Pensacola Beach Half & Family Fun!

Back in April one of my best friends from high school, Lari, talked me into running the Pensacola Beach half-marathon with her. I don't know how she talked me into this seeing how I had trained ZEROOOOO for a half-marathon....but none-the-less, I said yes. I ran this race last year for the first time and it KILLED me. I don't know if it was the crazy humidity or I was just burned out last year or what, but it was not fun for me. This year was actually MUCH better (even though I don't know how that was possible since like I just said, I had NOT trained for it at all). We had decided we would just run until we felt like we needed to walk and then we would just run/walk the rest of the way. Well, I don't know if it's because we are both super competitive or what, but neither of us ever decided that we needed to walk so we ended up running the whole 13.1 and actually felt pretty good at the end. What?!?!? I don't understand it. Maybe my body was just in shock and didn't register what I was doing to it until later in the day....b/c about mid-afternoon the legs started hurtin' pretty darn bad :)  I'm glad she talked me into though and at least I actually enjoyed it this time so it was worth it. I definitely will decide more than a week ahead of time next year if I'm gonna run it again, though!

Me & Lari after the race...

Shane and the girlies met me after the race to have our first beach visit of 2012. The girls were SOOOO excited. The race after-party was at Flounders on the sound-side so they played in the calm water first before we headed over to the Gulf....

When we crossed over the street and got to the beach we saw this.... :((

The lifeguards said that the girls were allowed to get to the very edge of the water, but could not go in at all. They had a blast letting the gigantor waves "chase" them....

That wave came up just a bit farther than the last one :)

They didn't mind it though!

Sand-castle time with the daddy....

Waiting to fill her "baby bucket" up with water..... :)

They had a BLAST....

Breaking the rules here just a bit...;)

I love this one....

We decided to go back over to the Bay so they could actually swim in the water (or let the daddy swing them around and around in the water...) before we left to go home.....

All of the sudden I look out to the water and Jocelyn is following these two girls around like a little puppy. They didn't even really notice her at all, but she kept following every step they made and kept looking over at me saying "mommy- these are my new fwends!"  She was fine not having anything to do with Shane, Gabbie or me. I suddenly wanted to cry right there b/c it was the first time that she didn't want us and would rather be with her "fwends" (even though they didn't even know she was there :)  Awwwww- I don't want them to grow up!!  :(

Besides the heart-breaking moments about Jocelyn growing up and not wanting or needing us anymore, the day was AWESOME!! So glad my crazy friend talked me into running the race and we were able to have our first 2012 beach day!