Sweet Home Alabama!

Last Friday Grant and I headed to Tuscaloosa, AL to visit some of our best friends! Emily moved last July, I can't believe its almost been a year.  Im so happy they've established such a great life in AL, it makes it even better when we visit! Don't get me wrong "My blood runs orange" but the atmosphere in Tuscaloosa and the loyalty of the University is invigorating! 

Naturally my pictures are ALL KINDS of out of order, I have no idea why, esp when I spent a good 20 minutes selecting them cautiously. Whatever, I will tell you about my trip and you can figure it out, or just click on Emily's blog (Bama Mama) to the right of my page!

We got there earlier than I thought on Friday and got to have lunch with Emily, Nate and Abby!  We ate and the kids played and then we headed back for "naps".  Lets just say that Abby is the only one that napped!  After that, Emily blew up their bouncy house and they went to town!  One of the things I loved most about this trip (other than the obvious of getting much needed gal time) was seeing how much our kids missed each other.  Grant and Abby had "Lovefest 2012" and Nate and Grant never even fussed at each other!  

After playing hard for a while, we came in and Em cooked a delicious meal and then we headed out for a super fun treat, Summer Snow.  I wouldn't call it an "icey" but its not a snow cone either.. its a good mix, whatever you call it, its delish!  After that we went back to their house and got the kids down for bed and Greg was kind enough to stay with all the kids and let Emily and I go out.  We went to an Irish Pub and had a couple of drinks and talked for THREE HOURS!  There wasn't one silent moment.  We were each trying to get in 2 months of things we'd missed!  I think we could've stayed longer but ya know... it was midnight and I was three hours passed bedtime!  Not to mention, Grant got up at 530 the next morning, sheesh!

Saturday, we got up (Well.. I had to go to Starbucks and get a Grande coffee to wake me up), Em made another great meal and we headed off to the Farmers Market.. can I just say I was in HEAVEN! I could've spent a ton of money there.  Nothing makes me happier than supporting the locals and getting fresh produce!  I stocked up and then we went for a small walk!  After that we took the kids to a park to play and then lunch at Rama Jama's.  I've seen this place on TV, very unique and "famous" to the campus, known for their yummy (greasy!!) food and shakes!  MAN it was good!! 

After eating I knew it was not gonna be an easy task, but I packed up our stuff and we got in the car.  Grant cried and to be honest, I was sad too, I was not ready to come home, we love it there and its always nice being with close friends!  Thank you Emily for having us, we miss you guys TERRIBLY and we love coming to visit! :) 

 Grant in the Ironman costume (He's STILL talking about this)

 Lovefest 2012 begins here!

 Ahh.. now I remember why we're such good friends! Beer WITH A LIME :) Love her!

 Seriously? Is she not the most beautiful thing EVER!

 Dance Central!  The kids were hysterical!

 Check out Grants hip sway!

 Im not sure what was funnier, watching Abby "raise the roof" or watching Nate watch himself in the TV! HYSTERICAL!

 Grant "table dancing"

 Oh yes.. Mama's on the loose!

 I love this picture... I'd say "Abby can you smile for me" and this is what she'd do!

 Here is the picture of the "Summer Snow"

 Oh... sheesh.. I failed to mention at the park there was a zipline for the kids!  I was pumped, I love zip lining so I hopped right on!

 Emily couldn't resist!

Ahh.. such an awesome trip and I miss seeing these two faces and hearing them laugh and play "Super Hero".  Thank God for good friends! :)

Mother's Day!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! This year we went to Pulaski to my Granny and Grandpa's house to celebrate! It was so much fun, we all brought a dish and just hung out.  I don't have pictures of our meal or before eating but after eating we had ice cream!  Cole CAN NOT and I do mean CAN NOT stand to be left out of anything!  Look at his sweet face when I gave him his ice cream!

 This picture of Grant makes me laugh, he has some of the best facial expressions!

 This may be my new ALL TIME favorite picture.  Anyone who knows anything about my Grandpa is how the man can consume some ice cream!  HE ADORES ice cream, any kind!  When little Tol saw Gpa's plate he sd "DANG thats a lot of ice cream Grandpa", LOVE IT!  Isn't he precious?

 WHO LOVES ICE CREAM?????  Cole does! (he raises his hand and says "MEEEE")

 We had all the boys peel their shirts while eating ice-cream, I figured it was easier than getting the stains out and naturally they wanted to leave them off, esp when Tol started wrestling with them.

 Again.. Cole can't be left out!

 He wasn't in to dog piling the little kids, he went straight to Daddy!

 Then, my little Dennis the Menace kept crawling up on Granny's coffee table, standing up and dying laughing!

 I love this picture!!!!!!!

 The kids were ready to play outside and they didn't care if it was raining so we put them in swim trunks and let them ride in the rain! So fun.

 While the outside play was going on, so was this!

We had a wonderful day and a big thank you to Granny and My Mom for making it so wonderful! Without them my life wouldn't be so wonderful!

See Spot Run

 I am happy to announce that my friend, Leah, and I have completed our 1st 5K race!  I have never  been a runner, nor have I ever enjoyed running but I have to say, after doing this race, I completely change my mind!  When we started running together I hated running on that blasted treadmill and could not wait until my time was up, but there is something about being outside, with a friend, in a real race that is a RUSH!

We both knew that we wouldn't reach our intended goal due to Leah having shin splints and me getting bronchitis just days before the race.  I was bound and determined I was running, I had trained too hard not to go!  So Andrew and Leah picked me up bright and early Saturday morning and off we went!  Leah and I were both sooo excited!

 We felt so official after getting our numbers!

 I have to say, I am SO PROUD of us!  We had joked that we may be last but we were running that race, by golly!  And boy did we, we ran it in 35 mins and 40 seconds, just five mins shy of our intended goal.. and that was with a hurt leg and clogged lungs!  WOOHOO!!!!!  Leah placed 11th in her age group (sorry I forgot how many there were total but there was a lot) and I placed 7th out of 23! Not bad for the first time!  Here we are proud after our race!  And for the record, the reason we don't look hot and sweaty was because we had waited an hour for the results!

 And a big shout out to Andrew who one a "trophy", a hammer, for placing 2nd in his age group.  I do believe he finished in less than 22 mins!  WAY TO GO!

So fun and I can't wait to run my next race!