A Run to Remember

This past winter my sister and I decided that we were going to train together to run a half marathon. She and her husband Justin came to Pullman to help celebrate Brendan's birthday at the beginning of March--we ran a run together to "kick-off" our training.



We decided to run in the Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon in San Diego!! The last sister weekend we had just the two of us was back when I was in college and Jenni was in high school. We've been very excited!

Unfortunately, after 2 months of hard training, Jenni had to stop running because of hurt shins (most likely a stress fracture). After some discussion and the decision to still finish the race together in San Diego, I decided to run my own 1/2 marathon in Pullman before our race in San Diego. My competitive side needed to know how fast I could run 13.1 miles!

So, Josh and I mapped out a course running a loop in Moscow, running on the Chipman Trail to Pullman, and then finishing a loop around Pullman 13.1 miles!! My Mom helped man two water stations along the way and Her, Josh, and Brendan met me at the "finish line"! My sweet mother also brought me a post race breakfast and sent congratulations balloons to school (I truly have the best mother ever).



The really neat part was that the day it worked for me to run my race was the one year anniversary of my grandpa passing away. How special to be able to run on that day. I love him so much and miss him greatly. I am so proud to be his grand-daughter.

I was able to run the course in 1 hour and 50 minutes with an average mile time of 8.40 minutes. I was happy with my time and am looking forward to a sister weekend and my SECOND 1/2 Marathon run!!

Lil Cutie

We had Scott Barrie (owner of Creative Image Photography in Pullman) take some pictures of Brendan. I have loved the Barrie family for a long time. Laurie (Scott's wife) was my piano teacher when I was younger. Scott took my senior pictures and now he took Brendan's!! They turned out AMAZING. He did an INCREDIBLE job capturing Brendan's personality. Thank you Scott for giving us the gift of capturing Brendan in a time of life he won't be in again!

Walking on Sunshine

Brendan began walking about a month ago (April 20th)!! What a big day it was! True to his little personality, he waited until he could do it perfectly to debut his act. I am sure he was practicing in his crib. His first steps were far from shaky. He didn't take a few steps and fall--the little man walked clear across the room! He was so proud of himself, he was filled with a joyful squeal all night long. Since those first steps he hasn't looked back. He walks everywhere (in the grass, on bark at the park, down the stairs--little scary for Mom and Day). He has always liked to be on the move and this new found freedom has been well worth the wait for him. Gone are our days of slowly keeping up with him as he crawls from place to place, we now find ourselves feeling as though we had a work-out after playing with him.

This was a video we took a little over a month ago (shortly after his first steps)

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. It was crazy to think back to last Easter, Brendan was only 3 weeks old and slept most of the day. This year was very different. He looked so adorable and grown-up wearing his first suit. He is such a content, happy and smiley guy. We are having so much fun with our little Brendan Boy!



We had a meaningful lent season with our church. We were able to walk together through an experiential lent calendar that had us all participating in a different activity each day. Some examples of things we did included going for a walk or a run, buying someone coffee/lunch anonymously, fasting, writing encouraging notes to your family, spending time outside. It was a neat thing to do together. Josh and I admittedly were really faithful to complete the activities near the beginning and a little hit and miss by the end--but it was still a very cool experience.

We also completed 336 hours of prayer as a church during Holy Week. We had someone praying on both U of I and WSU Campus' for 180 hours straight...total 336 hours. Josh and I were each able to separately take part in an hour time slot--what a special hour it was for both of us. So motivating to spend so much directed time praying for the city and community of Pullman, the public schools, the college, the athletic department, our church...SOOO VERY COOL!!!

Easter Morning began with a great church service. The service began with kids in our church singing the song "Awakening"(Brendan didn't actually sing with them...but we got him in there for a picture).





After Easter Service (the only Resonate service that we have in the morning), we went to our friend's the McMillan's for a LOVELY brunch. There was about 50 Resonate folks there--we are so thankful for our church community.



The day ended with my parents and Grandma coming over to our house to watch Brendan open his Easter basket full of toys to play with outside, and to enjoy dinner together. We were finally able to get a 4 generation picture (My Grandma, Mom, Me and Brendan). It was the perfect way to end the day celebrating the death and RESURRECTION of our amazing savior. What a joy it is to follow Jesus.