Training Begins

So before Christmas my sister called and had a fun vacation in mind... going to California in May, renting a beach house on Huntington Beach, going to Disneyland, surf lessons, oh.... and running the LA Marathon! I wish I was tough enough to do that, but running for over 4 hours doesn't appeal to me yet. But Sam was ready to give it a shot.
He is using the Hal Higdon training method, and started Monday. This week he ran 3 miles three days, and 6 miles today, Saturday. This picture is after his six mile run. He said he hit a wall at 3.5 miles, but once he pushed through it he felt fine the rest of the way. I bought him a Garmin 305 for Christmas which does all sorts of cool stuff. It is a GPS, counts distance, calories, and heart rate, keeps your pace, and more. We both got fitted for running shoes. Sam is a huge over-pronator so the specialty running shoes we bought for him have really made a difference.
Unfortunately it is really cold here right now. The three mile runs he did on the treadmill in the mornings. The temperature today was 57 degrees, finally nice enough to run outside! I'm sure Sam will do great! He has really amazed me with how quickly he has been able to build endurance and become " a runner." The marathon is in May. I will keep you posted on how his training is going. And yes, though I don't want to run 26 miles, I am a little jealous that he will be doing it without me!

Sweet Shaye-Shaye

The more time I have with the kids, the more I come to understand the meaning of the counsel to "become like a little child." Every morning I walk Shaye down to the bus stop, which is just around the corner at a friend's house. And no matter what kind of morning it has been she always says the same thing as she walks away. I stop across the road, and she goes across and into the house on her own. In the short distance she goes on without me, she calls back to me while I watch "bye momma, I love you" over and over! She probably says she loves me 3 times, yelling across the road as she goes. This always gets the morning on the right path, even if we started frantically trying to get homework done, hair fixed, and teeth brushed in time! She is such a blessing to all of us, and truly loves her family!

Christmas Eve

Each Christmas Eve is devoted to Sam's family. This year we started the day with a great breakfast at his mom's house. After we ate, we exchanged too many gifts and the kids got spoiled, as usual. Poor Jaxson woke up sick that morning. You can tell in the last picture how bad he was feeling. I felt so bad for him... and he tried his best to have some fun!
In the afternoon, we all went to Sam's dad's house for a steak dinner and more gifts! Several cousins, and Sam's grandpa were all there. It was nice to visit with everyone. Shaye had a great time playing outside in the warm Texas weather with her second cousins, and poor Jaxson took a nap.