BIG PLAYDATE

We were pleasantly surprised to see lots of our buddies at the park today, including Leo and Manu and Will and David ("John Baby", as my kids are calling him, David's new baby brother, was at home with grandma). 

Good times were had by all, and we stayed for over 2.5 hours!

TOMORROW WE DASH!

They added two more obstacles (bringing the total to 14) to the Mississippi Warrior Dash. We'll be doing Road Rage, Rubber Ricochet, Teetering Traverse, Barricade Breakdown, Chaotic Crossover, The Trenches, Storming Normandy, Great Warrior Wall, Cargo Climb, Vertical Limit, Tipsy Tightrope, Deadweight Drifter, and the Warrior Roast and Muddy Mayhem to end the race. More mud crawling, but one less climbing walls (sweet)! And now the first obstacle is near the start, rather than 1 mile into the race, so we won't have any long running stretches (instead we'll have more "breaks" as we wait our turn at the obstacles every 1/8-1/4 mile... since there are 500 runners per wave, there are bound to be bottlenecks everywhere, especially at the first few obstacles).

We've got a full change of clothes, extra water for washing off mud, some towels, and trash bags to store our dirt-laden running clothes in until we get home all stashed in the car, and the kids are pumped to be spending the day with Coltin and Emma. We're excited, we're nervous, and we're ready to get muddy! Wish us luck!

GEARING UP

We're nerds. We DID, in fact, make matching shirts to wear to the Warrior Dash this weekend. We chose white in order to most effectively demonstrate our filth by the end of the race. Have I mentioned that it rained 2.5" here the other day? And they had to move event parking to the coliseum and implement shuttles due to a mud pit parking lot? It's going to be AWESOME!

So, do we leave them as-is? Or add a team name (so far, we haven't come up with or heard any ideas that we love)? Or add some text to the back of the shirt? Perhaps "Like a Survivor reward challenge, except everyone gets a beer at the end"? Only 38.5 hours until race time...

LOCKED UP

SPLASHIN' IN THE WOODS

Oh my how lovely it was to have a spring weather reprise this weekend!

Accordingly, we headed out to the creek for some splashing and sunning...

Will and a couple of his trucks:

Leo rocking his do-rag and green fluffy bum:

Going to the creek with a group of scientists was awesome for the kiddos.

Jay caught a minnow:

Al caught a crawfish:

Hoping for her own fish capture...

There were also captures of caterpillars and stinkbugs and a variety of flies that caused Al to determine Little Sand Creek to be a healthy stream. Hooray for safe swimming water for the kiddos!

(Cute new swimsuits courtesy of Gramma's Easter goody bag!)

Oh boy, did we ever have a nice spot on a little sandbar:

The kids did so well, and lasted much longer than any of us expected. We didn't leave the creek until 1.5 hours after their usual naptime. The little hike back to the cars definitely finished wearing them out though.

Well, actually, Cora was asleep as soon as I crossed the creek and took a few steps into the woods:

James lasted until after the poison ivy prevention foot washing though.

Thank you SO much Kennedy and Sanchez crews, we had an awesome day and love that we can all just pack up and take the kids out for such fun adventures! Until next time...

"I'M IN A BOAT! I'M FLOATING!"

Another perfect afternoon for swimming (for the kids) and yardwork (for Jay - don't worry, my job was the sunroom and kitchen, I didn't get off scott-free with a cocktail or anything).

While rinsing off our old makeshift sensory bin, James asked to have it in the pool. Jay obliged. It became a boat:

And apparently the Tonka truck holds water. Who knew?

PI RUN 2012

This morning I ran my first "Pi" run. Just over a 5K at 3.14 miles.

(And no, I have NO IDEA why they didn't run this event last month on 3/14)

Sandy, Me, and Sophie before the race:

This Pi run was actually the Run Thru WES, an annual ~5k run put on by the Castle Club and hosted by ERDC (or WES, as it is formerly known). We ran a loop around station (where we work) that involved going up 2 hills, around the goose pond, and past our new office building. It was a good race, but I definitely didn't train as well for it as I did for the 10K last month, because I was TIRED through most of it and kept running out of breath. So I walked a bit. But even so, I managed to beat what the McMillian Running Calculator predicted for me (31:41) by coming in at an unofficial 31:26, equivalent to 10:01/mile. So, about 30 seconds faster per mile than I ran in the 10K. Even with shin splints for the past month and a half, and the resulting reduced training and mileage, I improved! Hopefully that means with a lot of hard work this summer, I'll be running significantly faster and longer distances by fall.

