Lake Weekend

We had a three day weekend this past weekend for Memorial Day. The weather was super hot and muggy most of the time. Saturday morning I headed to Lexington for a 5k called Jailbreak. The race route was pretty rough and the heat didn't help. There were two other girls near me the whole time until the end. The last mile was straight up hill. The first girl got alittle ways ahead and the other girl we kept playing tag with each other. Finally at the end when I thought I was good, she passed me at the last second. Ended up getting third and made $50.00, which paid for the race and gas to get there. Oh well!

The weekend continued with fun times at the lake. The girls had so much fun. We got to take the boat out and even get on Daniel's jetski. I even took Grayson on it...shhhhh. The water was rough and kindof cold, but we still had a great time.

We went to the lake Saturday and Sunday. Saturday night my parents kept the girls so we could go out to dinner. Sunday morning we actually got up at 5:30 am to bike and run. YES am...even though we didn't have any kids. The workout went great and I feel ready for the tri in two weeks. In between the lake and exercising we were able to clean the house and made ME's birthday invitations...stay tuned!

Lady Antebellum

Tuesday night Perry and I headed to Augusta for the Lady Antebellum Concert. One of Ben's friends were selling the tickets, Ms. Riddle and I had talked about going when they back to Augusta several months ago, so I called her to see if she wanted to go with me. When Perry and I got there we picked up Ms. Riddle and headed to the James Brown Areana, which is much smaller than the Colonial Center. Our seats weren't all the great, but I have been spoiled with good seats, they were on the floor just towards the back. Anyways, Thompson Square opened for them, which I didn't realize I knew all there songs to. Here is a picture I tried to take when they sang, Kiss me or Not.

I just loved how they had the blow up kisses. They sang for about an hour and then reset the stage for Lady A. The two guys in the group are from Augusta so all during the concert they just made you feel at home. At one point their high school band came out and played and they both pointed out their parents in the crowd. I told Ben I felt like I was at a concert at the fair, in a good way. Overall the concert was awesome, the last song they did is my favorite, Need You Now!

Pics didn't come out to good, but the last two were was when Lady A and Thompson Square were on the stage singing together. Great concert, I'm so glad Ms. Riddle wanted to come with me. I held back from my normal concert behavior in fear she would take the girls aways from me, but don't worry I still yelled and screamed. This just got me more and more excited about the KENNY CHESNEY concert!!!!!

Water Play

Cousin Time

Thursday and Friday I had to go to Charleston for a meeting, well of course I took full advantage of it...which means going to run the bridge for the first time. It was awesome!!! I ran about 2 miles to the bridge, ran up and over, back across, and then back to my hotel. It was about 10 miles, I don't know my pace but I felt wonderful the whole time. Here are two random shots I took during the run.

Headed back to Columbia Friday afternoon to pick up the girls and head to North Augusta. Ben, Adam, Mr. Riddle, Ryan, and Jennings headed to Helen, GA to ride up the mountains in that area. Here is a picture that Adam took of them at the top of Hogpen Gap.

While the boys were of riding there bikes, Ms. Riddle and I played with the girls. Thank goodness I had her to help me and keep me company over the weekend. Baby Mason got to join us Saturday and the girls had a great time playing with their cousin. It was a little crazy with ME, Baby Grayson, Baby Mason, three dogs, etc.... but the weather was perfect and we got some great pics of all of them playing.

 The next few pictures are from a park that we went to Saturday afternoon in Augusta, GA.

Granddaddy decided he had enough of the boys and came back early to see all his grandbabies.

 At the end of the day, I'd say all three of them were pretty tired!! Time to relax!!!!!

 ME, Baby Grayson, and I had to find some time to paint our toes.

While we were painting our toes, Mason won his first 10k. He is a true Riddle now!!!!

 Overall a good, yet tiring weekend. I even got to change my first boy diaper!!!! It was nice spending time with Mason, the girls, and the Riddles. We missed Ben, but he had a great time with his friends.

ME's Dance Recital

Mary Elizabeth had her first recital. We knew after watching her during rehearsal that this was going to be hilarious! We laughed until our stomach hurt just watching the different classes of little girls on the HUGE stage doing their dances.

Tuesday night was the actual recital. Her teacher, thank God, fixed her hair and makeup for her and she was dressed and ready to go. Course on the car ride over, "I don't want to dance, I want Baby Grayson to dance." I told her she would probably get some flowers and the next response was, "Are they going to be pink?” Finally Grayson and I got her where she needed to be and we met up with Ben, Daniel, Perry, my mom and dad, Ben's parents, Laura and Mason, Amanda, and Jean of course!! ME had her own cheering crew. Baby Grayson decided she did NOT want to sit and watch, so we got to play in the lobby and watch the rain. Finally after over an hour it was time for ME's class.

At first ME was actually dancing and then she found the sparkles on the ground. Her and another little girl in her class completely forgot about the fact that they were supposed to be dancing and decided sparkles were much more entertaining. The whole audience started dying laughing. She was so cute and we were all so proud of her. I went back downstairs to get her after the dance was over and she said;" look what I found", and handed me a hadful of sparkles. I asked her if she had fun and she said, "I thought I was going to get some flowers." I took her to met up with the rest of the family and sure enough Laura and my parents had gotten her some flowers.

Afterwards we all went to Casa Linda for dinner. I love being able to get both families together. I know the girls love it to. We are so thankful to have such good family support. After Ben had a HUGE margarita and I myself had a big beer, we could finally relax....the perfect end to a perfect night.

Mother's Day Weekend

We weekend started off great! My brother, Perry, got engaged to Amanda. They came over to my parents house afterwards to show off the ring, which I can say Perry did very well. They told us the cute story of how he did it, here's the banner that she opened.

We are sooo happy for them and can't wait for Amanda to join our crazy family! (Ben of course pulled her aside and warned her.) The weekend continued and Saturday I got up and decided to do a 5k, Get to the Pink, to support breast cancer. My legs were super tired from the week before, so I wasn't aiming for a great time or anything. Well I surprised myself and ended up getting a new PR, 1st place, and won $150. My previous time was 18:41 and my new time is 18:27, moving on down! :) Side note, I beat a girl that's always aiming for me, which just makes victory that much sweeter! Along with some extra gas money, I recieved this...

After the race and Ben's workout we headed to North Augusta to spend some time with Ben's parents. Saturday afternoon was so nice, we just sat outside, played with the girls, and a great wing dinner. For Mother's Day Ben gave me registration to a tri, Ben's parents gave me a gift card, and the girls gave me some things they had made at school.

All and all a great weekend, despite the rain! We have a full and crazy week ahead of us. Get excited!

Strawberry Cheesecake

For supper club last night I tried a new dessert from pinterest. All I did was cut out the inside of the strawberry and then made the cheescake mix. The mix was 1/3 fat cream cheese, powdered suger, and vanilla. After I loaded the strawberries with the cheesecake mix, I just put graham cracker crumbs on top! Easy, good, refreshing, and sort of heathly!

Garden

Took some random pictures of our garden and yard yesterday. In the garden, we have tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, peppers, and cherry tomatoes. Around the yard we have a peach, lemon, and lime trees.