Run The Hill Country

Back in May, my darling friend April charmed me into agreeing to run a half marathon with her in October. This feat has only been accomplished once before my by other persuasive friend Lisa. Little did I know that the half marathon that April wished me to run in would be the most difficult run I have ever done in my life. The race was called Run The Hill Country and it was in Marble Falls, TX. I didn't think much of it except that it would probably have nice scenery to look at and maybe some pretty views. A small part of me thought that there may be some inclines, but my brain blocked that out when I was training in flat swampy Houston.



The day of the race arrived on October 20 and it was the coldest morning we had yet to see in the fall of 2013. The temperature was 41 degrees, and we had been training in 90 - 100+ temps over the summer. We picked up our timing chips and ran back to the car to get warm again. Everyone else was doing the same thing and the parking lot looked like a drive in movie with all of those steamy windows. ;)

Jill, April, Kelly pre-race

The start and finish line was in the Marble Falls High School Stadium, which was kinda fun. There were ~500 participants in this race for the Half Marathon, Full Marathon and 10K.

Elevation map for full marathon. We turned around at 6.5 miles for the half marathon.

13.1 miles and 8 uphills later, we crossed the finish like just over 2 hours and 31 minutes!

We survived!

Glad to finally get our medals!

 

Thanks a bunch to mom and dad for making the trek with us to Marble Falls at 5am!

April, I love you, but I will not be running another half marathon if I can help it. ;)

MattLovesRobin

What happens when 2 artsy hipsters get married? The coolest wedding ever.

Matt and Robin tied the knot on 9/28/13 and then headed to Hawaii. 

Here are a few shots I captured from their big day.

Me and my love

Mom and Dad lookin snazzy

Robin's dress was so flattering and her necklace was an awesome pop of color

Cake time!

They were so nice and didn't make any mess. Shame.

My goofy love

Sunshine Blanket

At this point in my life, a lot of my friends are getting married and having babies. The easy thing to do is head on down to Babies R Us or BBB and buy something useful for them. But the fun thing to do is to make them something special. I was pondering what I could make for my cousin Koren's son Ben, when Granny and my mom said that I should make a sunshine blanket! I was like, "a what?"

Sunshine Blanket - a lightweight, light colored, small blanket used to shield baby from the summer sun.

We went on down to the fabric store, found some cute animal fabric and trim, and I got to work! It was so super easy to make. I will for sure be making more of these. My mom said that Granny made me one and that she used it all the time.

There are so many things that I want to learn from my Granny. She is the most amazing sewer, crafter, crocheter, knitter and all around DIY'er that I know!

If you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime

See that handsome guy in the middle? That's Pap. He's my grandpa. Pap is 84 years old and he still mows his yard (riding mower), does his own edging/weed eating, drives a truck, fishes at Lake Belton, goes to coffee with his life-long pals every morning, flies to Atlanta to visit his son and grand-sons, and goes to Austin and Houston to visit his daughter and grand-daughter. Pap is my hero. He had open heart surgery a few years ago and decided to start wearing a life jacket when he goes fishing. He is the wisest man I know.

Yesterday, Pap was fishing with his 86 year old friend R.A. and R.A.'s brother. Pap fell in Lake Belton yesterday. We are all so thankful that he was wise enough to wear a life jacket. He was floating and was safe. R.A. and his brother tried to lift Pap onto the back of their fishing boat. This fishing boat was not made to have a lot of weight in the back. Long story short, the boat started taking on water and eventually sank to the bottom of the lake. R.A. and brother were not wearing life jackets. They were able to swim to some trees that were growing in the water and hang on. The water temperature of the lake was 60 degrees yesterday. I don't know how long they were clinging to those trees. Pap considered swimming to shore to get help, which was pretty far away. I don't believe he would have made it there without having a heart attack. Thankfully, some fishing buddies of theirs saw them when they were headed back to the dock. They rescued them and brought them to shore. R.A. drove Pap home to get dry clothes and went to get some himself. They went back to the lake and got the owner of the marina to help them get the sunken boat out of the water. They were able to pump water out of the boat and get it on the trailer. I am in awe of my Pap and his friends. How can 3 men in their 80's retrieve a sunken boat from the bottom of a lake??? These guys are my heroes.

