Silver Springs

This past week was our school system's Spring Break (hooray!). I kept the kids home with me all week and we had several "adventures". Our first adventure was to Silver Springs Park in Ocala, Florida. This is a nature park where the main attraction is- as the name suggests- a natural spring. According to our tour guide, the water that "springs" out of the ground here is 98% pure. I believe it- you could see straight to the bottom. There were several things to do at the park. The kids' favorite was the glass bottom boat tour of the springs. Their eyes were glued to the glass window for the duration of the tour. They would get so excited whenever they spotted fish or turtles. The weather was beautiful during our visit, and so there were several people kayaking in the springs.

Silver Springs offers a variety of activities including a jeep safari ride. For this activity, we loaded into a little trailer pulled by a jeep and ventured into "wild" florida to see various animals. The animals weren't that great, but the jeep ride was fun. The road was good and bumpy, and the kids liked getting bounced around in their seats. After the safari, we visited some of the other animal exhibits. We walked up to the giraffe pen during a designated snack time, and Owen was able to feed some crackers to the giraffe. Olivia wouldn't go near the giraffe. We also were able to see the alligator show. At the end of the show, the kids were able to touch an small alligator.

A Lesson in Life at the Easter Egg Hunt

This past Saturday was the Easter egg hunt at our church. It had been raining off and on all morning on Saturday, and I was afraid that the hunt was going to be cancelled. Thankfully, the skies cleared up for about three hours in the afternoon- just long enough for us to hunt for eggs outside. Although the weather did not cause the event to be cancelled, it did effect attendance. Still, the kids had a great time. The "hunters" were divided into two groups. Since neither of my kids are in Kindergarten, they were both in the younger group. Olivia was actually the oldest kid in the younger group, so she had no trouble getting a lot of eggs into her basket. She found the most eggs in the group, and she found one of the four "prize" eggs. Owen didn't find the most eggs nor did he find a prize egg. This event turned out to be a "learning opportunity" for Owen. If he looks like he's crying in the pictures below, that's because he is. He got upset first because he didn't find a prize egg. Olivia gave him hers so that he wouldn't be upset. This seemed to cheer him up a bit- that is until Olivia won the big chocolate bunny for having the most eggs. Owen then started crying again because he didn't get the grand prize. What Owen got instead were two lectures from Mama about sportsmanship (just what he wanted, I'm sure). Hopefully, he understood what I said and took it to heart. We still have one more egg hunt to go, and I'm hoping that we won't have this issue again.

My Spidey Sense is Tingling: Must be Owen's Birthday

Attention all bad guys, there is a new superhero in town. He's smart, tough, and four years old- so watch out. That's right, my little "superhero" is FOUR years old! I can't believe it. Owen and Olivia have recently discovered the old Spider Man cartoons, and they are hooked. So, it came as no surprise when Owen wanted a Spider Man cake and party. Not only did Owen get the Spider Man cake and decorations, but he also got a brand new Spider Man bike from Brian and I. He has already been around the neighborhood on it a few time with his daddy, and it is a big improvement over his old, smaller bike. Owen also received a lot of nice clothes and toys at his party. We had the party at Gigi and Papa's house this year. We ate pizza, opened gifts, and sang Happy Birthday to Owen. After cake and ice cream, Papa surprised the kids with a hay ride. This was a hit with everyone.

Swamp Run '12

Remember how I said that I would be doing a lot of running posts this spring? Well, here's some more proof that I was telling the truth. This morning, I participated in the Okefenokee Swamp Run 10K. This is a race that Brian and I usually take the kids to so that they can do the fun run. This didn't happen today because the weather called for thunderstorms, and we didn't want to drag the kids all the way out to the Swamp Park only to have them not be able to run. As it turned out, the weather was great (and I was mad at myself all morning for not having taken the kids to the race). Oh well. I still went because I was determined to run- rain or shine. It turned out to be neither rain nor shine but very cloudy and humid. The race was held at the Swamp Park again- and the gators were not the things to fear this year. The things to fear were the mosquitos. They were terrible. I even had one fly in my mouth while I was running. Yuck! Although these pests were at every turn, I enjoyed the run. I was delighted to see that the course had been changed. The race is now officially a trail run. I love those! My final time was 53:53, and that earned 1st in my age group. But, this is not the best news. Every single runner who was in our "group" placed!

