Easter 2012

 Happy Belated Easter!  I hope everyone was able to spend time with their friends and families as we were able to do.

It was a really wonderful (and exhausting) day for us, but we would not have had it any other way.

This first picture was not taken on Easter, in fact it was taken a few weeks ago as I quietly panicked about what was wrong with my camera.

My dear friend Christina, came to the rescue and it is now fixed.  At some point, I set it to use the top left focus point instead of the center so basically everything I wanted in focus most certainly was not.

 These blooms were gone the next day after the rain took them all away for the year.  They literally appear over a matter of days and then leave in a matter of hours.  Fascinating!

 

 The rest of these pictures are from Easter Sunday.  

We went to the early service, then to breakfast while we waited for the butterfly release for the kids.  After breakfast,we had a few minutes to kill so we took L to the playground.

This was the result. 

 

 Once she had gotten her fill of the sandbox, we walked to the other side of the church to see the butterflies.

  

 And the obligatory picture with her daddy.  This picture looks identical to the one I posted thought I posted a few weeks ago.  They have the same facial expressions and everything.

  

 Once we arrived home and Lauren napped did not nap, I decided to head outside to see if I could get some better pictures.  I'd spent her entire 30 minute non-nap fixing the problem.  I'm still giddy that it didn't require a ton of cash and a trip back to Canon to resolve.

 

Yodeling.  She loves making noises with her mouth.  Please note the presence of Tonka in the background.  He was plotting his plan of attack.

 

Stopping to smell the flowers.

Where's Tonka?

 

 Ahhh, there he is!  Plan of attack completed.  Easter basket captured!

He was in total play mode as he ran laps through the yard with the basket in his mouth.  There is still a lot of puppy in this 4 year old!

Still running....

.

Taking a break under the tree and daring us to retrieve the basket from his grasp.

Meanwhile, someone is none too happy about this situation.

All in all, it was a great Easter for our family.  I'm so very thankful that we are in the place we are in now rather than where we were just 3 short years ago.

The Climb

If you have a really good memory and have been reading this blog for 3+ years, then you know I actually admitted to liking The Climb by Mylie Cyrus at one point.

For the record, I still like that song.  It applies to my life both mentally and physically all the time it seems.

This weekend, it was physically.  

The Cooper River Bridge Run has been on my "to run" list for a few years now.  

On Saturday, I stood in my corral along with my sister-in-law while we endured a 1 hour delay for the start of the race.

It was a little nerve wracking but not too bad.  At the end of the day, I still really enjoyed the race.

 

I'd been told by many that this was a fun race and not a PR race, so I did my best to stick with that thought process.

Around 9:15am (maybe even later), our corral finally crossed the timing mat for the start of the race.  I never even turned my Runkeeper app on to see how I was doing but decided to run by how I felt based on the advice I'd received.

I felt great!  

Mile one took us up and over the tiny (in comparison) Shem Creek bridge and then down hill all the way to the bottom of this monster.

 

Mile 2 is at the bottom of this bridge and mile 3 is at the top.  A 1 mile climb.  It wasn't bad at all.  Long but not steep and I just kept on running until I reached the top.  It was literally all downhill to the finish from there.

Mile 4.5 is at the bottom of the bridge and from there you run through downtown to the finish.

The crowd support was amazing!  I still felt great all the way through the finish which takes me to the Tarheel 10 miler in a good place mentally.

My only complaint was that due to the late start, it did start getting too warm for my preference when it comes to running but being a short(er) race it really didn't play a factor.

Chip time: 1:11:43.  I truly arrived at the finish still thinking maybe I had a PR but it wasn't even close.  Apparently, cruising past a bunch of walkers makes you feel like you are running fast but nope it was my typical 11:30 minute/mile.  Yuck.

On to the next race!

5 Years of Wedded Bliss

5 Years!

  What better to do than explore a portion of the wonderful wines North Carolina has to offer?

We headed out to visit 6 local vineyards along with our friends who just happen to share the same anniversary.

They like us so much they made us part of their life plan.  We are that cool. Yep.

It was really a great time.  Not only did we take some wonderful wines for a test drive but we also had some great food along the way.

Napa Valley/Sonoma are on my perpetual "to do" list but we truly have some wonderful wines here in the great state of NC.

After you try all the wines on for size you may just end up taking pictures of yourself on a well?  Not you?  Ok then maybe just me.

Do your vineyards have Llamas?  No?  Ok then.

Hmmmm, maybe NC isn't so bad after all :)

And I'm almost out of wine.  Time for another trip!

Beer Run

My running buddy and I goofing off before it was time to line up for the race.  

*Please excuse the cheesetastic smile on my face.*

Overall, this was a really fun race that I plan on doing again next year.

It was a little warmer than anyone imagined it would be for a 5.2 mile race in March.  The high temp reached 78 degrees with a humidity of 78%.  It was warm, humid, and sunny which all combine for a beautiful day as long as you have not planned to run hills at 3pm.

About those hills.  According to Runkeeper, the total elevation gain was 293.  Lots of hills.  Rolling hills, long hills, and every so often a downhill.

And we were off.....

The plan was to run together as long as possible. 

My paces were mess.  The only mile I was really happy with was the first one.  Mile 2 wasn't bad.  Miles 3-4 were when the wheels starting falling off. As the number of hills grew larger and the temperatures climbed so did my paces.

12+ minutes miles.  Where did that come from?!?

Final time was 59:28 for 5.2 miles.  An overall pace of 11:31.  Incidently, this is about 2 seconds per mile slower than my pace at RNR Savannah back in November.  It is also slower than I've been running as of late so I'm blaming this one on the heat and the hills.

All of that aside, I felt like I ran a solid race but it was tough.

Next up...Cooper River!

	Pace (min/mi)
	10:26
	11:16
	12:07
	12:13
	11:40
	12:09

Pigtails and Personality

This little lady is 17 months old!

She is bubbling over with personality.

We can now ask her for a hug and she comes over to give it to us which I just find adorable!  Who cares if all 27 inches of her are hugging my knees.

I'm also loving that she understands when we ask her to do stuff now and DOES IT!  This is awesome.  The word NO is surely right around the corner but for now we are soaking it up.

Lauren, please take out the trash.  Done.  I never knew just how much it would come in handy to have a toddler around to help with household chores.

A word explosion also appears to be on the horizon.  Just today, she spotted a couple walking in our neighborhood and said "who is that" in toddler talk.  I could have misunderstood but this has been happening a lot lately so I think she is actually starting to pick up more words.

The other day when I asked her where Tonka was, she said over there pretty clearly as well while also looking in his direction.

She definitely doesn't say these things all the time but we can really tell her little mind is hard at work.

Right now, her independence is really fun.  I just love being able to have her help do stuff like get herself down the steps and into the car each morning with beside her instead of carrying her.

It will be fun to see what month 18 has in store!