Woolsey Family Chronicles

We are in San Francisco preparing to go out to the big pasta feed Team and Training puts on before the big Nike Women's Marathon tomorrow. We have dispersed our kids among the grandparents and I do miss them already. I need a break but I don't want to be away from them at the same time. We drove down to the city bright and early with Bob and Angela and then cruised over to the Marathon Expo at Union Square donning our very cool purple hats with the "Get Swabbed" pins all over them that Angela put a lot of hard work into making last night. It has never crossed my mind to run a marathon and I am quite sure it won't ever cross my mind, but I have enjoyed being a spectator and feeling the energy of the participants all around for the few hours I have been here. Tomorrow Angela, Heidi (also a neighbor and friend) and I will be marathon chasers, trying to find our husbands as they make their way through San Francisco.

Chris and I had a nice café lunch with our old pals Nicola and Paul in Union Square and then we hooked up with our other college friend Michele who happened to be in the city with a girlfriend. It was a mini-reunion and a great way to start off our marathon weekend.

On the kid front, Ava has found a new passion for soccer. She won all ten team sprints to the ball in a row at her last practice, going undefeated. In addition to blossoming in soccer, Ava has decided that she is going to start trying to read and write on her own. We will be driving in the car and she will say, "S-T-O-P spells stop and I didn't even see a stop sign." Last night she handed me a fire safety poster that was supposed to be colored and instead she had spelled words written all over it such as "my emergency" which was random and spelled phonetically. Then she filled the entire paper up with different phrases and words that she had done by herself. The mothership was proud.

The babies are blossoming in their own ways. Preston hits his sisters over the head with plastic pots and pans. Yesterday he chose the big plastic singing Elmo to bash atop Violet's head and she was not happy. Elsa walks around all day trying to find jewelry and shoes to put on. She is a girl through and through; very sweet and capable of manipulating people with her adorable face and friendly personality. Violet is very independent and easy to take care of. She eats the food she is given, she plays by herself or with Ava and she has a wonderful sense of humor. Violet is always ready for a good time with her brother and sister's and her laugh is infectious.

Although their clinginess is overwhelming and irritating sometimes, I miss those little monkeys when I am not with them.

I will update after Chris, Bob and Ed run their race. Run boys run! And yeah to Team Trevor for raising close to $23,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.

Ava-ism:

Ava says to Chris as he is putting her to bed "daddy are you running in the half marathon tomorrow?" Chris told her that he was running in the half marathon but that he was nervous because his knee hurt. Ava said, "why don't you try running differently?" Chris asked Ava what she meant. Ava said, "try running on the front of your feet, you know, like on your toes more." During the half marathon Chris says that he saw a lot of good runners running on the front of their feet. . . on their toes.

A word Ava made up, "that car is hunormous".

Until next time, the mothership is signing off.