Warriors, come out and PLAY!

The Warrior Dash. Until a little over a year ago, I didn't know what it was either. Robert came to me and told me his brothers were asking him to do it with them. Seeing how I am always in favor doing ridiculous things together as adult siblings (see this post) I was in favor. Being the adventurous type, I decided to pack up my, then two year old and three month old, and tag along to watch. Robert had done a little research on this running series which turned out to be a 5k mud run, which many of the participants dressed up in ridiculous costumes  to trudge through the mud. Because we are who we are, Rob decided he wanted to throw together a costume as well. This is what he spent about a week and a half "throwing together"

Clever, I know, but consider the weather in March in South-
East Texas...It was hot and he STILL wore this!

I watched him as he came around the bend and towards the finish and leapt over rows of fire and then dove into the mud pit with barbed wire strung above it, forcing the participants to crawl through the mud on hands and knees, before crossing the finish line. I thought to myself as I watched all the people doing this, "I could do this, if I was in better shape"

  From that moment I decided that I would get off my lazy behind and stop accepting my post (not just one but TWO) baby body, and make it better.  So I started running. you may remember this post discussing my, then hatred for the activity. As time went on however, call it stockholm syndrome if you like, but I grew to accept it, like it, love it, and eventually, to need it! Thats right, I need to run in order to maintain my sanity these days! Well, throughout all that time, I always had the warrior dash in the back of my mind, and last saturday I finally got to see it through and run my very own warrior dash! I had one of the best times ever! It had been raining almost the entire week before, and got sunny for saturday so the course was EXTRA muddy, which was pretty awesome, except that a lot of the runners didn't know how to hold onto their shoes which got pulled of in the ankle-knee deep mud that covered 2/3rds of the course. For the record, my shoes stayed on the whole time, though I slipped and fell on the  wet mud, a number of times..

Because I can't pass up an opportunity to dress up for something, I made us district 12 tribute t-shirts, because I felt this was an appropriate place to pay homage to the Hunger Games. (These shirts will serve double duty as I will be wearing them to the midnight release of the movie as well, because, thats just how I roll)

The difference I find in myself from last year when Rob ran his first warrior dash and this year, is significant. I have re-gained my 'pre-baby' body and then some! Meaning I weigh less now than I did before I got pregnant with my first baby. Go me! (oh please, stop with all the applause, no no, I am just like any of you, stop chanting my name!)

Fortunately, my genius husband thought to buy a waterproof camera to carry along with us during the race to take pictures of the course that wasn't open to spectators. My family was set up near the end of the course and got a heap of pictures from there as well, so we have a TON of pics from this year.

So here are but a few of the fun things we did on our Dash of warriors!

Phase one: The still clean phase.

The getting ready to go phase.

The, getting used to the slick mud phase

The waist deep...

...ankle deep

And chest deep muddy water phase

the rope climbing phase (complete with hero stance)

The 'I'm not sure whats challenging about walking through
a 12 foot tunnel but I will go ahead and do it' phase

The, tires full of ankle deep mud phase

the, running over floating barrels phase.

the 'we do this TOGETHER' phase!

the, climbing up and over a wall phase.

The, climbing over the 20ft. tall cargo net phase

The jumping over fire phase!

The, doofus jump pose, phase

The, not so doofus-y jump pose phase.

The, crawling through mud and gravel, which tore up my
knees, phase.

The, covered in mud, and happy about it, phase.

The, Rob asking anyone if they want a hug, phase

The aftermath phase.

The lovely shades of purple, bruising all over my legs, phase.

We are totally doing it again next year, and dragging my family into it too!

Weddings and Things.

So I haven't written in a while. Don't worry you haven't missed THAT much, and what you have missed I will fill you all in on!
 SO! First off I must go on a bit about my new favorite thing. Robert and I decided that we were REALLY sick of our wireless provider. We were paying more than we wanted to and didn't even have smart phones or even a data plan! We were tired of living in the dark ages of wireless devices and finally bit the proverbial bullet, and switched plans! Before we ever decided to switch we knew what we wanted, and NO we are not brainwashed zombies, or mindless followers. And let me just say that I ALSO appreciate the validity and of 'other' smart phones/devices. Androids, blackberries etc, but, we happen to have really good luck with apple products! My beloved Macbook pro is a full year old. I love how easy it is to use, and I haven't had a SINGLE problem, even with my two small children who, from time to time get their hands on it!
 ....I'm sure you see where this is going, and yes, I GOT AN iPHONE!!! It is my new baby and I love it SO very much! There really IS an app for everything! My current favorite has to be my fitness pal which helps me track my running and workouts, and keeps me from eating too much (which apparently I was doing before) Since Rob is a pilot, we can facetime when he is out and has to be away from home for periods of time, which the kids love! Words with friends, just makes me happy and I feel like I must reach out to my "friends" out there and invite you all to join me in playing some of the most drawn out games of scrabble ever played! (thats right, even those of you who haven't seen me in person since I lived in Memphis twelve years ago... SCRABBLE people!)
Um *cough* anyways... yeah so moving on.
My sister Kristen recently got married.

Adorable right? I have to say that we were all a little worried about Krissy there for a while. She wasn't quite living up to her 'partner potential' with the guys she was seeing. So when she brought Bill home last year, and we got to know him a bit, we all breathed a BIG sigh of relief because he IS a pretty darn awesome guy. (and seriously, just look at that face! A-DOR-A-BLE!!)

SO when the wedding plans became 'official' I was ready! As the eldest sister, and being married myself, it fell upon me to be the 'matron-of-honor'. I had the bridal shower in the bag so I didn't worry about that. (it went off without a hitch of course) Then there was the matter of the "dress" not Krissy's dress oh no. I knew it would be fabulous because she wouldn't have it any other way. I was relieved to hear that she wanted us all to wear black. Black is good. Black is elegant. Black is a flattering color on everyone.  I got a bonus when she said that all the styles would be varied according to our individual styles. SCORE! I was ready for this dress. If you have read this blog for a while, then you know that I have been running away from the disgusting, post-baby fat that was lingering, nastily, on my body and have been relatively successful in my endeavors to escape it. 

So we went out in January and dress-shopped. It was a good day. Both Kristen and I found our dresses on the same shopping trip (her's was more important than mine of course, but still...)

Mad props go out to the other bridesmaid who did my hair (Thank you Ashlee Drake. Your years of doing hair for dance recitals has paid off!)

The wedding itself was lovely of course and went off, pretty much without a hitch. Now my sister is married too, and I have a brother in law who is awesome, and doesn't mind when I make "Bill" jokes!

The most popular comments on this photo
since it has been posted on facebook, is that
we are apparently "twins". Pay no attention
to that seven year age gap behind the curtain people

Here are some highlights from the.....blessed event.... and...okay, who am I kidding. Here are some really adorable pictures, that mostly feature my really adorable kids and me with my hair looking REALLY great!

See! Loved my hair that day!

Aubrey getting ready with the girls!

Me and my needy baby!

This was our official "bridesmaid's" pose
...We nailed it

Nothing but pure, unadulterated vanity here.
I feel attractive and look at the cute baby
that I made!

I sort of adore this handsome kid!

Dancing!

Dancing!! (and hiding a bubble wand
in the pocket)

Something was brought to my attention about this next picture. Supposedly my husband and I have a 'signature' pose. 

This is us at Kristen and Bill's wedding, March 10th 2012

This is us at my friend Savannah's wedding in August 2004

...Yeah, I don't see the similarity either.