I don't know if you've noticed, but sometimes I post many pictures of the same pose (like yesterday's 1st day of preschool pics). The reason is because the wonderful camera that Aaron got for me last year takes pictures so fast and easy, that I end up snap, snap, snapping away and before I realize it, I have 8 pictures of the same thing. Then, when I view them on the computer, I can't decide which one is the best, so I end up just including them all. Hope you don't mind!! :)

Today the girls went to preschool to start a new year. They were very anxious to get there but I was able to get them to pose for a few seconds!

They are going to Bethel Baptist Church Preschool again this year. Vivian will go on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Kate will go on Wednesdays and Fridays. This allows me to have one day with each girl alone for good ol' individual attention, and one day with no girls at all! :(

Vivian has new teachers, a new room, and almost all new friends in her class this year. She will do well, I think! Kate has a new room but the same teachers, which will be very helpful for her.

They didn't have too much to say when I picked them up today...I had to ask a lot of questions that I already knew the answer to. But from what I can gather, they had fun and there weren't any tears.

"Have fun at school today, sister!"

1st day of school hugs :)

Saturday afternoon

Kate is just an absolute goofball.

The girls loved riding in the front.

It was an interesting ride...our breaks didn't work very well, if at all, and there were lots of people on the boardwalk to dodge. We also didn't consider how much legwork it required...our race was the next morning! But it was sweet to watch these kiddos enjoy themselves.

I was not excited to see this countdown banner...I was pretty nervous about the race. I started training 4 months ago, but wasn't very consistent. My longest training run had only been about 9 miles. But it was also a fun nervousness, too!

The girls were very patient while we browsed a little. They slept well for their nap when we got back to the hotel room, though!

Have I mentioned how perfectly delightful they were for our entire vacation? Of course we had our moments, but those were considerably rare...most of the time they were sweet and playful.

Sunday morning we were out of the room by 5:30 to get to the start line on time along with about 20,000 other people. We met Joey and Sierra there, along with their friend Chris. Chris ran with Sierra the whole time. Aaron and I started in the same corral but each ran our own steady pace. This was by far the most fun race that I've done because I wasn't so miserable like in the other ones! I guess I was more prepared than I thought. The live bands and cheerleading teams along the route were great for building excitement. Another thing that really helped was that I decided at the last second to join a pace group. It was awesome to run with the same people the whole time and have conversations to get my mind off the running. They paced each mile the same so that we would finish in exactly 2 hours and 22 minutes. However, for the last mile I felt decent so I ran ahead of them and finished in 2:20. Hooray! The times from my other races were: 2:14 (Va Beach, 2007) and 2:26 (Disney, 2011). So I am pretty consistent!

Aaron really impressed me. He ran at about a 9 min/mile pace and finished in under 2 hours (1:59)! Unbelievable. He is a machine. :)

Sierra and Mom both did well, too, and we all agreed that it was a fun morning. We are looking for another race to do!

My knees weren't too happy about the race, and my legs still hurt today. It's getting better, though, and it was definitely worth it. If you're looking for a good, fun challenge, consider the Va Beach Rock 'n' Roll half next Labor Day weekend!

I've been able to upload the pictures from our time at Emerald Isle with the Morgan family. I will get the pictures from our Virginia Beach detour on here tomorrow. These pictures are out of order...the first picture is actually the last one that was taken on Friday...but you can get the general idea of the fun we had and the things we did. Most of our time was spent on the beach, and the pictures reflect that. We did go to the aquarium on Thursday but I forgot my camera, so I'll have to steal some of Joy's :)

We hope that everyone had a chance to get away this summer and enjoy each other!

We had a blast and loved our time with our friends!