the post-christmas afterglow

We finished out a lovely visit with Nana and Cappy (and Aunt Carol and Mart), and then celebrated 2009 with 3/4 of the Zembrodts. Chris risked life, limb, and overall personal warmth by taking David ice skating at the Fairgrounds, and we continue to wallow in the happiness of all this time off... Happy New Year to all!

Merry Christmas 2008

Nana and Cappy came for a visit, David turned three years old, and Santa stopped by with a sack full of Things With Wheels. We are so blessed by our family and our friends, and we wish you all a wonderful holiday!

David's Digger Party

David's third birthday party was a success. Lots of friends and family, and lots of diggers!

cookies, carols, christmas, and a cow

Whether it was the annual Christmas Show at Kinder Care, running errands, playing outside, or going u to Conner Prairie, we stayed busy and entertained. David managed to keep himself awake for the first quarter of the Colt’s game Sunday afternoon, and although we stayed home from Saturday morning’s 5K (Emily was sick and it was 20 degrees and windy), we still had fun this week. Only one more week of being able to threaten him with the idea of Santa not coming to our house if he misbehaves, though I think he thinks Santa has to “break our house” to get inside. The hole chimney concept hasn’t quite sunk in yet

beginning to look something like Christmas

It was very, very cold this weekend and we trekked all over town Friday night during a very romantic Parent’s Night Out. After a quick, impersonal dinner at Chipotle (nothing says “I love you” like sharing your guac with the one you love) we braved the mall, various shopping centers, and several bix box stores. The result? Christmas shopping is D-U-N.

Saturday we headed down to Bloomington to visit friends, (Chris) driving through snow and sleet and wind. We stayed toasty, though, David made a new friend (Paula the waitress) and we finally got to meet little Ben. Sunday we attempted to go to the pool, but after only 20 minutes David was done. We spent more time getting changed in the locker room than we spent actually in the water, but whatever. Sunday afternoon, david stayed awake long enough to see the first quarter of an awesome Colt’s game, we enjoyed yummy homemade soup for dinner, and the evening ended quietly and happily.

Next step: decide on a big boy bed, wrap some gifts, and spread some comfort and joy…

happy thanksgiving 2008

As is the norm for Turkey Day, we flew to Austin to visit Alice and Paul and everyone else in Chris’s family who we only ever see on Thanksgiving. It was a great visit, complete with multiple trips to the playground, the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, brisket, Tex-Mex, Amy’s ice cream, the requisite visit to Central Market, a trip to an art museum (next time I won’t make anyone come with me… I’ll just go by myself), a trip to the mall on Black Friday (we survived) and an awesome parade on Saturday. Many, many thanks to Grandma and Papa for a wonderful visit.

Despite the barfing on the plane and coming home to weather that was 40 degrees cooler than what we had just left, it was good to come home, putter, decorate, and watch the Colts beat Cleveland. And now we prepare for Christmas…

Two of us, five college degrees

We’ve been waiting for this for the past five years: we are DONE with grad school. As fate would have it, our stint in higher education came to its finale in the same (crabby, stressed-out, time-crunched) week, and Friday night we celebrated by going out to dinner and seeing The Lion King. And then you know what we did on Saturday? Not a whole lot. And Sunday? Guess what we did Sunday? Not homework. It was awesome. We’re going to get used to this “not being in school” thing

two week's worth of smiles

Last weekend was crazy so we didn’t have time to take many pictures (nor post them…sorry) and this weekend we celebrated Chris’s birthday by sitting in traffic to and from the airport so Emily could fly to Virginia to surprise Nana for her 60th birthday party. The boys stayed home and ate ribs (better than the pizza, chimichangas and enchiladas they ate last weekend when Emily was away at a conference) while all the ladies lunched at fancy Clyde’s at Willow Creek Farm. Sara and Emily got to spend some good sister time together, and Emily and Kevin brought bonding to a new level. It was good to be with family, good to come home to family (and a boy who announced to everyone at the baggage carousel that he’s had sushi and yogurt for dinner) and even better to think that after Thursday, we’ll both be done (like, REALLY done) with school…

33rd MCM

We’ve been training since May. We’ve nursed blisters, sprained ankles, torn groin muscles, chafed unmentionable areas, sunburn, and bunions. We limped, hobbled, stretched, shuffled, and walked funny in public. We’ve lost toenails (who needs ten, anyway?). We’ve gotten up five mornings a week at 4:00am and gave up social lives on Friday nights to hit the road early on Saturday mornings. We’ve run 20+ miles, multiple times. Some of us have even gone to the bathroom in the woods. Why? For the chance to compete-some against others, most against ourselves-in this triumph of the human spirit, this test of willpower and physical and mental strength, this example of 30,000 people running a ridiculously, unimaginably, inexplicably long distance on purpose. We are warriors—whether 6.2 miles or 26.2 miles, we did it.

Oh, yeah. David was there too. And we saw Nana and Cappy

getting ready to run

We had a crazy week leading up to our trip to Washington, but we stayed happy. Our first few days at Nana and Cappy’s were as relaxing as they could have been, considering we couldn’t stop thinking or talking about the big challenge ahead of us. But we got in our requisite trip to Whole Foods, played around, and had a great time trading political barbs with our hosts