Photo Dump

Several weeks ago Bobby (of Kari and Bobby) took pictures of our family at the Raleigh Art Museum. Kari was the photo director and we got a bunch of great shots.  Here are a few (not all great, but with some stories behind them)

Damn you, Pinterest! There were so many cute picture ideas. I tried to recreate one here, but we only got like 3 shots before Logan stood up, fell over backwards, and refused to get back in the tub. Oh well.

In all of these the only thing I kept thinking was, 'I can't open my eyes, too sunny!'

It really was impossible to get all of us together in one shot. Tassie, quit hiding.

Another silly Pinterest idea that totally didn't pan out. Logan just liked to walk around with the frame. Again, oh well.

I have to admit, I really liked this one.

FREEDOM!

Kari and Bobby cropped this one and framed it for us. I love it.  Shortly after, Logan headed over to those lights in the bottom left corner, tripped, and face planted on top of one. That was the end of picture day.

Happy Birthday, Logan!

 

Go to Marty's blog to see Logan's first encounter with a cupcake on his birthday. Turns out he takes after his momma here.


We had a little birthday party for Logan on Saturday. He ate MORE cake and some wrapping paper. It rocks being 1.

 

Who's this guy stealing my thunder?

Logan also saw Santa for the first time last week. The photographer got one quick picture of him before he started crying. I don't know why we do this to our kids!

This kid is also very nosy. Whenever we go out to eat, he is turned all around trying to check everyone and everything out. Here's his typical look:

And finally, we did a Santa Pub Crawl on Saturday night (thanks mom for watching Logan!). It was mandatory dress up so I went as an angel (because, duh) and Marty went as an Elf, because it's the closest thing to Lord of the Rings and he knows how I feel about Orlando Bloom (yum yum).

Read More

Logan is 1!

Tomorrow is Logan's birthday! I was having a lot of nostalgic moments the past few days remembering the time leading up to his birth.  It really felt like a ticking time bomb inside of me - I knew it was going to happen but the when was so up in the air. My official due date was December 15.

On December 9 (Friday), my boss said something along the lines of "We'll take a look at that on Monday."  My coworker scoffed, "Bri won't be here Monday." She said I just looked like I wasn't going to make it that long (she's good). That night we went to a farewell party for Steffan and Jen who were moving to Germany. I remember feeling like a giant whale.

December 10 - went for a swim at TAC. Really felt like a whale. Very high probability I had a contraction in the water.

December 11 - sometime in the afternoon Logan decided it was time to get the show on the road. That's what they tell you in the labor/birthing class, that the child decides when labor starts. We had one last dinner out that evening at The Mellow Mushroom, where I even ordered dessert with just a short pause to get through a minor contraction.  Here's one of the very last belly shot pictures we took:

December 12 - Logan was born at 1:44pm.  Happy birthday, baby!

Read More

Kiawah Half Marathon Race Report

When I signed up for this race back in June, I really thought I would be in better shape. I thought for sure I would break 1:30 and was even thinking I could be closer to 1:28. But throughout the rest of the year my run training was very inconsistent for one reason or another and frankly the mileage was just not high enough. I knew going in that running a 1:30 was probably not going to happen based on all of my long run paces, but I figured I would still try for it. As Kari put it, "a sub 1:30 was ambitious...not absurd, but ambitious"  She was so right on. And so you can just skip to the ending, I ran a 1:31:10.

There were 8 of us traveling down to Kiawah Island, South Carolina together. 7 wimmins and 1 dude. It was a fun crew. And that is sort of an understatement.  We (and when I say we I mean Heidi and Michele) drove the 6 or so hours straight to packet pickup. I had been waiting for this day for a long time because Kari had registered me and had written in a secret nickname for my bib number. She refused to tell me and with her I was never quite certain what might show up on there. She teased me saying things like "Suckit"  "Nice to beat you"  "I'm pretty good at winning" but when it was said and done the stupid bib number just said "Bri"  You could hear the screech from across the room when Kari saw that what she had written wasn't on there and I was also disappointed. ESPECIALLY when she told me that she had written "Logan's Mom"

Pre-race antics ensued which included lots of outfit, food, poop, compression, etc discussions.  Then we went to sleep and the talk continued throughout the morning until the start. Although some topics were continued and thoroughly covered througout the weekend.

8am start - me and Mayhew lined up several rows back but not that far back for the amount of people we had to weave through the first mile.  We both didn't really have any business gunning for a 1:30 but we did it anyways. First mile was right on (or close enough), the next 3 were just below which gave us a nice cushion. Kari backed off after that and I was left to my own devices. Miles 5-9 were held nicely and I still had a bit of cushion for the sub 1:30. Then mile 10 happened and it was gone. The last 3 miles were typical of most people's half marathon races I imagine. I felt like I slowed down to a jog but it actually wasn't horrible. Just that little bit slower felt a lot better and I don't have the mental capacity to push through the hurt at this point. For me that comes with being in better shape. Some girl passed me at mile 13 and I was all set to let her go before I yelled at myself and put in a great sprint for the last 30 yards. Go me. Final time: 1:31:10.

We watched the rest of the crew finish, including our two marathoners before relaxing in the afternoon and getting ready to have a night on the town in Charleston. What a great city! We had a delicious meal at a brewery and plenty of alcohol. Some of us had more than others. Half the group stayed out very late for more shenanigans and took an hour cab ride back to Kiawah.



Frank for the win




The blogger finishing




Post race beer and food



Post dinner in Charleston. I'm posing Glamour Shots style.

 

Read More