The Mancinis go to Mississippi

Our good friends, the Whitfields, moved back to Mississippi this year. I was SO sad. I was happy for them because it was a great opportunity for their family but super sad for us. This was a couple that I imagined being a part of our core...the couple who would know what was really going on with us and doing life with us. Their boys are close in age to Luke and Maddie, they are a super fun family to hang out with, and they love Jesus. Come on!

So, when they invited us to spend the weekend at their new house, we jumped at the chance. We loaded up the Jam Van and drove out to Mississippi. They live outside of Jackson...in the county. Eric has built a treehouse in the backyard and horses come up to their back fence every morning. It's so heavenly.

While we were there the kids spent lots of time playing in the backyard, we went to a museum, they gave us the "The Help" driving tour :),  and had a bonfire in their backyard with s'mores. Our kids played so well together and I was so sad to leave.

 Graham, Luke and Ethan checking out the T-Rex at the museum. 

Luke running away from the T-Rex while it eats his friend Ethan.

 Graham and Maddie getting in on the T-Rex action.

A Mississippi swamp. We were a little bummed that we didn't see an alligator.

 Cooking s'mores at the bonfire with Mr. Eric. So fun!

Addicted to Running

Dan and I attended a MarriedLife event in February at Buckhead Church that challenged couples to have a big dream they were working on together. Lets face it, married life has a way of drifting into just executing the mundane things of life (work, family, shuffling kiddos around, etc.) If we are not intentional, you can go into executing logistics together and forget to dream and plan together.

So, Dan and I decided our big thing would be something around getting physically fit. Dan suggested we climb Mount Everest which I assured him he would never want to do with me. I would complain WAY too much and I have a policy about not visiting places that have a "death zone." So, Everest was out.

Then we talked about getting bikes but that seemed like an expensive experiment. I knew Dan was not going to go to Jazzercize or Zumba with me. After giving it much thought, I proposed that we take up running. It has very little start up costs and we could fit into our tight schedules. It seemed like the perfect plan. As I told Dan my thoughts, he said, "I hate running!" And I said, "Me too! We can hate it together!" I'm super fun like that :)

So, we both downloaded C25K (Couch to 5K) onto our phones, signed up for a 5k, and started training at the end of February. Since the kiddos can't stay home by themselves, we couldn't train together but we committed to running our first 5k together. And we did just that in April. No walking...we ran the whole thing together. Yahoo!

The funny thing is we are now both addicted to running and love it. I've had some issues with one of my legs being weak. This isn't a running injury but an issue we discovered because I become more active. I've had an MRI done and I've gone to physical therapy so I could get back to running. My determination to keep running has shocked me. It is just a great form of exercise.

We ran another another 5k on October 27 with Dan's sisters. While my leg was still having issues, I had a ton of fun running with family!

Anna and I. Shh! Don't tell her I posted this pic...she will not be happy with me. But she looks so cute in her hat!

Dan and I all ready to go. 

Next, I'm hoping we'll run a 10k. So fun! We'll just have to see if these old bodies of ours will cooperate :)