Andreae Adventures: 2nd Weekend in June 2013

This weekend, my parents drove down Friday night for 2 main reasons. On Saturday morning, Rebekah and I had signed up to do the 7.1 Lake Mingo Trail Run so my mom gladly agreed to watch the girls. Plus, Bobby needed help getting the swingset he tore down from his sister's house 2 years ago. The next time we would be able to get it up would be August, so luckily they got it up and the girls LOVE it! Bobby is happy it is out of the garage and I'm happy the girls can finally enjoy it. Now, I just have to stain it and it will be good as new. Natalie has already fallen off the ladder twice, but it hasn't scared her yet and I'm sure we'll have many more falls, just hoping no broken bones!

I really don't know how the heck Rebekah and I talked ourselves into doing this 7.1 mile run! I don't think I really realized how far of a run it was until after I signed up for it! The longest we had run was this last Wednesday for 5 miles with an average pace of 13 minute miles (slow but steady, right?!). Anyway, after I signed up I tried looking up info on it, but couldn't find much other than it was a tough run. That website sure wasn't joking about tough!!! As Rebekah put it, it was like when your grandparents tell you they walked to school in snow uphill both ways when they were younger. I have no idea how many hills we had to climb, but it was A LOT! Most were so steep that even good, seasoned runners had to walk up and walk down. The run itself was actually at a really pretty park, but I didn't get to look around a whole lot because I was constantly looking down to avoid tripping on roots, I only fell once, about 5 miles in. When I had gotten to the halfway part and the lady giving water told us we were halfway done, I really just wanted to hit her because this run was ridiculous! I used an app called RunKeeper on my phone which is awesome because it uses GPS to track your average pace and distance! It updated me about every 10 minutes along the way, so I knew how we were doing (I lost Rebekah early on and she finished about 2 minutes ahead of me). I could not believe I averaged a 12:15 pace for the entire race with all the crazy hills! I was very happy to finish under an hour and 30 minutes. I really didn't have a goal going into the race, but midway I knew I could probably achieve that, so I was happy. My placement was 244/302 overall and 12/19 in my age group; Rebekah was 233/302 overall and 11/19 in our age group. My official finish time was 1:27:32. I would do this race again because it was a challenge and a beautiful park!

When I got home, I was pleasantly surprised that the swingset was almost complete. This was probably the quickest, easiest project that my dad has every helped us/Bobby with! We really appreciate it and I'm sure he was glad that this weekend was a little bit of work and the rest fun. Amanda and Matt came down with their dogs and hung out, then we went out to dinner at a little BBQ place in Brazil called Pappy's. It was really good...not too sure why we haven't gone before. Thank you Dad and Bobby for getting it up, now the girls will have a blast this summer in our own backyard that is finally a useable yard for the first time since we've lived there! I love being able to just walk out the back door and have a playground awaiting the girls! And, big thanks to my mom for watching the girls while I was gone and allowing Bobby and my dad to get the swingset up!

Petunia

Pork Chop

Sunday, we went to church (I volunteered in the 3 year old room today, which was actually pretty fun). Then, we headed to St. Mary's of the Woods for their free family fun day. This is the 6th year they have been doing it and the 1st year we've been or heard about it. They had a ton of activities for the kids (not really Aubrey) and we were there for almost the entire 3 hours they had it going on! They have an alpaca farm and it was fun to see them, plus they have a 2 week old baby alpaca, too (called a crea). Aubrey hated riding the shuttle bus to the alpaca area, but enjoyed standing up at the fence while we were there.