This past weekend...

....I did this, with these sweet ladies. Now, I am all about honesty and transparency, so let me tell you that we walked (ran a little) the 10K...I came nowhere near that marathon-thing :). BUT, we had so much fun and we walked fast (took us about an hour and a half). I had a minor bout with SVT along the way...maybe it is time to consider ablation. It was extremely irritating to have to sit down for a minute and use a couple of my tricks to stop it before I could go on. But all in all....good exercise and good friends, what could be better?!?



Here are a couple of pics after the race...at La Madeleine, of course :)

All 4 of us (with bad lighting)

Tonya and I (I must have a lot of self-confidence to post the pictures of myself with no makeup ;))

Kris and Julie

We've got ourselves lined up for one race a month over the next three months. Should be fun....exercise is all about forming habits, right? We walk everyday for an hour...we figure that this commitment to more races will keep us going.

And, finally, totally unrelated to my pursuit to be healthy...A picture from Alex that I just loved. Notice the detail...the smoke coming out of the chimney is forming a heart. We had quite a few fires in the fireplace this weekend...I think he was inspired :)!







Blessings,

Food, Flowers and Fun....

....Valentines Day!

We had a crazy, but fun Valentines Weekend this year. I personally love when it falls on the weekend because it gives you more time to celebrate :)!

After working hard to put together the Valentines Party for Anna's class on Friday afternoon, I headed over to meet Chris so that we could head to the Weekend to Remember Conference. We had a great time, but I must admit that we enjoyed our time alone and being able to spend a night away as much or more than we did the conference... Thanks to Mom and Wade & Cathy for helping out with the kiddos while we were gone. And thanks to Keith & Charlene for the tickets to the conference.

Our weekend of fun just kept going once we got home! We were able to also enjoy a Valentines celebration with these sweet peas...

Anna and her friend, Skylar, getting ready to open some V-day goodies.

Alex playing with the V-day prize he had just received....he didn't waste any time putting it to good use.

No Valentines celebration would be complete without some heart-shaped food. Thus, our lovely pizza courtesy of Papa Murphy's! And some yummy brownies...too.

These were actually for Anna after her performance in her musical the Thursday before Valentines, but they were perfect decoration for our celebration that weekend too!

And last, but certainly not least....my valentine! I love you, babe!!

That was then...

As I am getting slightly sentimentally romantic with Valentine's Day approaching, I dug out this old picture of Chris and I. It is actually our engagement picture...that was taken BEFORE we were engaged (don't ask). Aren't we so cute?!?



I had intended to do a "That was then....this is now" post. But, you know what, I have no current pictures of just the two of us. It seems I am always the one taking the pictures :) All I can find is a picture of these cuties...

I think they are pretty special too!!

Happy Valentines Day from our home to yours.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1Corinthians 13:4-8

Southbound on 35

We love to take trips. Chris and I are easily distracted by all the "stuff" that needs to be done at home and so we really enjoy taking some time to focus on family. For us, the best way to do that is to hit the road and get out of town. So, a couple of weekends ago we decided we were ready for a mini-vacation. To be honest, we really had no idea where we were going to go or what we were going to do. So, the night before we were scheduled to leave, we sat down at the computer and with a little Priceline magic, decided to head to Austin for a couple of days. Other than knowing where we would lay our heads that night, we had NO plan. I never knew that being spontaneous could be so fun!!

The first thing we did was check in at our awesome hotel. It was so nice and the kids really loved the glass elevators and the fact that our room was on the next to the top floor. I, on the other hand, did not like either of those....over the years I have become more and more afraid of heights. I am not sure why... Every time we came in and out of our room, my legs felt like Jello and I was constantly telling the kids to get away from the railing (it was an atrium hotel). Sorry kids, I just can't help myself!!

The kids in the lobby (oh how I loved the ground floor)

Our first destination after the hotel was actually the Texas State History Museum, which was so neat!! No cameras were allowed, which is a good thing since I forgot mine on that excursion anyway...For the first time, both kids truly enjoyed exploring a museum. Anna was particulartly intrigued as she is studying Texas History in 4th grade this year.

After a yummy dinner at Threadgills, we headed back to the hotel and made plans for Day 2. One of our favorite stops the next day was the Austin Childrens' Museum.

Alex playing some tunes

He was so cute in that hat, I could hardly stand it!

(maybe we should move to the country)

Anna creating a gourmet meal for me in the restaurant area of the museum.

A PICTURE STORY

Here we have Chris helping Alex make a drinking contraption in the creativity center at the museum.

Here we have Anna disgruntled as she watches Chris helping Alex. She feels strongly that her creation (made all by herself, with purple tape in the pic below) will not compare to what they are making...

And, finally we have Alex with his finished contraption. Which we tried out a WhichWich a little later and were so excited when it actually worked!

Anna's sorrow was short lived...here she is hanging like a bat in the Bat Cave at the museum.

THE END
(of the picture story)

Of course, we could not miss going to the Capitol. After breakfast at Starbucks on Congress (the barista made extra drinks for us to try...too fun!), we headed to the Capitol to do some exploring.

My hubby...so handsome!!

Anna reading about the first Texas flag.

(she loves museums)

We also happened upon this reenactment happening on the Capitol lawn.



My beautiful kiddos

All of us...together.

As referenced above, we ate lunch at WhichWich in downtown Austin. Anna needed to make a lasting mark in Longhorn land....

Here is her decorated sandwich bag, hung proudly on the wall.

Our day was winding down in Austin and we had planned to head back home. But, we were just so close to San Antonio that we could not help ourselves, we had to go see these sweet people...

Eating dinner on the Riverwalk with Ryan, Ash, Cate, Cara and Claire

We ended up spending night #2 in San Antonio (another great hotel on the cheap, thanks to Priceline). We thoroughly enjoyed knocking on Ryan and Ash's door and surprising the girls who had NO idea we were coming. We had such great fun! Big thanks to them for welcoming surprise visitors!

We are already looking forward to our next little trip and wondering where the road might take us.

Blessings on your week,