Turkey Trot '11

In case you aren't familiar with our family tradition, every year after finishing our Thanksgiving meal, the Huinker/Hoden families head down to whatever track is close at hand to run the "Turkey Trot" - a timed mile of gruesome competition and even physical illness. The winner has to write a press release...and, in case you were wondering, I 've never had to and I don't anticipate ever having to write one of these myself! Enjoy a few pictures too!

The Dubuque crew

Grandma Pat watched over a sleeping Gracie and Ivy.

Tara's race day t-shirt.

And this year's winner goes to...

TURKEY TROT ROOKIE SHATTERS RECORD

Its' as much a Huinker tradition as turkey. It's about the clash between perennial rivals on the track, trying to run as fast as they can, and fighting the urge to heave their favorite meal of the year. Once again, this Thanksgiving tradition was served up under bright, brisk skies on a Thursday afternoon in two different locations that measured a whopping, 1,886.2 miles apart. "Showing the Spirit" in scenic Dubuque, Iowa, this year were the Huinker/Hoden families and out in sunny Murrieta, California, stood Anthony and Tara. One could say that based on temperature, California weather might have been an advantage, but with the lower elevation on Dubuque's side, it was an even playing field.

Thirty-five minutes after eating the biggest meal he has ever cooked in his entire life, Turkey Trot rookie, Anthony Brown, scorched the competition with a time of 5 minutes and 30 seconds. "I think you are supposed to do that before you eat...ya know, run...then eat guilt free" Brown said after throwing up the delicious meal he spent 5 hour cooking. "Rookie mistake to have 2 glasses of wine and eat like I was gonna watch football."

Congratulation goes out to Tara Huinker who again took home the award for "complaining-the-most-about-a-tradition-you-claim-to-love." Despite her less than enthusiastic attitude towards the competition, she did finish in a very respectable 7 minutes and 1 second - some 50 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor.

The hardest fought race had to be between Chris Hoden and Amanda Huinker who were only 3 seconds apart at the strip. Coming in at 7 minutes 51 seconds and 7 minutes 54 seconds, it was a tough battle. Last year's winner was heard saying, "you guys don't know how hard it is to train when you have 2 kids and one on the way...it really takes a toll on your body." Amanda Huinker, who heard the remark, just shook her head and mumbled something to the effect of "you would think it was Chris who gave birth a couple of weeks ago."

Max Hoden receives the "hard-charger" award for steadily improving his time by 3 minutes from last year and not calling it quites until he did 6 laps. "My predition is that he will beat all of us in five years" said this year's winner.

Brian Huinker struggled this year claiming "Dubuque's air quality is not that of Decorah." Brian's ongoing study of the air quality and his newly onset asthma should draw to a close just in time for his research presentation at Christmas entitled "Robbed of Victory."

Best spectator award comes in as a 3-way tie between Rog Podge, Bes, and Patski. As they had their hands full with the little ones, there support is very much appreciated by all participants.

All in all, the event was a hug success. You can bet there will be trash talking throughout the year, only thickening as Thanksgiving 2012 nears. Till then...train for 2nd place!

Finish Lap 1: Chris and I were apparently still in good humor at this point...
Brian...maybe not so much.

Below: Beth comforting a crying Olivia and Mya -
Olivia because her mommy was ignoring her;
Mya because brother Max was running too fast.
Guess we know who the true competitors are going to be!

My Girls: Fall 2011

Fall has certainly been a busy time at the Huinker household. These last couple of weeks in particular got a little overwhelming with conferences, the fall musical, and grading, grading, grading. We enjoyed a great visit with my mom, Mark, and Thyme this last weekend, and we're looking forward to meeting the newest baby in the Hoden family - Ivy Anne, born 11-11-11 weighing in at 7 pounds 14 ounces - over Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe the snow will be flying soon and Christmas is right around the corner!


These last few months the girls have grown in so many ways. I figure it's about time for an update on both of them! I'm interspersing some fall pictures I took on a lovely weekend in September. Most of you will be getting your own copies of these pictures shortly!


