Celebrating Casey's Birthday with Gregsons and Paletas

On Sunday, April 27th we had a sit-down dinner to celebrate Casey's one year on the planet. We had party hats and wonderful gourmet popsicles from our favorite Nashville haunt, Las Paletas. We won 25 kid-sized pops and 25 adult sized, and we shared them with many friends and family in the Gregson clan.

Casey ate her paleta like a champ. She also enjoyed her birthday presents, which included the darling outfit she is wearing in these photos, some high heeled shoes, and a Little Tykes rider. In the back ground of the rider photo Joe is writing in Casey's new memory book, which we started for her birthday. Jacob got one, too!

Family Portrait at a Woljevach Cousin's Wedding

After running our half-marathon (see below), Josh, Casey and I hopped in the car, picked up our Casey birthday party prize of 50 gourmet Mexican popsicles (Paletas) and drove to Crystal's wedding in Alabama. There we met Jacob and the Gregsons and drove to the church. We were two minutes late to the ceremony, so we missed the bride walking down the aisle, but Casey and Jacob were a big hit with the wedding crowd during the reception that followed. Here's a nice picture of our whole family from the reception. Oh, and Jessica was the most beautiful bridesmaid I have ever seen in a lavender gown. She and Casey enjoyed playing with the wedding balloons

Josh and Kathy run the Country Music Half-Marathon

We did it! On the morning of April 26th, with more than 21,000 other people, Josh and I ran 13.1 miles. We had been training with some seriousness for the last 12 weeks. We bought a double jogging stroller and subjected the children to some of our runs. We ran 5-10 miles during the week, and each weekend we completed a long run that increased in length every week. I ran the whole race for a time of about 2 hours and 34 minutes. Josh ran, sprinted and walked for a slightly slower time. Josh is a much faster runner than I am but suffered from severe pain in his knees which affected his stamina. In other words, I beat him! It was a very fun and empowering experience that left me hungry for more races. Maybe the Great Race in Pittsburgh in September?

The experience of the race itself was a very positive experience for both of us. The weather was perfect---a light drizzle in the morning that burned off by 9:00 AM. There were hundreds of spectators and at least a dozen live bands to cheer us along the way. There were even people who tailgated on the sidelines with champagne and strawberries!

Our post-race experience was a bit of a let down. Though the race had seemed very organized up to the end, we waited over an hour for a shuttle to take us back to the starting line. By this time our race adrenalin had worn off and we were starting to hurt from the race. On the whole, though, it was a great day, and quite an accomplishment.

I'll post pictures of us running the race when we get them. In the meantime you can get a good sense of the race here: http://www.cmmarathon.com/elite/galleries/cmm/2008/index.html

More pics from Casey's first birthday day

Earthday Birthday

The "official" celebration of Casey's birthday will be next weekend in Cullman with the Gregsons, but we decided to start out Casey's Earth Day Birthday with a trip to a pancake place called the Pfunky griddle. Here you get all you can eat white pancakes or organic blend (a pitcher of both batters) and one free topping per diner (our table chose coconut, pecans and blueberries). The cool thing is that you cook your pancake at the grill in the middle of the table. It wasn't too dangerous because Casey spent most of the meal in Josh's lap. We did bring a candle and we sang happy birthday. Casey was even able to blow it out all by herself!

After breakfast Casey drove us to Starbucks where there was a long line at the drive through. Jacob got his beloved chocolate milk.

After Casey napped we went to the Earth Day celebration in Centennial Park. It was raining pretty hard but we went anyway. After getting a little fair food we wandered around the Parthenon (indoors) and then when it had cleared up a little we went back out to the booths to get some free raisins from Whole Foods and a few other goodies. I was very crabby because I was cold and wet, but in the end it was a nice outing.

Happy Birthday Casey! You are one year old! Oh, and P.S., Casey's amazing Alice in Wonderland dress pictured above is from Ann Logerfo. It is a beautiful dress/sweater combo and we love it. Thank you Ann!

Family evening in Centennial Park

On April 17th I met Josh in the park between our house and Josh's work. The temperature was in the seventies and the park was packed with lovers, families and exercisers. I was so busy taking this picture of Casey I didn't notice she was getting her hands filthy on Josh's bike wheel! She was wearing the lady bug cutie outfit that Joe picked out for her. Jacob was looking cool in a new outfit from Nana. Both kids played hard and the park. It was bedtime as soon as we got home!

TMZ comes to Alabama

Josh's brother James, who works for the now legendary Paparazzi video outlet, TMZ, and Josh's brother Michael, who works for a small hotel in LA, came to visit in early April. We went down as a family to hang out with them for four days. These pics were taken when we went for Mexican food to Camino Real in Decatur. You can see Papa feeding Casey ice---her favorite!

Whose Birthday is it?

Whose birthday is it? It's not Jacob's (his was January 24th). It's not Zarni's (he turned 2 on March 12th). It must be Brenda's! And it's April Food's Day! I don't know how old Brenda is but she can't be too old, because she is my younger sister and we are both very young and beautiful. And look, she is wearing a princess hat!

Museum of Flight in Seattle

In mid march, during my trip to Seattle with the kids, Brenda and I took the kids to the museum of flight, near Boeing, on the South Side of Seattle. The place was large and filled with light. One of the coolest features was a replica of a control tower that the kids played in for 20 minutes. There were also several planes that the kids could sit in and pretend to fly. I sure wish we could have days like this more often!

Papa snoring

Tonight while I was putting Jacob to bed he asked for the humidifier because his nose was stuffy (which we call "snorkles"). When I was getting ready to leave the room he asked "cuz why do we have the humidifier?"and I replied "to loosen up your snorkles." He said "I don't snore" and I said "yeah, but Papa does, huh?" He said "I love it when Papa snores." I told him that I would tell Papa that & he said "Next time we go down?" And I told him "I'll put it on the blog tonight." So here it is.