Scott's Birthday Weekend!

Friday night I went over to my friend Traci's dock to hang out and Scott came over on his bike and joined us.

We ended up staying kind of late!

We got up on Saturday and Trevor mixed up some waffles and I cooked them and some bacon for breakfast.

Scott decided that he wanted to go to the bike store in Stockton to get a few things so I went with him. When we were done there we went across the street to the running shoe store and I ended up getting a new pair of running shoes. (Brooks Adrenaline). A week later I'm still trying to decide if I like them.

After we got back we went to Famous Dave's for dinner.

This is what happens when I try to get a picture of the kids.

They are goofy.

Yes Melissa was reading the last Percy Jackson book. She loves those books.

Nachos anyone?

The "Feast" for 2 (or 3 plus some leftovers!)

I had wanted to make Scott's cake all from scratch but I ended up just picking up some frosting to get it done faster.

I made this Black Magic cake

It was pretty good if I do say so myself :)

Scott wanted to go down to the bar so we went down there. There was NO ONE else there. It was really odd. We just stayed for a little bit and then came home. We decided to go to Monterey to play on Sunday.

Let's Go 510 Golden Gate Fields Run

I need to update from last week! Scott's birthday and Trevor's science camp adventure. BUT first I want to post about my run yesterday!

I did the Brazen Racing 510 Let's Go Golden Gate Fields run. I signed up for the 10k awhile back and then tried to get myself trained up to actually be able to run a 10k again. I was doing pretty good with my training and had got up to 4 1/2 miles before I went to see Jess but after I got back I never ran more than 3. I had thought about downgrading my run to the 5k but with a little encouragement from Scott to just walk when I needed to, I pulled up my big girl panties and just did it.

The race was in Berkeley which is about an hour and half away. A bit far for a race, but it didn't start until 10 so I left around 7:30 and got there in plenty of time to meet up with some people.

This is Lisa and Dory who I met through Instagram and have met up with a few times. Lisa has lost 90 pounds (in the navy and white jacket).

Here's some pictures from before the race. It had rained in the morning and looked like it was probably going to rain some more. I was pretty cold before the race started.

The race started in the parking lot of the Golden Gate Fields horse race track.

The Golden Gate Bridge is in the background but it's kind of hard to see it.

There was A LOT of people there. Lisa runs a bit faster than me and Dory is pregnant so she was walking so we all started in different places in the line up. I couldn't even run when the race first started because there was so many people.

I had looked online trying to find the elevation of the course because most of the Brazen Races are pretty brutal. I couldn't find much so I assumed that since it was along the bay it would be pretty flat. You know what happens when you assume right?

You start off by climbing this GIGANTIC hill with 5000 of your new closest friends.

Then you run into this area that is trail like with a bunch of hills built in. They weren't huge but they were still hills, and then you finish the race by going back up that giant hill and then out and around the horse track (which was kind of cool). I ended up doing quite a bit of walking and had to stop twice to fix my shoe lace that had suddenly become way too tight.

Oh and I had to strip off all my layers because the sun came out and made it nice and humid.

Amazingly I still got a pretty good time! I think if I had not stopped to fix my shoe I would have been close to my fastest 10k race time. As it was I was only 4 minutes off. Not too shabby for walking.

My official time was 1:07:29 30 out of 91 in my age group

Here's my totally exhausted selfie at the end. 

With my GIANT medal. I really need to get something to hang my metals on they are stashed all over my room.

Brazen Racing always does a huge spread of food at their runs and this one was no different. I'm just amazed though at how piggy people are. I saw people with little boxes FULL of food. Like snacks to last them all day or something. I guess I'm the only one that thinks you should just take what you are going to eat now and leave the rest for other people.

We hung out a little bit after we were done with the race and then the other girls left and I got a chair massage. Ahhhhh I love free massages.

 My next race is a 5k 10k (just looked up the date and I signed up for the 10k not the 5k dang it! lol) in my old high school stomping grounds. I'm kind of excited to go run there!

What's up in our world

Trevor has been gone to science camp all week! He comes home today. I've missed him so much. Five days is a really long time! I hope he's having fun. This is the first time he's been gone away from home that long (and not with family).

 

Originally I was going to paint his room while he was gone. Some how I haven't had time to do anything but wash dishes and cook dinner though. Oh and pay bills and update my blog..

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And run, I'm still running at least a mile every day. Yesterday was day 53. The weather has been a bit cooler the last few days (not 90 finally) so I have went out and ran while dinner was in the oven. Nice to get it done before dinner instead of after. I know I should get up and run in the morning but I hate mornings and honestly it's really dark and kind of scary at the time I would have to get up to run. For some reason I find it more scary to run in the early morning that late at night. Maybe because it's so STILL outside.

 

I'm still working on upping my mileage, I'm not going to lie the 3.1 I ran the other day was HARD. I have a 10k next weekend and it's not going to be easy to run the whole thing. I am planning on doing a longer run either tonight or tomorrow depending how I feel.

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While I was done seeing Jessica, Scott started working a new job. Now instead of getting up at 3:30, leaving around 4:30, taking a train for about 2 hours and riding his bike 5 miles he doesn't have to get to work until 8 AND it's 10 miles away. He's traded 4 plus hours of commuting for a lower paying job and a 10 minute-ish commute. So far it seems to be worth it. I think he gets his first check today so we'll see how hard of a hit it is. Just the fact that he's a lot less stressed out is definitely worth it though.

