Walking in
a winter wonderland...No it's not Christmas and no, we didn't take a ski trip to the mountains...in fact, we never left Alabama! On Feb. 12 we received about 4 inches of snow. Yes, SNOW! That is a rarity in our part of the South. After the weather men had been talking about it for a while many people were skeptical. So much so that we actually had to
go to work the day it snowed. The beautiful slushy snow began to fall around 6:30 that morning and by 9:00 a.m there was a white blanket of snow every where! This was about the time that I was able to leave work and Leon got off work around lunch time. To celebrate the snow Leon and I went over to my Mom's house and had a big snowball fight with my sister, Catherine, and two
of her friends. We even let Penny out to experience the snow and she loved it too! It continued to fall for the remainder of the day and when all was said
and done there were several inches of snow all over Alabama! Yes, the entire state, even south Alabama (where they received even more than most of northern Alabama) received snow! Here are a few pictures from our real Alabama Snow Day!
After a long cold winter (cold by Alabama standards) and some cabin fever, the weather has finally warmed up and it is starting to feel a little like Spring. I can finally get outside and enjoy nature the way it was meant to be enjoyed, in the woods. Leon, Penny and I decided to go take a hike (literally) in Chewacla State Park, just up the road from us in Auburn. It was about a 45 minute car ride and we were there. Literally just a hop, skip and a jump up the interstate. Chewacla State Park is a beautifully wooded area just off the interstate. You feel like you are miles away from everything when you're there. There is a glistening 26 acre lake and miles and miles of hiking trails, especially if you take the wrong one like we did, by accident of course. So on Saturday, upon our arrival, we asked the guy at the entrance which trail would take us to the waterfall. He told us any trail would, but what he didn't specify was that almost all of the trails would take you there if you didn't pick the one with a dead end. We started our hike off with the first trail we spotted. Which wasn't very easy because the trail markers were not always very visible. But we hiked one trail for a few miles and ended up at a dead end. The trail was beautiful, it followed along a crystal clear creek and a few little lagoons through the woods before opening up to the pristine lake and park area. We continued around part of the lake back through more woods until the trail ended. After a few mishaps we finally found out we were on the wrong side of the lake to get to the water fall and if we would have taken the trail in the other direction from the start then we would have ended up at the water fall. Of course, we eventually made our way to the waterfall, created by a dam. It was very beautiful and we enjoyed watching the water cascade down the rocks. Chewacla State Park was a great retreat to escape town for the day and I would highly recommend taking a trip to check it out one day.
think he even surprised himself. It was a lot of fun to watch all of his matches and see everything he has learned. I am very proud of him and his many talents!
How can I forget, in January I decided to start this program called Couch- to-5K. It is a program that trains you to be able to run a 5K race in nine weeks. If you're a little skeptical like I was, I can promise you that this program works! I started the program in mid January and have loved it! After two weeks I was feeling ambitious and with a little encouragement from my friend, Hollie, and my Mom, I decided to run in the Cruising the Creek Walk 5K in Prattville. That was the most excruciating yet gratifying experience I have had in a long time. I completed the race in 42.05 minutes and I was 
