C'mon Ride the Train

Last weekend?  Two weekends ago?  We traveled up to Tunnel Hill, GA for a surprise trip for Matt.  I like telling Matt we're going to have a surprise trip and not give him any details or hints and see where he thinks we're going.  He's always WAY off.  In fact, we have always gone the opposite direction he thinks we'll be going.

So what's special about Tunnel Hill?  They have a railroad that goes through a mountain (not used anymore) that dates back to the Civil War.  Matt likes all things Civil War and we pass it when we go to visit family, but never can stop so we did this particular weekend.

Like I said, it's a railroad track that goes through a mountain so you can imagine it's pretty dark when you go through the tunnel.  You go through the tunnel with a guide on a golf cart and he talks about the history of the track and who came through there.  But because it's dark I couldn't take many pictures, but here's what I got!

The path leading up to the tunnel and then the tunnel itself

Color Run!

The first weekend of April I participated in the Color Run with my friends Rebekah and Amanda.  If you haven't heard of the Color Run before here's the run down (pun intended).  You run a 5K and at each color station (every 1K) you get covered in a powder of different colors.  The first one is blue, then orange, pink and then yellow.  Before the race begins everyone is given a color packet and you save it for the very end.  Once you cross the finish line you immediately head over to this on-going dance party and throw your color packet up into the air - kinda like your hat at graduation.  Now the race isn't timed and there's so many people there that you can't REALLY get an awesome time - it's more about getting off your butt and having a good time.  We were able to jog the whole time, but had to dodge people and slow down a big until we could maneuver around them.  Also, you have to slow down at the color stations, too, if you want to get a good coating on you.  It's kinda funny because as you're coming up to each color station you see a cloud of powder looming around it.  Super fun and I recommend it - even if you're not a seasoned runner.

Rub it for Good Luck?

Is it just me or is this...

starting to look like this...

which reminds you of this?

Easter Weekend

Yup, I haven't posted in over a month.  I blame it on a few things.  1) We haven't done anything exciting lately.  2) We have had several people visiting.  3) I've been lazy.  4) It's my blog I can do whatever I want with it.

Moving right along...

Easter weekend proved to be a very productive weekend.  Josh came to visit the week leading up to it and Matt's parents came the weekend of.  Two big projects were accomplished: mulching and chainsaw massacre-ing the backyard and redoing the laundry room.  This post will cover the backyard.  The laundry room isn't completely done yet so that'll come later.  I wish I had more before/after shots, but sometimes I just want to get the project done I don't take the time to document the horrible-ness that we're starting with.  Such is life... here is what I have in terms of before and afters.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Basically the moral of those pictures is this:  overgrown and under mulched.  The house was left 2 years untouched before we bought it so we are playing catch up.  So we needed to cut things WAY back and/or get rid of them completely and mulch in the back to make it look more landscaped.  Done and done.  The after pictures are so much better than the before pictures (thank goodness!)  The mulching actually didn't take as long as I expected - less than a day - and it makes such a big impact.  Cutting everything back really helps, too.  Not only does it look better, but it's better for the plants, too.  Plus, look at those tulips.  They're huge and in full bloom right now.

Oh, and this is what I found when I came inside from taking these pictures: