a mini vacay-part one

A couple weeks ago, we rented a van(which was super exciting for the kids to be in a new- to- them car!! and it was exciting for us too, b/c we were able to bring drinks and snacks into the car.. something that is not allowed in our own van!) and headed down for a 5 day get away in Nashville, TN. It all started as a guy trip for my husband who had signed up to run in the Rock n Roll City Marathon series.. (in this case it is the Country Music Marathon and 1/2). Then it changed to a wife and hubby get away and my mom would watch the kiddos so that we could have a few days of fun night life and just being together. Ahem.. however in December when we saw those 2 little lines, that changed our lives... our plans were altered. Oh .. yeah.. I don't think I have even shared that tid bid on this ol' blog.... baby #4 is due to arrive in 2.5 months. I'll do a post here soon on that news!
so back to our trip... in talking to his parents, Andrew's mom and dad decided that they would fly from Denver to support their son in his first race and it was a great time to see the grand kids again, since they haven't seen them since we were out there when Beck was 4 months old. This is the night before, A is checking in.. and then below doing the traditional countdown pic... at the big fitness expo.

This was when Brig exclaimed fairly loudly.. "so dad, are you gonna cheat in this race?". We all laughed.. thinking a. why would he even think that and b. how would one cheat in a self drivin -non competition race like this. maybe take some short cuts.. trip some fellow runners?? lol

the above pics were taken when I hadn't realized that my camera settings had been bumped.. too lazy to PS them since they are just snapshots oh well, they still tell a story. Below is part of the expo. we had a lot of fun getting samples and trinkets from the booths and A got a new pair of ear buds for the race. he says they are amazing!

Beckham enjoyed the sample of healthy all natural fruit snacks.. I think he had like 4 packs of them!

Brigham found this guy to be very interesting. Of course we asked if we could snap a picture. Brig was really excited to see him the next day running in the race. This guy was fast.. and I pretty much want to know how he got his legs to look like that! lol

this is actually the last pic at the end of the race.. lol- it is reenacted as well.. b/c we got to mile 13 thinking that we would have a perfect view of him and could follow him the last 10th of a mile... well we missed him, as he finished much sooner than he or us thought he would .. yay! he was down celebrating with his friends and we were up waiting and high fiving all the remaining runners and mostly walkers. little did we know that we totally missed him! lol

the above is cute, b/c we were texting Andrew through out the race trying to figure when he would come up to the place where we were waiting.. and just to see what is pace was. here is Brigham thrilled that he could run a bit with his daddy.. Andrew crossed over from the main drag to run and chat with his dad . Brig thought it was funny that he was 'winning'.. on this stretch!

Beck had the best seat.. and loved cheering for everyone too!

It sure was a hot day.. perfect for the runners.. we probably walked about 3 miles as we followed along.

In the end. So proud of Andrew for setting a goal and finishing ahead of it. He has kept endurance as he trained for this race. He has really found a love for running( I didn't know that was possible!) and is already signed up for another one in November. We have a list made for all the races in various cities that he/we would like to make it to. some will be family vacations, others will be couple vacays and a few would just be guy trips.







and I just deleted the pics of the rest of the kiddos and grandparents cheering! ugh.

We did do lots of fun things on this trip too, so I'll be back to post part two of this mini vacation!