Yellowstone - Old Faithful and More

 You can't go to Yellowstone without visiting Old Faithful, right?!

 Sure enough, the old geyser was faithful.

 Quite an amazing place.

My most repeated phrase of the trip was,
"I can't believe this is in the same country as Florida."

Fearless Clare Ann

 How did she get up there?

Who does she take after?

 Of all the sights of Yellowstone, the kids seemed to favor the river.

 All they wanted to do was splash around and get wet.

 We enjoyed it too.  :)

Missoula Marathon

This is the image that I will always remember from the Missoula Marathon...

crossing the finish line hand-in-hand with my husband.

WOW!

It took a tremendous amount of training, planning, pavement pounding, ice, and preparation to get to that point.  This picture was taken the night before the race...at the restaurant where we "carb loaded" for the big day.

 Brian (Phil's oldest brother) and his family were in Montana for the marathon as well. 

 The three of us never ran a single training run together, 

but we certainly shared the experience on many levels.

 This LINK will take you to the starting video from the race.  You can hear the real cannon blast that signaled the start as well as the fireworks that lasted for the first few minutes of the race.  You can see the three of us run by within the first few seconds of the video (between 0:30 and 0:33).

 Here's our BLUE CREW!  We undoubtedly had the BEST cheering section (my parents, Phil's parents, and Brian's wife and kids) of the entire marathon!

 Here's another quick peek...around the 9-mile mark.

We were still feeling pretty good at this point.

 Notice that Phil and I are running in opposite directions.  That is because Phil accidentally missed Clare's hand the first time he ran by, and he had to run back and catch her to make sure to give her a sufficient high five.

 It was 55 degrees when the race started at 6:00 AM.  As soon as the sun rose above the mountains, it warmed up very quickly.  We were used to running in heat, but we were not used to the altitude and quick climbs in elevation.

 I will spare you all the details of the painful miles that haunted me between 14 and 26.  It was my 6th marathon, so I foolishly assumed that I would be the experienced veteran of the group.  It was Phil's 1st marathon, and he was awesome.  Strong.  Supportive.  Encouraging.  Consistent.  Awesome!

After running for 3 hours and 49 minutes, we crossed the finish line holding hands.
It should be mentioned that Phil could have finished far ahead of me.  He still had spring in his step, and he was strong all the way through.  I told him to go ahead, but he wouldn't think of it.  I love that man, and I would have had a very hard time finishing without him.

I always dreamed of running with my husband, and he helped turn that dream into a reality.  It was such a fun experience to share with each other; and now that three weeks have passed, the pain has faded from our memory.

All of the kids wore shirts that said, "Go Team Hillary" on the front.

No matter than pain, these faces made us smile!!!  :)

The backs of the shirts were individualized for each family:

Brian's boys' said, "I cheer for my Dad, Uncle Phil, and Aunt Corrie."

The back of Clare and Isaac's shirt said,

"I cheer for my Mom, Dad, and Uncle Brian."

The Blue Crew

The Whole Gang...after the race...and still smiling!



Once the running was done, we were happy, happy, happy!!!

 We are taking some much needed time off of running; but I will have you know that my husband, who told me MANY TIMES that the Missoula Marathon would be his first and last marathon, already told me that he was looking up dates for future races.  I think it's in his blood now.  Watch out!

Winn Dixie + Box Tops = BIG SAVINGS!

If you're anything like me, you love finding little ways to save money.  It's kind of a game in our house.  Phil teases me about all the silly things I do to save a dime here or a dollar there.  This offer, from Winn Dixie and General Mills, is too good to miss. When you buy 5 participating Box Tops items at Winn Dixie, you save 10 cents per gallon on gas AND get 20 Bonus Box Tops. Find great savings on Box Tops products, including Big G cereal, Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snacks, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, and many other great products. Check out www.boxtops4education.com to find out more about the Box Tops for Education program and how you can help support your local school.

My daughter has been collecting Box Tops for the past year, and she takes that job VERY SERIOUSLY!  She never walks past a box of Kleenix without flipping it over to search for a Box Top, and she always wants to be the one to tear them off of the cereal boxes. 

Even more exciting than collecting all of the Box Tops is when she gets to bring a bag full of them to her teacher.  She LOVES that!  Seeing that we collect dozens of Box Tops every month, I was really excited about this promotion from Winn Dixie! 

SO...do the math:

* Saving 10 cents per gallon will be at least $1.50 in my pocked.

* 20 extra box tops will be $2.00 EXTRA for Clare's school.

Easy enough, right?!

Winn Dixie and General Mills, through MyBlogSpark, want to give a $25 GIFT CARD to someone who thinks they might enjoy the savings through this promotion.  Is that you?  On what items do you, or would you, collect box tops? 

Share your thoughts, and you might get the $25 gift card!

