26.2

Last Sunday we had the chance to travel to Cleveland and cheer on Nikki as she ran her first marathon. It was so exciting! Nikki has been training for this for months and we are so proud of what she has accomplished. It was fun to meet up with Nana and Papa at the finish line and wait in anticipation for Nikki to finish her 26.2 mile run! There were thousands of people there and the streets were buzzing with energy. Avery had a blast people watching, walking all over the place, and of course getting doted on by Nana and Papa. Our sweet friend, Amy, tagged along for the trip. She had a good friend who was running the marathon and Amy, a seasoned runner, was going to meet up with her friend at the halfway mark and run the last 13 miles along side her to encourage her along. We love Amy and she always adds a spark of humor to any situation. Our trip to Cleveland was no exception. This is how she showed up at our house at 6am:

Can you see that huge goose egg? She tripped on the concrete steps leaving her house and did a face plant. She walked through our door with blood dripping down her legs (her knees also suffered quite a blow), a swollen bump on her noggin, and laughing about the whole thing. We hooked her up with a few band aids, an ice pack, and some motrin and got ready to head out. (Don't worry, Amy fully approved of this being a blog worthy moment)

Someone was very excited to be up well before her normal waking time. She couldn't wait to go cheer for Aunt Nikki and was even dressed for the occasion! (Her shirt says "my aunt runs faster than your aunt")

Avery had her shirt, we had our signs... we were determined to make sure Nikki knew just how proud we were of her.

We spent most of the morning at the finish line, but shortly before we expected Nikki to be nearing the end of the course Erich and I took our signs and ran down to stand on the sidelines just a little ahead of the finish to see if we could cheer her on for the final stretch. Before too long she came into view and we screamed as loud as we could. We were very impressed that after 26 miles of running she had a HUGE smile on her face. It was so fun to see her in action!

The runner with her proud parents

She finished in 4hrs 17min. That's a very impressive time, especially for her first marathon. I can't say enough how proud we are of Nikki. She was so dedicated to her training and would be the first to tell you that she learned a lot about herself and what she is capable of through this experience. We are so glad to have her as our sister!