The Finish Line!!!

In August, Bo started training for a half-marathon to be ran on Thanksgiving morning. After many long weeks of training, the race was run and here are a few of the pictures from his amazing accomplishment.

Before I post these pictures though, I have a few thoughts of my own to share about Bo's big run. First...it was so awesome to be at the finish line waiting to see Bo run by us and finish his first race. All of us were there to greet him...the kids, his mom and dad, Jenny, and even Stefan got to come and represent the Blum family on a blustery 39 degree morning. We brought our cow bells to cheer him on and it really was such a cool thing to witness so many people finishing up a 13 mile run. Speaking of 13 miles, I am wondering how many of you ACTUALLY COMPREHEND how far 13 miles really is. The night before the race, Bo and Nate (his running buddy) stayed in a hotel to avoid traffic and getting up any earlier than needed the day of the race. After the race was over, the 2 of them piled back in to my car and we headed back towards the hotel to get Nate's car. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why they stayed out past Spaghetti Junction (where I-85 meets I-285) when the race was downtown. It didn't seem to make sense that they stayed so far away. It wasn't until Bo's dad made a comment about how much more convenient it was to stay here than at home when Nate said that the start line was only 2 miles from their hotel. By this time we had been driving for a good 20 minutes and I was floored at what that meant. Bo LITERALLY ran the entire length of the connector from north of Spaghetti Junction all the way to Turner Field where the finish line was. And my new word for things this astounding is that this distance is RIDONCULOUS!!!! I mean seriously...who in the world voluntarily runs that much; that far. And, this was the half-marathon. There are idiots out there who started at Turner Field, ran north to Bo's start line and then turned around to head back to Turner Field for the full-marathon. A disease...I swear!!! And last, I might share that the pictures you are about to see of Bo actually running the marathon are not mine. Thankfully, my super brother in law and father in law were able to grab pictures of Bo finishing the marathon. And, it wasn't because my camera wasn't ready. Picture this...Bonnie is patiently waiting and looking for Bo from about 8:15 AM on. The race started at 7:00 and Bo thought he would finish in about 2 hours. But, I thought with all the excitement that he might come in a little under 2 hours. To avoid missing him, I am intently watching all the runners come through the finish line starting about 8:15. And, just as an aside...the winner of the half-marathon finished in 1 hour, 9 minutes. That's a 4 minute mile for 13 miles, folks!!! During my waiting time, I am trying to keep the kids entertained and warm and keep my camera in focus on the road so that the pictures aren't blurry. I have changed the setting to "burst" so that I get lots of pictures of Bo running and we can pick from the best to put on the blog. I keep looking at the official clock and it says 2 hours...2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 hours 5 minutes...and I'm still looking. Now, Bo was under strict orders that he had to finish this race because there was no way I was hauling my rear end 13 miles back the race course to find him. So, at 2 hours and 9 minutes we spot him coming over the top of the hill with the Olympic Rings and Torch in the background...the perfect picture and my camera is on him and focused. He sees us. Runs up to us. Give the kids and all of us high fives. He's in my camera lens and I can see him. He crosses the line and the race is over. At that moment it dawns on me that I was so excited to actually find him in the mass of people and so proud of him for doing something he worked so hard at that I never finished pushing the shutter button on the camera after I had pushed it half way to focus it. Really??? Seriously??? I had come all this way and waited all this time to get the perfect picture of his first race and I got NOTHING!!!!! Thankfully Stefan and Dad had gotten some great shots and I have those to share on this blog.

Congratulations on your run honey!!! We are all so proud of you!!! Be sure to check out the shutterfly site for the complete set of pictures.
http://therealjacksonfive.shutterfly.com/

Maguire Get Together

This past weekend, we headed up to Seneca, SC to visit Grandpa Maguire and all of the Maguire family. We had an early Thanksgiving with all the family...Uncle John, Aunt T, and the fabulous Maguire Sisters...Lindsey, Summer, Katie and Kristen. Plus, Grandma and Grandpa Jackson were there with Aunt Jenny. And, we got to meet some of the people we hear so much about, but have never actually met...Mary Rose and Uncle Bill and Aunt Jeannie. We spent Saturday afternoon cheering on the Gators, who played South Carolina, coincidentally. On Sunday, we spent some time walking around Lake Hartwell and then we visited Clemson...home of the Clemson Tigers and Death Valley. The kids played on the playground and swam...yes swam, don't ask...in the lake at the "Clemson Beach". Once we were all cleaned up, we headed back to Grandpa's for a yummy Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixins. The girls were especially sad to leave...they had so much fun playing with the cousins. But, we got home safely and headed straight to bed. We were tired from our fun weekend with our family.

See all the pictures at the Shutterfly site:
http://therealjacksonfive.shutterfly.com
Here are a few to get you started.
The Whole Family...aren't we a good lookin' bunch???

Playing at the playground and in the lake.




Visiting Clemson...

The Beginning of School Projects

Ally has officially started working on planning for projects and completing them in a specific time frame. Her first school project was a book report based on a setting. She had to choose between 3 projects...a diorama, decorating a t-shirt, or creating a book based on the story she chose to read for this report. Of course, Ally chose the diorama. She read the story The Little Mermaid from her big book of Disney stories and came up with the idea to do an underwater diorama. We went to Michael's and found paper to cover the shoe box, fish stickers, "jewels" to use as bubbles, and pipe cleaners for seaweed. She was quite creative. She spent the better part of 2 days working on covering the box, hot gluing the jewels and sewing on the seaweed so it would stand up...which I helped with for safety reasons ;). She added in the Ariel, Sebastian, Flounder, and Ursula figurines we had at the house and completed the project with some real seashells she found at the beach. She is VERY PROUD of her hard work.

A Fourth Hole in Ally's Head!!

Last night, Ally FINALLY lost the dangling tooth from the top row of her mouth. That poor thing has been hanging on by a thread for a week now and Ally was scared to pull it. But, after some convincing, Ally let me pull it. She didn't even know it was out because after I got it out, she asked to pull it herself. When she realized it wasn't there, she rinsed and smiled for the camera...with one less tooth!!

Happy Halloween

It was a fantastic Halloween here in Georgia for the Jackson Five. Our weekend was filled with fun Halloween activities. We spent Friday night watching The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, a yearly tradition at our house. And then after dinner, we were in garage with the kids carving out our Jack-o-Lantern. When it was finished, we put on some music (just a little ZBB and some Kenny Chesney) and danced around the garage. On Saturday, we spent the morning celebrating a friend's first birthday and then headed out to Aunt Jackie and Uncle Stefan's house for the big Florida-Georgia game. It was a good win for the Gators and we were excited to celebrate in Gator fashion with the family. As soon as the game ended, we headed home to be with our friends and go trick or treating. It was a short outing compared to past years...we only did the 2 streets by our house because of the rain, but we hauled in tons of candy and the girls were excited to be with their friends. Ally and Kelsey were super cute as Glinda and Dorothy. They held hands the whole time they trick or treated...and that, for me, was the best part. People were running all over the place and there were my precious girls walking together, holding hands, big sister and little sister, taking care of each other. Warmed my heart on a cold rainy night...because that's what I look forward to most in their lives as sisters...a closeness no one will come between. Drew was a sweet Toto and sat in the stroller the whole time...taking in the sights, sounds and fun. We came home and had a few pieces of candy while we watched Charlie Brown one more time. And, then it was off to bed...an extra hour to boot!!
As always...all of the pictures are on the Shutterfly share site.
http://therealjacksonfive.shutterfly.com