the drive home

admittedly, there is much to catch you up on.

the shu turned 4, we had an influx of North cousins, 

a trip to chicago-- complete with Cubs game.

but, let's have a backwards dinner, shall we?

(remember those? man, i thought we had it made the nights

mom let us "get away" with dessert first.)

i'll begin by saying that our child is the best road tripper i know.

i feel badly for those whose children don't dig the ride.

we experienced that for a trip or two,

but for the last few years,

the shu has been a fantastic backseat roller.

and, when the going gets long,

and the Shu-Mama combo a little slap happy,

gems such as these pop up.

hope they make you giggle :)

swizz ride, yo

so, uncle spud has this friend.

and this friend has a car.

as we know, the Shu has a special kind of love 

for all things wheeled.

(with a new, special emphasis on roof-less wheeled things.)

its orange. its roofless. its swizz.

it (and mike's not minding a carseat indent on his leather interior) makes us feel like this.

ouch.

ever run full force into a car door?

hard enough to place a large, 

hard-to-stop-the-bleeding 

dent in your forehead?

well, joshua has.

 you may not be able to tell through this picture,

but he most certainly does not recommend it.

(neither does his mother.)

mark's half

this past sunday,

mark ran the cleveland half-marathon.

so did my sister, kristen.

her husband, jeff, ran the full.

The Nana and i gathered up 5 kids, snacks and a minivan

 (as well as some much-needed gumption)

and headed out early to cheer.

like, 6am early.

which, as you'll note in the 2nd and 3rd pictures,

is not my son's favorite hour :)

he found his own gumption, though,

and perked up for our Cross-Cleveland

Do-You-Think-This-Street-Goes-Through? 

adventure right quick. 

my apologies for the lack of photos...

i plead preoccupation.

i'll see if i can't rustle some up from other cameras.

check back.

in a week or two :)

uh, madison is ready...

noah, steve & the shu needed another 15-20 minutes :)

wagon, posters, celeste, steve, noah. PULL, MAD! PULL!

kristen, finding madison at mile 3.

mark, rounding mile 6.

noah and steve, watching for jeff.

poster children.

celeste helped madison cheer on her dad.

and there he is at mile 11 (in the sunglasses).

our afternoons lately

the road home

we just spent a long weekend in chicago celebrating chicapalooza.
(happy birthday, chica!
we had a blast palooza-ing you!)
there are pictures & stories coming soon,
but we had to post this first.

on our way home,
somewhere in northern indiana,
joshua made me laugh so hard i choked.
it made him laugh so hard he choked.

we started singing,
laughing and choking,
& out came the video camera.