when it rains, it pours . . .

grant and i signed up for the surfside half marathon because it sounded fun (this was the one we did last year). and it almost was.

we woke up early to heavy rain and thunder. we packed up the kids in heavy rain and thunder. and we drove down the freeway in heavy rain and thunder:

it was pretty discouraging. as we drew closer, mother nature taunted us by slowing the downpour to a drizzle and even stopping it completely for a bit:

but the drizzling rain soon came back:

and by the time we had parked, it was pouring again:

despite never having been a boy scout, i was prepared:

we. looked. awesome. and so chic.

once we made it to the headquarters, we learned that there was an electrical storm coming through and the half had been pushed back. the girls wandered around, looking like little yellow ghosts in their ponchos (lucy even had to hold her arms up to keep from tripping. it was hilarious and cute. no pictures, sadly). finally, they gave us the go-ahead. grant and i took the girls to the potty and while there, the race began. we hurried and put the girls in the stroller, got our shoes on (in a misguided effort to keep our shoes dry, we'd stowed them under the stroller and wore flip-flops. they still ended up soaked. i had to wring out my socks), and took off.

it was quite the confidence booster starting late, i passed tons of walkers (i really am faster than some people!). about a mile or two in the rain started again, softly at first but by the time i passed the first turn around it was getting harder. i'm 93.42981% sure it hailed. grant doesn't think it did, but he wasn't the one wearing a tank-top.

grant had to remove his glasses and run blind. here's a picture of him around mile 3. the sand was really soft and if you moved towards the water where it was more firm, the beach became noticeably slanted. he's pretty darn amazing. he got around 6 or 7 miles in and the girls started crying from being too cold and wet (yes, spiderman's ponchos failed us). so he turned around and didn't finish. when we passed each other as he was headed back, he snagged my ipod so the rain wouldn't ruin it (and for the record, i did volunteer to take the girls back so he could finish but he'd already back-tracked a mile or so). 

losing my ipod was a real blow. i couldn't hear the waves over the wind and rain that was hitting me head on so there was nothing to distract me from the misery. my ankle (the same one that bothered me during the marathon) struck again. and the #@$% sand!! i stopped half a dozen times to clean out the my socks to no avail, my achilles tendon was being sandpapered. once i hit the final turn around, the wind was at my back and the rain had mostly stopped. i felt great for a mile or so but by then my ankle was killing me. i splashed through every makeshift river and enjoyed feeling the cold water on it. the last time i paused to clean the sand out of my sock, it was covered in blood. the last mile or two were hard. eventually, i saw where the cars were parked. grant and the girls were standing about a tenth of a mile away from the finish and hazel helped me bring it in (at first she ran too fast for me and then i ditched her because i'm a nice mommy like that).

some of our friends who also ran:

me, robert, brittany, and lacey. robert did the full marathon, hence the blue ribbon. and lacey placed 3rd in her age group.

amazingly, i still beat my time from last year. by nearly 7 and a half minutes. i'm glad this wasn't a complete failure.

picture (and one above) courtesy of erin. thanks, friend!

if you know our kids at all, you'll know that there is no way we'd be allowed to leave without some frolicking on the beach:

hazel stuck mostly with the mud:

and lucy . . . well, behaved as usual:

moral of the story: never run on the beach again. ever.

valentine's 2012

our celebrations began on february 8th, with a playgroup potluck lunch and valentine exchange:

after eating we passed out our valentines:

my craftiness knew no bounds:

trick-or-treat bag + paper heart = valentine receptacle. genius.

the girls had plenty of room to go crazy playing with their friends:

they were also able to decorate a sugar cookie each:

on valentine's proper the girls received small gifts from us:

each got her own box of chocolates, toy car, and hairbrush:

lucy was so happy to get a brush "just wike rapunzel's!"

later we made some more sugar cookies to decorate:

just look how tasty:

knives were only licked once or twice.

it was a good, happy day.

hearts for everyone

2 years ago:

last year:

 today:

they are the cutest.

the houston museum of natural history

some of our good buddies invited us to visit the museum of natural history with them and i learned that the museum does indeed have a weekly free day: tuesdays from 3(or maybe 2?)-8pm (something we had asked about before. i guess the museum wants to keep it a secret?). hazel and lucy were really excited to go. we arrived a few minutes early and played by the fountains:

and checked out the solar system on the courtyard:

i believe the girls are sitting by earth.

inside we met up with half of the group and the kids entertained themselves by watching their dancing reflections: 

once we were all together, we headed in:

hooray! dinosaur bones! this looks familiar:

hazel made sure to take a picture of the pterosaur that hung from the ceiling:

after the dinosaurs, we moved onto gambling:

and rode the "geovator" to learn how oil is drilled (important lessons for texans):

then it was onto the stuffed animals:

we learned more science-y things:

and lifted weights:

before saying good-bye to our friends, the fountains:

and pluto, the dwarf planet: