"Huffin' for Healthy Hooters"

That was the name of an all-male team of runners at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Kansas City. hehe

I was a bit inspired by all my athletic friends, like Natalie, and decided to give running a go. Now my family isn't really a "running"/"cardio" type family so all published race times are to be viewed with that in mind. That said, I was really proud that I ran in my first race on Sunday August 9th. The Race for the Cure 5k was the perfect opportunity to test the waters for my new hobby because the cause means a lot to my family. There is a whole legacy of breast cancer survivors on my maternal side so there's no time like the present to start fighting it.

Here is how it all started:

A couple weeks ago I decided that I'd attempt to start running as my main form of exercise. I bought the book "The Complete Book of Running for Women" and a new pair of running shoes and started hitting the park paths about 3 or so days a week.

After I discovered that I could run at least 3 or 4 miles without stopping it was time to try a race. Boy was I nervous that I would end up finishing with all the grandmas...not that there aren't some grandmas who could still kick my rear!! I saw some amazing people out there.

I joined 28,500 people in downtown Kansas City at 7:30am for the big race. I was amazing to see that many people out supporting the cause. There were people running with tags to mourn and celebrate friends and family who had fought breast cancer. It was hard not to both smile and get choked up at the beginning of the race.

(I know it looks like I'm speed walking in the picture...trust me...i runnin'!)

After the gun shot it was a struggle to get started at a decent pace with this many people but i somehow managed to run the entire hilly/windy 5k without stopping. And.....I was only 3 seconds from breaking 30minutes. The pic above is just before the finish line. All in all I would consider it a successful first race and I will be much less nervous for the next one!

Christie Goes Hair Trendy

Well, I gave into to the trend and got bangs....that's right...bangs. Like when i was 10 yrs old, lol.

Since growing out your hair is a painfully slow process (esp. when it was hardly longer then a boy cut) I decided I needed some sort of change that would keep me interested in my hair so that I wouldn't cut it again.

This is the fun result of my hair boredom.

I think my dog is a cat?!

Exhibit A: Dog sleeps on window sills just like a kitty. He has also been known to stand on them on all fours (does he think he has nine lives or something?!).

Exhibit B: Cat-dog has been known to lay on his back and swat at your hand if you move it toward his face....however this may be because your hand so too high for proper belly scratches and he is trying to reposition it...silly doggy. Or even more likely, he is trying to use his paws to catch your hand or toy so he can try and gnaw on it.

Either way I'm most certain he is a male...DEFINITELY nothing ladylike about the above!!

The Edwards and Hoopers head to Branson!

So the best description we heard about Branson, MO is that it is the old people, non-gambling, christian version of Vegas. hehe kinda true. We had a good time though. While we were there we saw a ventriloquist/magician act (of which Bruce got to be the magician's assistant for intermission, lol). Probably more exciting though was the Chinese acrobats. Check out how tall Bruce looks compared to the acrobats!

They were fantastic; spinning 5 plates at once while doing balancing tricks, sending themselves flying rear end first through tiny rings that are 5' in the air and holding eachother up in contortionist poses while balancing on one arm...incredible things like that.

While we were there we saw a great fireworks show, Hayden got to see the inside of a fire truck and a lot of trucks (even a helicopter and a dinosaur!!), we caught up on our Hand and Foot, and we ate tons of frozen custard mmm!

Now we're just waitin' for the Hoopers to come visit KC so we can have a card game rematch!

St Louis Zoo

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to St Louis to see our friends Tyler and Andrea Hooper. Since we love the zoo and St Louis has (arguably) the best zoo in the US, we decided to go visit. With 3 blogs about zoos in the past 6 months, it seems a theme is emerging.

The complete collection of St Louis zoo photos is here.

Tyler, Andrea, Christie, Bruce

Hayden in front

us, in front of the elephants

Andrea with Hayden

Have you ever seen a tiger in the water before?

We were literally six inches from this hippopottamus, or hippo-thomas as Hayden calls it. There was a large glass wall that allowed us to look into the water where the hippos were swimming/running. This guy kept turing around right in front of us and he usually knocked his nose into the glass!

Here are some elephants playing in the water to cool down. They even used the water fall to bathe themselves. In the picture, the baby elephant is squirting water from his trunk. He had a hard time staying up in the deep water. In fact, he sometimes stood at the bottom of the pool and just raised his trunk out of the water to breathe.

Kansas City Zoo

Our first outing (other than Target and Walmart) was to the Kansas City Zoo. In fact, we became members of the zoo (read: season pass holders). Some of our favorite photos are below. The complete collection is here.

Meerkat

Serval

I had never even heard of this before!

Elephant

Our Apartment in Kansas City

Since everyone is dying to find out what our apartment looks like, here it is! (What? You weren't dying to find out?)

The outside of our building.

A simple video tour