My Granny (pretty lady on the right) was playing bridge while all of this was happening and had no clue that there was anything amiss. She got home and noticed that Pap's wallet was open on the counter and all of his money and credit cards were out and soaking wet. She found him laying on the bed and asked him immediately if he fell in the lake. He said yes. She asked him if this was his last fishing trip. He said yes.

I am deeply saddened for Pap, because fishing was his favorite thing. He said that God isn't finished with him yet and that's why he's still here. He's not going to fish anymore, but he isn't going to stop living life either. I love you Pap and I pray that we have many more joy-filled years together.

A day to celebrate

Our sweet Katie Bug married the love of her life Chris Kilmer on 10-22-11 in La Grange, TX. The wedding was at Carby Chapel on the grounds of LutherHill. It was absolutely beautiful and everything that Katie wanted.
We all had a great time.
Even Jacob.

And mom and dad. I love this picture of them.

Yale and my super smart cousin Ryan

Hats off to my brainiac cousin Ryan Carlisle who graduated from Yale University earlier this year with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. That is no easy feat. He was nice enough to let me and my parents attend his commencement ceremonies. Thanks cuz. We had a blast!

Chairs are all set up and ready for commencement.

The cousins minus Kirby.

One of the residential colleges, aka dorms. Think Harry Potter. Griffendor, Slitherin, etc. Same concept. Ryan's was called Ezra Stiles.

Secret garden leading to the headmaster's door.

Church building on campus

Just an example of one of the masterpieces on the side of a building. You could find something unique and random on most any building at Yale. The architecture is intriguing.

Engineering Building + 4 engineers = dorky picture

One of the many ceremonies we attended for Ryan. This one was for his residential college.

YALE ice sculpture at one of the many receptions we attended.

Way to go Ryan! You're smarter than us all.

Rob and I are so proud.

Amazing Library

Entry hall of the library. Not too shabby.

A huge quiet study room in the library. The shelves were made of wood with intricate carvings.

This hallway in the library had the coolest ceiling.

GILMORE! If you know me at all, you know that I never missed an episode of Gilmore Girls back in the day. Rory went to Yale in the show so I was in hog heaven walking around the same campus she walked on. I am nerd.

Neato door at the library. Could have been in Harry Potter.

Me and Ryan in the garden at the library.

Dad in the library testing out an old moving desk. Is that what you call it?

Our Trip to Panamaaaaaa

I am way behind on blogging. If there are any fans out there, which I'm not sure if there are or not, I'm sorry for the wait.

Jacob and I took a trip to Panama City, Panama (not Florida) to see his sister Mindy, her husband David and their son Griffin. We had such a great time. It really was one of the best vacations I've ever been on. David and Mindy are teaching at an American school in Panama for 2 years. They've been there for 1 year already so we wanted to go see them before they headed back to the states.
They had pretty much the whole week planned out for us with fun stuff to do. They were amazing hosts. We started off by driving to a volcanic valley 2 hours from the city called El Valle. Here's some info on it. We ate at a small restaurant that was delish before we headed to the jungle to zipline.
None of us had ever been on a zipline before, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that it was one of the coolest experiences. We ziplined over a waterfall and got to stop in the middle of the line to take in the beauty.
After El Valle, we drove to a beach resort called Decameron. David and Mindy's friends own a timeshare there so we stayed the night. It was right on a golf course and had a great view when there was lightning in the distance.Like any good resort, there were pools...
beaches...
and lizards.

We enjoyed ourselves. :)
Of course you can't go to Panama without going to the Panama Canal. We took a partial canal transit tour, which meant that we sailed through the two sets of locks that are on the south side. We love each other. :)
The guy on the right is the awesome dude that kept his shirt off nearly the entire trip. Only one on the boat with his shirt off. Classy.
We visited during Panama's "wet season", so naturally it rained nearly every day. I think that's the only reason that dude put his shirt back on.

This is one set of locks closing after we got in. Going down...and heading out.

A little sailboat went through the locks with us as well as a huge ship.

We went to Casco Viejo after the canal transit to inquire about a music festival we had heard about. We found the music festival, but they didn't have any power so it was delayed. Then the storm rolled in. Do you see the storm hovering over downtown? I was trying to book it outta there before being struck by lightning, but David was very content snapping pictures like this one.
This is downtown Panama City and it's one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
This is favorite #2 taken in Casco Viejo.

It's such a pain uploading pictures with blogger so I'm done for now. You can see all of the pictures Jacob took on my facebook page.

Tune in for the next Helber adventure!!!