McKenna's Birthday Fun Day

Since moving to North Carolina, Courtney and I decided to get back to what we used to do and have the kids enjoy a birthday fun day, instead of dealing with the stresses of planning out a birthday party. 

So, when we asked McKenna what she wanted to do for her birthday fun day, she right away said "the zoo where you feed the giraffes!" And for the next week that's all she could talk about. It is the same place we went for McKaila's birthday fun, but it's always fun seeing animals and getting the chance to feed them out of your hand.

But we also had a birthday surprise for her, Grandpa and Grandma Nancy, were coming for a visit! 

The kids were very excited to see them and couldn't get enough of them while they were here.

Our favorite spot, the giraffes. The kids loved feeding them and the older giraffe found a liking to Courtney and played with him by licking him and darting his head back and forth towards him. It was a fun site to see, for sure!

McKenna loved the baby goats

baby Zebra only a few weeks old

After spending the whole morning at the zoo, we had a picnic at the state park a few miles from the zoo. The kids loved that because they could eat, but also run around and have some fun. 

After enjoying our picnic, we walked around the water for a bit, then headed back into the car so we could end McKenna's birthday fun day with some ice cream. 

It was an excellent birthday fun day!!

McKaila's Fun Run

First off, we need to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone that made a pledge in McKaila's name. Friends and family came forward and McKaila earned $10 per lap. 

McKaila was so excited for the fun run. She talked about it on a daily basis until finally the day came. And when it was finally time to run, she ran! She ran as fast as she could and she enjoyed every minute of it. In the end, McKaila completed all 35 laps! 

WAY TO GO, MCKAILA!!!!

The Alvarez Alligators 

Let the fun run begin

McKaila and Lilly showing off their completed laps

The fun run was a success!

Awesome job, McKaila!! We are all so very proud of you!

It's Bristol, Baby

I couldn't even begin to tell you the excitement that the kids showed when we told them we were going to another race. They were so excited, jumping up and down, and wanted to get to the race right that second. Unfortunately, for them we had a couple weeks to wait until we would get into the car and drive 3 hours to Bristol, TN.

I could never thank the USO enough for providing us with those tickets. Courtney and I both received tickets through the USO and all we had to do is get tickets for the kids. They even provided us with awesome seats. The USO and the speedway made everything so easy. 

The down side of having Bristol 3 hours away from us, is that we had to keep an eye on the weather. We were just going to make it a very long day of it and not get a motel room. So, we needed to make sure we weren't heading to Bristol and there not be a race. We kept an eye on the weather a week out and each day the forecast for Sunday became a higher percentage for rain. Saturday night, we decided that we weren't going to waste a trip to Bristol Sunday morning with the chance of rain being 80%. 

Thankfullly, we went with our gut feeling about the rain because the race got cancelled and rescheduled for Monday afternoon. 

Monday morning, we were off to the race! 

It seemed like it took forever to get to the track, but once we got there, it was all worth it. We couldn't wait to get to our seats and watch the race. And yes, the kids love watching the cars and sat through the whole thing, other then the few bathroom breaks. 

Logan loves watching the cars race

And Jimmie Johnson is the winner!!! The 2 races that we have been to, Jimmie has one each one, which is pretty awesome. 

Logan picked out the Bristol raccoon for his souvenir 

It was such a fun time going to the race at Bristol and I really hope that we get to go again!!