Run for Rotary 5K

Brian ran the Run for Rotary 5K around Brentwood High School this morning.

Yesterday the boys and I picked up his race packet and went out on the course and wrote some chalk messages for him (and the boys actually kept it a secret!).

Carter insisted on this exact message :)

When we got to the race this morning, the Chick-fil-A cow was making the rounds.  Carter was quick to point out that the cow beat Brian at the last race we saw him out.  This cow wasn't running though :)

The boys insisted all morning that Brian was going to win :)

Brian left us to warm up and we got out the signs we made before leaving the house.  Carter had insisted on that same long message (Go, Daddy, Go!  If you try your best, I think you can win!).

Looking at the flag during the singing of the National Anthem ...

The 10K race started at 8am and Brian's 5K started 15 minutes later.  He's in the center of this photo in the blue shorts ...

After watching the start, the boys and I went to Murray Lane to watch Brian go by.  Go, Daddy!

Then we went to where Granny White Park (which has one of our favorite playgrounds) and Brentwood High School meet up (and where we'd written Brian a bunch of chalk messages).  This is really close to the end of the race.

Brian did awesome!  He finished with a time of 26:56 (which is 8:41/mile pace).  He even won his age group and a medal.  All the age group winners had their picture taken with the Brentwood mayor and the boys went with Brian for his picture.

Carter was right - Brian tried his best and won!

The race was just the beginning of our crazy day of two soccer games, flu shots, and the Home Depot Kids Workshop!

18 Miles

I almost didn't make it today, but I somehow finished 18 miles.

I am ready for it to cool off.  I decided to do my long weekend run today while the boys were in school rather than take up a large portion of our Sunday (especially because Brian also has to do a long run that day for his half-marathon training).  But that meant I was running during the middle of the day and it got into the mid-80s today.  I ran with a water belt (so cool :) ) but ran out of water way quicker than I normally do.  I suffered the second half of my run and walked quite a bit.  But I finished, even if it was slowly.  When I got home, I weighed myself and I was 5 lbs lighter than in the morning!  No wonder I felt so horrible - I was REALLY dehydrated.  It may not have helped that I ran 12 miles on Sunday, 4 miles on Monday, and 9 miles on Tuesday.  But I did it!

I have a half-marathon race next weekend and a 20 mile run the following weekend.  Then it's just tapering off until the marathon.  Almost there!

Recent Pictures

On Monday I organized another playdate for Rylan's class at Crockett Park.  It was actually cool enough in the morning that the boys needed sweatshirts (one of only two mornings so far this fall).  I think 4 kids from Rylan's class showed up (Maddox, Jude, Colgan, & Maddie) as well as Rador and Caleb from his class last year.

Isn't this kid ridiculously cute with a backwards hat!?!?!

This frog is on our patio EVERY NIGHT when we take Charlotte out before bed.  It's been there for several months.  We've never seen it during the day though.

This is Carter's drawing that he did after chapel today at school. The Bible verse this week is "God Made Day and Night."  The sun is on the left and the moon and stars are on the right.

It is "D" week for Carter at school.  For show-and-tell today, Carter is bringing in pictures of "Daddy".

Yesterday afternoon the boys and I decorated our front yard for Halloween.

Seacrest, FL - Day 5

Our fifth day at Seacrest was a Wednesday and it started off sunny.  As usual, we began our day by going to the beach.  Luckily the boys were always willing to do the walk through our little neighborhood of cottages, across the little boardwalk, and down the steps.  And they both almost always walked all the way back to our house (we did have to carry Rylan part of the way a few times).

We made a sand sea turtle similar to the one we'd seen someone else do on an evening walk on the beach.

And we buried Brian!

Carter got into the hole once Brian got out and we buried him (he wanted out right away though - not his thing!).

The water still was not calm or clear, but we did our best to ignore the seaweed.

The boys used their alligator shovel to dig out clams.

Again, we filled the bottom of the bucket with them before throwing them back into the water.

After a few hours at the beach (and I think a little bit at the pool - it's been too long to remember!), we all cleaned up and had some down time at the house (it was most likely raining).  Rylan took his usual nap in the family room (at least this time it was on the couch!).

The dishwasher wasn't full enough to run yet but we'd run out of bowls so I used a wine glass for Carter's afternoon snack of ice cream with sprinkles.  He liked it :)

It was overcast with threatening thunderstorms but we decided to drive over to Panama City Beach to try some miniature golf.  We did an easy dinner at Five Guys and then drove to Coconut Creek.

We kept what we were doing a surprise and the boys were SO EXCITED when we got there.  This was their first time ever doing mini-golf (other than the tiny indoor course at Glow Galaxy where we had Carter's birthday party last year).

Carter took it very seriously!!!

He was really quite good too!

Rylan would just aggressively run after the ball that he hit and hit it again as soon as it slowed.  He was more sweeping the ball into the hole.  He had fun though and always kept the ball on the green (no crazy hard hits).

The course was a generic Putt-Putt type course with African animals and waterfalls.

The boys had a blast and were begging for more for days!

We stopped at one of the Panama City Beach piers before driving to our house and played on the beach for a little bit in the waining daylight.

The storm clouds in the distance were full of lightning.  There were wooden beach chairs on the beach that can be rented during the day so we relaxed on those for a bit and enjoyed the show.