Hurting - Evansville Half Marathon

Phew. Yesterday, Kenton and I ran, well I jog/walked, the Evansville Half Marathon. I am stiff as a board today. I found out a big disadvantage of living on the second floor of an apartment building - the stairs. Stairs and getting up from sitting down are the hardest activities. My hamstrings and sides are the sorest parts of my body. A colleague at work told me to alternate ice and heat when I get home. She has run the Boston Marathon, so I think the advice is good. :)

I made my 3-hour goal by a hair - 2:59:43! A 13:44 minute pace for 13.1 miles. Yipee! Kenton did awesome. He ran the whole way and finished in 2:15:56, a 10:23 minute pace. And he is not nearly as sore as I am today. There are supposed to be other photos of us from a professional, but they aren't up yet, so check back for those.

Our "FINISHER 2008" medals

Us after the race... do we look tired?

The scenery was beautiful through Evansville. The weather got a little hot for those of us who were racing longer, but not nearly as bad as last year (close to 90 degrees!). Over 2000 registered this year and 1,928 people finished. I was 84th out of 95th in my division - females 20-24. Boo. Next year my goal is to be in the top 3/4 of my division.

After we got done with the race, we went straight to Cracker Barrel and stuffed ourselves. Yum. I love hashbrown casserole. Then we slept for 3 hours. It was a good day.

Matthew's 7th Birthday

Today we went to Matthew's (Kenton's Godson) 7th birthday party! I can't believe how fast time goes by! When I met him, he was just 3 years old! The party was great, except for the cake. Somehow, he's gotten stuck on carrot cake and asks for that every year. Too bad I don't like carrot cake. Oh well. They had cookie cake too, so it all worked out.

Matthew with his carrot cake

Jeremy (Kenton's cousin) and the birthday boy

Me, Josh (Kenton's nephew), and Jacob (Matthew's younger brother)

We played a bit of football and once I was the center... which didn't work out so well. Brad, Kenton's cousin-in-law pushed me to the ground with just a tap. Sigh, guess I'll have to build some muscles.

Croptoberfest

Ever since I went to the Crop 4 Kids event, I have been scrapbooking like crazy. I've also found that there are a TON of crops around Evansville all year. I went to Croptoberfest today and had a blast. I finished 10 pages from 9am-5pm, which might not sound like a lot, but before I got my Cricut and other tools, those would have taken me up to 15-20 hours! Woo hoo!

There were probably 100 croppers there today... cropmania!

Family Fondue

Tonight I had my Phi Mu family over for chocolate fondue. It was really fun. We have four people in our family now - my little sister: Stacey, my little little sister: Dinah, and my great gran little: Theresa. In about two weeks our family will be FIVE STRONG. I think we're going to make shirts that say that.

With the fondue tonight we had marshmallows, pound cake (my favorite), mandarin oranges, bananas, nilla wafers, and angel food cake. It was quite yummy.

Huber Orchard & Winery

On Saturday we went to Huber Orchard & Winery near Louisville. We went with the Vectren Employee Activity Organization (VEAO) on a big coach bus. It had been raining that day, but it let up just as we were arriving. First thing, we had a big lunch of roast, chicken and dumplings, corn, green beans, bread, homemade cobbler and homemade ice cream. It was fantastic!

Then we took a tour of the wine "cellar" which wasn't even below ground. They also make gin at Huber, so we got a whiff of 80 proof gin, whew! We got to taste 8 different wines... I didn't really like any of them. The little bits of cracker-bread were really good in between wines though! I don't think I'll ever be a wine connoisseur. Maybe I just haven't got a taste for it.

The gin - it's dripping out on the right

The wines we tasted - they weren't very good

We went to the petting zoo and tried to get through a maze they had… unsuccessfully. L We also got to go on a hay ride around the farm and saw all the crops. We even got to eat grapes off the vine. We saw a lot of apple trees and pumpkins ready to be picked. The best part of the trip was the cheese and ice cream shop! They make everything there. The fruit ice cream is all made with their own fruit. I sampled about 10 flavors and then settled on peach. It was delicious!

Some of the petting zoo animals - apparently starving

The hay ride

Our tour guide picking grapes

Me in an apple tree

Surprise 60th!

On Friday we went to surprise birthday party for Kenton's Aunt Tonnie - it was really fun, she was definitely surprised! There were almost 100 people there... I hope I know 100 people to invite to my 60th birthday party!

We stayed over in Derby on Friday and Saturday was a beautiful day there!

Overlooking the pasture on Saturday

American Idol Tour and Pop Tarts!

Tonight we went to see the American Idol tour! We got tickets from UE and the show was great. I think it was so entertaining because there were 10 performers so it kept it interesting. Places 3-10 did 3 songs each and then the two Davids (1 and 2) performed 5 songs each.

Before we went to the concert, we went to a reception hosted by UE and I met the guy who invented the pop tart! He was working for General Foods and the toaster was becoming a household item - they wanted to create a breakfast food for the toaster other than toast. They thought and thought and finally he went out and bought a bunch of dough (dates the story, huh?) and created the first pop tarts in a 4x4 shape! Awesome! Even better, the concert tour was sponsored by Pop Tarts!

Pictures and video to be posted....