Half Marathon No. 4

Today I completed my 4th half marathon. Having done a marathon, I am grateful to finish the race at 13.1 miles. 26.2 was so taxing on my body and quite time-consuming. I love that my body doesn't feel dead after a half marathon, but 13 miles is still enough of a stretch that it's something to work towards.

My last half marathon time was 1:52:13 or an 8:34 mile pace. My goal each time I run a half is to improve on my previous time. 3 weeks ago when I ran the distance of a half marathon, I finished in 1:49 so I was only praying that I could do as well today. Today I had the run I've always longed for but have never had. Between cramping or bathroom issues, something has always come up to prevent me having a really good run on race day. So in the past I have been disappointed with the race simply because I knew that I could have done better. Today, I felt so good almost the entire time. Around mile 10 I started having some side cramps so that mile was my slowest at 8:32. My fastest miles were #1 at 7:55 and mile #12 at 7:05. My overall average was 8:15 mile pace and I finished at 1:48:05. I felt really good after finishing and definitely could have continued running for a little longer. I felt good enough to play doubles tennis for 2 hours an hour after I finished!

While I was running, the kids were having a great time doing some of this:

waiting in line to get on the inflatable slide,

hugging this dog,

and following this cookie around. (Carter kept saying, "cookie, cookie.")

After the race. (Matt didn't get any pictures of me running.)

It was such a thrilling day knowing that I had such an awesome race. I've never run that fast for that many miles ever! Running is so invigorating, and as always I'm so grateful for my husband's support in this "crazy" thing I love, according to him.

Bridal Showers

These are my girls from high school. Abby, Leticia, and I have been friends since elementary school, then we met up with Miranda and Nicole in middle school choir. We did 6 years of choir together! Of course we had a nickname for ourselves--the Fab 5.

Nicole is getting married in March and Miranda is getting married in April. Abby is due with her first baby--a boy--in April. And Leticia will be starting as an assistant professor at Georgetown this fall! We've all gone our separate ways, but it's fun to keep in touch every once in awhile.

Abby, Miranda, me, Leticia, Nicole

Valentine's Day

We celebrated our Valentine's together the weekend after by going to Fleming's. Fortunately we had a gift card to this very expensive restaurant, but it was a lot of fun to eat out nice and enjoy a delicious steak. Plus the yummy chocolate molten lava cake to top it off!

I think Valentine's is a nice excuse for a couple to genuinely show they love each other, sometimes with more effort than they regularly do throughout the year. I always enjoy brainstorming a clever way to surprise Matt each year! Matt knows me well and as long as I get some chocolate and a foot massage, I'm a happy girl. :o)

Basketball Game

One of the perks of Matt's job is getting tickets to go to sports events. Although the Rockets aren't having a great year, it's still fun to go to a game. We went with my brother and sister-in-law who came down for a quick visit.

Kara, the fabulous photographer and new mommy to baby Ellery

Pictures

While my sister-in-law was in town for Christmas, she snapped some family pictures. It was so fun to have everyone here for Christmas this year.

The whole family

Just the girls

All the boys

My cutie pies

Other shots when we were taking pictures for our Christmas cards

I love these boys!

My sweet Caleb

Annual Aquarium Trip

Caleb has been asking when we can go to the Aquarium since last year it seems. We look forward to this yearly field trip with preschool. The last two years Matt has been able to take the day off work. We love having him with us!

Riding the train

The carousel remains a popular favorite!

Christmas Festivities

My parents must have been in heaven this Christmas as we had the whole family gathered together. It was so good to see Lindsey and Derrick who just got married about 6 months ago, as well as Clayton and Kara with their darling little girl, Ellery. My elder brother moved to the Netherlands about 4 months ago from living 10 minutes away from us, so we were so excited to have them back for Christmas. Cousins have definitely missed each other!

I failed at taking pictures of everything, but we enjoyed a nice dinner together. Our Christmas Eve traditions always involve acting out the Nativity story in Luke 2, chimes, and White Elephant.

Here are Gavin and Carter as wise men

Sammy as Mary and Dallin as Joseph

Drew was an angel, and Caleb wanted to be a shepherd.

Grandma and Grandpa's gift to Carter. He can't quite reach the pedals, but he still loves to ride it.

A new tradition we're going to continue. Matt and I played this game at a Christmas party we attended this year and loved it, so we introduced it to my family. A pair of dice are passed around; if someone rolls doubles, he/she has the opportunity to "dress-up" in winter clothes and attempt to open a present in the middle of the circle. It's a lot of fun!

Caleb and Carter on Christmas morning opening their stockings. Carter got a stuffed Elmo that he is quite attached to. It goes everywhere with him. A few weeks ago he caught some sort of stomach bug and the only things that made him happy were watching an Elmo movie we have or Tangled. He's especially obsessed with Tangled for whatever reason.

Caleb's big present this year. It's a little too complicated for him to build all on his own, so Matt and I have enjoyed creating marble runs. Caleb will sit there for quite awhile continuing to feed marbles and watch them go down.

Carter's big present was a little car ramp and cars.

More chunky Legos to make big towers.

Caleb and Dallin made a gingerbread house together one night, and then enjoyed eating it! I love Gavin's face in this picture. He seems mesmerized by all the yummy things in front of him!

It was so nice to spend so much time with family. There were lots of nights staying up late and playing games--our favorite thing to do. We did some Spades, Canasta, Bang!, Ticket to Ride, and lots of Dominion. We even went Black Light Miniature Golfing all together. So fun! I don't feel it was necessarily a relaxing Christmas vacation however. With finishing making Christmas projects, planning preschool, and church responsibilities weighing over me, there was no time to do my most favorite thing on a "vacation." Read! Everything else trumped reading time, but memories created with spending time with family are definitely more important!