Davis Farm Field Trip

Olivia's Pre-K class took a field trip to Davis Farm last week. This field trip wrapped up the unit on farm animals. The Davis family farm has an interesting hodgepodge of animals- including llamas, emus, peacocks, as well as "traditional" livestock. The kids were allowed to pet or feed several of the animals, but Olivia said that she only touched the emu. I think that some of the others freaked her out a little. Aunt Quincy went on the trip as Olivia's chaperone, and she said that all of the kids had a ball. Below are some of the pictures taken by Quincy during the field trip.

Mud Runs: They Are Awesome

Before I even begin, here's the before and after:

Mud runs have been quickly gaining popularity nationwide over the last couple of years. Three years ago I wouldn't have been able to find a mud run in our area if I tried. Now, it seems, that there is one every month. Brian and I felt that we had to find out- first hand- what all the hubbub was about. So, we took off early Saturday morning with our friend Ryan to go to Jacksonville and compete in the FL-Roc obstacle challenge. I cannot believe how much FUN this race was. The course was 3.5 miles and had 30+ obstacles. We climbed over walls, crawled through mud pits, ran through the woods, snaked through underground tunnels. At one point, I was chest deep in water. This is by no means a comprehensive list of obstacles- it goes on and on. I'm not going to lie- it was tough... but so much fun! Brian and Ryan stayed together for a good portion of the race- til Brian got bogged down in a mud pit and had to tell Ryan to "go on without him". I started off pretty strong. My plan was to get as dirty as possible on the first obstacle (which turned out to be a water pit followed by a mud crawl) so that I wouldn't waste time trying to keep clean during my run. I ended up sticking with another girl for most of the race. As we were making our way through the big mud field in the final mile, the photographer told us that we were the first two females in our heat. This gave us the push that we needed to finish strong. I ended up finishing second in my heat- which made me think that I may qualify for an overall award. As it turns out, I did. I finished with a chip time of 45:30. Of the 34 women in my age group, I finished second (and I was only 3 seconds behind the 1st place runner). I also finished 12th of the 181 women (of all ages) running the race. Not too shabby for a first attempt. Brian's chip time was 1:12:16. He would have finished sooner, but he got bogged down behind several "groups" of runners and had to wait to do the obstacles. Even though some groups flat out skipped the obstacles, Brian completed every one of them. Our friend, Ryan, also did well and finished in the top portion of his age group. I loved this race. We got lots of schwag. In addition to the t-shirts, all runners got pint glasses. Plus, I receieved a huge, heavy medal that doubles as a bottle opener. We will be doing more of these!

The Gate 2012

Here's to another successful 15K at the National Championship Gate River Run. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I LOVE this race. Everything about it is great- the course, the organization, the proximity to my house, etc... Remembering that we got caught in traffic and barely made the start at all last year, Anna and I left super early this year. Quincy- who was making the leap from 5K to 15K was also with us. (Who really needs a 10K anyway?, says she). We arrived in plenty of time to check in, get our gear together, stretch, and make it to our respective starting locations. I actually got to take advantage of my seeded time this year, and began in the "orange" corral with like-paced runners. This is definitely the way to go- no weaving in and out. I actually think that starting in a seeded section helped me better pace myself because I ran really well this year. I finished in 1:21:42. This is nearly 7 minutes faster than last years' time. I finished in the top 10% of women runners and received a "top 10%" ball cap. I was super stoked about the hat and sported that thing for the rest of the day. Everyone else also finished with impressive times. Quincy made a great showing in her first 15K and finished in under the 2 hour mark. In the picture above is our Gate River "crew" consisting of me, my girls Anna and Krystial, Quincy, Karina (Krystial's sister) and Jared (Karina's boyfriend).

Bonus picture: Picture taken at start line. Can you find me? (Hint- look to the left)