Disney World!!

Disney World!!

Pure. Unadulterated. Fun.

Well we just got back from a week at one of the 3 most wonderful places in the world. That Walt Disney sure did outdo himself! If you recall, Carrie received Disney World tickets for her anniversary present back in October and we finally got to go. We can tick that off our Cubo Lista (our bucket list) as well! We have some family that lives in Orlando so we had free room and board. We are using the money we saved on a hotel room as a down payment for our goat ranch.

We spent 5 days at the parks. And it was not warm. In fact, I do believe Orlando set a record low (like 31 degrees) while we were there. We had to wear our huge jackets, toboggans and gloves half the time. The other half we just walked around naked.

If you haven't been to D-World in the past 2 weeks then I can be the first to inform you of their newest exhibit at Animal Kingdom: the Dinosaur Petting Zoo! Using blood from a prehistoric petrified mosquito, scientists at Disney were able to extract Dino DNA and create real dinosaurs!! (haven't you seen Jurassic Park??) To be completely honest it was a little dangerous. Some kid got eaten so we bailed.

Noob Tip: don't ride the intense version of Mission Space at Epcot unless you want to throw up and die.

Nathan just about lost his marbles when he saw the castle.

Italian Juggler McGee at Epcot.

The high that day was like 40.

Moroccan Madness via Epcot Central.

Nathan created this masterpiece using only a potato, a set of arms, an eyeball, an eyepatch, a Darth Vader helmet, a set of lips, nose, moustache, and a pair of high heels.

She liked it too.

The kid that got devoured at the Dino Petting Zoo.

Carrie's dream home. She's already drawing up blueprints.

We took a tour of the Grand Floridian and they had a pretty dominant gingerbread house. That gingerbread sign to the left reads:

Made of: 1,050 lbs. of Honey, 140 pints of Egg Whites, 600 lbs. of Powdered Sugar, 700 lbs. of Chocolate, 800 lbs. of Flour, 35 lbs. of Spices, Tons of Creativity, Disney Magic, and Pixie Dust.

Miss Mad Hatter.

Carrie just had to ride the Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom. And she was the only one in the raft that got completely soaked.

Apparently this guy got pretty wet as well. At least his pants did. (Yes he is down to his whitey tighties)

Tree of Life. 'Nuff said.

We went by Daytona Beach for a couple of hours on the way back home. Sunny and in the 70s.

1 Year Anniversary Celebration Grand Finale.

My First Half-Marathon!

The Women's Half Marathon!

So I would never consider myself a runner. It took a lot of work for me to build up my mileage. I had started running last summer to get ready for the wedding and the most I got up to was 4 miles. Then after the wedding the running stopped, I was able to work out at the YMCA, we attempted P90x (lasted 5 weeks), & I got kinda lazy with exercising. The main benifactor for the Women's Half Marathon is Restore Ministries (part of the YMCA, it's a group counseling program) so I was hearing all about the race from work. Along with some girls I work with we decided to do the race, A MONTH BEFORE! hahaha. So I had to train fast! When I first started training I could barely run for 15 minutes without needing to stop & walk. I ran usually in the afternoons on weekdays & early on saturdays. The miles added on pretty fast. Before I knew it I was running 6 then 8 then 10 miles! I was really excited & ready for the 1/2.

The half marathon was held in downtown Nashville on September 25th. From what I hear the course is similar to the Music City Marathon with a few different turns. At 7 am over 6,000 women (& prob 5 men) took off for the first annual Women's Half Marathon in Nashville. My sweet husband brought his bike & met me at every mile marker to take a picture & see if I needed a drink.

(Mile 1)

There were definitely some tough hills, well the whole thing seemed like a hill! There were water & gatorade stops about every 2 miles, & around mile 6 they had fruit they were passing out.

(Mile 2)

The girl next to me is Robyn, she is a friend from the Y that ran with me the whole time. We had a good time trying to get through the race together!

(Mile 3)

Look at who all was at mile 3 & mile 11 cheering me on! Brannie, Sarah, Charles, & Jordan came to the race! Thank you so much guys it meant a lot to me to have ya'll there!

(Mile 3)

(Mile 4)

Throughout the race there were bands set up on the side of the road playing music to motivate us. There also was a dance team & different groups of people cheering us on the whole time :)

(Mile 5)

(Mile 6)

(Mile 7)

(Mile 8)

(Mile 9)

I'm not going to lie this race was pretty difficult for me but I really enjoyed doing it. It felt good to accomplish something that I have talked about doing for years!

(Mile 10)

(Mile 11)

I am also extremely thankful for the beautiful weather & scenery!

(Mile 12)

The last leg of the journey a.k.a. trying really hard not to pass out!

Homestretch!!!

At the end of the race there were soldiers to put the medal around our necks! Then it was time to lay in the grass! haha. I finished in 2.39 . My original goal was 2.45 so I was excited to beat that! I can now cross off completing a half marathon on the cubo lista! woohooo!

Me and my hot husband!!

My loyal supporters!!

On a side note, a lady named Lynn passed out 20 feet from the finish line. They tried to revive her and rushed her to Vanderbilt but she passed away the next morning. She had been training for a while for the half marathon so this was a real shock to her family, but the doctors found out that she had 90% blockage in her heart. She was only like 52. From what I understand she was a believer so pray for peace for her family as they deal with this loss!

Love you all! Goodnight

Cubo Lista!

Cubo Lista!

So here it is, our cubo lista! Some of these things only one of us really wants to do, others we both really want to do (we'll let you figure out who wants to do what). Our goal is to try and do at least two things a year on ou list, one that each of us wants to do. Honestly that seems like a pretty big chore, though some of the things shouldn't take up too much time or money, just some willingness to try! We just don't want to wait till we're 80 years old to start tickin' some of this stuff off our list. I guess it should be said that we shouldn't be living for fun or for whatever it is we really want to do and we can be 90 and on our death beds and not have done one thing from our cubo lista and be completely satisfied, because ultimately our satisfaction and fulfillment in life comes from Christ alone, but seriously, God just created too many cool things and places for us to not get out and experience Him! (btw, cubo lista is somewhat Spanish for Bucket List, but you probably already figured that out). So we'll probably add to and take away from our cubo lista, and as we experience some of these things we'll add them here!

- Go Skydiving (nathan & maybe carrie, still pondering on it)
- Play In A Legitimate Drum Circle (nathan)
- Climb A Really Tall Multi-Pitch Route (nathan but carrie will probably have to participate)
- Learn To Play The Banjo (both)
- Visit New Zealand (both)

- Play In A Chess Tournament (nathan)
- Have Children (both)
- Adopt Children (both)
- Beat all of our SEGA games without using cheat codes (nathan)

- Go On A Real Cross-Country Road Trip Out West, Grand Canyon being a must (both)
- Go To Disney World Together (both) ü
- Ride a Bicycle Built For Two Together (both)

- Visit All 50 States

- Run a Half Marathon (carrie) ü

- Be a Housewife ( nathan, i mean carrie)

- Go to Hawaii Together (both)

- Learn to knit baby booties! (carrie)

- Cook a Full Holiday Meal for My Whole Family, and it be good :) (carrie)