One of our favorite things to do is hang out at Panera. We joined Amy and Tom there on the Saturday they were leaving to drive across the country to their new home in Colorado. A bunch of us (Bob & Lisa, Matt & I, Tom & Amy, Sarah & Fritz) often meet on Sunday mornings at Panera and "study." Usually what happens is we end up doing more talking than working. We will miss those times!

I thought it was neat to see this banner celebrating the Gators hanging on the wall!

The usual spread for the morning is coffee, bagels, GF muffins and water. Amy always brings the ingredients to make a "Diablo" (nicknamed by Bob), which is coffee mixed with hot chocolate. There are always about 4 or 5 Nalgenes as well on the table.

After Panera we went over to Sarah and Fritz's house to give Tom and Amy some Rob Bell to listen to on their LONG drive. Here we are with one last picture on the moving truck.

Climbing stadiums is one of my favorite things to do for exercise here in Gainesville. Amy Tanis introduced me to them. We used to climb them once a week together. I loved our times climbing and talking. It was great bonding time. Since she is moving to Colorado soon, I wanted to do stadiums one more time with Amy. For a while last year a bunch of us would meet on Tues. evenings and climb stadiums togther. It was great way to hang out together.

Here is the look from the bottom. There are 90 steps to the top. We step on the bleacher seats. Eventually I want to train to be able to run them.

Each time we complete one stadium we move our Nalgene up a step. That is how we keep track of the number we are on.

To switch things up every 5 stadiums we do a push-up stadium. This allows our legs to get a break and works our arms real well. Every 10 stpes we do 5 push-ups.

At one point we had trained so hard and consistent to where we were doing 20 stadiums. That was a while ago. It was a great accomplishment.

On April 28th my friend Jacki Renoni got married to Keith Taylor. I have known Jacki since we were 4 years old. Jacki and I took gymnastics together oh so long ago. Her brother, Jonathan, is the same age as my brother, Patrick. Our families have been friends for over 24 years now! Our parents always get together and play cards. We've been through so many stages of life together. It was so special to be able to fly home and come to her wedding. We have grown to love Keith and are so happy for them. Jacki was such a beautiful bride.

They had their reception at the Atkinson Country Club in New Hampshire. It was a beautiful location. Outside the ballroom there were rock gardens and a pond with fish. It was a perfect place to take pictures.

This is us all grown up - Renonis & Sylvesters and now added Bumans & Taylors.

Here is my mom and dad.

Here is me and my pops.

Here is my brother and Katie.

At the wedding I also got to see Kristyn and Michela, 2 other girls that did gymnastics with Jacki and I. It was so much fun to catch up on each others lives and talk about all the memories of gymnastics.

Happy birthday Matt!

For Matt's birthday this year I was going to be in Boston for Jacki and Keith's wedding. I knew this in advance and wanted to plan something fun for Matt to do on his birthday so he would not be alone. I emailed the guys that Matt hangs out with and asked them to meet him at Stubbies, a bar that carries many imported beers. Bob Merrell took Matt out to dinner at Leonardo's for pizza and then somehow got him to Stubbies.
Ironically, three days before Matt's b-day he decided to invite the guys to meet him at Stubbies to celebrate his birthday because I was not going to be there. Matt announced this at Family Group and I could not believe my ears. I had already planned the exact same thing and here Matt was telling everyone he was going to email out the same things I had already planned. So I had to email the guys saying to not respond to Matt's email. Somehow the whole thing worked out and Matt was totally surprised.

I am glad that he had such a great birthday. I was sad not to be there for it, but was glad that he was taken care of.

Before I left for Boston on Thurs. afternoon, I left school early and went right to the new Dunkin Donuts that just opened up in Gainesville. I got Matt an iced coffee as a surprise and early birthday present. He enjoyed it.

This Easter Matt and I invited some of our friends to join us for Easter dinner. For the first time ever Matt and I went to the sunrise service at 6:45 am. It was an unusually cold morning in Gainesville (45 degrees) and we were rather chilly. I felt like we were back in Boston.

We set up our regular dinner table as well as a folding table. What celebration wouldn't be complete without a kiddie table?

Everyone brought something to share for the Easter dinner. We had a great spread of food including ham, chicken, baked beans, salad, broccoli, and mac and cheese. For dessert Laura made a bunny cake and there was ice cream too. There were tons of left overs and we all ended up full.

After dinner we wanted to get out and go for a walk to burn off some of the food we had just eaten. Laura had just visited the La Chua Trail the day before and highly recommended it. Matt and I have always wanted to see the gators. So we gathered our courage and walked the trail.

When we reached the end of the trail we couldn't believe our eyes. The trail wound through Paynes Prairie and there were hundreds of gators lying on the bank and in the water. We were so close and there were no fences between us and them. It was a little intimidating. We walked on this trail for about 2 hours. There were other crazy people walking the trail too, which made us feel better. At the end of the trail there was a lookout tower where you could see for miles across the prairie. We saw a lost gator wandering the open land. He looked like a dinosaur.

To celebrate Caleb's birthday we gathered at the Sorgius house. We played games and ate cake and ice cream. We played a new game called Imaginiff. The Sorgius always have fun new board games to play. It was a great time!

In trying to take a group picture we set up our camera timers. We had to retake the picture a few times and had so much fun trying to make the timer. See Laura's facial expression!

The Florida Gators made it to the NCAA basketball championship for the second year in a row. We all got together at Dustyn and Lucy's house to watch the game. I was so glad that the game was on my spring break so I could stay up late. It was so fun to be in a room full of Gator fans screaming at the TV.

After the Gators won Bob, Lisa, Sean, Laura, Dustyn and I went to University Ave to see all the crazy excitement. The street was jammed packed with people cheering, screaming and waving flags. I got home at 2 am.

On March 5th, 2007 Matt and I went out to dinner to celebrate his first publication; his thesis. We are so proud of this accomplishment. There will be many more publications to come, but never a first publication again! Congratulations Matt!

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.