June is awesome. Rosie is on her first week of spring break, and is busy with swim practice. For her age group, swim team only lasts 5 or 6 weeks, but those weeks are intense.

Running

One of my new years resolutions was to run a 1/2 marathon (the other goal was to grow a hydrangea), and the only way I am going to do that is if I am signed up and committed to doing a race. So way back in January, I looked up some races around May/June in the area and settled on this one: the “Downhill at Dawn” 1/2 marathon in Black Mountain, 20 minutes east of Asheville.

I called my buddy Leo, who is running and has been my friend since high school, and he also committed to the race.

The course is a friendly, low-grade downhill race starting at the conference center at the top of the mountain, and ending in a church parking lot at the bottom of the mountain. My goal was to finish between 1:45 and 1:50, and I did- with an official time of 1:50 and some change. If you are really a nerd, here is the detailed analysis on Strava

Even though Leo and I both read the same website, neither of us had any idea that the race was a Christian ministry based 1/2 marathon. This isnt a problem per se, but we just werent ready for it. A few things stood out:

• The race offered discounted rates on rooms. We stayed, not knowing that the rooms were in a retreat center
• the rooms had no tvs
• the conference center had no beer
• Billy Graham

I didn’t realize, but Leo laughed a lot. Apparantly, I have a reputation of being a Bible thumper to Leo and his wife, Kelli. When Leo shared about the race, Kelli said to Leo, “I’ll bet Luke signed you up to stay at a Billy Graham hotel.” And sure enough, this place was founded by none other:

Recitals

Rosie had her first dance recital this past weekend. “It was the best few minutes of my life” were her exact words after we picked her up in the lobby.

Growing up with Matt and Jake, this was also my first recital as well, and it was a whole affair. Rosie got to wear makeup, Taylor did her hair, and she just looked so grown up. Amelia and Lila also danced, and here are their videos as well.

Robbery?

Well, kind of. Our home has a strange layout- where it would be just as easy to go to the front door as it would to go to the back door, so we have a camera that is mounted with a floodlight from the corner of the house to view the comings-and-goings of our house. It is also helpful when we are out of town.

Part of my morning routine it to look at the camera and see all of the critters that move around at night- mostly possums, cats, foxes, and rabbits are around.

BUT- then I saw these two clips. It is not too exciting- he was there, and walked down the driveway two minutes later, at 3:45 am. All he did was go through the car, but fortunately there was nothing to take.