Matt and I celebrated Valentine's Day early since he had stats class that night with Bob. Lisa and I went to Sarah and Fritz's house with Tom and Amy to celebrate Valentine's Day. We had a fondue dinner and dessert. It was really yummy.

After dinner we played Amy's camera game. We laughed our heads off.

Lisa and I registered to run the Gainesville 1/2 Marathon. Here we are picking up our bib numbers and packet of information on Saturday. Later Sat. night the Merrells cooked us a carb loading dinner to get ready for the race.

On Sunday, February 18th Lisa and I ran the 5 Points of Life Half Marathon in Gainesville, Florida. The race started at 7:00 am. It was an unusually cold morning with temperatures in the low 40's. It felt great to run in that weather. Here we are before we had to take off all those warm clothes. The guys were so excited to be able to cheer us on. This was the first race that Matt and I had not run together.

Amy and Tom came out to the start line to wish us luck. It was great to get so much support.

Bob and Matt drove around Gainesville and parked at different spots along the course to cheer us on. It was fun spotting them where we did not expect them to be. I loved seeing Matt' and Bob's smiling faces and hearing their encouraging words. They truly were an amazing support. We felt so blessed to have such amazing husbands.

Lisa and I ran together at about a 9 minute mile doing walk breaks. We finished the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes. It was a great race! I loved running all over Gainesville. We even ran through the stadium!!

Here we are proudly holding our medals. Praise God for the healthy bodies He has blessed us with that we can run.
After the race, the temperature had dropped even from the start of the race. We wrapped up in the tinfoil looking sheets to keep warm.

Our proud husbands with their proud and happy wives!After the race we went home and showered. It took a while to warm up. We proudly wore our 5 Points of Life 1/2 Marthon shirts and went out to breakfast. We met Bob and Lisa at the 43rd Street Dinner for a rewarding breakfast! It was fun to recount the events of the morning and fun times of the race.

Before we went to Isla Mujeres, Matt and I visited Dave and Joetta in Sarasota, Florida. We had so much fun with them. Dave took us out on the boat. While we were cruising around the Gulf, we came across these dolphins. They were so playful and entertained us for an hour. We took so many pictures of them as they flipped and swam near us. They were so close we could reach out and touch them.

Joetta made us her white chicken chili in the crockpot for dinner. MMM. It was so good and a new favorite of mine. Our chicken tortilla soup might be getting a break for a while. While we were at the Troyer's we also road around on their four-wheeler all over their property. Trigger would race us the whole way. In addition to the crockpot meal, Dave smoked ribs and pulled pork for us all day on Sunday. It took over 6 hours, but it was yummy.

Matt and I just got back from Isla Mujeres, a small island off the coast of Cancun, Mexico. We went there to celebrate Mark (Matt's brother) and Julie's wedding. It truly is a gorgeous place to visit. It was neat to go back to this island because Matt and I went to Cancun and took a day trip here during our honeymoon. I hope that you enjoy some of the beautiful pictures we took of the scenery. I put these pictures into a collage and you can click on them for a much bigger view.

The hotel we stayed in was right on the beach. Each morning Matt and I got up and went for a run. The island is not very big and we got to see many things. It was cool running through the town.


After the run we'd join the Buman and Casalegno family for breakfast right on the beach. The food was amazing. Our favorite meal was Chilaquiles, which was basically nachos with sour cream, cheese, a green sauce and 2 eggs over easy. It doesn't sound like a breakfast food, but believe me it was good.

The beach was so pretty, with turquoise water, palm trees and great sun sets. There was a huge sandbar and we were able to go out far without the water getting deep. I couldn't help but say over and over again how relaxing it was to be there. Our favorite thing to order for lunch/snack was chips and guacamole.




Here are a few creatures we saw on the island - a crab and iguanas.

The rehersal dinner was at an Italian restaurant. The floor of the restaurant was sand. We ate at tables with stumps of trees as our seats. The food was delicious. I had the caprase salad and Matt had a goat cheese salad. The chef was cool and cooked my Gluten Free pasta.


The day of the wedding we rented 3 golf carts and drove around the island. It only took 2 hours. We had a blast caravaning together. Matt and I drove Grandma D and Aunt Ruthie. We had the slow golf cart. Along the way we saw some beautiful houses with great views and some poor house. It really made us thankful for where we live.

The wedding was on the beach that we had hung out on for the previous days. It was gorgeous. There was an English translator becuase the wedding was in Spanish. Christian was the ring bearer and Daniela was the flower girl. Christian carried the rings down the isle in a conch shell. Julie looked beautiful. Just as they were presented as husband and wife, God opened up the sky and a gorgeous sunset appeared. After the ceremony we ate dinner on the beach. The food was awesome - fajitas, tomalis, salad, beans, rice, and carnitas. I put these pictures into a collage and you can click on them for a much bigger view.