Fall Festival

This past week was the Evansville Fall Festival!!! It is a big street festival here with rides and lots of food! 120-ish food booths with so many different kinds of food to choose from!!! Hornville (Drew's parents tavern) was making food for a few of the booths and I spent a Sunday afternoon helping them make pig lickers (bacon dipped in chocolate)!

Pig Lickers

We took Keelin down to the fall festival to ride rides and eat some of our favorite foods. I had chicken and dumplings, a dirty diaper (turn over filled with pumpkin), steak fries with cheese, and dirt and worms. Drew had a sausage burger and some fries. Keelin shared some of everything with us. We got a Kuchen and apple cider to take home.

Keelin and Drew on the carousel

Keelin holding on tight!

Keelin and I riding a big firetruck that circled up and around like a clock

Keelin loved this ride! Drew taught her how to spin their movie reel, which made him feel sick after they got off.

Keelin was all about spinning the ride!

I spent Wednesday evening working at the MEO food booth. I got my favorite white chicken chili from the Young Life booth before I started my shift. I made Texas steak sandwiches all evening. I got fried mozerella sticks, puppy chow, and pumpkin fudge before I left to come home! YUM!

My Daughter, School Ready, and Not Even 2!!!

Keelin loves my little backpack!! She wears it all over the house! I pack my running clothes in it and she carries it for me each morning! Look how cute she looks!

Heather's Bridal Shower/Party in Indy

This weekend I made a trip in Indianapolis to celebrate my friend from college (and club gymnastics in middle and high school), Heather's bridal shower and bachlorette party. It was a fun time! We met downtown Friday night for dinner at a pizza place.

Friday evening outside the pizza joint!

Carisa, Heather, Liz, Trina, and I

We picked up Jamie at the airport Friday evening at about midnight! Trina, Jamie, and I crashed at Liz's house and stayed up until around 2am talking and catching up!!

Saturday morning Jamie (who is a dentist) and I went to our former gymnastics coach, Donner's dental office (obviously he is a dentist too!!!) Donner graciously put my crown on for me!! (okay... to make a really long story short...I had a cracked tooth that needed a crown, but the temporary crown was causing pain...ended up with a root canal...did I mention my dentist passed away at this point...now I had no dentist to put the REAL crown on, so Donner volunteered his expertise to help me out and voila...My tooth is now back to normal!! I can chew again!!)

Now on to the shower that Jamie and I were about 40 minutes late to!

Heather "The Bride" at her shower

All of us at the shower!
We ate at a yummy Mexican place, Adobo (???) Grill downtown

The bachlorette party started at Carisa's house and then moved down to a nice bistro on the canal in Broadripple.

Heather and I at dinner

The dinner table at the bistro

All of us ready to head out to the bars and celebrate!

Heather wore a wonderful t-shirt made by Trina which included a check list on the back! We pretty much spent most of the night helping Heather complete this list! Here is Heather pulling out an old floor routine on the dance floor at a bar!

Closing down the bar at 3am! Doesn't look like it does it???

I took lots of pictures of Heather completing her checklist (around 50 pics!)

I am not going to post those!!

Got to love fun times with the girls!

Race for the Cure

Our family WALKED (we typically run) Race for the Cure today! Drew's work had a team this year but we were unable to get everyone together for a picture. My work had a team last year. I included team pictures from last year. We enjoyed the time together as a family!!! They were hoping to have 17,000 people today! With people everywhere, we saw and visited with many people we knew including my friend Brandi and her mom and kids, Joe and Ann, Rose (Keelin's babysitter/ great aunt) and her daughter Christie (who looked great 6 months prego!), running group members, and families from Holy Spirit!

Our family picture before the race

Keelin and I with some of the festivities behind us

Drew and Keelin

Keelin getting buckled in for the walk

The main stage right after the survivor's paraded in

I had a ribbon painted on my face

Drew supported his aunt who passed away from breast cancer

Team TLS 2007

Team Holy Spirit 2007

Getting Ready for Chicago!

