The Kriz Family

Derrick and I went down to the city this morning to participate in the 100th running of the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race.  I’ve run in this race 9 of the last 10 years, and being the 100th, I was really excited to be a part of it again.  So were more than 17,000 other runners.  It was definitely the biggest field I’ve ever seen at this race.  The weather couldn’t have been better – it was upper 30′s and sunny at the start, not too bad for a late November day!

So, being a kind of historic run, I decided to lug my old camera with me and try to take some pictures along the way.  I am not in very good running shape right now, so I figured why not make the most of the day and just enjoy it.  It’s not very often that the streets of Cincinnati are closed off and you can just stop and take photos of the city and riverfront.

Heading to the starting area

A view of the skyline at the start

We somehow were able to meet up with Matt and Brett

Finally crossing the starting line

About to cross back in to Cincinnati

Only .2 miles to go

Found Heidi and Lukas at the end

All kids love dressing up on Halloween, and they all love going out trick or treating, right? You’d think so, but it turns out they all may not… We had to ease Lukas into his Fireman costume over the course of a few days, so on Halloween night he at least put it on without too big of a fuss. It took a little bit, but he finally got used to the costume and the helmet, and he ended up being a pretty good sport about it. Ok, so we’re good with the costume, now what about trick or treating. Well, we made it to about 3 houses before Lukas said “I’m done”, and headed back home. And at every house, Lukas said “trick or treat”, but then would either shove the candy away saying “don’t want it”, or if it managed to make it into his candy bag, he took it back out and gave it back. So, this was not as successful as getting him to wear the costume…

So we pretty much hung around at our house and had Lukas hand out candy to all the little (and some not so little…) trick-or-treaters. He had a good time, I think he just wasn’t ready for actually going out to the houses yet. Maybe next year.

Lukas the Fireman with his candy bag

Fireman on the move

Checking out the pumpkins

Mom, Lukas the Fireman, and Dad the Browns Fan

Elmo Pumpkin

Mickey Mouse Pumpkin

Jack-O-Lantern

We got our pumpkins over a month ago, and we are finally carving them to get ready for Halloween tomorrow.  We had three to carve, and we decided to be a little adventurous this year and try our hand at some “sculpting”, rather than just cutting holes in the pumpkins (though I have to say, we’ve had some pretty cool pumpkins in the past). This was probably not the time to try it, being that we didn’t get started til about 9pm the day before Halloween, but I said we were being adventurous, right?? We have 3 pumpkins, and my Dad offered to carve one, while Heidi and I each took one. We’ll have this done in no time.

The sculpting was more involved than I thought. We had some simple things we wanted to sculpt – an Elmo face and a Mickey Mouse face (which we think Lukas will go nuts over), and everything I read just said to cut about a half inch into the skin of the pumpkin and peel it away. Right… After trying many different tools for “peeling” away the skin – none of them very successful, and all very time consuming – I decided to bring out the Dremel tool and get to work with a router bit. I felt like Tim Taylor from Tool Time, getting out power tools to carve a pumpkin. That did the trick, but what a mess! We had to wipe down the table, chairs, the walls, and mop the floor after we were done. Not to mention the shavings in our hair, on our clothes, pretty much everywhere. Note for next year – do this outside, and wear a poncho.

I don’t have the pumpkin pictures yet, but here are a few others from the night.

Here’s Dad with his pumpkin. We were glad to have his help carving this year!

Taking a break from carving to pose for the camera.

Jim hard at work "sculpting" Mickey Mouse

A Dremel (with extension) and a couple router bits – pretty standard pumpkin carving tools, right?

Five years. That’s right. We made it.

Heidi’s parents were nice enough to take Lukas and Boone (in addition to our three cats they already have) for the weekend so we could get away for a 5-year anniversary celebration. We couldn’t go far, so we were looking for places around Lexington. We happened across a place outside Lexington called Elk Creek Vineyards, which also has a bed and breakfast (the Elk Creek Lodge). It looked very nice, so we decided to go there. It was kind of appropriate, since we went to Napa Valley on our honeymoon 5 years ago.  While Owenton, KY cannot compare to Napa Valley, we were happy just to get away for the weekend.

It turns out that Elk Creek is a very nice place, and being that Owenton is a dry county, the winery is a very popular nighttime hangout.  They had live music starting at 7pm, wine tastings, a deli, an upstairs with an art gallery, and on and on.  Definitely not something you’d expect to find in this otherwise very rural area.  We had a great time there, and really enjoyed our stay.

This is the Elk Creek Lodge – apparently it used to be the owner’s house, then he turned it into a bed and breakfast.

A view of the vineyards from our room

Another view of the vineyards and the valley

View inside the second floor of the lodge. Notice the wolf carrying the duck on the left. Very nice touch.

I love this. He’s just staring at you.

Kevin and Erin invited us to meet them at the Zoo this weekend. They were there with Erin’s niece Sam, so once Lukas got up from his nap, we headed out to meet them. It was a great day to be there – just a little cool, but very nice, and sunny too. We had a lot of fun. I think this was the first time Lukas really enjoyed it too, especially because he got to play with Sam (who was very sweet with him, even thought she’s 3 years older). After a few hours of looking at animals and playing in the kids area, we went to Dewey’s for some pizza. This was also very enjoyable – and once again, Lukas was just enamored with Sam, so it was a very relaxing dinner (as opposed to the “let’s get the food out here and finish up as quick as we can” meals we often have when we go out…) Thanks for inviting us out Kevin and Erin – and Sam, thank you for being so good with Lukas! We’ll have to do this again sometime!

Lukas about to chase the peacock (dad was not far behind…)

Isn’t she pretty? That’s a happy face right there.

Watching the Bonobos swing around

Sam showed Lukas how to get up on the fence

Sitting on the Elephant fountain. We spent most of the time here…

We tried to get pictures with Lukas. He didn’t want any part of that, as you can see

I think he was saying "Get off Daddy, it’s MY seal!"