Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Bike ride

This was a random weekend day,  I don't remember when,  but sometime since I  last actively posted.  It is definitely worth remembering these little moments.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Running

This has been a big year for racing in the Bailey family! Remember last year when I went from walking a one miler to running 15Ks and Joe went from 5Ks to half marathons? Well, we even surpassed that this year!

This was me at Color Me Rad in Tampa in May. Completely covered in colored corn starch.


For Mother's Day, Joe and the kids and I did the I Love Mother's 5K in Clearwater. I got a cool shirt.




This is one of my favorites. 



We signed Rosemary up for the one mile kid's run after the 5K and we all ended up doing it together. It was so fun!



Joe had a crazy year! He is in this picture somewhere at the start of his first triathlon! This one was the Race from the Fort at Fort DeSoto. We camped out with some friends the night before and night after. The kids and I had a great time watching all the crazy people swimming in the freezing, choppy water from the edge of the sea.



Needless to say, they were pooped and had a nice nap in the wagon while waiting for daddy to finish. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Joe after the race, but we were so proud of him!


In January Joe did his first marathon! It was the Disney Marathon. Here's Xander cheering on the runners from the family waiting area.

We had a pretty good time waiting for him to finish! It was ridiculously hot for the marathon. We were warned about freezes during this time of year, but it ended up being during a heat wave. People were carted back on stretchers due to heat stroke. Joe finished, though! In fact, it made him go crazy. He just signed up for the Dopey Challenge for next year- four days in a row: 5K, 10K, half, and full marathon! He's crazy!!!! Once again, no picture of him running. I need to get better about that!



And.... I signed up for my first half! Actually, two of them. In November I will be doing Wine and Dine at Epcot and in February I will be doing the Princess Half. I will most likely be walking the Princess with my mom, though.

Patio renovation

I have not updated for quite some time. So many, many little moments I have missed. There's no way I can go back and record all of the little moments, but I can quickly highlight some of the biggest moments of the year. One of the biggest projects we accomplished this year was our patio renovation. What a difference! This was finished around February/March this year.  It has already rained enough this summer for us to say that we successfully fixed our flooding issues and have a beautiful outdoor living space now! It was a huge project and my dad did an incredible job planning it, with my help and vision. I am still not 100% satisfied with the fire pit, but can't figure out what to do differently yet.

While we were out there working on the patio, I also moved and expanded my gardens. I now have two raised beds with veggies and herbs, and a beautiful butterfly garden! With a seashell walking path! 

This is going to be annoying- the app I used to publish the photos for this update mixed up all the pictures and I can't change the order, sooooo.... bare with me....

This is the before.
This is one after shot. We extended it out about two feet, added the extension on the right for the grill, extended it all the way to the edge of the patio on the left for a toy area and fire pit.


This is the butterfly garden right after we finished it, before things had a chance to grow. Milkweed and salvia transplants are on the left, nectar plants in front of the birdbath, and a passionflower behind the birdbath that has attracted tons of Gulf Fritillaries!


Here's the butterfly garden a bit more mature. 


My beautiful, beautiful passion flower in bloom!!!


Xander is trying to feed a caterpillar in this one!


Here's where it gets really annoying. Here's another after shot of the patio. You can see the fire pit area better in this one. Still trying to decide whether to build it in or keep it free standing.



Here's Joe tamping down the sand before we lay pavers (yes, we sweated LOTS during this project!)



The kids were a big help clearing out the old pavers and prepping the ground!


We decided to commemorate our backyard renovation by creating a time capsule. It was originally going to be buried under the patio, but, um, well, I think we forgot, so we ended up burying it in our butterfly garden. Everyone chose something to go in it and I wrote a little note explaining why we all chose what we did. It'll be interesting when we dig it up in years to find out what we pit in it and why!


Here is Rosemary ready to bury it!



Here is it in the ground ready to be covered up!


Yes, annoying and out of place. Joe laying pavers. I promise he did not do the entire thing himself! My dad and I were out there the whole time! I just wanted to snap some photos when I could! Joe stayed out there until past dark one night. It was a big project.