October 15: Birthday Party #1 and the Grand Rapids Kid's Marathon

It's a season of birthday parties for Tysen!  His 4th birthday is three days away and the week of partying has begun!

Happy 4th Birthday, Ty!

On an unrelated note, today was the Grand Rapids Kid's Marathon!  We've been preparing for this race since mid-August, and while we weren't as die-hard about it as we could have been, it was an excellent experience!  The idea is for kids to run or walk 1 mile three times a week for about 8 weeks.  The last 1.2 miles the kids all run together to total 26.2 miles.  The course is downtown Grand Rapids and is part of the Grand Rapids marathon which is run the next day.  During our 8 week prep period we walked some and biked some, and actually didn't complete all 25 one-mile treks, but we were intentional about our activity and had fun doing it as a family!  Maybe next year will be more of an offical marathon for our family, but this year was an excellent starting point.

The actual race day was WINDY!  Ty had a cold so he wasn't super excited about walking for the race which means he got a piggy-back ride from Daddy for part of the way.  Koen wasn't excited about it either, but once Daddy made it competitive ("I can beat you to that stop sign" etc.) Koen enjoyed himself, or maybe he just enjoyed beating Daddy.

The mascots posed with the kids and Seth after completing the race and receiving their medals.  They even gave one to Brielle who "strolled" the race.  The boys were SO proud of their medals...Ty even wore his to church the next day!  Koen was so proud he kept looking at it, so he was the one who noticed that the medal's date was 2010 instead of 2011!  We probably would have never noticed...leave it to Koen! :)

After the race, area businesses provided snacks for the kids:  yogurt, bananas, apples, and Culver's frozen custard.  Yep, our kids went for the ice cream despite the chilly, windy day.  Can't say I blame them! :)