Bridal Shower

Last week my sister-in-law and I threw a bridal shower for my little sister.  She's getting married in less than a week!  We had a lot of fun planning the shower, especially the food.

Here is the bride-to-be (on the left) with one of her friends before the shower started.  Love it how she always has a big smile for the camera!

Here is the food table.  We had a spinach artichoke dip, greek salad skewers, caprese salad skewers, cucumber dill sandwiches, strawberry cheesecake bites, chocolate raspberry cheesecake tarts, lemon crumb squares, personlized sugar cookies, and raspberry lemonade.  It was delicious!

 Of course we had to have a candy bar.

I had such a good time with my fun sis-in-law Rachel.

The bride and groom-to-be.

Half Marathon

Mark and I ran our second half marathon yesterday.  I was amazed at how much easier it was, mentally and physically, than my first.  Not to say that it was easy, just a little easier in comparison.  I almost cried again when I crossed the finish line, but managed to hold back the tears this time.  It just always feels like such a huge accomplishment!

Here we are before the race.  Mark was taking the picture so he wasn't in it.  I think he was glad since he felt a little silly being in a picture with all the girls.

And here we are after the race.

Afterwards we all met at a BBQ place overlooking the river for lunch.  

I still can't believe how much I've grown to love running.  Mark and I are hoping that we can make this into a family tradition with our kids when they are old enough.  And we're already planning our next race!

Philly

Mark recently had a business trip to Philadelphia for a couple days, and I got to go along.  We had such a great time, although I think I got the better deal... while Mark was working during the day I got to have fun and relax.

After dropping him off the first day, I went shopping for most of the morning and then got some lunch and took it to a nearby park to hang out and soak up some sun.

While I was there some street performers came and showed off their moves.

That evening Mark and I explored Philly a little.  

We saw some historic sites.

Ate at a delicious Asian restuarant.

And enjoyed some Fro yo.

The view from our hotel room was pretty spectacular the next morning.

After Mark left for work, I went for a morning run and of course I had to run up the Rocky steps and get a picture.

Then after a little more shopping, I went on a Taste of Philly food tour.  One of the highlights was getting to try an authentic Philly cheesesteak!

It was such a fun trip and many thanks to Mark's dad and wife for babysitting the kids and making it possible for us to have a little getaway.