 

He's been riding his bike to work about 3 days a week. He has to take a different route than the straight shot 10 miles because our main road into town is like a mini highway with people driving WAY TOO FAST and there is no shoulder to ride a road bike on. On days he rides his bike he's riding around 30 miles a day. He seems to be enjoying it though.

 

Tomorow is his birthday. When I look at pictures of him from last year when he was just out of the hospital and so sick I feel so grateful that he is doing so well now. Life isn't all about how much money you make but the quality of life you have. YOLO and all that ;)

 

I just spent a few minutes looking for a post from last year on Scott's birthday and I didn't do one. I'm pretty sure it was because he looked so sick in the picture I took.

 

 

He keeps complaining that he's gained weight. I think he looks so much better now with more meat on his bones! He just looks scary in that picture. The beard didn't help matters either ;)

North Carolina Day 6, Last Day

Up and running! I'm so proud of myself for continuing my runstreak and running every day I was on vacation!

Squid welcomed me back to the house

This is Jessica's house they rent from the road. They have 3 bedrooms and rent out the extra 2. (one was empty so we stayed in it). Behind the house is a pond of sorts but they said the water is disgusting.

I meant to get a picture of one of the neighbor's houses that had a fire pit and stuff set up out by the water but forgot. It looked like so much fun. Kind of like our dock time here.

We left to go to the airport around 10:30 I think it was. Amazingly I didn't cy when she dropped us off. I knew if I got into the ugly cry my contacts would be miserable lol. Plus now I know that while it takes 8 hours to get there I CAN go and see my girl every so often.  Although next time probably not for so long so I don't wear out my welcome ;) 

We got home around 10:00 our time which was like 1 in the morning North Carolina time. Talk about feeling all messed up! I had to go to work the next day, which actually wasn't all that hard since I was getting used to getting up so early. I was totally dragging for the rest of the week though!

North Carolina Day 5

Every morning I'd make myself some coffee (with the Keurig, I don't have one of those at home) and sit at the table. Sometimes before I ran sometimes after. 

I started having a little bit of company. This is Squid.

She's pretty adorable. She's like "oh hey that smells good whatcha got in there?"

The dogs would occasionally come hang out with us but they spent most of their time playing with each other. They are both pretty cute though :) (Ivory)

Jess was at work and we didn't really have any plans so I decided to go out for a little bit longer run. I went down the street and then around the corner until I got to 1 1/2 miles and then turned back. 

Soybeans anyone? If there wasn't tobacco planted it was soybeans.

My audience for the day

Running on vacation was so nice because it made it seem so much easier. Probably because I was more into checking out my surroundings than concentrating on my running.

Melissa and I played UNO for part of the day and I read my book The Last Secret.

I had told the girls I'd take them out for pizza for dinner but they said there wasn't any good pizza places. We ended up going to Kickback Jacks instead. It's like a huge sports bar & restaurant. Lucky for me they had lemon drops on special! 

We got a couple appetizers to share and got this beautiful salad for dinner.

Melissa got this giant pizza.

The other girls were too far away for me to snap pics of their pics like a crazy blogger lol. When we got back to the house we ended up all hanging out on our bed. Doing what normal people do. Play on their phones together.

North Carolina Day 4 Aquarium, Pier, River Walk

Lots to do today! Started off with a quick run, shower and then we were ready to go. I did a little out and loop this time. Picture taken from Jessica's driveway looking out.

We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast (ew) and then we were on the road. It was about a 3 hour drive to get to the coast. This was really the only thing I had in mind that I really wanted to do. Because how often does a born and raised West coast girl get to the East coast?

The girls had decided that we could check out the Fort Fisher Aquarium. Jessica really likes aquariums so it was a good choice for her. It was relatively inexpensive too so that was a plus. 

When you first walk in there is a combo of fish tanks and misc things like a young bald eagle, alligators, and I can't remember what else.

Then you go into another area and it's all about the fish and under water life.

Can you see the fish?

Sea horses

Gigantic Lobster

There is a little outdoor section with some hands on kids stuff and you walk along a little path. I thought these turtles were fake at first, but there were a bunch swimming in the water too.

 There is a butterfly exhibit too but it was a separate fee and we were kind of tired of the aquarium at that point so we skipped it.

When we were on the way to the aquarium Ariel pointed out this long pier and I asked if we could please stop there so I could check it out (plus I just really wanted to go out to the ocean!)

You have to go through a little store to get to the pier. It's called the Kure Beach Fishing Pier and it's huge!

All these people were lined up on both sides fishing. This was about half way down the pier.

My Melissa (had her take one of me but it's horrible!)

The beach! I wonder how much those places rent out for? I'm sure it's a lot being right on the beach like that.

Other side

 After we walked down it we went down to the water but I didn't go in. We were all wearing jeans so that wouldn't have worked out too well. Jess and Ariel went and put their feet in though. I was wishing we would have brought a blanket, lunch and a book :)

After that we got back in the car and went to the "River Walk" where Ariel wanted to eat lunch. There was a festival going on and we ended up parking a bit away so we got a nice walk through this really old section of houses. LOVE! I took these on the way back to the car but I could have just spent hours walking up and down the streets taking them all in. Something for next time I guess! (maybe if my mom goes out there with me, she'd love that)

We didn't actually end up eating lunch on the River walk but we did end up getting a funnel cake and I may have got super big corn dog. Maybe..

I would have liked to sit here and eat at one of the restaurants but the kids thought it was too expensive.

The fair food held us over until later when the girls made us a taco casserole of sorts. It was pretty delicious! We all fell asleep on the ride home but Jessica who was driving. Good thing she stayed awake. That was a pretty long day! We ended it by playing UNO, which was a ton of fun and just like old times.