Chris Stapleton at AMP

The year of the concerts continued in June with Chris Stapleton!

He put on a great show, but next time we know to buy actual seats at this venue in Arkansas. Several couples went with us and also there was Shiloh and Chris!

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!

Christmas 2017

Christmas flew by faster than ever. 

We had the pleasure of the McClenahan's company from Friday through Monday this year. Some of us went to Silver Dollar City. Some of us went to Christmas Eve church service. All of us tried to do the best we could to make the most of our short time together. There's so many families and events involved, I'm just happy we all get in one place at the same time. 

My goal was to make sure my kids did not associate the holiday season with stress and planning and discontent, but love and the warm feelings as it should be. I think we succeeded. 

 

 

The Honeycutt family doesn't have as many active picture takers, so I don't have near as much this year. Hopefully, Nichole will send me what she took at some point. 

Christmas Eve service

I just have a few pictures from our gift opening at home. 

Griffin got a huge gift.....a .22 rifle. He has yet to shoot it. As long as he proves he is responsible and practices with his Dad, he will may be approaching the age to do some hunting with Drew. I know they are both anxious.