Spring Hill Kids' Marathon 2012

Normally around this time of year we are fighting traffic and stressing ourselves to try and get a parking spot at the Kid's Marathon in Nashville. Not this year! Our very own Coach Mark, our P.E. teacher, headed up a Kid's Marathon right here in Spring Hill! The boys prepared by running 25 miles in the weeks heading up to the race.

We were all prepared except for the fact that all the warm weather was back in February and today it was a balmy 50 degrees with an overcast sky threatening rain! Rhett makes me laugh in this picture. What is he doing??

Cade was the first runner with the fourth grade boys' start. We were loving the smaller crowd! 

And they're off! I was not quick enough to get ahead of this crowd of runners. I barely caught Cade heading by! 

 It was so much easier this year to sprint from place to place to catch up with them in the middle of the race. Cade was heading into the stadium with three runners ahead of him. 

That lap around the track was a killer for all the boys! Just when they thought they were done they still had that last .2 miles to go. Cade did great holding his 4th place position. He had one guy pretty close behind! 

 Cade: 4th place in the 4th grade group. Great job! 

Next up, Grant and the second graders. Grant cracks me up when it comes to any kind of competition. He doesn't like the training part but when it comes to competition day he is in it to win it! He was so pumped up he could hardly stand himself! 

There was a little lag time waiting for their start so someone suggested that they do push-ups. So funny to see all of them drop at the same time and push it out!

Second graders, off!

Grant (and every other competitive kid) was in an all out sprint right out of the gate. I was sure that by about 100 yards all of them were going to pass out. 

He was having fun sprinting though!

The turn to the stadium had him red faced and a bit tired but I was surprised to see that he was holding second place pretty tightly. He was preceded by his friend Breck that is a regular at races. 

Heading towards the finish line:

Grant Morgan: Second place in Second grade! Yeah! 

Last up, Little Buddy and his kindergarten competition. We almost missed the start because we were watching Grant. Rhett made it just in time but he was in the very back of the pack at the start. 

I was cracking up watching him at the beginning because he looked like Frogger, weaving in and out of kids with his game face on. 

It didn't take him long to find his way towards the front of the pack of kids. 

Bobby was somewhere in the middle of the course to cheer on the boys. Let me just pop in and say that in all the miles we've run together to prepare for this race not once, not EVER has Rhett run the entire way. Never. So, imagine Bobby's shock when he saw fluffy hair bobbing his way only to clearly see that Rhett was in the lead! 

Then, out of nowhere, Jet, Coach Montgomery's kinder kid bolted past him right when I snapped my pic of him rounding his way into the stadium. 

Rhett was losing steam around the track and Jet was holding him from first place pretty solid. I nearly shrieked when right around the last curve Rascal Flatt's version of Life is a Highway belted out on the loudspeaker and Rhett turned it on high gear. The only other song that speaks to his inner self more than that one is Fire Burning where the tag line is "Somebody call 911" (and that's exactly what I thought we'd need to do if Rhett actually sprinted out the entire mile!)

He zoomed right past his friend to a first place finish! I could.not.believe.it!!

He picked up his medal and trophy like it was no biggie.

My hats off to a little friendly competition that sparks some drive! I love it! 

Our friend from church, Lauren, was first place girl. Look at TSC showin' out! 

I was so proud of all three of my runners. They all worked really hard getting their miles in prior to the run. It was lots of early wake up days to make it to running club before school started. We can't wait until next year's race!!

Keith Urban- All for the Hall

Bobby and I had a mid week date night with Jason and A'lyce at the Keith Urban All for the Hall concert. This was the second or third time Bobby and I have been to this concert and usually it's a great one 

The first disappointment was when Barney Fife, the overzealous door guard, would not let me in with my professional camera. Do you know how hard it is to document a concert with no camera?? I was so aggravated because in all our concert goings there has never been an issue with my camera....that and I'm NOT a professional photographer. No one is going to be paying me for shots I take at concerts. Anywho. There was way less Keith Urban and people I liked to hear and way more talking and people singing that were popular back in the day when I was a wee babe not listening to country music. In any case it was a fun date night and I'm thankful we took this one picture before heading in. Good times! 

Easter!

We had our usual get together with family on Easter. I always love Easter...the day to celebrate the fact that my Savior still lives! I like that it means that spring is on the cusp of being full blown and usually the kiddos have on some new(er) digs:) Here's my crew:

One quick pic with an uncooperative Little Miss.

A Daddy pic:

And individuals for the blog book (and so I can be reminded how handsome my fellas were when they were just wee lads)!

And one beautiful Princessa...

We hid eggs in the yard. Some candy, some money. (And since I'm journaling this day nearly a year later...gasp!...I can tell you that as of about  4 months ago we were still finding money eggs in the yard!) Elaina has her "don't you even think about touchin' this egg" look on her face. 

This is the one running boy that I actually got to stop for a second to let me snap a picture. All the others were in too much of a rush and their pics are nothing but blurs. 

Rhett thought that hiding underneath of the basketball goal stand would be a great place to count his treasures and to sneak too many pieces of candy. Little does he know that I'm on to pretty much all of his tricks.

We end up with quite a bit of loot. I can't remember who got the $10 egg this year....I think it was one of the cousins.

And to prove there were cousins there, here is a pic of sweet Amelia. She was kind enough to stop for a pic. 

Mom and dad and Bob and Elizabeth were present for the celebration too.

Easter 2012 in the books.....albeit really, really late! Better late than never though! 

Bubba's Boots

Elaina has a love for shoes that pretty much mirrors my own. I'd be lying if I said it didn't warm my heart :) Today she was digging around in her closet and found Cade's old boots that he wore when he was about her age. Immediately she came running with them in her hands saying, "Mommy! Mommy! Boots...on. Boots on!" So, I obliged.From that moment on she was sporting them. There was running around the house listening to the clop, clop....Her head was thrown back in laughter....And there was screams of delight!
Who knew finding some new shoes would be THIS exciting?!!
Well, who am I kidding? I acted the same way when the UPS man dropped off the box containing the new pumps I ordered from HauteLook. This girl stuff is WAY too much fun :)

Play Ball!

Spring baseball has started! Time to watch Little Buddy swing his heart out in machine pitch. On the agenda: learn to catch. And until then, don't try to be a hero and line yourself up under a fly ball.

G is ready to hit the field. He backed out of his 2nd grade music program (in which he had a speaking part he'd been practicing for months) to be present for his game. Good thing, too, because his walk-off triple won the game for his team! I must address their uniforms: throwback to the 80's Astros. Bright hunter's orange with the whitest white pants ever. Two pairs I'm going to have to work on every week. Whomever thought making white baseball pants was a good idea needs their eye dotted. Both eyes.
Cade is a Yankee this year. His been putting in a lot of time in the off season practicing so I'm expecting some great improvements from him this season. We're working on self-confidence on the field and hopefully the inside the park homerun in his 2nd game helped with that. He's pitching a little as well and that makes me want to puke.
Here's to the start of a great season of baseball. Good times ahead!