Memorial Day BBQ

Memorial Day weekend wouldn't be Memorial Day weekend without a little fun in the sun and and some BBQ. We did both Sunday afternoon out at Jason and Janine's house. Erika, Matt, and Molly were also in town from KC so it was nice to be able to visit with them as well. I think all the girls had a good time playing together. What a good way to kickoff the summer!

Love the look on Molly's face here. She was making that face for like 10 min straight. SO CUTE! :)

Yeah, I'm cool with my shades on!

"Oh look at me, I'm all that b/c I can bounce a ball on a bat!"

Sunday's 5K Results

I subjected myself to another 5K this weekend - this one benefitting the St Louis Zoo. Considering we have run maybe ONCE since the last 5K, and this course was much hillier than the last one, I think we all did a great job. Once again, my goal was to run the entire thing, and I actually did it this time! There were several times where I wanted to take a break and walk for a minute to catch my breath, but I kept pushing myself and before you know it, I saw the finish line up ahead and then was able to sprint towards it. My official time for this one was 29:27, with an average pace of 9:22 per mile. Yay! Can't wait for the next one! In the words of Janine, I may be becoming a bit of a "fitness fanatic." Lol

Back from Florida

Well here I am, back in dumb ol' Missouri...or should I say Misery? Lol. I usually love the STL, but after being at the beach in FL and enjoying the beautiful weather down there, it is sooooo hard to come back to the sight of the Muddy Mississippi and the thought of going back to work. Such is life I guess. *sigh*

We did have a great trip though. I love my aunties...and my cousins too. :) Here are a few pics:

5K - check!

When boot camp ended a few weeks ago, Valerie, Cheri, and I wanted to continue some kind of workout routine so that we wouldn't lose everything we had worked towards. We decided to sign up for a 5K and have been meeting in the mornings to train over the past couple of weeks. Val and Cheri had both done 5Ks several times before, but this was a first for me. Today was the big day, and my goal was to run the entire thing (3.1 miles) without having to walk. I came very close to doing it, but I must admit I did end up walking a couple of times. We all finished in under 32 minutes, so I was happy with that. We plan on doing a few more 5Ks over the summer, and our goal for the next one is to finish in under 30. Anyone wanna join us? :)

More E-pics

Seriously folks...isn't Nikki amazing?

I'd like to check you for ticks

After rescheduling about 50 times since October, we finally had our engagement session with Nikki last night. We had a lot of fun at the shoot, minus the 3 ticks Lenny found crawling on his jeans. Eeeeuh - just thinking about that gives me the heebie jeebies. If you know me at all, you know ticks are one of my biggest nemeses. Ugh. Any animal that tries to suck blood out of you is just vile (this includes leeches too). I would rather face a million spiders than a handful of ticks. Anyway, we did a lot of pics in the grass and in fields, so it was kind of to be expected. I did okay during the shoot, but had a mild coronary when I got home and found a tick burrowed into my back. Luckily it must not have been there very long, cuz Lenny got it out with no trouble. Oh what people do for some good pics, eh? :)

One of the funniest parts of the shoot was when we were in the vineyards at Chandler Hill Winery, and Nikki had instructed Lenny and I to kiss while she was standing on a chair, shooting from above. All of a sudden she screamed, "AHHHHHH!" I thought she was yelling b/c our make out session was so hot, so I got into it a lil more. When we finally opened our eyes, we realized she was yelling b/c the chair she was standing on had sunken down into the ground and she was about to fall over. lol

Here is a sneak peek from our shoot - more to come soon on Nikki's blog. Make sure to check it out! Nicole Welch Photography

Thanks for a great shoot N! You are amazing :)