5K

Well the date has been set for my first ever 5K. I will be running the Apple Festival 5K with my sister-in-law and a friend from work. Needless to say I am extremely nervous because I am seriously not a runner. We have worked super hard since May to build ourselves up to be able to do this 5K. All three of us are nervous, but very excited to be able to complete this task. I set a goal back at the beginning of the year to run a 5K and if all goes as planned that goal will be met September 17th. Wish us luck!

Update

I can not believe that it is already August and I haven't updated since April. This summer has flown by. So here is what has been going on in the Tipton's life.

May 2nd at about 1:00 am my cell phone rang. Of course we were in the bed asleep. Brandon grabs the phone and hands it to me, it's Amber. I immediately knew what this meant. I talk to Amber and she says her water broke and they are on the way to the hospital. I jump out of bed, wake Brandon up, brush my teeth, wash my face, and get dressed. Brandon slowly gets up and gets ready. He puts on a shirt and decides he isn't sure if that is what he wants to be wearing the first time he meets his nephew. This whole time I keep telling him to hurry up or we are going to miss everything. We jump in the car and head to the hospital, but first we have to turn around in our neighborhood because I forgot the camera. We are on our way! We are driving and all of a sudden we see a car with flashing lights coming up behind us, it's Amber and Andrew! We almost beat them to the hospital. At 3:18 am Hudson Reid was born. I was so excited to finally be an aunt. I love that little man more than I knew I could. He is the sweetest thing in the world. We are very proud to be called his aunt and uncle.

After this huge event, the rest of May isn't really exciting. School was super busy preparing for testing.

June 7 was the last day of school for students. After students left we had about 4 workdays. It was a good year, but I was so glad to see it come to an end. I love my job, but teachers have summers off to regain their sanity!

June 26-July 3 we went to the beach with Brandon's parents. We had a great time. We stayed on the beach most of the day every day. We went out to dinner each night. Brandon ran and I did a little walk/running 3 mornings. We had a great time and hated to see the week come to an end.

That same weekend we got home Brandon, with the help of his dad and Andrew, built a pergola over our patio. It is so nice to have. It has been so hot that we haven't been able to sit outside as much as we would like, but I know once it cools down some we will really enjoy it.

Also with the month of July came babysitting Hudson! I kept Hudson most week days in July. I LOVED every minute of it. It was amazing to see him grow and change over the whole time I kept him. I loved listening to him try to talk to me and watch that sweet little smile when he was happy. I really enjoyed spending so much time with Hudson.

The month of August has brought about back to school shopping and trying to soak up the end of summer. There has also been some sadness thrown our way this month as well. Brandon's uncle passed away. It was a difficult time for the whole family. Brandon and his parents were close with his uncle so it was hard for them to lose him. Although we all know he is in a better place now, it is hard to understand why these things happen.

I am going to try to post some pictures soon of my sweet nephew and of our summer.

San Francisco

This past Monday-Thursday, Brandon and I went to San Francisco. We decided a few months ago that we wanted to do something over my Spring Break. We packed up about 5:00am Monday morning and made our way to the airport to begin our vacation. We had a great time! It was like nothing I have ever seen before. We enjoyed lot, and I do mean lots, of walking, good food, and beautiful sights. Here are a few pictures to enjoy!

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Alcatraz

Golden Gate Bridge (it was extremely foggy)

Muir Woods

More trees in Muir Woods

And more! (this is just to show how tall they were)

V Sattui Winery

Lombard Street

A view from the top of one of the mountains (street) we had to climb!

Another beautiful view!

These are just a few of the pictures from our amazing vacation! We definitely ate some good food, but I am pretty sure we walked off all of the calories we ate. It is amazing the hills these people climb each day. Can't wait for our next trip!

Birthday Boy

So Thursday is Brandon's birthday. As of yesterday this became is "Birthday Week". He thinks that we should celebrate his birthday all week long. Conveniently the birthday boy has his birthday week off. His office is closed President's Day and they give all their employees a day off for their birthday, so Brandon decided to take the other 3 days off this week. So his birthday present to himself is the week off. Friday night we are going out with family for his birthday.

Saturday I have a surprise little trip planned for us. He HATES not knowing what is going on. He is a planner and loves to find restaurants for us to visit. But this trip is a secret. Everyday he tries to trick me into telling him where we are going, but I am keeping my lips zipped. While we are gone Bella Rose will be staying with her Granny. She enjoys staying there because her Granny spoils her rotten. Pretty much anything she wants, she gets. So we will have a little diva coming home with us when we return on Sunday.

I will leave you with a few pictures of where Brandon has guessed we might be going.

Greenville, SC

Asheville, NC

Shelton Vineyard
Dobson, NC

Exciting News!

We are going to have a nephew! I am sooooo excited. We found out a few days before Christmas that Amber and Andrew are having a little boy. We can't wait for him to arrive. Hudson Reid is going to be one spoiled rotten little boy! Brandon and I are already thinking of things that will make lots of noise that he will need as he gets a little older!

Amber and Andrew had a gender reveal party a few days before Christmas. This is what we all saw when Amber and Andrew unwrapped their present that had the gender in the envelope.

New York

Over Thanksgiving we took a trip with my sister and brother-in-law to NY. We had a WONDERFUL time. We left Thanksgiving day around 7:00am. After arriving in NY around 9:30 our 2 day mini vacation began. We definitely saw almost everything there is to see in NY in 2 days. We had a wonderful time talking, laughing, and just hanging out together. We ate at some delicious places and even had to take a subway around 9:00 one night for a visit to Gray's Papaya, the boys just had to have it. Here are just a few pictures from our trip.

Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge.


In front of the BEST pizza place in the world, in Brooklyn.


This is how we felt after walking 40-50 blocks. We were told it was just a little bit further, 40-50 blocks later we arrived.


Brandon and me in front of the Christmas tree and ice skating rink.


In front of Ground Zero

Weekend Recap!

So this past weekend was a pretty busy weekend at the Tipton house. Brandon had the day off Friday so he began rocking a grill area he built last year. It took him a total of 2 days to rock the entire area and build a door, but it turned out great. The door is still not finished. We have to stain the door and get a handle to put on it. I think he did a wonderful job! Here is a picture of the project.



Brandon and I found this cute sign at Michael's yesterday. It was 40% off! Can't beat that!


My mom found this chair at the Habitat store. When she bought it, it was painted white and had a super old cushion on it. I painted it black, Brandon used some sand paper to ruff it up, and I covered the cushion. I think this chair turned out great and I love it for my front porch. We have a small front porch, so it was the perfect size.


My mom bought us some orange mums to help celebrate fall.


I have had these pictures for a long time. I just never bought frames for the larger ones. Well I decided this weekend was time to hang them up. These pictures are by Brian Andreas. I absolutely love his pictures and all of the neat sayings they have on them.


We found this wreath in a Martha Stewart magazine. We changed it up a little by putting spiders and an orange bow on it. We are still going to add some snakes to it to make it a little more Halloween like!