St Jude Marathon Relay

My relay team

At the beginning of December I ran the St Jude Marathon Relay with my friends. That relay part is very important...I did not run the entire marathon. I would have probably died. As it was, the 6.5 miles I ran was officially the longest I have ever run. I really enjoyed it though, and frankly I'm just proud I ran the whole time. It was a great day, and it was for a great cause!

I was the last leg of the race, so I did a lot of standing around waiting for my time to run. About an hour and a half before my time I got on the shuttle to take me to my starting point. I started getting a little nervous when we got on the highway. All I could think was, "okay, how far is this????" 

It was so cold by the time that I got to my place that people were huddling inside a portable storage unit the race organizers had used to bring in their equipment. It was kind of hilarious huddling in there with people, but it was better than being out in the cold.

When it was finally time for me to go, I have to admit I felt really bad for the marathoners. Here I was on mile 1, and they were on mile 21. I felt like apologizing to every person I passed! The encouragement and hilarious signs along the way were hilarious, and it was over before I knew it. Looking forward to doing it again...maybe.

All done! I felt so bad for Mike waiting around in the cold all day so he could cheer me on.

Until he told me that while I was calling him from inside a freezing wooden box he was sitting at Rendezvous with a rack of ribs. Then I got over it.

Thanksgiving Fun

While we were in Texas for the wedding and Thanksgiving, we were able to have some fun with our family. It's a good thing too, because Christmas did not really work out what with the flu and all. More on that later (in April at this rate), but for now I'll focus on all the fun we had in November.

First up was the Sea Life aquarium and the Rainforest Cafe with Aunt Amy and Papa. I wish I had a picture of the girls eyes the first time the animals started going crazy during a rain storm while we were eating. They thought it was awesome though. Again with the bad lighting. Sigh...

Then a little pause for Ninja Emmie...

The Parks Mall in Arlington had a new Santa/Shrek experience that was actually really cool. You went in this house, designed a sleigh, rode the sleigh to the North Pole, saw Santa, and came back. The kids actually did better than I thought. Despite the tears...I promise.

 

We were able to go to the Dallas Arboretum with Mimi and Aunt Hailey. I always see my Dallas friends posting pictures, so I was excited to go. They still had their pumpkins out, but they already had the 12 days of Christmas snow globes out too. It was really neat.

Max with Nana...

Nobody told him we don't have a 3D television...

The Big Day

We had such a great time over Thanksgiving at my cousin's wedding. It was a late (7:00) wedding, and it was in a beautiful chapel with dim lighting. (Read: my iPhone didn't really cut it and none of the pictures are that great. I realized later I didn't even try to get a pic of the bride or groom...bummer). We really enjoyed the evening, though, and we were so glad we got to be a part of it. Mike performed the ceremony, and Max got to go. He carried around the save the date card forever, and he thought he was pretty hot stuff.

Mr. Max ready for the big day

 Daddy and Max

 Mommy and Max

 My brother and me

 My brother and me...with one of my photobombing cousins in the background.

 Sans photo bomber

 Said photo bomber

 Mike and me

 My sister and me...I felt like she was channeling TSwift in her awesome dress

 Reception time. At this point, we had just arrived and it was already past bedtime.

 My brother's girlfriend Amy with the Maxster. I call her Zamy sometimes (bc my brother's name is Zach) to avoid confusion with Aunt Amy. I didn't really ask her if that was okay, but she doesn't seem to mind. So I'm going with it.

 My favorite picture of the night. It is at least two hours past bedtime (maybe more), and he is sooo tired. But he will eat cake!!

 The reception was at a train station. We tried to go all Harry Potter on the place but it didn't work. Sigh. Also...it was past my bedtime. And my feet hurt.

Brother, Mom, Sister, Me. Love these people.

Our whole crew (minus the three kids sleeping at home with Papa and Aunt Amy). Growing all the time...I love it.

Congrats Jarod and Ashleigh!

Wedding Time

My cousin got married right before Thanksgiving, and we had a great time celebrating with him and his new wife. The rehearsal dinner was in downtown Fort Worth, and it was too cute. My aunt did a great job. It was super dark, and the ol' iPhone didn't take the best pictures in the world. It's better than nothing I guess!