tough mudder weekend

just a quick recap of the weekend...i will do a FULL post on the tough mudder once i get more pictures!!

pat's parents picked up the kids friday afternoon. i had a few hours to prepare dinner in quiet in my kitchen - it was so weird! two by two by four, our whole tough mudder team arrived. {i'll do a whole post on them, too!} but to have these 12 people sitting around my table was one of the sweetest moments of my weekend! we filled out waivers (signed our lives away!), looked over the course map, asked questions and laughed nervously for a couple hours. then we went to bed!

the event was an hour from our house. we left at 6 am (in the dark) but a very do-able wake-up time!

our group "before"

hannah and i (my sister) and her silly husband behind us!

stacey was originally going to do the event with us, but she's pregnant!! so she was awesome and still came and took pictures. i will be getting a bunch more...but she took a couple with my phone:

this was an obstacle of these hills (like 6 or 8 of them?) that you had to run up...and then down. and in between you had to do pushups or lunges or whatever the sign said. our group is at the top in the light gray shirts.

another obstacle...lots of teamwork required here!

and at the finish. man. i have so much more to say...but i'm going to save it for now!

so amazing to do this with my husband and sister with me!! (and then the sweet, sweet icing to also have so many of my closest friends in the WORLD there, too!)

i love how it looks like i'm trying not to get dirty (by my hand)...but really we were SO cold, and i was trying not to make either of us any colder!

we stopped for lunch (we were SO hungry!!!!) on our way back. everything tasted SO good!

everyone went on their way after that...

and pat and i had 24 more hours just us!!

we showered and went christmas shopping for our kids. i definitely wore my headband. proudly. ha!

 as the evening wore on, the bruises showed up more...ouch! i have NO idea when they happened, but they sure did!

we went out to dinner (burgers and french fries. i think i successfully consumed the calories i burned that morning!) and rented a movie. went to bed LATE...we were feeling pretty great! or maybe we were just excited to be "kid-free"?? for any runners out there: you know how you get a "rush" after a good run??? and it lasts a couple hours? well, the rush after the tough mudder lasted 24 hours!! it was awesome! :-)

went to church the next morning...and then drove into DC and ate at an amazing greek restaurant that we had a gift certificate to. YUM!!

goodness. i love him. and there are moments in my life where i wonder, "will we be ok when the kids are gone?" weekends like this remind me we are TOTALLY going to be ok!!!!

about the time the kids got home, we got tired :-) we had some sore spots, took 2 days off exercising, but nothing too bad. and now, 3 days later, we are good to go!!

it was really a perfect weekend. full of special people and trying new things.