First half marathon in the books!

I did it!!

The Joplin Memorial Run was going to be my first half marathon. Shiloh and I talked about it 6 or 8 or 10 months ago, but time slowly passed and I never got into a training program. I ran off and on and had been working out, but in the weeks leading up to the race on May 19th, I really had gotten busy and not been doing as much as I would have liked. 

Oh well, I decided to give it a try and just get one under my belt. We had a free place to stay and great support. Not just that, but the race has special meaning too. Shiloh and Chris lost their home and pretty much all of their belongings in the tornado that devastated Joplin. The final half-ish mile (maybe more) is lined with 161 giant flags each stating the name of someone who lost their life that day. You can see them in the photos. Drew ended up doing the 5k with Chris, and Shiloh ran the half with me. We all finished! I'm so glad we decided to go. 

I may try to do another half the fall and see if I can actually stick to a training plan in hopes of getting a good time. 

Coming down the home stretch!

 

Drew did great. His race results said he finished 106 overall, with a time of 26:25. That was 15th out of 49 in his age division and the 85th male. 

I was very happy to cross the finish line. I came in 237 overall with a time of 2:12:57. I was 17th out of 75 in my age division and the 84th female. Now I have something to beat!

Alcazars & Gilpatricks visit MO

Our cousin Alicia usually comes to visit Grandma Delores each year, but this time she convinced her sister Rachel to join in too. 

We saw them more when we were all children, but not very often as we got older. It's even more fun now as adults. Both Alicia and Rachel getting married in recent years gave us reason to go to California, but it was nice to see them all in Missouri for the first time since Drew and I got married. Rachel and Dan have the cutest little girl named Emma, who took to rural farm life really quickly. 

First, they spent a day at our house. We did a tiny bit of horseback riding and went down to the river to skip rocks after lunch. We all had dinner in town before they hit the road back to Springfield. Pictures are in random, jumbled order. 

 

 We were able to have a little more time together the day before they flew back to California. The boys and I went to Springfield for the afternoon and we all went to "America's Only Ride Through Cave"...... Fantastic Caverns. I think they really enjoyed it. There are only 2 places on the planet that you can experience "absolute darkness", deep in a cave or at the bottom of the ocean. I never want to experience it via the latter. 

After our cave tour, we had dinner at Lambert's. Too bad it was a school night or we would have gotten to hang out a little longer. I don't think the boys were ready to say goodbye. 

 

 

Next time we see them, we'll be going to Disneyland!! 
(I better clarify for when Drew reads this, there are no plans in the works, but theoretically, that would be a great trip to California for us to visit and mark Disney off the boys' list)

Last Day of School 2018

Kindergarten gets an A+ from me. Griffin did great: minimal trouble, teacher was fantastic, good progress reports, lots of awards at the end of the year. 

Bring on 1st Grade!!


Here are some comparison pics for First and Last day of Kindergarten. 

I had to get some close ups of the handsome guy. 

And a few more comparisons, brother had to be included: