Ketchup

This blog title is a reference to how much Avett likes demands to dip food these days, surefire clickbait for Ginger, AND a weird way to tell you that I'm going to play "catch up" on the happenings with Team Timmons.  See what I did there?  Wordplay, for the win!

Sorry about that, sheesh.  On to the news...

You already know about our recent trip to the beach for the Wrightsville Beach Marathon.  We couldn't let the runners have all the fun, so we decided to pack up the crew and venture to the aquarium at Fort Fischer. I was super excited about this and thought it would be right up Avett's alley, and boy was I right - for about 36% of the time we were there.  The other 64% of the time was meltdown like we've never experienced before with our normally good-natured little dude.

 Cool Place!

We went from the "content in the stroller"

To the "oh wow, let me explore this"

To the "hey, let me hang onto you around the albino alligator"

To the "if you don't let me push this stroller wherever I want to go, I'll squall, throw myself down and bang my head on the ground" *headbanging not pictured

And again "driving"

Eesh.  Call it lack of naps, being off schedule or just not digging the fish, but we were "those parents" for the first time.  The scornful looks are SO special.  But it goes with the territory, as they say.  We still managed to have a mostly good time, and baby 2 got his first aquarium experience (sorta):

As did Eleanor and let's face it, it's deeply rooted in her genes to love animals

Avett was able to rally pretty well and have a good time at dinner

We also had plenty of time to rest and relax, which was a welcome break from the daily grind.

(Almost a bro)

+/- 8 seconds of stillness

Smooches

And finally what's a trip to the beach without, well, the beach?  It's not exactly beach weather in March, but we did have a make a quick run out into the sand.

Not all smiles and unicorns

(my enthusiasm didn't rub off)

Not our best family shot

On the car ride home, Avett caught up on some much-needed Zzzzzzs, and we played the baby name game.  Our version of the name game involves each of us scoring each name on our 2+ page list, combining the scores and hanging on to the top vote-getters.  We have some front runners, but we still have some work to do.  Stay tuned on that...

And since this is a catch-up post, here are some other fun shots since the last big update.

Quick trip to the doc for a fever and urine sample.  Not the most fun we've ever had.

Then back again for the 18 month checkup (still hugging the bottom of the size curve)

I'm 18 months old, y'all!

Avett loves his Swiffer (and truck, wearing PJs and Cousin Eddie hat)

The dogs love snack time

Avett loves the new helicopter I control with the iPad.  Either that, or he likes watching Cooper's reaction.  Cooper does NOT like the heli.

Avett loves the BAAAA (banjo), and I'm getting a little better

And I love these two

Until next time...

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Marathon Musings

After a whole mess of running last year, I decided to take some time off to let my mind and body recover from all of the wear and tear of the roughly 520 miles I put it through.  I still need to be active somehow, and I'm enjoying (I guess?) my winter P90X2 regimen that is coming to a close in the next few weeks.  From there, it will hopefully be some time on the bike, the wife having another baby (yikes!), and then another training plan for NYC in November (barring natural disasters).

Over St. Patty's weekend, a small crew went down to Wrightsville Beach to watch my running buddies Coach and C-Nix run a marathon.  This will be a painfully obvious statement to most of you, but even as a two-time marathon veteran (Big Sur and Charlotte Thunder Road, what-what!) it's an observation that I wasn't able to make until the race was done Sunday afternoon - I can now confirm that watching a marathon is infinitely more enjoyable than running one.

I feel largely responsible for suckering encouraging these guys to start distance running, so I thought it only fitting to give them my support for the big race day.  My goal was really to give people a laugh, as I remember how much I always need something to laugh about when I'd been running for 4+ hours.  Here's a brief recap, with photo evidence below:

1. Set alarm for 5:15, greet runners, give sleepy pep talk, blast Eye of the Tiger through my iPhone's speaker
2. Get coffee
3. Get pre-made signs, Ginger, Amy and Elle to take up our cheering spots (the race ran by our rental house twice)
4. Hold signs, cheer sorta quietly (it's still 6:30 and dark at this point) until our peeps go by, get some chuckles from the non-serious runners.
5. Shower
6. More coffee
7. Get in costume, grab cowbell and start cheering (loudly this time) the marathoners who are making it to mile 13.
8. Get into cars, drive to mile 25 on the course, resume signage and cheering (and galloping)
9. Meet our peeps at the finish to congratulate a job well done.
10. Celebrate (it was St. Patty's after all)

And the highlights in pictures:

1

3a

3b

7a

7b

7c

8a

8b

8c

9 (who was I to ask them to move to better lighting after running 26.2?)

10

All in all, a very fun weekend (says the guy who didn't run a bit).  Hats off to my guys and to all the other runners on a job well done, and while I'm not ready to start running again just yet, the race did spark a little fire in my gut.

We did some other fun stuff on the trip, so look out for a second post with some details and other updates from TT!

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