Veteran's Day

Since today is Veteran's Day, I thought that I would take a little moment to spotlight my Grandpa Collings who is a World War II vet. He is an absolutely amazing grandpa and I could probably go on forever about all his wonderful qualities. Instead, I'll just tell you about his most recent claim to fame. For many, many years now, he has been running marathons...over 20 of them from Boston to St. George. This year, my uncle Kerry signed him up to run in the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington D.C. where he would be the oldest runner...I think he's 86. I was able to sign up on their website to receive text messages when he crossed certain points during the race. Since the race was on a Sunday, I took my cell phone to church (something that I never do) so that I could stay up to date with how things were going. About 10 miles into the marathon, he fell and hit his head on the curb and had to be taken to the hospital for stitches. My sister sent me a text to let me know that he would be ok and that he would be released from the hospital in just a few hours. But then they discovered that he had been running on a fractured hip and that he would now need surgery. The race was on October 26th and he is finally coming home today. He had to stay in D.C. for rehab and physical therapy and all that jazz. My uncle Kevin has been staying out in D.C. this whole time so it will be great to have both of them back home, safe and sound. And hopefully Grandpa will be back on his feet in no time and back to his old, energetic self...and maybe running another marathon.

Grandpa, Lori, VaLene, Kevin, Linda, Kerry, Corinne

Pretty cool to have 5 out of 7 of his kids there, 2 daughters-in-law, and a couple of grandkids.

Grandpa running with Tom

Kerry, Grandpa and Tom after the race