The start of the race (yes, it was a small group, about 40-50 runners):

While us ladies raced, the men nursed injuries (plantar fasciitis for Jay and a bad back for Alex) and kept the kids entertained with mock races and rock climbing:

And guess what? Sophie got SECOND place! Way to go Sophie!!

The medal is really pretty, with the ERDC castle on front and a winged shoe on back. Leo was particularly fascinated by it. There was also a raffle, in which I won Girl Scout Cookies, so I didn't go home empty handed ;-)

JAMES' 3-YEAR PORTRAITS: TAKE 1

While his grandparents were visiting in early March, we took James to his usual photoshoot location (at the top of the hill overlooking the river in the military park cemetery) to take his 3-year portraits. He was being SO good, smiling and posing for us. Then he fell backward off the bench, hitting his head and elbow (hard!), long before we were done with the photoshoot, and we had to cut it short. Then we cut off all his hair a couple days later and regretted it, since we had a feeling we were going to need a second portrait session. We're still considering doing a second photoshoot, but he sure will look different, all grown up with his short hair!

Anyway, here are our two favorite shots from photoshoot #1:

And just for fun, here are a couple of comparisons to photoshoots of years past:

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

Yeah, so... we did NOT put her up there...

JEEPIN' AND FISHIN'

We had one last adventure on this trip: a visit to Uncle Doug's farm!

After the egg hunt, we headed over for a Jeep ride around the property and some fishing. The kids LOVED the Jeep. James remembered it from last time, when we were there in December, but Cora had napped through that trip to the farm, so she missed out.

She squealed and giggled and talked about the "bumpy bumpy" and "bouncy 'deep", then promptly fell asleep in my arms, bumps and bounces and all...

James nearly fell asleep himself...

But once the ride was over, it was time to go fishing! Uncle Gerald and Uncle Doug and Daddy helped James set up some poles and wait for a bite. The cane pole turned up the first fish (a sunfish), and we called it James' catch. He was mighty, mighty proud!

Next time Pawpaw comes to Mississippi the boys will have to go find a pond or lake to spend the morning at. I was amazed at how interested (and mostly patient) James was the whole time (far more interested and patient than I am when it comes to fishing!) - we had to peel him away from the dock when it was time to go!

WADDELL EGG HUNT

In order to keep GG from getting overwhelmed or tiring her out by checking her out of rehab for an adventure, we brought the ENTIRE family to her. Throughout the rest of the weekend, people took turns visiting so that we weren't all there at once, but a Sunday afternoon egg hunt was a perfect excuse to get the whole gang together for some fun and family photos. Jill and Jonathon brought 250 eggs! For SEVEN kids of hunting age (the teenagers were obviously not interested in hunting, though they did set it up, and MacKenzie helped Cora find eggs - thanks MacKenzie!)

See the eggs hanging from the tree? They were EVERYWHERE!

And they're off!

While the big kids headed right, Cora went left, so she had a whole field of eggs all to herself for a while. That didn't deter her from taking snack breaks though...

Our babies are so precious!

In fact, the whole gang is pretty darn cute. We were amazed by how grown up the Willis kids are. Especially Marvin. We hadn't seen them in over a year, and he's definitely become a man. Julia impresses us constantly with her poise and intelligence. Miss MacKenzie is growing too fast! My little flower girl is not so little anymore, but just as gorgeous as ever! Tanner and Kate were sweet as always, and we loved Kate's missing front teeth. Wyatt kept us on our toes, as usual, and it's been so long since we've seen Carter and Skylar that we barely recognized them. They are one awesome pair of siblings, and our kids loved them to pieces! Pretty sure the feeling was mutual too!

GG looked so pretty in her Easter outfit!

By this point the kids were done with the photoshoot, but we still needed a family portrait, so we handed over their Color Bubbles to stem the tears. Maybe we'll get smiles next time...

Hope everyone had as nice an Easter as we did!