Summer Running

 I participated in three runs during the month of August.  I am still not running at the rate that I once was, but I am hanging on.  The first run that I did was a local 5k.  I finished in 29.43, which kind of surprised me because this is a lot faster than I thought it would be. This race was a morning run, and that same afternoon I went with Quincy and Chase to Jacksonville to complete the Jaguars Stadium Challenge 5k.  This was a really good race that takes runners all around and up-and-down Everbank Field.  You end up running through the Prowl (where the football team enters), around the field, and finish on the 50 yard line.  They also put your face up on the jumbo tron, so that was neat.  I finished in 34.04.

The final race that I completed in August was the Heels and Wheels Duathlon.  I have done the triathlon for the past three years, but I decided to go back to the Du this year because I'm a terrible swimmer and frankly I'm scared of catching a brain-eating amoeba in the lake.  There were only two in my division, so I got the second place trophy by default.  My time was 1.45.15.

Hopefully I'll be able to stick with a running program this year and my times will improve as the weather gets cooler.

Third and Fourth Graders

Another school year is upon us.  Although we love the summer, we were all excited to start back to school.  About a week before school began, I took the kids shopping to pick out a few new clothing items.  Olivia enjoyed shopping.  She tried on a lot of clothes and ended up with several new outfits.   She chose a new white dress to wear on the first day of school.  Owen did not enjoy shopping. He tried on nothing and ended up getting only one shirt.  It was like pulling teeth to get him to pick out that one thing.  Still, we paired the new shirt with some shorts that he already had and he looked great on the first day.  

When the morning of the first day came, the kids got up and got dressed pretty quickly. Brian had taken the day off so he was able to drive them to school.  Both kids reported that they had a great first day.  They like their teachers, and they both have a lot of their friends in their classes.  This is going to be a great year!

Jekyll on a Bike

The weather this past Saturday was overcast and not nearly as hot as usual.  We decided that this would be a great day to go bicycling on Jekyll Island.  Jekyll has a really good system of bike paths. Every time that I have been on the island in the past, I have thought to myself that I would like to come one day and bike around the island. We arrived around lunch, grabbed a quick bite to eat at DQ, and then proceeded to a bike rental place.  There are about 25 miles of trails, so looking at the map was a bit overwhelming.  We decided to bike down the beach side of the island to Driftwood Beach and then go back up the marsh side of the island to the Historic District.  Brian and the kids were also hunting Pokemon as we went, so we had to stop a couple to time to catch the Pokemon.  We made it to Driftwood Beach and took a break so that the kids could climb on the fallen trees.  We then began up the trails on the marsh side.  We all thought that the trails on this side of the island were better.  We didn't make it all the way to the Historic District, though, because a storm cloud was rolling in and we didn't want to be stuck out in the rain.  We ended up taking a road that cut across the island and made it back to the bike rental place before the bad part of the storm hit.  It was getting a bit dicey at the end- we just did beat the storm.  All in all, we were out for about two-and-a-half hours and we would have kept going were it not for the weather.  We all had a great time and I'm sure that a return trip will be in our future.

Apollo 13

 I don't know how they did it, but somehow our neighboring county- which is just as rural and middle-of-nowhere as we are-  got Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise (Bill Paxton played him in the movie) to come and speak to members of the community.  This was a free event.  I was unable to go due to open house, but my dad went and he took the kids.  I think it's neat just to meet someone who has been in space, but meeting a crew member from that fateful mission is super-cool in my book.  Mr. Haise showed a short video, talked to the crowd about his experiences with the space program, answered questions from the audience, and signed autographs for those in attendance.  The kids don't know much about the space program, but they still found it interesting.  I'm so glad that they were able to go.

Andy Grammer

 Wild Adventures hosts a summer concert series each year, and as season pass holders we are able to get the first shot at the reserved seating section (and they only charge us $5 per seat).  This year there was one concert that I was interested in and that was Andy Grammer.  He has a lot of songs that I like, and the kids really like his song "Honey, I'm Good".  We ended up scoring tickets on the fourth row- so close that we could see every move the band made.  It was great!  Andy sang all of our favorite songs plus his new single "Fresh Eyes".  He said that this was the first time that he's performed this song live.  The band really knew how to pump up the crowd and we were all on our feet and jumping around by the end of the evening.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend our last weekend before school starts back.

Summer Fun

 Well, summer vacation is coming to an end.  I go back to work tomorrow and the kids will go back next week.  I will miss these lazy summer days, but at the same time I am happy to be getting back into a routine.  This post serves as a reflection of some of the things that the kids and I did this summer.



We saw a couple of movies and even made it to the drive-in once.  Our favorite was Finding Dory- such a cute movie.

The kids participated in the summer reading program at the library.  Each week they read books and logged those in for prizes.  The library also hosted weekly events, but we were only able to participate in one of these special programs.  The program we went to featured a man known locally as THE expert on all things Okefenokee.  He spoke to the kids about wildlife found in the swamp.  He had couple of tables full of animal shells, skins, bones, and other things.  It was very interesting.  I think the highlight for the kids was being able to touch hardened alligator poop.  They all giggled and said "gross", but at the same time they all wanted to touch it.

 In July the Pokemon Go app was released, and the kids (and Brian) have been trying to "catch'em all" ever since.  As I type this, the kids are outside looking for Pokemon.  I don't know much about this, but I do know that when Brian says "I'm going to the gym" he means he's going down the road to the church parking lot because that is where the Pokemon gym is.

We used our season passes to visit Wild Adventures / Splash Island. Owen was finally tall enough to ride the Twisted Typhoon roller coaster, so he was excited about that. He was also tall enough to ride all of the water slides in Splash Island, so no more sitting out for him.

 Mama said that there were a bunch of sparklers left over from Quincy's wedding, so we met up at Granny's house on the fourth of July to use up the last of them.  The kids really liked doing this.

 The kids and I also made a day trip over to Saint Simon's Island for a fun day at Neptune Park.  We had a nice lunch, swam in the pool, played on the playground, and walked around the park (looking for Pokemon).  This was our "last hurrah" trip of the summer, and we had a great time.

Even though summer vacation is over, summer isn't.  We are going to have at least another month (maybe even two) of insanely hot weather.  Hopefully we'll be able to keep cool.

Pets Unleashed VBS

 Our church has had a very eventful summer.  Two of the main events have been saying goodbye to our long-time preacher and welcoming a new one.  When we sat down last spring to choose a VBS date, we had a hard time because many of the dates available on the church calendar were already filled by other events.  We decided to try a weekend VBS, and it was a hit.  The theme of our VBS was "Pets Unleashed".  We even had some furry friends on hand throughout the weekend to emphasize the theme and thrill the kids- they especially liked the pot-bellied pig. At Bible school, the kids learned about the life of Jesus, read the Bible, played games, and completed a mission project of making various animal toys to donate to the local animal shelter.  It was a great weekend.