April in Review...

Take us out to the ballgame!  

Nicholas and I had other plans for a Friday night, however when my parents called and said they had come across some free Astros tickets and were heading to the game I hurried and called Nick and told him to not take the bus home.  We left right away and picked him up at the bus station downtown on our way to the ballpark.  It just poured on the way there (hence my wet-dog hair look) but we are lucky that the field is indoors.  

We enjoyed some peanuts and a hot dog while the Astros got beat by the...hmmm...I can't even remember who they played!  

It was great fun to do something different- plus our seats were pretty good!  Nick got to enjoy singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" for the 7th inning stretch....a new experience for him!

The very next morning Nicholas and I headed downtown again- this time for a 5K sponsored by his company, Transwestern. 

We ended up running right by the ball field- the 

route began at the convention center, wound around the ballpark nextdoor, went over and overpass, and then turned around.  It was a fun run but really hot and humid.  

I had been training to run faster and I tried to keep up with Nick for the first mile or so.  After that he started to slip away, but I did my best to keep him within sight...until the last upward climb at about mile 2.5.  At that point I just wanted to keep up with the old man next to me!

I found Nick about 100 feet from the finish line....I figured he had finished and had walked back to cheer me on and so I ran as hard as I could across the finish line.  He trotted after me and then I learned that he had just emptied his stomach just before finishing- nuts!

The Houston heat is something that takes some getting used to and I have had my fair share of dizzy and nautious

moments!  Nicholas was very disappointed but I assured him that we will have many more opportunities!  

Even with the minor setback, we still both averaged an 8 minute 26 second average per mile and finished in just over 26 minutes!  That was a full 5 minutes faster than last August when I ran in the Salem 5K!  I ended up coming in 4th in my age category, which was a complete surprise to me

but is motivation to keep going!

The run, which was benefitting a special school for children, finished at the convention center.  One end of the building was opened up to us runners and families and had snacks and drinks, the all-important bathrooms, and multiple booths for children to play little games and win little prizes.  We made a quick stop by the Transwestern booth and picked up a punch-balloon before we headed home.

The next week Amy and Belle came over for a few days to play...we had fun going shopping and doing lots of playing.  Isabelle was anxious to go on her morning jog with us and we each took turns running with her.  One morning during my turn to jog with her we ran to see "Blacky" the horse.  She was insistent that we take some food to feed him and consented to an apple when we found that Grammie did not have any carrots.  We sprinkled cinnamon sugar over the apple slices and ate most of them on the way.  A horse, not Blacky (who is all brown by the way), came over to the fence and we did get to feed him a few apple slices...but I think Isabelle's favorite was getting to see all of the dogs on the trail and getting a drink in the outdoor drinking fountain!

It was so fun to have them over!  Isabelle is always crazy about Nick and it is nice for both of us when he makes an effort to get home in time to see her before bed!

Now we did go to Disneyworld, but I had to play catch up before I could blog about that...give me a few days to post pictures!  In the meantime, check out Amy or Colleen's blogs :)