Chicago Marathon

Sunday, October 11, 2009 Rex ran his first marathon along with several others from Crosswalk. The journey started when our friend and Crosswalk youth minister, BJ, went to Chicago for a youth ministry conference in April and learned about how you could raise money for the World Vision organization by running the Chicago marathon. He came home and recruited Rex and four others from church to run. By the way, if you'd like to sponsor Rex and donate to World Vision, go to www.firstgiving.com/rexreeves.
Friday night at the dinner for the World Vision team. 1200 people ran the marathon in support of World Vision (there were 47,000 registered runners!!)

They had to get a picture in front of this sign at the Marathon Expo on Saturday.

Brett, Barry, and Abby Fielder, BJ Arnold, and Rex the morning of the race. This was around 5:15 a.m. and the temp. was in the mid 30s.

on the train, headed downtown for the race

The crowd was incredible! We found a great spot on the Randolph bridge to watch the start of the race. At the bottom of this post is a video that shows just how many people were running.

Terry Fielder (above) along with Alex Cone were my race-watching buddies.

See Rexy? I believe this was around mile 12. I also got to see him at the start and around mile 2 or 3.

I saw Rex again in Chinatown around mile 21.

This is just one example of the many crazy, yet inspiring runners that we saw. These guys were doing this for some type of cancer awareness. There was also a guy running in full army fatigues with a 100 lb. pack on his back! I also saw a man from Italy who was running at a quick pace (I think he was in the 4 hr. pace group) with 1 leg and crutches! Incredible!

This was about as close as we could get to the finish line.

Yeah, Rexy! I'm so proud of you!

Rex with his marathon buddy, Barry Fielder. They stayed together every step of the way and finished in 5 hrs. 27 minutes.

Proud of my marathon man!

Rex is sore but thinks he'll definitely do another one and hopefully someday qualify for Boston. I might even join in on the fun! ...... If you want to see photos of Rex taken by the Marathon Photo team go to www.marathonfoto.com "view and order photos", then choose Chicago Marathon 2009, type his name and bib number 35714.

Branson, September 2009

On Sept. 18th we went to Branson, MO for a much needed family weekend getaway. The overall theme of the weekend, aside from the cold and rain, seemed to be one very brave little 4 year old. Ruby wanted to ride and experience everything. We had to come up with a plan B for Saturday since the rain canceled our plans for Silver Dollar City that day. We went on and did some shopping at the oulet malls and checked out the Butterfly Palace and the Dinosaur Museum. Above, we're sporting 3D glasses for the video on the lifecycle of the butterfly at the beginning of the tour.

The kids were provided with cool safari hats, binoculars, and magnifying glasses to use as they explored the "rainforest."

Ruby has always liked butterflies but the trip to this place just seeemed to seal the deal. Her favorite souvenir from our trip is the brochure from the Butterfly Palace which has a diagram of many types of butterfly species which she still frequently looks at. She is also going to be a butterfly for Halloween.

They also had a few exhibits of tropical reptiles and amphibians.

The onto the Dinosaur Museum. At this point the kids were getting a little worn out but it was something to do to take up a rainy day.

We stayed at the Castle Rock Resort and Waterpark which I definitely think we'd stay at again. The indoor waterpark which connects right to the hotel was a blast and it was nice that the kids had their own separate little room with bunk beds and a TV.

Sunday, it was still overcast and a little drizzly but we went on and headed to Silver Dollar City (with the kids new raincoats in tow that I picked up the day before at the Carter's outlet). We rode the train as soon as we got there.

Rex isn't too keen on rides so I did enough for the both of us (ok-I actually really enjoyed it) since the kids aren't tall enough to ride on their own.

The huge "foam ball palace" was really cool. It's several stories high of all kinds of activites to do with thousands of foam balls. R&T loved it! I'd hate to be the guy cleaning that place up every night.

In the pic above, Ruby and I are in the swing behind the lampost.

And we ended the day with some rock candy from the old-fashioned candy store. Fun times!