Grandma comes to visit

A couple weeks ago, Sam's mom visited for a whole week with us! It was so much fun to finally be able to show her around these parts a little better. She came in December for Christmas but it was cold and rainy/snowy the entire week so we didn't venture out of the house all that much. She actually arrived the Saturday before memorial day so was able to come with us for many of our weekend activities from the last post. We gave her a great taste of good ol' Tennessee country fun with our outings with friends and locals, hehe..  Then during the week, we made a few trips to the park, tried out a couple local dives, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery that we can never get sick of... Ivy absolutely LOVED having her grandma around to play with whenever she wanted. 

Afternoon walk at Sugar Run in Cumberland Gap Natl. Park:

And no visit from family or friends can ever be complete without a trip up to Pinnacle Overlook (we spotted a plane taking off from Middlesboro this time around, it was neat):

We very much enjoyed our week with Mom R. and can't wait for her to come back! Oh and thanks for all your generous help, Mom! :)

Small town life

Just wanted to post a few pics from fun times around these parts. Living in a small town, our get togethers with friends tend to center around nat'l parks, backyards, fire pits, and trails.. With the weather cooling off in the evenings nicely this past month, I'm pretty sure we've gotten together for more bbq and s'more bonfires than I can count! We love it though. Sharing our weekends outside with great company will never get old. :) 

Another perk of small town life is the annual county fair! We were just a little hesitant on our way there, mainly because we weren't sure what to expect with Ivy- whether there would be rides for her or whether she would have anxiety with a lot of people around (which she has had the past few months) but it ended up being an amazing night together! Ivy literally had the time of her life and even rode a couple rides by herself! She sure looked grown up next to all her friends.. Youngest one in the bunch but she keeps up with these cute girls just fine:

 

The carnival just had a door fee, then all the rides were included, as many times as you want. Pretty sure Ivy rode this carousel 8 or 9 times, lol:

Such a fun night! Can't go wrong with funnel cakes, snow cones, and (very) interesting people watching, hehe..

Labor Day weekend tends to be a big deal in this area so it was a pretty busy weekend. We went to the county fair on Friday, then the city of Harrogate had a Labor Day celebration on Monday with fireworks that night. We went to the city thing in the afternoon, then to a friends house for cookout and s'mores, then back home to watch the fireworks from our own yard. Our house is on a hill and had a perfect view of the show without the hassle of traffic at the park. Perfect! Anyways, this was the land and fire pit next to our friend's house for our bbq. It was beautiful:

Living next to the national park, we tend to take drives and walks along the gorgeous paths if ever we have an hour or two to spare and want to get away. It is so nice to have these parks and trails practically in our backyard:

School life

Sam officially started his first year of medical school at the end of July! I wish I would've taken a "first day of school" pic but I just figured we'd get enough photos of his official entrance into med school during his white coat ceremony here this coming week. So far Sam has been studying hard and rocking his tests. Thanks to his post bac program last year, he already has his big anatomy class out of the way and is able to focus on the other classes a little more. He still gets his anatomy and dissection practice in, though, because he is a TA this semester for the first years, just doesn't have to study for the tests. 

Our day to day life goes a little something like this.. Sam leaves around 7:40 am for school (or I take him if I need the car), then Ivy and I get ready for the day and either hang out at home/do some chores OR we run errands in the morning.. Lunch at home (campus is close enough that Sam can take a short lunch break most days), then Ivy takes an afternoon nap while I relax or get some cleaning done... Then I teach Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons (we hired one of my students to watch Ivy while I teach and it has worked out perfectly).. I'm done around 5:30 or 6 (which is when Sam gets home) and we have dinner and hang out together until Ivy goes to bed...  Once Ivy is in bed, Tuesday nights we have scouts (cub scout masters, here) and Thursday nights I sometimes spend with some of the other med school wives. Occasionally Sam has meetings, ward softball, or intramural volleyball games going on.. Every week is different and every week we tend to stay pretty busy. I think it's been fun so far, not too stressful.. 

Our daily life----

Pickles for breakfast per request of the silly goose... and building towers:

 

At the checkout? She kept putting her food on the step (she likes to help me lift things from the cart at the grocery store so I'm pretty sure that's what she's doing, hehe:

Silly faces and feasts for the Little People (notice her feeding the octopus, lol):

 

We love visits from friends and puppies:

And fairy birthday parties with all the girls:

Weekends before tests, the students disappear for hours (or days) at a time and we usually try to find fun things to do to pass the time without them.. Like Knoxville day trips with good friends! We had soo much fun this Saturday a few weeks ago.. Surprisingly Ivy was very well behaved all day long. I think she is finally over her phase of anxiety of new places and freaking out around lots of people. We had a blast and Ivy couldn't get enough of all the kids there to play with:

Sam's transformation, half marathon in Chattanooga

I know this is kind of older news but wanted to record it because it sort of leads into Sam's new running life.. This past January, Sam decided to enter a transformation challenge online that would be over a span of 12 weeks, ending in April. There were many reasons for this goal-- the biggest one being that he wanted to make a permanent lifestyle change to lose weight, live healthier and be more active. It ended up being a great change for our entire family. We didn't do any crazy strict diet but just became much more aware of what (and how much) we were eating and what unnecessary things could be cut out of our daily intake. We also started cooking much healthier meals on a regular basis. I think when we chose to make the lifestyle change as a family, rather than just a "diet," it made a big difference.

Anyways, here are Sam's before and after pictures and I think he is a freaking rockstar for all the work he put into getting his body healthy and strong. He looks awesome!! (I lost a little weight too but found out I was pregnant at the very beginning of April so a lot of good it did me, haha).. He also became much more active and exercising every day was fun for him, especially when he discovered trail running (mostly thanks to my bro-in-law Neal taking him on a night trail run when we were in DC back in March).. He's been running regularly ever since, and LOVES it. 

So a few weekends ago we took a little overnight trip down to Chattanooga for Sam to do his first half marathon trail run. They did the Still Hollow Half Marathon. His friend Jason came along so he would have a running buddy and they both did awesome!  It was a learning experience for sure but they had a lot of fun and are already looking forward to their next run in November. Here are some pics from our weekend:

Sam at the halfway mark, Ivy hanging out with lizard while we wait:

 Almost done!!!

Finished! (Jason came through about 4 minutes later and I didn't catch a pic of his finish, dangit!) Pic on the right is how they both felt afterwards, haha:

After some fluids and popsicles, they were feeling much better, lol:

We went to lunch and visited some fun parks and waterfalls downtown.. Such a cute city! (Jason took off with a friend to the aquarium so we hung out downtown for a little while, then headed back to Knoxville):

Watching the river boats go by: