The Nashville Country Music Half Marathon

On Thursday Shersti, Dana and I packed the car, left the hubbies and kiddos at home, and headed to Nashville for the weekend! Friday we picked up our race packets, walked around the Fitness Expo, and hit the town to do some touristy stuff.
First stop: A Nashville classic, The Wild Horse Saloon for some lunch.

Next stop: The Country Music Hall of Fame. Which turned out to be a disappointment, and I'm even a fan of country music. It was overpriced and there was not much that interested me. I did take a picture of my favorite thing at the Hall of Fame which is this super cool dress that was worn by Carrie Underwood. Wow! That's a lot of dress!

For dinner we carb loaded at Macarroni Grill then headed back to our hotel to get a good night sleep for what lay ahead of us on Saturday morning . . .

The Nashville Country Music Marathon

35,000 runners cross the starting line with wind, rain, thunder, lightning, hail, and tornadoes in the forecast.
YeeHaw!
Despite the possibility of nasty weather we were happy to be there and ready to run 13.1 miles!

The spectators had all sorts of funny signs like this one that said,

"RUN TO BEAT THE RAIN!"

Another of my favorites was,

"RUN LIKE A TORNADO IS COMING!"

And sure enough just as we crossed the finish line the rain came! Unfortunately, that meant a lot of runners did not get to finish their race since everyone was pulled off the course due to the severe weather. It's not every race you get a medal and they tell you not to hold it to close to your body because of the lightning! Many of the full marathon runners were only allowed to complete a half marathon, and others were pulled off the course at mile 20 or 22. I can't even imagine how frustrating that would have been! To train so hard, to get so close, and to not be allowed to finish.

Anyway, we finished the half marathon in 2 hours and 43 minutes. That's an avgerage of 12.4 minutes per mile. It really was a great experience and I would run another half marathon again. I liked the challenge, but didn't feel like it was too extreme. It was a fabulous girls weekend away! Thanks to John and Matt for watching the kids so us girls could play!

Birthday Boys!

Porter and my nephew Boston, were born just a week apart from each other. We thought it would be fun to celebrate their first birthdays together!

Gabe is a big helper when it comes to opening presents!

Luckily, Porter doesn't care . . . yet.

Happy Birthday Boston and Porter!

Birthday Boy!

We celebrated Porter's birthday twice while we were in Utah. This is the party we had with John's family. Unfortunately, by the time we got around to serving the little guy his cake it was past his bedtime and he was tired. As you can tell by the pictures he was not a happy camper and didn't want much to do with his birthday cupcake : ( However, we still had a nice evening with the fam. Matt and Andra had us over for a super yummy dinner before the party. And as always, it was nice to just visit and spend time with family that we don't get to see very often!

Happy Birthday Porter!

Chicken?

So my mom has chickens. Most of them live in the backyard, but there is this one special lady who gets to come inside. This one chicken had been attacked by dogs and while she was recovering she stayed in my mom's laundry room. Well, now she thinks that she needs to lay her eggs in the laundry room and not the chicken coop. So everyday when it's time for her to lay her egg she'll peck at the back door until my mom lets her inside to lay her egg.

Gabe waiting for the chicken to do her thing.

Jessica and Porter wait too.

No pressure for the chicken I'm sure!

Gabe reaches under the chicken . . .

Holy cow !(or should I say chicken) It's an egg!

Pretty cool stuff.

St. George

While we were in Utah we went to St. George for 5 days with my mom's side of the family to celebrate my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. We stayed in this awesome vacation home that comfortably slept all 35 of us, had an indoor and outdoor pool, hot tub, air hockey, fuse ball, ping pong, theater, sand volleyball, fire pit, you name it this place had it! It was so fun to have such an amazing place where we could stay all together, have fun, and just enjoy being together as a great big family! Here's some of the fun we had!



Goofy Emma!



Gabe and Aunt Jenny in the hot tub.


Jessica taking care of Porter


A bunch of the kids chilling and watching a movie. Yes, my son is the one watching the movie while wearing swimming goggles . . .


While we were in St. George, John ended up with strep throat and an ear infection. This is him not feeling good and babysitting Porter at the same time.


While John and I were at the InstaCare getting antibiotics Philip jumped into the pool to rescue a floundering Gabe. Fortunately, Gabe was fine. He tends to freak out in the water and gets himself into trouble sometimes. (Remember the failed swimming lessons from last summer?) Unfortunately, Philip had his $600 phone in his pocket when he went into the pool. Philip says the phone is okay, however, $600 would have been a small price to pay - so thanks Philip for saving our Gabe!


Taylor and Amanda. Thanks Tay for chauffeuring my family there, back, and all around! We really appreciated it and enjoyed the extra time we got to spend with you!

Zion National Park

Super Megan takes on Lily, Gabe, and Kohler

Red Rock Hiking in St. George

Porter takes it all in.


Carly, Adyson, and Gabe


Gabe with Aunt Jenny and Boston


Edson, Lewis, John, and Porter


Grandpa and Grandma and my boys


My crazy brother.


Cute kids! Gabe, Carly, and Lexi