 

 Winn Dixie Website

“Disclosure:  The information and gift cards have been provided by Winn Dixie and General Mills through MyBlogSpark.”

The Animals of Montana

In honor of Phil, I had to do an animal post.

A few qualifiers:

1. I was NEVER the one to spot these animals while in the car or on a hike.

Phil has a 6th sense for knowing when an animal is near (or even quite far away...but still within eyesight).

2. I thought it was neat seeing wildlife, but that was the highlight of the trip for Phil.

3. I will most likely, almost definitely, describe these animals incorrectly in some way.

Bison, or Buffalo (as some stubborn folk insisted on calling them), 

were among our most frequently spotted animal.

We thought they were pretty neat until they caused a traffic jam that lasted over an hour.  We just waited and waited as one car got through at a time.

Once we were finally near the herd, I took some video.  Upon feeling one brush my camera wielding arm, I climbed back in the car to watch from behind closed doors.  Hence the "WHOA" at the end of the video.  :)

Here you can faintly see a coyote in the distance.

 A Bull Elk in Velvet

Anyone else know what means?

Wapiti (or "elk" if you're a normal person)

 Here, Phil was finally spotting his first mountain goat.  He wanted to see one so badly, but he only some them from a distance.

 The poor guy almost cried
when he learned that my sister and mom got within reach of them.

 This little guy was hanging out by our lodge in Glacier National Park.

We saw several other animals that just didn't get photographed in time.  

Here is the list of what we DID see:

-Yellow-Bellied Marmot

- Elk

- Bison/Buffalo

- Prairie Dogs

- Deer

- Llama

- Mule Deer

- Prong-Horn Antelope

- Coyote

- Mountain Goat

- Columbian Ground Squirrel

- Big-Horned Sheep

- Hoary Marmot

- Magpie

Here is what we did NOT (much to Phil's dismay) see:

- Moose (although we saw lots of tracks)

- Bear (although Phil's parents and brother's family saw one)

- Sasquatch (although we thought we were close a few times)

 Last, but not least, the DINOSAURS.

Naturally, right?!

Yellowstone National Park - Part 1

Where have we been, you ask?

The answer to that lies in far more than one blog post,

but I've got to start somewhere!

 

 

We went to Montana for 12 days, and it has possibly become one of my new favorite places in the United States.  We have family in Bozeman, we were blessed with a beautiful place to stay for the first part of our visit. 

The whole idea for traveling to Montana started with my husband's idea to run a marathon.  He set a goal to run a summer marathon, and then he searched for a fun place to accomplish that goal.  It wasn't long before several members of our family jumped on the bandwagon, and we ended up having a mini-family reunion in Montana...
along with a marathon (post to follow).

After a few days of hiking, we took a trip over to Yellowstone.  WOW!  I think my most common phrase of our trip was, "I can't believe this is in the same country as Florida."

We had special time as a family, and there's no one more fun to experience the great outdoors with than my nature-loving, animal-seeking, bird-identifying husband.

We went to the hot springs, and Ninnie carried Clare up a couple hundred stairs. 

Thank you, Ann.

The sulfur, hot springs.

Clearly, our Southern Belle isn't used to hiking.

Take notice of her throne in the next couple of pictures.

This was at Artist's Point...a beautiful look-out in

"The Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone.

Another beautiful view...taken from the car as we drove through the park.

It was fun sharing this memory with both of our families.  We were with the Durhams (and Hahns...my mom's family) in Yellowstone, and the Hillarys joined us in Glacier (more posts to follow).

Check out my sister's blog for more pictures from Montana.

I have several more posts, but they may take a while to reach the screen.

Publix...Running Out? RUN IN!

I love Publix.

Enough said, right?

If you live in an area with a Publix, I imagine that you feel the same way.

If you have never heard of Publix, I'm sorry. 

It's one of the best supermarket chains in the country.

Publix is about to run a summer promotion, and I'm excited to check it out!

From July 19th through July 25th, look for the "Running Out? Run In." event at your local Publix store and "run in," to take advantage of the great savings on some of your favorite brands (General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Totino's, Charmin, Crest, etc.). 

There will also be coupons in the store totaling over $13 in savings - coupons are valid July 19th through August 4th.

You will receive a $5 Publix^® gift card to use on your next shopping trip when you purchase $30 or more in participating items between 7/18 and 8/4; simply mail in the rebate form found in-store or online at RunningOutRunIn.com along with your receipt(s).

For more details on this great rebate, visit RunningOutRunIn.com

GOOD NEWS:

General Mills and MyBlogSpark want to share the savings!

They will give a $25 GIFT CARD to one of the readers who comments on this post!

Leave a comment about what you might stock up on at Publix...which General Mills products you love to have on hand...or how you would use a $25 gift card.

 

 

The Publix gift card, information, and gift pack have been provided
by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Check out this LINK for more information!