Harvest Run

Today was race day! It was really foggy and a little wet but was perfect for the run, not too hot or cold. I'm not sure you can see too well in the picture but the leader on the bike had long pink hair and wings. At least it's halloween right!


I completed my first race and first 10k all in the same day! My time was 1:04:41. I beat my goal of doing it around 1:05 so I'm pretty happy considering I've never done this before. Micheal and Clayton ran with me at the end so that was fun too.

There were 6 sisters (including myself) from my ward that all trained and ran the 10k together. And...the Relief Society Pres. was there to cheer us on at the finish line and then ran the 5k herself. It was so great to do this with so many friends. We were there to keep each other moving and motivate each other to endure to the end. The bishop is a runner too so he said that he was really excited that we have a running group with lots of first timers, he says that once you get one race under your belt, you are hooked. We'll see...

I am glad that it was on Halloween morning because I finally have something orange and black to wear for halloween (I do not dress up) and I can eat chocolate tonight without guilt:)!

Tweetsie

Back in the summer, Micheal won 4 tickets to Tweetsie Railroad for doing such a great job reading. So last Saturday we traveled north to Boone, NC. Tweetsie is a small amusement park that has an original coal and steam engine that takes you for a ride through the Smokey Mountians/Blue Ridge. The boys got to ride on their first ferris wheel which happened to be at the top of the mountain so it felt really high, but the view was incredible! We intentionally saved the trip for the fall so that we could see all the fall colors. It was beautiful! The biggest downside was there wasn't much to keep Micheal and Clayton happy, they were to big for most of the rides that they wanted to ride on and too small(or sensitive to motion sickness) for the more exciting rides. Tanner, on the other hand, had a blast riding all by himself. There were tons of oldtime shops to check out and fun halloween decor thru out the entire park! We had a great time! Enjoy the slide show!

Booster-thon Funrun

Clayton's school did a really cool fundraiser this year. The kids were sponsored by family or friends to run laps (1/16th of a mile for each lap). All the money that was donated would go to their school and 10% of their donation would go to their classroom. Clayton was really excited about this because he was able to do something to help his school. We were really excited about it too because the kids were able to participate and they weren't selling crap to make us unhealthy or clutter our homes, the kids were running for their school! They made it fun for the kids with fun, loud music and an occasional theme lap to keep them energized. Each students goal was to run 30 laps, but Clayton shocked us all by running 41 laps! He was really proud of himself and we were so proud of him too! Great job Clayton!

Tanner is 4!

It is hard to believe that Tanner is now 4 years old! He has been so excited for his birthday this year. He is very proud to say that he is 4 now! Here are a few pictures from his birthday...





I had to post this picture because I think we all look hypnotized by the flame...just thought it was funny.

I will do a Tanner slideshow soon.

We Needed A Break!

Ok, since school started a couple of weeks ago we have been in overdrive. Our list of "things to do" has gotten out of hand. Between church responsibilities, church activities/meetings, work, housework, carpool, scouts, service projects, school projects, running, etc... our lives have been insane! We have not had one day in a month to just be together and Sept/Oct are looking the same so when everyone had the day off for Labor Day we reserved it to be a "family day" so we could just take a break from life and enjoy being together again. We decided to disappear (we even turned our phones off, and didn't check email that day), we did what we had to do to fight the chaos from consuming us. We had a homemade breakfast for the first time in almost a year, then drove 1 1/2 hours to a secluded zoo in Greenville, SC and just casually walked and talked and played.


Tanner was a kick that day.

Did you notice that Tanner isn't too close to the chicken pen? When he got dressed that morning, he came down and told us that he was wearing a belt so that the chickens wouldn't pull his pants down. We were so tickled by his seriousness that had to fight laughing. We had been to that zoo before but he was only 2 so we didn't think he would remember anything. He obviously remembered that there were chickens and they tried to peck his clothes, shoes and toenails.

Just outside the Greenville zoo was a huge playground with lots of fun things to play on. Some of them were very modern in design but to kids a playground is a playground.




Oh how I miss the simple life! How nice it was to just relax and take it slow!

Sunflowers!

These are our sunflowers. They have been one of my favorite things this summer because they have gotten so big so fast and they are colorful.

Because they are so tall we decided to name them Steve and Rich in honor of Jeremy's taller younger brothers. This a picture of Jeremy with one of sunflower plants (before it bloomed) so you have an idea of just how tall they are.

The Challenge

My wonderfully fun sister Diana is the most active person that I know. In fact, she is usually good at any sport that she trys. You never know how athletic you are until you can keep up with Diana. She told me a little over a week ago that she had taken a class that encourages you to set a challenging but attainable goal and then accomplish it in 90 days. Her goal is to run a 10k (6.2 miles). She has never run long distances before but has always wanted to try a 10k, especially since Jeremy and my sister-in-law Anissa have been running races. So to support her I told her that I would run a 10k too. We will be training until about mid October and then she will run her 10k in Arizona and I will run mine here in NC. Maybe when I go out to Arizona for Christmas we can run one together. That would be fun! I've needed an extra excuse to keep running and to sign up for a race. This was the perfect "challenge" for us to do together and I am excited to see what happens. Wish us luck!