april ramblings { in photos }

12 months of running | april | garmin half marathon

phew! another 13.1 miles under my belt it was so awesome and crazy!! 

I decided to run the Garmin Half Marathon so soon after my first half for many reasons. One, it's a local business and huge here that I just had to get out and support it. Two, I use their products to train and just absolutely love them. I would be seriously lost without my Garmin Forerunner 10 purple watch. And three, the course is through my neighborhood and well, that is just awesome! 

This was my first race that I ran without my family or friends there to support me. Wayne was out of town fishing and so thankfully I have the most awesome friend ever who woke up to hang out at my house with the kids at 6 in the morning. 

  This race went so much more smoothly than my last half and I felt great the entire 13 miles. I started out closer to the front with the 1:40 pacers and I was surprised how well I was able to keep up with them. Plus, they are so inspiring and keep you motivated the entire time. I loved this course too! The last 5 miles were all on tree covered trails that were just so peaceful. However, the last 40 minutes of the race it began to rain, and then downpour and then hail so I slowed down a ton! By the end my feet were so soak and wet and cold that I just couldn't push myself and harder and just wanted to finish. My watch time had me finish at 1:44:12 a little bit before the finish line and my Garmin finish was 1:45:2. I was still so happy and proud to be able to keep my pace with little in between training. 

It was also nice to see one of my good friends, Jaimie, standing in the pouring rain at the finish line. It totally made my day and I love that I have the most amazing friends and family supporting me on my running journey. It's been a rewarding one for sure!! 

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happy birthday Chase-man!!

I can hardly believe that my sweet and loving little Chase-man is five. I mean, he is our big and responsible and independent little boy, but five just seems so old for him to be. It seriously feels like just a couple years ago I was loving on this new bundle of joy in the hospital and thinking how wonderful our sweet family of four was. And now! Now he is this big brother and best friend to all of his siblings and he has the biggest and most caring heart! He has truly been a great blessing once he came into our family. I have been so lucky to get to watch him grow up and so honored to get to be his mother too.

love this awesome guy!

we decided to have a impromptu bbq with some of Chase's buddies and their families monday night. the weather and food were absolutely perfect and made us all excited for summer and summer bbq's! Chase had a really fun time decorating his cake with some of the new legos he got for his birthday! he absolutely loved this cake! 

  tuesday was his real birthday and so he woke up to the tradition of a million balloons and constant birthday singing from his family. he loved it!

  we spent most of the birthday morning playing with all of the fun and new toys he got from his little party and then lunch at his favorite place, McDondalds.

  love his little chocolate milk-stache ;) after school we quickly ate dinner and took the kids to see the movie Rio 2. Chase just loves the first movie so he was so excited when we told him we were going to see the second for birthday. However, we sadly made the mistake of going to the 3D movie and that was not the brightest idea for little kids. it's just too long to wear those glasses but they all did amazing and we were able to stay till the end!

  time for birthday cupcakes and presents!!! 

  Happy birthday to our sweet sweet Chase! 

He is our sensitive one, our independent one, and the one who is constantly thinking of others. He loves all things superheros, star wars or ninja turtles but will gladly watch a mickey mouse clubhouse or strawberry shortcake to make his siblings happy. he loves all sports and his a true broncos fan(and kansas city chiefs fan) and will gladly play ball with you all night long. he is our social one with play dates and friends galore but definitely loves the company of his little sister too. I love our lazy mornings of cuddling on the couch and discussing our plans for the day. I truly love this amazing little five year old of mine. he is truly a special gift to us!