Coffee Anyone?

So I have been in this bad habit of drinking coffee around 9 or 10 o'clock to give me a little boost of energy so i can study for a couple hours before I head for bed. Well tonight I found myself distracted from studying and now it is almost 1 am and you guessed it, I'm still up so i decided to write a bit.

Last weekend was a packed weekend. It was a bitter sweet time because my girls were out of town but my buddy Michael and I raced in the Dallas City Chase. It is basically a grown-up scavenger hunt. Each team of two has to decipher clues that tell them where the checkpoints are. Each team has to complete 10 of 20 possible checkpoints before returning to the finish line. You can use public transportation or your feet to get around. We chose to use our feet primarily. We ended up running roughly 8 miles across downtown Dallas. From jumping in pools to racing through an obstacle course we made it through the 10 checkpoints and back to the finish line. It felt like we were in our own little Amazing Race pushing hard to avoid elimination. I realize that I love competition and the adventure. At the same time I realize one thing......man I'm getting old!

On Sunday, my dad, Sam, his girlfriend and I drove down to San Antonio for my grandpa's 90th birthday party. Early last week he had a second heart attack so we were forced to have his party at the hospital but that didn't deter from the celebration of his 90 years. It was such a sweet time of hearing stories and memories from people that have been impacted by this man's life. It has been almost 5 years since I had last seen him and it felt like I had missed out on so much even though this is not reality. I realized a couple things as I sat listening to the stories being told. One thing was the importance of having my kids know their grandparents and family in a deep way. I'm grateful for being back in Texas for this very purpose to have help and encouragement from our family. The second is also in response to a recent book I read by Donald Miller. It speaks about living a better story and how sometimes this entails risk, fear, and pain. I listened to the stories of my grandfather and they were such good stories. Some of risk, some of fear, some of pain, and some of good times shared over ice cream. All these separate moments in aggregate have made up his story. A good story. We are writing our story now. There is fear involved, risk, love, character development and growth, and pain. I feel we as a family have been called to a good story and thankful we can rest with the author to unravel the chapters to come.

Some fun pics:


Elyse and her new bike



Like I mentioned earlier. It has been great getting to be around family. Elyse loved going over to Aunt Shelby's and hanging with her cousin Cohen. He is such a cool kid



A picture from our trip to St. Lucia. Amazing island.


Elyse loved putting on daddy's t-shirt. I love this little lady!


Elyse loves to color. I'm amazed because she holds the colors like she has been writing for years.

Time for bed. Thanks for reading the rambling.