Jennifer's Half Marathon

I will let her go into more detail whenever she has time, but, after never having run farther than a leisurely 5k, this past weekend Jenn completed her first half-marathon at the Dallas Rock'n Roll Half Marathon. Much more successful than my first half marathon, Jennifer completed it under her goal time and with a smile on her face. We're super proud of you!

Party- 35 and 1

In November, Patrick turned 35 and Collier turned 1.  We had a little party for the two of them to celebrate.  Good times with family and friends!

11 months

At 11 months, Collier had 4 teeth, was crawling and cruising.  Still a sweet, happy boy who rarely slept through the night. 

Thankful Cards

We did our traditional "thankful cards" for the month of November.  You know, where each person says what we are thankful for each day and the card then gets hung up on our "thankful tree".  This tree magically turns into our Christmas Card Tree for the month of December.  Back to the cards... Charlie's, specifically:

Charlie's Thankful Cards 2012
1. my cousins
2. Daddy
3.the Squadies (Superhero's)
4. my family
5. God
6. Imagination Movers
7. Momma
8. Daddy
9. Superman and God
10. football
11. cousins
12. kids in my class
13. Momma
14. teachers
15. soccer team
16. Holidays
17. Rangers
18. Cooper
19. God
20. the Hamilton's
21. my Mommy
22. my family

Typically, I like for Charlie to think of new things every day, but how can I make him change them when his repeats are things like "Daddy, momma, cousins and God"??  Sweet boy.

Texas Spartan Beast

Hello again, Patrick here.  Thought I would offer a quick update on my experience at the Spartan Race in Glen Rose this weekend.  Had a great time with Paul and Corey, running 13.5 miles across some wicked terrain at Rough Creek Lodge and doing 25 or so obstacles that included the following:

1.       Trenches – had to jump in and out of waist deep mud in the first mile

2.       Over-Under-Through Walls – 5-ft

3.     Walls - two 7 ft walls and later two 8 ft walls

4.       Barbed wire crawl through mud – 2x (the second one was at least 100 yards)

5.       Monkey bars - strategically placed right after one of the mud crawls so my hands and the bars were covered in mud.

6.       Tree stump walks – 2x (10 uneven tree stumps that you had to walk across)

7.       Object carry – 2x (80lb cement block carried for 10 yards, do 10 burpees (see below), and then walk back)

8.       30lb Sandbag carried up a hill and back

9.       Bucket full of gravel and rocks carry up a hill and back

10.       Pully hoist of a 80lb block

11.   Horizontal rock-climbing wall

12.   Quarter-mile swim

13.   High-rope over water - cross the single rope or fall in the creek (not me in this picture but this is the method I used to cross, you get the idea)

14.   Slippery wall – 45 degree wall covered in greasy mud, there was a rope for assistance

15.   Rope climb – 2x

16. Rope ladder tower

17.   Tractor pull – pulling another cement block with a chain, up and down a small hill

18.   Log hop with ankles linked together with a rubber band

19.   Oversize Tire flip

20.   Spear throw

21.   Fire jump

22.   Gladiator sprint

For any obstacle that wasn’t successfully completed, there was a 30-burpee penalty.  A burpee is similar to a punishment I used to get in football practice when I’d leave my helmet in Rockwall. 

I earned a 30-burpee penalty on one of the tree stump walks, the horizontal rock-climbing wall, and the spear throw.  Honestly, the burpees were harder than any of the actual obstacles or the running, especially after 100+ over the course of the entire race. 

My only significant injury was a rope burn from the high-rope over water.   Other than that, just some minor cuts and scrapes from the mud crawls and running through some hairy terrain.  Even though it didn't count as obstacles, much of the 13.5 mile run was up and down hills and through waist-deep creek beds, etc. Pretty awesome.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and low 70-degrees for our whole run.  Considering that we were wet for a large portion of the time between the swimming and the trenches and the mud crawling, was very thankful for the weather. 

Overall it took us 3 hours and 52 minutes, which sounds like a really long time for 13.5 miles, but we finished in the top 20% of all finishers and were passing people from earlier heats the entire day.   Thanks to Paul and Corey for inviting me to run with them.  Time for a new challenge, guys! 

Halloween 2012

My little cuties on Halloween 2012.  Both in their Fall plaid outfits for the day and Spidermen costumes for the night. 

Texas State Fair

 I now know why many families spend their whole time at the rides (and their whole paycheck).  Check out how much fun Charlie is having!

 Collier had a good time, too.

 When did he get so big?!?!

 Couple of goof balls.

 The Chinese Lanterns were pretty awesome... and, they are still up if you haven't seen them yet!