Murfreesboro Half Marathon

A few weekends ago Chris ran the Murfreesboro Half Marathon. For those of you who aren't familiar with running, that's 13.1 miles... I am not sure why anyone would want to run that much, but over 1700 people took part.

Chris wanted me to take him to the starting line the morning of the race, so I decided that since I had to get up REALLY early I would volunteer to help with the race.Their first suggestion was for me to give out packets to the runners... at 5:00 in the morning. I kindly asked for something a little closer to my house and not quite so early. I ended up on one of the corners of Maney ave. keeping cars off the course. Sounds like a simple task, but some people were very, very rude about it. They thought we should stop all the runners just to let them through. I did get to wear a not so cool neon yellow vest and use an orange flag, I felt very important.I watched closely to try and catch a picture of Chris. The runners had to run down Maney to Oakland's Mansion, then back up to Main Street. He passed my station at approximately mile 4 and mile 6 and I got to see him (and take pictures) both times. After all the runners had passed my post for the second time, I walked over to the finish line at the MTSU track. Chris finished the race in 2 hours 17 minutes.

Sorry Josh I just couldn't resist...

Here is Josh sporting his work uniform and a party hat from Alexander's Birthday party. We were kind of afraid he might forget to take the hat off when he got to work!!

Happy 2nd Birthday... continued

Alexander turned 2 this week. A short 17 days after Samuel and Sydney were born, Alexander came quickly into this world! Chris and I made a very quick trip to NC when Stephanie was induced and we made it just in time. Not long after we arrived Alexander was here!! It is so hard to believe that was two years ago. Here are a few pictures from his Thomas the Train Birthday Party:

The birthday boy...
Where is everybody??
All of the presents!

Thomas the Train is Alexander's new favorite thing right now, he loved all of the decorations and the cake!
The cake was yummy!!
Alexander didn't like his party hat too much, but we managed to get a picture (thanks to some help from Josh!)
He loved playing with the balloons; he would hit, throw, and lay on them.
He got a singing birthday card! He opened it and closed it over and over so he could listen to it...

He loved his new bike from Mimi and Paps!!
ALL of the kids wanted in on the presents. Alexander did a good job of sharing!
Alexander loves to read, so Chris and I got him this neat 2-in-1 book. You can read one side, then flip it over and find a different book.
One of his favorite toys was a battery powered Thomas the Train from Craig, Christa, and the kids. Here is a video of him playing and dancing to the song it plays:

Chris absolutely loves the dance he does at the beginning of this video!!

Happy Birthday Alexander!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Congratulations to my sister and Matt on their first anniversary today! This is what we were doing at this time last year:

If you want to reminisce and look at the picture, click on the link above and look at her blog.

Love you both!
Nat

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Samuel and Sydney had their 2nd birthday at the end of August. It is so hard to believe they are already 2. I can still remember when we got the call about Christa being pregnant with twins, Chris and I had only been married a couple of months.
Sydney was very excited and enjoyed opening her presents (and getting so much attention!)
Samuel was very tired and did not care about his presents too much. He finally got down and played with his new car. (see below)
Sydney was so excited about her car that she opened some of her presents while she was in it.
Samuel got some new Superman pajamas! They were probably his favorite present, you will see why later...
Since Sydney got done opening her presents before Samuel, we sang 'Happy Birthday' and let her blow out her candles first. She actually kept the princess crown on the whole time.
Next was Samuel's turn, doesn't he look so grown up??Sydney was using a spoon in one hand and a fork in the other... she really doesn't want us to know if she is going to be left or right handed.
Both of the kids got a cabbage patch baby and were riding them around in their cars.
Sydney got a cell phone and has evidently seen someone talk on one while they were driving. (I think she was calling Superman)
Superman showed up and with his super-human strength cleared out the traffic jam!I think Samuel and Sydney both really enjoyed their party, and most of all the presents!

Stayed tuned, this post is to be continued...

Karate

These are a few pictures from my karate class. My dad is in the class with me, but he is currently on the DL (disabled list) and can't participate, so he took pictures. This was at the beginning of August when I got my orange belt. This is our instructor, Mr. Vandiver, he is a great person (and instructor).
Me, warming up with a few kicks. Please do not pay attention to the look on my face... I was sick with allergy and sinus stuff. I felt awful and couldn't breathe which is the reason my mouth is open in almost every picture.
Throwing some round house kicks...
Sometimes we get tortured and have to do things like wall sits or sprints.The rest of the pictures are from my test, I had to do three katas in front of everyone, first basic, second basic, and pinan nidan.I am taking a class this semester and it interferes with karate. I am not happy about having to miss one class a week, hopefully next semester I will be able get back.

Camping!

Chris and I went camping at the beginning of August. It is something we wish we had more time to do because we both really enjoy it! I am sure you are thinking, "The beginning of August?? Wasn't it too hot??" We the answer is no! We actually both got cold in the middle of the night.
Saturday morning we made our way to Fall Creek Falls State Park in hopes of seeing, you guessed it, waterfalls. After several minutes of hiking all we saw was this... we could hear the water but could not see any!
We came to a cable that you could use to make the treacherous hike down to some falls. Chris was not interested, but I was all for it. So my camera and I started down.
I am not really sure the pictures do it justice, it was very steep !
Look how far I made it so far! I can't remember if this was after slip number one or two. A couple of times I could have been a goner if I hadn't been holding on to the rope!
This is what I found at the bottom... It was well worth the hike!

When I finally got done climbing back up the rocks, we walked around and found this, the view from the top of the waterfall I found earlier.
We really wanted to go on this rope bridge, but there is a limit on the number of people that can be on there at once and every time we tried to get on there were about eight people coming from the other way!These are from the top of a waterfall that is what I would call the "swimming hole." There were a ton of kid down there! (see below)
One family even brought their pet rabbit with them, I thought it was very odd so I took a picture.And I saved the best for last!! My favorite part of camping is S'MORES!!! (sorry if the picture grosses you out)