The Sink Family!: The marathon update

...the update continues! Our jam-packed schedule wasn't over after the weddings.

Daniel & I signed up to run a 4-miler through our jobs. It was my first race! I conned one of my favorite coworkers, Andrea, in to running it with me. Despite having some sort of nasty summer cold, I pushed through and ran about 3/4 of it :)

All of the Martin runners!

healthy government runners

Daniel and I with our favorite, Andrea :)

The day after our 4-miler, we went back to Innsbrook to enjoy some good tunes from Corey Smith. The weather was perfect (sans a tiny shower), and we had lots of fun!

snapchatting selfies during the rain storm

brothers

family <3

"Stealing kisses, wishing I was 21" -Corey Smith

We hung out at Kelly and Derek's one night. We enjoyed good food, and while the boys were outside smoking cigars, Kelly and I gave Abby a rare treat - a bubble bath! She was so uncertain about it at first that we had to force her to sit down. She's the absolute cutest!

What is this stuff?? At one point she said "where's the snowman??" hahaha

Abby's first french braid :)

brushing her teeth

Cheese!

Summertime means pooltime and food with our families. We spent one Saturday hanging out at the pool and went back to my parent's for dinner. Fortunately, Abby forgot that she didn't like the pool last summer, and she's fearless. You need to have eight arms when you're around her... she runs straight into the water. She didn't want to spend too much time in the "Abby Pool" (not Baby Pool), and loved the Big Pool! I didn't get any pictures at the pool (I was too busy chasing Abby around), but Kelly snapped a few at my parent's house that night.

Going on a bear hunt....
(and we've gone on about a thousand since then...)

piggy back rides!

look at my dirty foot!

Have you had your fill of Abby cuteness? Just when you think the cuteness can't get any more, BAM! Kelly & Derek went out for their anniversary, so Guncle and Aunt Tim got to play with our favorite little lady :)

hotdogs & "trains" for dinner

About to go down the big slide with Guncle

pure joy! she LOVED the slides!

post-bathtime monkeying around

I've been doing a BANGING job at the gym. Seriously. I work out harder/stronger/better than I ever have and feel fabulous. I'm at a healthy weight, I still eat what I want while making healthier choices, and I'm committed to pushing it 110% at the gym several times per week. I'm really proud of how far I've come. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, I just need to re-read this when things start to slack, life gets too busy. I mean but come on, toot toot.

I convinced Georgia to attend the Rock the Block event at the gym - outdoor bootcamp. It was fun, hot, grueling, and so rewarding.

sweaty rockstars

We have been looking forward to The Sink Family vacation to Corolla. We had a Friday night planned to order take-out & pack, until Abby decided she really wanted to see us one last time before we departed for NC. And by that, I mean the sweet thing had another seizure :( Guncle packed up crayons and coloring books and we met at Chippenham to check on our sweet girl.

kisses for Guncle

This time, she wasn't as much like a zombie post-seizure, and we even made it out to dinner afterwards! We kicked off vacation with some Abby kisses, margaritas, and puddle jumping.

DJ marg and giggles from Abby. Ribbit and Night Night joined us at dinner, too

jumping in puddles, Abby's new favorite past-time - love those two more than anything in the world

Early the next morning, we were off to Corolla for the week! We had a blast. There was a lot of family coming/going, which made it interesting. We were able to stay the whole week, and really enjoyed it.

snapchatting on the trip down south

beginning of the week shenanigans

dinner outside next to the pool on the first night

loved waking up and walking outside to our deck and enjoying coffee with this guy

pretty lighthouse sunset - the view from one of our decks

working on puzzle #1 of the week

another fun family dinner

loved having this trail on the sound as my "treadmill" for the week

during my run I found this gem - nags head hammock swings on the water, and you better believe I took a nice long break!

and I received really fun snapchats from my favorite ladies at work

sun, sand, and this stud

bloodys on the beach - doesn't get much better

selfies on our walk

looking for seashells

check out our paddleboard Daniel was able to get for us

trying it out in the pool

trying it out tandem

crashing tandem

and we both made it up!

AB paddleboarding like a pro

Daniel turned the paddleboard into a surfboard

the boys pickin' some crab

shrimp boil

Our week included (but wasn't limited to) working on a puzzle, reading trashy books, drinking alcoholic beverages, riding beach cruisers all over Corolla, hanging out in the hot tub until we were pruny, relaxing, exercising, getting sunburnt, you know the deal. We got in trouble by the neighborhood police for hanging our towels on the railing (not for being drunk/loud, but for making the house look trashy). We laughed a lot. We ate a ton of food. We made lots of good memories :)

My mom turned another year older while we were at the beach, so we had to celebrate upon our return! We grilled salmon, drank bloodys, and ate Butter Pecan ice cream cake :)

we are a family that loves bloody marys!

pretty birthday girl

who the heck knows...

Right before we went on vacation, we spent a pretty penny on NEW WINDOWS! Yeah, we are now real adults who get excited over something so boring

out with the old, in with the new

And upon our return from vacation, Daniel installed new shutters.. again, cue extreme excitement

Obligatory "before" picture

during

After

And of course we had to make our light-pole match

We celebrated Baby Sink's due date on June 24th. Daniel came and we had a thai lunch date, and spent the evening bingeing on Orange is the New Black and reflecting on the craziness of the past 6 months. My mother-in-law sent me flowers

We FaceTimed with the sweetest thing in the whole world who never fails to put HUGE smiles on our faces. She recently started holding the phone on her own during our phone calls, and it's so funny. Half the time we can't see her face, and she takes us all around the house just blabbing away.

Exhibit A: close up of Abby

Exhibit B: the side of the house

And Daniel bought me a fun night out with our lady family members - PaintNite :)

We had a department outing in June in lieu of a birthday celebration. Ironically, it was "office morale day" at the Diamond (not even kidding). It was hot, it was fun, and we were not in the office!

just to prove that Office Morale Day was not a joke

Charles beat a kid to a foul ball, and was proud of it

can it get any better than eating a funnel cake instead of sitting at my desk??

Speaking of fun happenings during work, TMA is awesome and had a World Cup viewing party during lunch one day

We had to celebrate Father's Day with my family ex post facto, so we spent the day at the pool (extra bonus: with some special relatives in town) and ended the night with our traditional Father's Day meal - a delicious Shrimp Boil

guys

ladies

with my pretty granma!

the kids table

love him (and the food on the table)

We went for our annual 4th of July trip to the Bay with Annabeth and Jarrett. We were due to arrive at the same time as Hurricane Arthur. Yep - you read that right, a hurricane in the beginning of the summer hitting NC. We watched the news and decided that we would ride it out and make the best of it. We arrived around 6pm when the clouds and wind were barely starting to arrive. We went for a quick swim and fixed dinner. When we went to bed around 11, it was kind of windy and raining. I woke up a few times in the middle of the night, and the wind was pretty loud, but I knew as long as the fan was going, we still had power. So we woke up the next morning to a lot of wind and sunshine. Seriously - just a one night stand with Arthur. Easy. We spent the next few days hanging out in the Bay, eating good food, riding around on the golf cart, and playing games. So much fun, like always. The only downside to this year's trip was that Grandma Stella decided not to come. She has a busy schedule, but sent lots of food :) We definitely missed her wit and all of the laughs she brings with her!