Thanksgiving

Joe's brother Jeff invited us to Thanksgiving so we made the trek down to TN.  It was nice that his brother Steven and sister Holly came with their kids.  Rachel and Lincoln loved playing with their cousins. We hardly saw them:)

The annual Danielson tradition of the cousins making apple turkeys.

We had fun going to "Incredible Pizza" (like Chucky Cheese's).  The kids liked the line dance party, even though they weren't following it very well.

I think they were distracted by the woman's cool costume.

On the rides.  I'm glad Joe was there to help because the kids were having fun wandering wherever they wanted to.  Hannah loved the racing games.

The feast!  It was delicious!  Thanks Jeff and Kristen for a fun Thanksgiving!

Graduation and Flat Rachel

Joe had his Lockheed FLDP (Financial Leadership Development Program) graduation in Orlando this weekend.  Rachel's class read a book about "Flat Stanley" that made himself flat and traveled all around the world(I'm sure there's more to that story).  Her teacher sent home a flat Rachel for us to take pictures with wherever we went.  We figured Joe's business trip would be the perfect place for Flat Rachel.  Joe did a good job remembering to take pictures.

Halloween

I tried to do a themed dinner of green bean witch's fingers and mummy hotdogs.  I don't think it would win any presentation awards, but A for effort.

The kids and I right before going trick or treating.  Rachel is Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates and the rest are more recognizable.

 Joe stayed back to pass out candy and I took these three.  I think I need to stop telling them to say cheese because they just end up with their mouths wide open:)  They had a lot of fun.  Rachel really enjoyed having her friends go with her.  I had to drop off Hannah shortly after we started because Lincoln needed the stroller.

Pumpkin Carving Time!

 Joe and the kids did the annual pumpkin carving activity...

...while I bathed Hannah.

After some dental reconstruction, this pumpkin turned out pretty well!

Good work!
Side note- That thing next to Rachel is her soccer trophy that she slid into the picture.  She's pretty proud of it.

Half Marathon

Last Saturday my friend, Megan, and I did the Cincinnati Half Marathon.  We made a family trip of it and stayed in a hotel with a pool (with a broken heat pump:().  I think the kids had a lot of fun, especially hanging out with Megan's kids.

We walked around the city the night before.  It was beautiful!  Rachel took all the city pictures.  These are actually from right after the race.

Megan and I before the race in our winter running gear...It was cold!

The guys brought the kids to the 4 mile mark right outside the hotel.  That was convenient...

...especially for getting rid of some of our warmer gear.

Unfortunately the finish line wasn't as close to the hotel and the guys had a rougher time getting the kids there so this is us 20 minutes after we got to the finish line:)  Apparently I'm just as bad as my kids at looking at the camera.  Thanks to Joe and my family for supporting me while I was gone on long runs and Megan for being my running buddy! 

Another Salato Trip

Rachel had fall break last week so I tried to make it fun by going to the Solato Wildlife Center.  We had a lot of fun.

All the kids by the bison exhibit.

Lincoln started talking to the deer below and this is what he said in his 3 year old, labored speech, "Hey!....Aminals!... What you doing down there?  Come up here!"  He made some high schoolers around us laugh with his conversation with the animals:)

You know it's a good trip when the kids falls asleep on the way home. 

Off to the Races

 We wanted to experience the Lexington culture so we went to the Keenland horse races.  It was interesting to see how everything worked.  It was a beautiful day.

This was the first horse we routed for.  We picked based on his name but it turns out that wasn't a good tactic.  He got dead last.