Rugged Maniac

On Saturday my brother and I were dumb enough to try a mud run 5K called Rugged Maniac in Asheboro. I talked him into it a few months ago when I saw a living social deal for it and thought it would be a fun thing to do together.  We are both VERY competitive and love a good challenge so I thought we'd really have a great time.  I already run so I wasn't worried about that part of it but the 18+ obstacles are what made me nervous.  Brian felt the opposite way and was more worried about the run than the obstacles so we thought we'd make a perfect team!

It was MUCH harder than I anticipated but we really had a good time and I think are already looking forward to doing it again next year and recruiting some more participants!  Brian and I split up around the 1st mile marker so we don't have many pictures together until after the race unfortunately but thankfully we both made it through in one piece!

Jamey wasn't able to get pictures of a lot of the obstacles because they're in the woods but here are the ones he did get!

You had to jump from log to log and start back at the beginning if you fell.  Luckily I didn't fall:)

This was just a big wall you had to climb up...

 and up...

 and up!

 ...and then down the other side.

Right after you get down from the climb you have to jump over two piles of fire.  The camera man was having technical difficulties but did get a picture of the fire!

 Right after the fire was the halfway point where we disappeared into the woods for some running and a few more obstacles.  The last mile was definitely the most fun with a tunnel slide that led into a huge mud puddle you had to climb out of with a rope and then a big area of mud where you had to belly crawl under barbed wire.  The first thing Jamey could see was the end of the mud obstacles where you slide down this big mud hill.  I'm at the top of the hill on the far right starting to slide down.

Next was one of the toughest obstacles for me because I could barely reach the top!  You had to climb over these muddy walls, which wouldn't have been too hard except you are so weak and they are so darn slippery!  I'm on the far right again.

 Almost over!

 Just a tiny bit dirty!

 The last mud wall!  In the background to the left you can see the obstacle that was the most fun.  You had to climb up a platform and then slide down a huge slide into basically a mud bath.

 Thank goodness for the edge of the wall and the part my left foot is on because I would've never made it over otherwise.  You could walk around and skip it but then you're disqualified.

 I can almost taste the finish line at this point!  SO ready to be done!

 Yippee, I'm done and lived to tell the tale.  I don't think I've ever been more tired!

 Here comes Brian!

 And he's done!

 Thanks for being my running buddy Brian!  I had such a fun time and can't wait to do it again next year!

Boy Toys

The boys very much enjoy playing with their light sabers and one of my ingenious neighbors had a few of these noodle versions below out the other night so I stole her idea and made a few for us.  They love them and I love that they won't kill each other with them!

Coop's buddy Charlie comes over a lot on Wednesdays after preschool and they were quite into building angry birds sets the other day.  It looks like all business!

Hudson always thinks he's just one of the boys and loves to run around like he's right in the mix, even if they aren't paying him one bit of attention!

How has he gotten this big so quickly?!

A pond near our house has lots of little turtles that Carter and Cooper think are the coolest things ever so we brought a few home for an overnight stay.  They are cute and tiny but smell so bad that I can't wait to return them to their stinky home!  They named them Bass and Spike, hopefully they aren't becoming too attached because I certainly am not!

Nunu and Pop went out of town for a few days so we were lucky enough to have George stay with us!  Hudson thinks George hung the moon so he really loved having his best bud around.

This was one of those times that I was initially angry to see the chaos and mess caused by these three but then I realized Carter was reading to them so I couldn't get too mad:).

Happy Easter!

We had a fun-filled Easter weekend and felt so blessed to be able to spend it with my parents this year. They've been in town for the weekend before but it's unbelievably nice to have them just down the street. We had an egg hunt for the boys on Saturday afternoon at their house and Cooper was much more successful this time around! Hudson even got the hang of it and was precious carrying around his basket and putting his eggs inside.

Hudson found the golden egg, which Carter and Cooper were quite jealous about!
Checking out their goodies.





Saturday night we had my parents over for dinner and the boys were thrilled (wink, wink Sarah;)) to have someone read their new library books to them. Pop was a good sport and read page after page of Pokemon and Thomas.
The Easter Bunny was good to our boys and they were so cute and excited to come down and see their baskets. Cooper kept saying, "I can't believe the Easter Bunny left us all this. He must really love us Carter!"


Sleepy Hudson wasn't quite sure what to think but loves his new stuff.
Handsome boys all ready to go into church and decorate the cross with their flowers.
Love Coop's zipper tie hanging down a mile under his 3T jacket!





This is classic Cooper. Cute but disheveled as he can be!

Carter helped with an Alleluia parade after church. Cooper decided to be shy and told he he didn't really like parades because they are "boring, boring!"




Happy Easter!