Montgomery Marathon Weekend

Like I mentioned a few days ago, we spent the last few days down in Montgomery, Alabama cheering on my dad and my brother in the Montgomery Marathon. When my dad told us back in December that he wanted to knock out his first marathon before the babies (mine and my sister’s) get here, I knew that I wouldn’t miss seeing him cross the finish line for the world! He ran his first half-marathon about a year ago and crushed it, so that gave him the confidence he needed to put a check mark in this box as well.

We stayed at an Embassy Suites downtown so that we could all stay in one big suite together, and during the drive down I realized that I’d stayed at this particular hotel before. In college I was the new member pledge educator for 90ish girls in the 2008 AOII pledge class, and my assistant and I took them all on a big retreat down to Montgomery shortly after they joined the sorority. We stayed at this hotel and made a ton of fun memories there. Such a good time! Still love those girls.

My dad knew there would be an indoor pool, so I scooped up Hadley a couple $10 bathing suits ( and ) and a cover-up () from Old Navy on Friday so that she could do a little swimming with my dad. Lord knows I wouldn’t be caught dead pale as a ghost and 34 weeks pregnant in a swimsuit. 😉

We thought swimming would be short-lived at first because it took her a good 5-10 minutes to be comfortable/interested in the pool, but once she started having fun we could hardly get her out! She was a giggling fool and loved every minute of it. Last summer she could barely kick her legs or jump off the side into the water, but this time around she couldn’t stopping kicking and splashing and would have jumped off the side of the pool a hundred times in a row if she could have. If anyone has a suggestion for one of those “floaty vest” things that kids wear in the pool, please let me know! I know there are a bunch of different kinds, and we will be needing one this summer for sure!

Have any of you noticed that in 90% of the pictures I post of Hadley on this blog there is also a pink pot holder that looks like a pig’s snoot? Most kids have a special stuffed animal or a blanket that they bring with them everywhere. My kid has a pot holder. A POT HOLDER!

I got this thing in a swag bag from a Kansas blogger’s event last summer, and Jamie decided to chase Hadley around the house with it when I brought it home. Ever since then it’s been her favorite thing ever OF ALL TIME. She named it Piggy and, well, Piggy is her very best friend. I couldn’t help snapping this picture yesterday morning in the hotel room while she was sleeping.

As far as Hadley’s attitude goes, Saturday was a bit of a doozy, and that’s probably putting it mildly. I’ve always kind of loathed staying in hotels with Hadley because she’s so out of her element, and this trip was no different. Once we were out and about getting fresh air and enjoying the race atmosphere, she was awesome. She really loved everything about that part of the trip.

Our time at the hotel though was hard. She didn’t sleep well, she wasn’t in the mood for breakfast, and she basically just threw tantrums all day long if I asked her to do anything… go to the bathroom, change clothes, lay down, etc. I tried to remember to give her grace for the fact that she’s been very overstimulated with her surroundings changing, but it was still hard to handle the meltdowns that seemed to happen for no good reason. During these moments I ache for the deployment to be over – for Jamie to be home and to be my partner again with balancing discipline and authority. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting much more bright!

Anyway! As far as the race goes, trying to figure out how to catch my dad and my brother along the route and at the finish line was a bit complicated since their finishing times were expected to be 90 minutes apart and all the surrounding roads were closed to drivers, so we just let things go with the flow.

We ended up driving to cheer on my dad at mile marker 14 so that Mom could refill Dad’s water bottle with some kind of product from Tailwind. Hadley cheered and clapped for all the runners as they went by which was pretty dang cute!

She got really excited when she saw her grandpa running toward us, but it broke my heart a little bit to see her confusion when he took off running 30 seconds later. She quickly got over it and found more flowers to pick. 🙂

After that we headed to the finish line to cheer my brother in! He came in third place overall and qualified for Boston!

We ended up having over an hour and a half until my dad came in, so we enjoyed eating lunch and hanging out in the beautiful weather to kill time. Hadley had a blast getting dirty and running around with the dozens of other kids her age.

Seeing this guy round the corner was as exciting as I knew it would be! We knew he was hurting, but he finished strong with a fantastic time.

Everyone took advantage of taking it easy at the hotel before walking as a family to dinner downtown later that night. Hadley gave me a run for my money at dinner and again as we all tried to call it a night, but eventually Sunday came and she did a 180 with her attitude. Thankfully she woke up super pleasant and happy. Thank you Jesus. 🙂

Hope you had a great weekend, friends! I’ll see you back here tomorrow. 🙂