Tecumseh Marathon

On December 4, we headed down to Bloomington, Indiana for the Tecumseh Trail Marathon. It's a marathon run entirely on trails through the woods around Bloomington and is a killer race. We had snowy, icy weather the entire race, making for a very slippery run. Liza managed to stay on her feet most of the race, with just one small slide down hill. The course is incredibly hilly, but beautiful and very peaceful, especially once you've broken away from the pack. And, the race crew put on a great spread at each mile with all kinds of snacks and even hot chocolate. Fun! But, it really kicks your butt. If you need a good challenging run, try this race!

Yannie was a great sport, dropping Liza off at the start and driving back to the finish to wait. He made it back despite the treacherous roads, just barely sliding off the road in our new car. He waited in the cold for Liza's arrival, a good two hours longer than anticipated. It's awesome to have a good support crew!

























Can you spot Liza in the starting pack??

Thanksgiving with Family

The family of Yannie's cousin Maria drove out from Ohio to visit for Thanksgiving. We had a great time with Maria, Dave and the kids and hope to do it again soon! Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Babies!

Fish babies that is. . .
The blue rams layed eggs once again. This time they managed to protect them long enough to hatch and we had a swarm of fry (baby fish). Here's a shot of Mama and Papa Blue Ram protecting their babies from the hungry Rummy Nosed Tetras. The cutest part is when a baby strays from the group, one of the parents grabs it in it's mouth and spits it back into the group. Their chance of survival is slim, but each batch of babies has lasted longer than the last, so we hope to soon have a whole school of Rams to brag about. . .

President Obama

On election night, after a long day at the Obama phone bank, we headed down to Grant Park to witness history with the rest of the city and country. It was an amazing experience, standing amongst the over 200,000 people there that night. Besides the thrill and excitement of the night, it was incredible to see so many different ages and races of people coming together to experience the event. We sat between a middle aged Chinese couple that barely spoke English on one side, twenty something college kids on the other and African Americans in front, and a Sikh behind. A group of Muslim women asked us to take a photo of them together as the evening concluded. It was thrilling to see the group truly representative of this country come together to celebrate.

The city of Chicago did a fabulous job setting up the park to make Obama's speech accessible to all. While we didn't get tickets for the area in front of the stage, we found a great spot in the north end of the park right near one of the giant screens. It was a bit odd to be sitting outside in the park watching CNN with everyone else, but was wonderful to watch the excitement build as the states came in for President Elect Obama.

Here are a few shots from our evening.

This is just one small part of the crowd. The sea of people was similar in every direction around us.


A nearby woman watching the election results come in on the jumbo-tron.


Liza in her Obama gear. Luckily we had some wonderfully warm November weather.




Yannie waiting for the final results.


And the crowd went wild!


It's such a pleasure to finally have a president that really knows how to give a great speech. It brought cheers to the crowd and tears to the eyes. We watched it again when we got home and are so glad we decided to go downtown. The energy of the crowd brought something special to the night that we'd have missed had we stayed home.


The walk towards home was through a chaotic and ecstatic mass of people. It was exciting to be a part of this history. We look forward to the hope and promise of these next four years!

Passion & Profession 12

On the weekend of October 17, Liza headed north to Wisconsin for the Passion & Profession photography retreat. It's a beautiful time of year to be in Wisconsin and even better when you have a camera in hand.

Fishtank

We've been working on the fishtank lately, and have some nice plants growing along with a few happy schools of fish. It's a shot from a few weeks ago.

Chicago Fire

After the soccer tournament, all the teams had the opportunity to attend a Chicago Fire soccer game. They played the New York Red Bulls and Chicago won 1-0. No game photos, but here are a few shots of the two of us in the newly built Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois.

Storm over Chicago

This summer, we've had some pretty wild storms. One afternoon in September, we had a grand view from our patio of an incoming cloudbank that carried with it torrential rain.

Greek Soccer Tournament

On Labor Day Weekend, Yannie's father came out to visit and joined us at the Greek Soccer Tournament. We spent most of the weekend at the park and all got a little sunburnt. Liza did some photography for the tournament. Here's one of the favorite shots of Yannie. He looks like a giant!

Chris & Holly

In August, Yannie's brother Chris and his wife Holly came to visit us in Chicago. We had fun exploring the city, the zoo, and some other sites around the area.

Yannie and Chris in the Garfield Park Conservatory.


We drove north to Winnetka to see the Bahai temple and had a picnic lunch near the lake.


It was a windy day along Lake Michigan.

Niagara Falls, New York

After exploring Cape Cod for a few days, we drove north to Niagara Falls, New York. We stayed on the Canadian side, but drove to the New York side to visit the park. The falls are pretty amazing and both sides have done a nice job with the parks surrounding the falls. On the US side, the park is really the only thing to see. The rest of Niagara Falls, New York is pretty run down and abandoned.

A view of the falls and the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario


Amazing amounts of water - and this is not even at full force. The dam above the falls controls the flow of water.


Horseshoe Falls, the Canadian side


In the evening, the Canadians have fireworks over the falls


We took a trip to the bottom of the falls. They gave us rain gear and shoes for the very wet trip.




On the bridge to Canada.


Liza steps across the country line into Canada.






Rainbows over the falls.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

We left on a Friday afternoon, after Yannie was done with work, and drove all night to Cape Cod Massachusetts. It was a long drive! Upon arrival, around 10am the next morning, we crashed at the hotel for a few hours before going to our friend Rick's wedding. It was a nice outdoor ceremony in the quaint town of Orleans, Massachusetts.

Rick waiting for Laura to walk down the aisle.


The crew of us from Connecticut College.

We spent the next few days at the Cape, bike riding, exploring and just enjoying the beach.
The water is freezing cold, but we survived a few swims in the ocean.

The sand dunes at the end of the cape were huge and we found a nice little beach that was more of a local hangout.