The "best" is HERE!!: Fall Sprawl Time

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Fall Sprawl Time

I LOVE Fall Sprawl time! It has become an annual tradition for my friend Peggy and I to head to Wisconsin Dells to participate in a run/walk that benefits Easter Seals and the camp that Peggy worked at one summer when she was in college. I love being able to help out this cause & I LOVE all the memories from each year. We were trying to figure out how many years we have been doing this and I'm pretty sure this year might be the 10th year. It's funny how each year I reminisce about what I was thinking & where I was at in previous year's doing the run. I think part of the reason is that nature is one place I really connect with God - I know each year, I count my blessings and reflect back on the time its been since I've last walked or run those hills. I'll admit it, the years of infertility made it a little bittersweet to go back year after year, still waiting for an answer to my prayers and wondering if I'd ever come to the run with a baby of my own. I remember running with Peggy the year she found out she was pregnant. She was a few months along and hadn't yet found out she was carrying twins. She had to pee the entire race! I remember being so very happy for her yet feeling so very guilty for the jealousy inside of me. We had been trying for over a year at that point and I was really starting to struggle with the wait. The next year I think was the year I invited a bunch of my Metrobrook church friends to come and we made it a little girls weekend. We had a great time. After that (or actually I think that year), Elizabeth started to make it an annual event and that added even more fun. The year I found out I was pregnant with Makenna we were taking it EXTRA careful. I had just found out 2 weeks before the run and my first ultrasound was right around the corner so I was still at that nervous excited phase.

I'll always remember the run the year Makenna was born. It was COLD! We didn't even run because she was spitting up so bad at that point that I was sure she would end up with pneumonia from frozen spitup all over her:) Instead, we hung out in the lodge and I fed her, bundled her up and snuggled with her while everyone else ran. It was such a sweet time together.

Last year is probably my all time favorite memory of the race:

This picture cracks me up every time:)

Last year was a GREAT year for the run! Rachel decided to make a last minute trip back from South Carolina that weekend so she was able to join us. I remember getting SO very excited to find out that Rachel, Elizabeth AND Peggy were all going to be together with me for the day. My bestest friends, each from a different area of my life. We had SO much fun!!

This year we had a great time, too. Brad decided to spend the morning with us before we dropped him off in Madison at the Badger game. And for the first time, Peggy's husband Todd and their twin girls Paige & Emily came too!