21 miles on a Saturday morning...check.
So much of my life lately has been spent running. I really enjoy getting out and while I am running I truly enjoy the simplicity of it. It is my stress release. Sometimes it is so hard to get myself out the door as I think about everything else I need to do, but I always feel better after I run. This morning I spent 3 hours and 40 minutes pounding pavement. As I drove to Wesselman's Park this morning and let me inform you it was still DARK... I thought I was crazy for a moment until I drove in and realized there were at least another dozen cars already parked (including my husbands...who went out over an hour before I did) . I thought to myself, "I am not the only crazy person in Evansville who enjoys getting up before the sun on a Saturday morning!" I held a brief conversation with the man parked next to me. He planned to run 5 miles before the Y training group began at 7am, which was my plan as well.
I ran my 5 miles (2 of which were in the dark) and returned in time to listen to a few announcements and begin another 10 mile run with about 200 other people. This was the best part of the run. Conversation with other people helps the miles go by faster. And today was cookie day!!! After the run, the pavilion was full of cookies! I grabbed a few which I tossed in my car and ran out of the park for the third time to run another 6 miles by myself. These six miles were great but terribly agonizing. I was able to run all 21 miles and I caught up to some of the walkers who were finishing their 10 miles. They were very encouraging and cheered me on. ( I wasn't moving a whole lot faster then they were at this point!!!) Now all I have to do is find the energy for another 5 miles on October 12! Hopefully adrenaline will get me through the last 5.
I enjoyed my cookies on the drive home! Yum!

A few more YMCA training pictures from week 8...
picture 1 (Drew finishing the YMCA 10K)
picture 2 (Me running last Tuesday at Wesselman's Park)

Now... it's on to Race for the Cure tomorrow morning and we plan to WALK this one!

Hannah's 2nd Birthday

Today we went to Hannah's 2nd birthday party. Hannah is my friend Jamie's daughter.

Hannah after she blew out the candle's on her cake.

Kayla, Allyson, Hannah, and Keelin

Kayla, Allyson, Hannah, and Keelin last year at Hannah's 1st birthday party.

Keelin with Reagan.

(Reagan is my friend Brandi's daughter.)

Keelin riding Kyle's tractor


Keelin jumping in the bouncer.

Keelin and Hannah jumping together

Hannah giving Keelin a big "squeeze". How cute are they?

American Idol

My friends and I spent Thursday, September 11th at the American Idol concert!!! To make it extra special, it was Jamie's 3oth birthday!!! We spent almost every Tuesday evening at her house when idol was on tv.

Jamie, Laurie, Brandi, myself, and Abbie at dinner before the concert

Brandi, Jamie, Me, Abbie

Abbie, Jamie, and I at the concert in the 2nd row!!!

Below I added some pictures I took at the concert. I took pictures of everyone, but these were the ones that turned out the best. All 10 singers were amazing!! The concert was great! David Cook was my favorite!

Ramielle

Carly

All 10 across the back of the stage at the end of the concert

Another Colts Season

A few additions...we took some pre-game photos!

The Colts open their season this evening and as you can see...we have Keelin ready. She has too much Colts paraphernalia... a jersey, a onesie, warm-up pants, a sleeper, and a cheer leading outfit! Not to mention the hat seen below...which is not hers although she may say otherwise!

Keelin pulled this hat out herself this morning!! She KNOWS!!!

Tackling daddy...she is READY!!

Keelin eating a snack at her new art desk.

Keelin watching her favorite show...Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

More Pictures of Us Running

Week 7 pictures are up on the Evansville Half Marathon webpage and all three of us made it into some of them. These picture are from our Saturday morning run (8/30). I ran 9 miles and Drew ran 18 miles.

Picture 1: Keelin in her Cardinals t-shirt
Picture 2: Drew running with a group of people
Picture 3: Renee and Keelin running with a group of people

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

A TON of Running

Drew and I are continuing our running as we train for the Chicago Marathon coming up on October 12. We have been running with the YMCA training group. The group is actually training for the Evansville 1/2 marathon, but we enjoy getting out with all the people. They take pictures each week and Keelin and I made two of them. Picture 1. Picture 2.

The website is http://www.evansvillehalfmarathon.com

I (renee) ran 17 miles this morning and felt great! I am getting there!

Golf Outting in Illinois

We spent Friday in Decatur, IL for Drew's Uncle Jim's memorial golf scramble/ fundraiser with dinner, auction, and dancing. We had a great time and had beautiful weather.

Drew and I at dinner

Keelin with Aunt Kate

Keelin loved the golf cart!

Our family picture after golfing

Drew, Jamie, Clay, Kate, Darrin

Keelin loved the dancing! She was a dancing queen!

Dancing with Uncle Clay

I managed to get hit by a golf ball at the scramble. Check out my battle wound.