we ran the rock!

Despite the the 41 degree very rainy weather, we ventured out to Fair Park very early to run the Dallas White Rock Marathon and Half!

After they dropped us off, our families waited for us at mile 3 - it was great to see them along the way!

The Whitesides, Roses and Kochs - our cheering section!

Kelsey and I ran the half together. It was great to have someone to run with - she definitely kept me going! We ran the whole way and made it in just over 2 hours!

Done!

Thanks to our wonderful families for being there - it was so wonderful to have you cheering us on along the way!

Ryan and the guys did great as well! (I still can't believe they ran 26 miles... crazy!) Here are some pictures from along the way...

Ryan Koch and Ryan Mortensen around mile 3.5

Ryan and Steven around mile 13

Mile 20

Mile 21

Mile 23 - we got to chat for a second

Crossing the finish line!

 Done! I think his legs were a bit tired at this point.

Melissa, Steven, Ryan and I - glad to be finished!

backyard excavation

Before:

Nice, but the landscaping had gone unattended for a long time. Most of the plants were growing out of control!

We hated that random tree/bush on the left... this picture doesn't really capture how annoying and in the way it was.

Our wonderful team of workers! Thank you all so much!

Mawmaw puppy sat!

Triumph!

Several ax swings, pick hits and two chain saws later...

No more stump!!

The Wonderful After:

No more random overgrown brush!

*We plan to put in a wooden fence and do some landscaping in the future so it wont always look this bare, but it's definitely an improvement from the previous overgrown madness.

And that random pole by the driveway in the front.... gone!

The huge pile we left for big trash pick up! (This isn't even all of it, I forgot to take a picture when we were done.)

thanksgiving

2 turkeys

1 brisket

1 ham

2 puppies

18 people

lots of fun!

kali

Meet miss Kali, Murphy's sweet and quite energetic big sister. We adopted Kali about a week after we got Murphy. She is a chocolate lab mix and we adopted her from a humane society here in Dallas. They think she's about a week older than Murphy.

We had a hard time deciding on a name for her which is why it has taken me so long to post this. But after several different names we decided on Kali.

Here she and Murphy are during their first bath.... too cute!

They love to play and fight a lot...

but deep down they love each other!