Running of the Balls 2017

For our second year in a row we signed up for a 5K race with our friend Carries called the Running of the Balls. 

The race takes place in early December at night and weaves through the Sunset Hills district which is a neighborhood that has thousands of lighted balls. 

Everyone dresses up in festive gear and runs through the neighborhood with only the Christmas lights to guide your way! 

There are also lots of fun bands and Christmas music playing along the race route. 

The races is very relaxed and not even timed, so it is the perfect race to do with kids, except for the fact that it is usually freezing cold!

It was even snowing on race day, but luckily had stopped and the roads were clear by race time!

Last year we also ran with Finley's little friend Jake and his dad. We didn't see them at the start of the race and I was worried we may not see them at all because it is so crowded!

As luck would have it, about 5 minutes into the race we bumped into them! Finley and Jake were so excited to see each other and pushed each other to the finish line! They ran almost the entire time! And of course were rewarded with hot chocolate and cookies at the end of the race. 

After the race was over we visited for a bit and also met up with Jake's sister Zoe and their mom.

We are super proud of our little runners!

Next stop was hitting up Newk's for dinner after the race. We earned our dinner that night! We love kicking off the holiday season with this fun and festive race! Thanks for being our running buddies Jake and Carries!

Greensboro Swarm Game

One of our friends recommended that we try out going to a local NBA G league game. The Greensboro Swarm have Marcus Paige on their team who is a former UNC player. One night they were going to play another team who has Justin Jackson on their roster, another former UNC player and also Finley's favorite player from our Championship season last year. 

When we found out that JJ was coming to town, we couldn't resist! Here he is making a dunk during warm ups. 

The Swarm play in a really small venue, so all of the seats are up close!

Of course it just happened to snow the night of the game, but that didn't stop us from heading out (in our new all wheel drive vehicle) to catch the game. 

Finley was cheering for JJ's team the Reno Big Horns, David was cheering for the home team, and I was pretty indifferent.

 

Both UNC players represented well and Marcus Paige in particular was on fire and had a career high of 32 points! Overall, I still prefer the environment and drive of watching college basketball, but it was still a fun night! Go Swarm!

Thanksgiving 2017

Well this year's Thanksgiving wasn't quite the norm. My mom was admitted to the hospital on November 10th due to the autoimmune disease that wiped out her kidneys five years ago returning. It was a very stressful and scary time as we were trying to protect and save not only her life, but the new kidney that Donovan had given her. 

Her doctors recommended a new trial drug that would hopefully help get rid of the TMA attacking her body and allow room for the kidney to recover and heal itself. The drug proved to be effective and over the next several weeks we saw lots of improvement!

Donovan and Michelle both were able to come down and take turns helping out while my mom was in the hospital. 

Unfortunately, the timing was such that she would be in the hospital through Thanksgiving week. I decided to stay in Chapel Hill with her while David and Finley continued with the original plan of heading to Myrtle Beach to spend the holiday with Grammie & Abuelo.

The day before Thanksgiving I invited my friend Rizzo over to help Michelle, Donovan, and me decorate my parent's house for Christmas so that when she was released she would be welcomed home to some festive decorations.

It was great to see Rizzo and have a fun visit while we tried to find all the decorations in the house and put them up just like my mom would.

Many hands make light work! It didn't take long to get everything out and up!

Here's the finished product.

On Thanksgiving Day we brought my mama home. She was so surprised to see the decorations and so happy to be home that she cried. Unfortunately, her trip home was short lived and we had to take her back to the hospital again the next evening. 

Meanwhile . . . David and Finley spent the day before Thanksgiving picking out and purchasing a new car! It was a long time coming as David's car was on it's last leg! I couldn't handle the stress of possibly being down to one car while all this was going on so thankfully he found a great car at the right price!

Thanksgiving in MB as told by Finley:

The next day, David and Finley helped Grammie and Abuelo make the stuffing, turkey, and sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving dinner. 

When Abuelo opened the turkey, a bunch of blood came out. 

We went for a walk down the street and played kick the can at a play ground with a pine cone. 

After we got back from our walk, we started to put together our puzzle.

The next day, we went to see the movie Coco. It was really good. Before the movie, there was a mini movie of Frozen that we watched.

Then we went and played mini golf at Gilligan's Island. 

I scored a hole in one! I got 3rd place in the competition. Dad finished in last, Grammie finished second, and Abuelo finished first!

At night we played a game of Risk. Abuelo got knocked out that night. But in the morning I got knocked out too. Dad was the winner. 

Also in the morning, we finished our puzzle. 

On the car ride home, I fell asleep for 30 minutes. 

It was definitely sad to spend our Thanksgivings apart this year. We are looking forward to spending Christmas all together again! My mom has been home now for almost three weeks and we hope and pray that she can keep moving in the right direction. 

ACC Tourney in Charleston

The ACC tournament for women's soccer was held in Charleston, SC again this year. While it is a little inconvenient to travel so far, we love Charleston and have amazing friends who live there and always put us up! Score!

We were so excited to see Beth and Sean and stay for a weekend visit!

The semi-final game was against NC State. One of my church friends from growing up (and a State fan) also lives in the area and joined us for the game. His daughter's were well trained and were all decked out in red cheering loudly for the Wolf Pack. Luckily the Tar Heels prevailed with a 1-0 victory.

On Saturday we spent the morning browsing the Charleston farmer's market. We stumbled upon some break dancers and had fun watching them do their thang!

At one point they need some volunteers. David and Sean obliged while Beth kept reminding the dancers that those two were lawyers so they better be careful!

One of the dancers do a flying flip over 9 people! It was super impressive and luckily no one got injured.

After the show we headed over to see the water at the Battery Park. 

Beth and I are cracking up at how long it takes David to take a picture. 

But for real, he takes for ever!

Finley and Sean enjoyed talking about the cannons and what they were used for.

After lunch we headed to the beach for some exploring and pick up soccer. 

We found all sorts of wildlife including this awesome sand dollar. 

The water was super cold, but luckily the air was pretty warm.

These two crazies thought it would be a good idea to test the water. Well what really happened was Sean decided to go for a dip, and David could not be out done, so he went in too! LOL!

The next morning we got our game faces on for the Championship game.

We brought a picnic lunch to a fun park and then headed over to the stadium. 

We ended up playing Duke in the finals. 

Fortunately, I had my lucky shirt on.

We ended up winning 1 - 0! Go Heels! 

Here's our excited faces after the win!

This was the first time since 2009 that the Tar Heels had won the ACC tournament and the 21st ACC Championship win for my dad. Way to go pops!

We were so excited to snag the ACC title again! My dad's team ended up losing in the sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament which was a bummer, but having this ACC Championship title in our back pocket made the season feel like a success. Go Heels!