Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Bluebell and Bluebonnets

It's Spring Break! We were able to take a day trip to Brenham, TX with the Pratt cousins and Chelsea to visit the Bluebell Creamery, home of the best ice cream on earth. We went on a tour to see how they make it and then we each got to choose and eat a sweet, cold scoop. Here are photos on the grounds after our tour.



The Texas state flower, the Bluebonnet, is out in full bloom along the highways, so we stopped - as is the custom, to get some family photos among the flowers. They are such a beautiful color!! Our little trip really got us in the mood for springtime..














Monday, March 2, 2009

Bragging Rights

I rarely have rights to brag. In the past, I've had 4 opportunities to do so when I gave birth to our 4 daughters. But now I have something that's right up there with those achievements, so I'm going to briefly brag. I ran a marathon! The Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, TX to be exact. Our time was 4:32, which I was happy with, for my first marathon. It was an unforgettable experience, as everyone told me who'd run a marathon said it would be. I'm so glad I did it and enjoyed every minute of it (even the tortuous miles 20-25). Thanks to Clista Graff - we trained and ran together. I couldn't have done it without her. She's a tough gal, running through intense knee pain to reach her goal. Thanks to Jeremy and the girls for helping me believe I could do this, for putting up with me being gone a lot to run, and for cheering me on during the race. So for those who asked to see photos, here they are! As you can see from the photos, the wind was pretty intense that day, which made running quite a struggle at some points, especially when heading up one of the many hills along the route that we had been warned about. My plan is to look for some 1/2 marathons to run - first one in November: The San Antonio 1/2 marathon. The training won't be so time consuming, but will still give me that motivation to run and enjoy the same thrill.