4th and final leg

So the midwest roadtrip days 7-11 were spent in my hometown.  My older brother was married on a Tuesday in Omaha and ceremony was very small so a celebration reception was planned for the following Saturday in my parents backyard/house/garage/street, etc for our large family.  The bonus was that we were able to spend some extra time with my younger brother Matt and his wife, Melissa who live in Las Vegas. I absolutely love spending time with these two people but we are only able to see them on an irregular basis so our time together in Marshall was just such a treat.   Our time in Marshall was very reminiscent of my summer days of past.  My dad and I and biked to a baseball game one night with the kids (while Matt ran next to us) , we spent some time at the local parks, went swimming at the YMCA,  my mom and I spent a morning at the State Park in the area (and my brother once again ran out there....9.3 miles).  One of my favorite parts was Friday afternoon in which my brothers and their wives (so excited to say that now) and myself and the kids (Craig was working) went to a local lake/beach to hang out and swim.

So a montage of pictures of our time on the final leg....the kids and I at the State Park I remember going to as a child.  The water was COLD because of all the rain and it is spring fed.

Catching little frogs.  This was awesome for us because we had to release our tadpoles (See here:)  that we had caught right before we left.  Our tadpoles were just losing their tales and not quite tadpoles any more but not quite frogs yet so catching little frogs kind of brought the whole activity full circle for us.

My mom and Andie hunting for raspberries....YUM!

Just love the next few pictures.  The whole place is quiet.  Some young deer and fawns were walking around the other side of the lake (I think they were laying down there as well).  The kids were catching frogs, playing in the sand, eating fresh raspberries.  It was a good time to just sit with my mom and chat, I really enjoyed our time out at Camden that day.

Running into the cold, cold water.  They did better than I did!

So Saturday Matt, Melissa (his wife) and I did a 5k at a local town.  It was really fun.  Matt shows up to the whole event wearing board shorts and a shirt that said "How rude" with a picture of Michelle from Full House on it and that sweet headband he is sporting below.  Needless to say, most of the real runners (with all their gear) looked right past him....but yep....he won the whole thing.  He is funny like that.  His time was awesome and it was really awesome to see how humble he is in those situations.  I was more proud of him for how he took the win (and how I knew he would have taken the loss) than for his super fast time.  Anyway.   I ran home and later found out I won second in my age group....hence the gaudy medal.  Don't think too much of me....it was a small race.  Some really fast runners in the lead with my brother but not a big race at all.  Melissa came in third in our age group.  It was really fun.

And my mom and her sisters and sister in laws and brothers and brother in laws and children and children's children all getting ready for the backyard reception.

A picture of our whole family.  My brothers and their wives, my parents, Craig, myself and our three.  

Midwest roadtrip was awesome......and I will be making another bold statement.....planning on Midwest Roadtrip 2015!!