Miss Grace: Our little Gracie girl is busy learning how to talk these days. She's mastered a number of two-word phrases - favorites include possessives followed by some object - "my mommy," "sissy baby," "me coat." She loves watching football with her daddy and asks for either it or "Micky" every time the television is on. She can sing the "abc" part of her abc's and also "hot dog, hot dog, hot daaa" from Micky Mouse Club House. I've caught her saying "one, two, three" a couple of times, but she'll never do it if I ask. Grace has continued to be our little goof - loving to dance, jump, tackle, and laugh all the time. She's crazy and shy, outgoing and hesitant at the same time, taking most her cues from Olivia. Her favorite activities include "Boo" (peek-a-boo), playing babies and kitchen, coloring, dancing, and generally following Olivia around wherever she might go. Grace and I are still rather joined at the hip. She eats every meal on my lap except breakfast (and lunch during the week), and to be honest, I'm not sure what to do about this problem because listening to her whine is rather hard on the ears. Grace is definitely a LOT louder than Olivia - a second child trait perhaps? Hmmm...I better not give too much away - otherwise I won't have much new to share for Gracie's birthday post - it's hard to believe our little girl is almost two!


Miss Olivia - Livy has gone through a gigantic spurt of independence this fall. She pretty much gets herself completely dressed in the morning - only requiring a little help with socks on occasion. She still has some issues with things being "tight" which really means issues with anything that might rub - example, seams on shirts, jeans, tight elastic, etc... For a period of time, putting socks on equaled nightmare at our house, but since we went out to Walmart together and I let her pick out her new socks, these issues have virtually disappeared. Olivia's such a pleaser and even if she resists something for a brief moment, this pleaser instinct has prevailed lately resulting in some impressive sharing and cooperativeness. Olivia worships the ground her teachers walk on and talks fondly of school and her friends. Favorite activities include "writing," coloring (working on staying in the lines), playing babies, directing Gracie in their play, playing hide and seek, and just generally being a goof. Oh, and I might as well admit that she likes to watch TV and wrestle too - although these two activities are not related!


The girls: Olivia has taken to informing me that she and Grace are my princesses - a true fact, I suppose. Grace has taken to sleeping with Olivia. This started a while back when we had a babysitter in the evening - Grace would have nothing to do with lying down in her own crib, so the sitter let her crawl in with Olivia and they both went promptly to sleep. Since these last weeks have been busy and conferences/the box office kept me away from home for a number of evenings, sleeping together has become the expectation. For the last week and a half, the trundle bed has been permanently pulled out for one of the girls. They seem to switch being on the top or the bottom, but are rather particular about their pillows. At first, I would move Grace to her crib before I went to bed, but these last couple of nights, I've just let her alone. The first night, we woke up to them coming down the stairs at 4am - yikes - thankfully, Grace went straight back to sleep in her crib - she was definitely not as thrilled as Liv to be coming down the stairs to wake us up, but Liv had to cry for about five minutes about Gracie not being put back to bed right alongside her. Last night, all was well. We've enjoyed watching them give each other high-fives and comforting pats before falling asleep, and their chatter hasn't been so much. But, what to do? I never imagined this happening, and while I don't want to discourage it, I'm not sure I'm ready for Grace to be in a big-girl bed yet either! As of right now, I think we're planning on getting a mattress for the antique bed we currently have in storage and then just moving them into the same room as Liv's room is certainly large enough.


The bond between Olivia and Grace is so strong. They look to each other for comfort, they provide that comfort, and they seem to have a true desire to do whatever necessary to ensure the happiness of each other. Their laughter is contagious, and they enjoying being silly and causing occasional mischief. As, Grace gets bigger, I get asked all the time "How close are they?" I should probably think of some shocking answer to this as most people ask this question with a bit of suspicion and shock in their voice, but so far, I've refrained. Mostly, I'm just glad it's as obvious to others as it is to me how much my girls love each other!