Randoms and my birthday

Before I dive into my birthday festivities, I wanted to share a few other random pictures.

First, I got my hair cut a few weeks ago. I thought I would be funny and send Dan this picture with the text, "Like my haircut?"

He didn't fall for it. I really only got like 2 inches off.

Second, remember how Sam's school had spring pictures? And we knew that since we weren't going to buy them he could wear whatever he wanted? (Which is what he ALWAYS wears - elastic-waisted pants and a sweater when it's cold.) Well, just because we didn't order them doesn't mean the picture company doesn't take them. They sent Sam home with a big ol' packet of various sizes and also his picture on key chains and stuff. Such a waste. I thought it was hilarious. I can't believe they make them pose like this.

So natural looking, right? He doesn't look uncomfortable at all!

I made Sam an Easter bow tie. I let him pick out the fabric and everything. Then he didn't want to wear it. Dan made him wear it anyway. Afton's Easter dress took SUCH A LONG TIME. Thankfully, Mom was around the day before Easter to help me make sense of the pattern. You'd think with a brand name of "Simplicity" their patterns would be simple. Wrong. Even with Mom's help, I didn't finish until the day after Easter and it is far from perfect, but Afton wore it today.

As my few and faithful readers know, Wednesday I turned THIRTY! I had a really great day. Both kids made me multiple cards. Here's one of my favorites.

Sam drew me a picture of the solar system to scale (kind of), complete with pluto and the asteroid belt. He is awesome.

A friend from church had some girls over for a birthday lunch which was great. Until a huge gust of wind blew every dirty paper plate at me and ruined my cardigan. But that's okay.

I got lots of birthday messages, calls, emails and facebook notes that made my day.

That night we tried a restaurant close by our house and it was pretty good. I think we'll be back. To continue our tradition, Dan decorated this lovely cake for me:

I was spoiled! I really had a fabulous birthday.

Yesterday, as one of my presents, Dan took me (and Sam and Afton) to see Nickel Creek! One of my favorite bands. They had broken up but reunited and put out a new record last month. It was a sold out show in Charlottesville. They sounded amazing.

Poor Dan has the worst allergies of his life. He was miserable.

See those food trucks behind Dan and the kids? They, and all of the loud, obnoxious drunk people surrounding them, kind of killed the atmosphere. People were talking SO loudly. It was really rude. Why would you pay to go to a concert and then talk the whole time? Why don't you just go to a bar? The girl in front of me drank a ton and then talked for about 75% of the time, I'd say. So if I were writing a review for the NTelos Wireless Pavillion, I would say never to go to a performance there unless you can get a seat close enough to the stage that crazy deaf drunk people are far enough away to not draw your attention away from the music.

 But then I was the one who got into trouble for taking pictures.

I love Nickel Creek. Ah, they sounded so good! A 13-year dream fulfilled.

Spring Break 2014

Sam had the first spring break of his educational career. We began our non-stop party by working on a garden all day last Saturday (plus a soccer game). We're almost done.

 Good news on the tree front. All of the 12 trees we bought last fall seem to be alive with the exception of one. Above is our peach tree. It's got a net on it to keep away deer. We'll take it off once our garden is enclosed.

Below is our cherry tree. (It's just a blossoming tree - no fruit.)

 A day's work. I'll put up more pics once it's done.

Sunday was a typical Sunday for us. Monday we kicked things off with a trip to Lowe's (we've got to keep the spring break expectations low, right?) and then a trip to the playground. Five minutes in, Afton said she needed to go #2 so we went to Kroger (I needed a few things) and then she said she didn't need to go anymore. Typical. Then we went downtown to have a picnic with Dan. It was a beautiful day.

Tuesday we headed west to Charlottesville. It was really rainy so meeting Grandma C at the bounce house place was the perfect solution. Then we met up with Grandpa for lunch at Bodo's, followed by a stop to the Cook-Out for a delicious shake. Then back to their house for a few hours of fun.

Wednesday was a lazy day. We cleaned up the disastrous toy room. Afton took a four-hour nap. (She needed it!)

Thursday was spent prepping for our camping adventure. Isn't it ridiculous how much stuff you need to camp for one night?

Dan left work early and called me to let me know that he had been rear-ended on his way home. Not a great way to start the adventure, but we still went, just a little later than we would have liked. We went to Pocahontas State Park because it's just a short drive away. This was the smokiest fire I have ever seen. My eyes were on fire.

 We had a delicious dinner of hot dogs and pringles followed by 'smores and candy. Typical camping fare. That night we froze our rears off. It got down to 36 and we were all really cold. In the morning Dan whipped up eggs and sausage which we scarfed down and then we ran back into our sleeping bags for the next hour or so.

After we warmed up a little bit, we took a hike. It wasn't the prettiest - gray skies, not too many leaves on trees, but it was still nice and I was proud of the kids for walking the whole way.

 Well, almost the whole way.

Saturday G&G Cheney came over and we headed over to Busch Gardens for a day full of fun. Mom rode two of the big roller coasters and Dad rode all of them. Sam was tall enough for a few, too, but after the first one scared him, he wasn't interested in the other.

Sunday began with resurrection rolls and then a chocolate egg hunt. Anytime Afton saw one she would yell, "FOUND ONE!" and then laugh maniacally.

 After church we had a delicious dinner. Afton helped me prepare our bunny cake.

 Then Dan and Dad hid plastic eggs in the front yard.

It was a great spring break and a wonderful Easter. Now it's back to the real world.

Charlottesville Half Marathon

New Year's Eve, Dan and I were sitting around watching the terrible TV options available on such a night (I think it was Ryan Seacrest's New Year's Eve or something) (we don't have cable), and I guess we got talking about things we'd like to do in 2014. We thought it would be fun to try another half. Charlottesville was perfect because it gave us enough time to train and my parents could hopefully watch the kids. After we called and made sure they were good with that, we signed up. (The price went up the next day.)

We trained all winter, which was pretty tough considering how cold and snowy this winter was. Dan ran outside all the time, but I mostly ran on the treadmill at the gym a lot until the past few months or so when the weather got much nicer.

Anyway, race day finally came and last Saturday we laced up our sneakers to run. Dan decided to run with me the whole way, which was really helpful. I had two goals: The first was to beat my time from last year (2:26) and the second was more specific - get under 2:15. (That would be approx 10:17/mile. I'm not very fast.)

Before the race.

Like I mentioned, having Dan run with me was really great. He kept me going. It was a pretty hilly course and there was a big hill at mile 11 where I walked for the last little bit, but other than that, we ran (shuffled, really) the whole way. For Dan it was a breeze, but it was tough for me. We finished with a time of 2:15:37. SO close. Guess I'll have to run one more someday.

 Big thank you to Mom and Dad who watched our kids and came to cheer us on.