in mind but to just run as fast as felt good. The race director started the race an hour early because of the unseasonable heat. It was the right move because the temperature was perfect! My time was 2:13:35 with a 10:12 pace! My last half result was 2:22:03 with a 10:51 pace. 

On a normal race day I get up super early, (would have been around 4am for a Manhattan race), to pick up my packet race morning and make sure I had plenty of time to park and get all my pre race routines completed. I told Jeff that plan and his idea was to just stay in Manhattan for the weekend and pick up my packet Friday night. Maybe alleviating that race morning stress also made for a better race? I got to wake up at my normal 5:15 and our hotel was only 15 minutes from the race. He was also the best cheering section a runner could ask for! 

Bonus, we got to spend all day Saturday just exploring Manhattan restaurants and sites. I went to Pillsbury crossing for the first time and I got to see the Math building at K-State. I made Jeff take a picture in front of the sign (he didn't want to) because that is where he spent countless hours getting his Masters in Math. 

The places we ate at were Tallgrass Tap House, Nico's Little Italy and Aggieville Brewing company. All were excellent! 

So here is to a great weekend before a crazy month starts. We got this! 

The waterfall was more of a trickle but still very cool! 

I did it! 

It was funny to see how close Umberger is to Cardwell and neither of us had any knowledge of the other. LOL