Murray Half Marathon 2014

Two weeks ago I ran in the 4th annual Murray Half Marathon. I was pretty much roped into it from an old college friend who gave me a one liner of "If I can do you it you can do it." That was back in mid-February. I had thought about running it prior to this, but when I heard that I had no choice but to suck it up and sign up. Gah. Peer pressure is painful.

 

So I signed up and trained about 8 weeks. I wish I had trained longer, and maybe trained harder, because I felt better with my runs than I have in the past 4 years! I was actually pacing myself at about an 8:45 min-mile for long training runs and felt good through them. As I neared the day of the race I decided to make a goal of finishing in 2 hours or less. At least having a race PR. But...I didn't. I finished the race in 2:08:21. And to be completely honest I am super happy with this! There were several factors that slowed me down but the biggest one was the weather. Well, the wind. It was 15-20 mph and after about mile 6 the course turned straight into it, and became very hilly. At times I felt like I was running in place. To add insult to injury, it got really hot really fast and at about mile 12 my legs cramped up pretty bad. I had to walk about 150 feet but that didn't seem to help so I powered through it and just picked my run back up. And to add even more salt in a wound, when I rounded the last corner I could see the finish line...but I had to run UP A HILL!

 

I sound like I am whining, but really it was a great run. I really enjoyed it (despite the wind and muscle cramps) and the scenery was beautiful. The first year I ran it was in 2011 with Courtney and it was about 40 degrees and windy and raining. Yuck. This year the weather was beautiful and the spirit teams were fantastic! And although I wasn't running with anyone specifically I saw a bunch of people I knew, so that was fun. 

 

I am somewhere in this crowd.

Mile 10ish - Ready to be done!

Running UPHILL to the finish. And I look like (and feel like) I am dying!

Just spotted my family at the finish!

Our friend Stephen (who pressured me into running the race!) also ran the half marathon. His wife Erika and son Anderson ran the 5K!

After the half marathon we had some friends over for supper. We let the kids have a picnic and they thoroughly enjoyed each other's company! And the cupcakes!

The Energizer (Easter) Bunny

I think every year Easter is just about as exciting for the boys as Christmas is! As it should be! Christ the Lord is Risen Today - Alleluia!  (a hymn in case you wanted to sing along with me...) But the events, egg hunts, gifts from family, and the CANDY (plus rambunctious boys) mean that the Easter Bunny has to have quite the long-lasting battery. And to get through this post (fair warning) you will need some of that energy.

 

As nearly every other family did, we kicked off our Easter celebration with dying eggs. The kids enjoyed it. Finley really enjoyed it and tends to get super excited about anything...especially if you make any bit of a production out of it! Check out Finn's funny faces.

 

The scientist comes out in Josh when dying eggs: he must add the perfect amount of color!

The next "event" was the egg hunt at our church. Always such a show and this year was no exception. I love how much time/energy/effort our church dedicates to the children's ministry. Planting such wonderful little seeds into these babies. It was a great time of fellowship for the kids, but also for me as I have a lot of friends that came. This was Finn's first genuine egg hunt, and after hurling a few eggs (he thought they were balls, I guess?) he figured out that if he put them in his basket he would get to keep them! Oh, and the word of the weekend is Egg. We talk about Eggs a lot now. :)

Unfortunately I missed Keagan picking up eggs because I went with Finn (and Josh was at work so Keagan went with some friends and their parents to the other side of the church to hunt eggs).  But he did pretty good, and then decided to get a little play time in before heading back inside!

 

Keagan had his MASSIVE Mickey Mouse basket from last year and only filled it about 1/4 full. I figured he would have it so full he would have to drag it back in! But he did win a Golden Egg ticket and got to pick out a prize! And Annie won several Golden Egg tickets and shared one of her prizes with Finley, so he wasn't left out. Such a sweet friend!

Trying to get a decent picture with my boys is impossible! Nevertheless, I love what Keagan is doing in this picture. What a nut.

That night Gama and Poppy came into town and brought their gifts for the boys. Needless to say, we have TWO GIANT buckets of candy from them, some that we had, and from Grandma and Grandpa. I love candy, the boys love candy, it would seem like a win-win situation. Except I can't stop eating it. And they don't eat enough of it!!!

Now check out this super funny video of Finley seeing what was in each egg. I took this video with the very.last.egg in the bucket. But with his excitement level (I told you he gets excited over anything!) you would think this was the first egg opened. And the funny thing is each and every egg contained the same thing. Didn't matter to him...he was just excited!





Easter Morning: the Easter Bunny brought the boys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shells and baskets. Oh and some Disney books and a Bible. The best part was Keagan actually questioning why he was getting all this. I never really thought about it, but he got all kinds of presents at Christmas and he had weeks to prepare and anticipate. But at Easter, it just kind of "happens" or appears. And there isn't a whole lot of notice leading up to it, so of course he would question why! I wasn't really prepared for it, but I am glad he questioned it. It gave me an opportunity to tell him that we were celebrating Jesus! I didn't go into further detail about his dying on the cross for our sins and then being resurrected. But I am excited that he knew that all this fun stuff was because of Jesus. We will tackle the bigger concepts later. First, he had to do a few trial runs in his shell and eat some Peeps before getting ready for church. :)

Still eating peeps. Breakfast of champions. Oh, and I was still trying to get a good picture with my boys. Don't think I will ever get them to cooperate!

At church Keagan performed with his Ringers and Singers group. I'd like to say that with experience and age he has matured some and is paying attention to what is going on. But I cannot say this at all. He is such a goof-off. And I really believe he thrives on the laughter of the congregation. He didn't pay attention and rang his bells the entire time (the kids are supposed to watch the leader and ring when the leader flashes a card with their color bells). At the end of the first service the bells went over his eyes for about 30 seconds. Then during the second service he "dropped" a bell down two steps because he was *surprise, surprise* goofing off! But the congregation enjoyed it and no one was injured.

In case you want to see his whole performance from the first service, I video'd it. It is only one song: a shortened version of Amazing Grace.




After church, we took the obligatory pictures-on-the-rock-under-the-canopy pictures. It started with some goofy kids:

I think I might've actually gotten a good picture with my boys this Easter. Only FINALLY!

I just love this picture:

Once home I realized the Easter Bunny had put out some eggs for the boys to hunt. I tried to make them stand still for a picture together. Ha. that didn't work well...and they're off!

Checking out the loot with Gama...

After naps and our Easter meal, we headed out to play a little. I wanted to get a picture of the boys by the tree I had planted when I was pregnant with Keagan. And grabbed a few random pictures along the way. It was such a gorgeous day.

(are you laughing yet?!! this is what happens when you have little boys!)

Easter ended kind of rough, the boys were exhausted. Mommy was exhausted. We just couldn't get to all of our Easter fun in one day...Grandma and Grandpa sent goodies to the boys and they had to wait until the next day. But that was OK because when we got home from school/work we had TWO MORE packages waiting! (these boys are so blessed)

Grandma and Grandpa sent the boys some Easter candy and window clings (their favorite!!)

Then Great Grandma Gail sent the boys a couple books and some toys! I think they are excited...what do you think?

And Josh's Aunt Sandra made the boys some shirts with Thomas the Train embroidered on them. Keagan immediately put his on! Finn kept saying "choo choo!"

It has been a fantastic Easter weekend with only one simple exception: Josh worked the entire weekend so he missed out on all the fun. But there were left-overs for him when he got home and I took lots of pictures and videos for him to see! (in case you hadn't noticed) Hope your Easter was wonderful and that you remembered that the celebration was all because of JESUS!