Its a good life

What a busy fun few weeks we have been having. I keep thinking, Man I need to blog about all this...and then I get busy with something else or not near my computer and then more time passes and more things take place and then I have even more to blog about! So pour yourself a drink, get cozy and proceed.
The kids had a long weekend at the end of the month, so we took full advantage and headed up to Mt Rainer WA to ski/snowboard with my brother and mother. Reid lives there at the resort and rarely gets the chance to come off the mountain during the winter months, so this is about the only way we get to see him. Actually we have not seen him since last mothers day.....

The kids were anxious to hit the road so packing up the car went really fast with their help!

Cruising down the highway! 

 We made good time and got up there mid afternoon. Fortunately Reid was on a little break and met us out front. We got the grand tour of his lodgings....checked in and unloaded the car. We got the lay of the land by the time Mom arrived. So then we had to show her all around (she's been there several times and probably could have lead the tour).
There is very little snow on the ground right now and it looked more like the end of June not January.

Silly family of mine!

 We had appetizers in our room then headed down to hang out by the fire before dinner. Reid was cooking so we had to enjoy that to the fullest! It's pretty cool to be related to the head chef....and the best skier on the mountain!
The goal for Friday was to maximized the day and stay out skiing/boarding as long as possible. Reid had to work in the afternoon, so he came out with us from 9-1, then we went back out after lunch from 2-4. I would say we kicked butt!

Gearing up. Do I look like a bug in these goggles?

Still getting all that gear on!

Mom, first time skiing in 15 years!

Moose - the skiing machine!

Beast and El Reido! Lets tear it up!

Snow selfie!!

She is wearing her dads old jacket....she thinks its RAD. I think it fits her better than it did him!!

The whole crew!

Panorama from the top! Gorgeous day on Rainer!

Gondola girls!

The raddest boys I know!

 The snow was ok up on top, not a lot of it though. The kids did so great and really enjoyed showing us all what they could do. (they spent 3 days learning over xmas break). We were all very impressed! Its so nice to be able to do more grown up things with them, not having to help them with everything. They are so big!
And as for Grandma, she killed it!!! The kids had been teasing her about how much she was going to fall and all that. She proved them wrong and only fell twice to their hundreds! Lots of teasing and razzing happened the rest of the day! Pretty impressive I must say! Good work mom!

After lunch the snow had been pretty beat up and we were all pretty tired. Beast had taken a few really bad falls on her butt, on the ice. She was trying so hard to make it till 4 though and we almost had to force her off the mountain! Snowboarding is hard work! Im very proud of my little shredder!
As for the boy...he had no interest in being down and took the little run at the bottom a half dozen times while we hung out. I actually did have to drag him off the mountain at 4:30 to return his rentals! He is an animal and was fearless! Really proud of him going off on his own and tearing it up!

After discarding all our wet clothes and taking hot showers we headed over to the Alpine Inn for dinner. Reid told the kids they could order pizza from the deli menu and they were pretty excited! Again, AWESOME to know the chef!!
The Snorting Elk, the bar below the restaurant, is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and were having the first of 4 parties that night. So after dinner we found a table in the deli, right next to the bar, and hung out, had some drinks and listed to the bad. Reid got to come hang out with us after work and introduce us to everyone. Pretty cool place he gets to call home.

Chilling at the anniversary party

Say cheese!!

 And then it was time to go....So sad when so much fun has to end! We enjoyed a long breakfast then packed up. Boo! Although we were all VERY sore and probably wouldn't have done well with a second day on the snow! Until next time Crystal Mountain!

Bye Tio we love you!

And grandma too!

Let the girl take a picture and this is what I get as my screen saver on my phone! 

No family resemblance at all! :-)

 Then it was back to reality and the Super Bowl.....we partied it up and enjoyed watching the Patriots win. Good game with good friends.

Last week was pretty normal, low key. Work, school, family time and workouts. The kids are between sports right now so that allows for a lot more time at home (I love that!). But I think they are ready to get back to a workout routine! 

So since my half, I have been floundering with my workouts. I wanted to take it easy for a bit, but come on! I have been riding my bike and doing yoga mostly. Its been a good change up and letting my body have a bit of a break.

Biking in the garage! The plus is I can read while I ride!

I did get a run in after 10 days off. Felt good and I am glad I rested.

This weekend was total relaxation! And my 35th birthday! All I really wanted to do was read, knit, eat good food, drink good wine and hang out with my sweetie. I got to do all that and then some! It was wonderful!

Happy Birthday to me!

After such a great weekend it was had to go back to reality on Monday. I did, but wasn't happy about it! The plus side is that I do get to have some time with kids, so that made it ok.

Finished the second book in the Outlander series while peddling away! On to Voyager!

Valentines decorations are out and my new wine bottle lamp from my Pea! Love it!

 I found a good cross fit plan to follow for a few weeks and printed it out. I have been lacking motivation with my workouts and needed something to follow. I hope its good! I do think I will be sore tomorrow so thats a plus! Ill keep ya posted!

Working on my deep squats after some Cross fit and yoga!

Peace out peeps! Hope you enjoyed the read and ramblings! Stay fit, stay healthy and always smile!

Where did you go?

Here I am!!! Ha I bet you thought that since my race is over I was going to fall of the face of the earth never to be seen again....You are not so lucky!

It has pretty much been business as usual around here this last week. Work, School, family time....
Bob and I had a pretty low key weekend, much needed after the crazy epic-ness of last weekend!
We had a dinner date with some friends at a favorite local brewhouse. Delicious and good company! Go Gilgamesh for being awesome!
Saturday we went to see American Sniper. If you haven't seen it, go. Very good movie and story. Heartbreaking. What I appreciated most about this film was that it shed some light on what military families go through. War wounds are often not visible. Breaks my heart for them. I kept thinking of my brother while watching it. Of his family and what being deployed was like for them. And what he is now having to deal with.
I spent pretty much the entire day on Sunday with my nose in a book....I started on the second book of the Outlander series....Dragonfly in Amber. LOVE! And I also have mastered the art of knitting while reading so I don't feel totally useless!

Its back to reality today. Dang that went so fast. Settling back into a workout routine too. I have not fully decided on my next goal, but I have some things brewing....
As for now, I am trying to stick to the same schedule as much as possible. I did take it pretty easy last week, light runs and yoga mostly.

Workouts for the week:
Wednesday:
Run, 3.68 miles, 33.:04 time, 8.59 avg mile
Not bad, feeling good.


Thursday:
Yoga, 35 mins. Felt good to stretch. Still not sold on it....way to slow for me!

Friday:
Run, 3.01 miles, 26:36 time, 8:50 avg mile
Cold, wet. Sore run. My bones are tired!


Sunday:
Run, 3.51 miles, 30:21 time, 8:39 avg mile
Foggy, good run. Bobs first run in a few months. Happy to have him join me!


Monday:
Bike
I have a bike trainer for my mountain bike, really cool set up and so much cheaper than a stationary bike!
Road for 30 min at a pretty fast pace. Felt good to mix it up and easy on the bones!

And incase you were wondering.....there is nothing like a pair of bike shorts to make you feel extra sexy. Oh wait, put on a pair of leggings over the bike shorts, yes that does the trick! Bringing sexy back......
Is that lady wearing a diaper? With rubber bands around her thighs?

And now back to reality....

....coming down from my race high. Its been a good one. This is some addictive sh@t.

So I did say I would catch up on the super late night on Saturday and then all the other fun of our weekend.  So here it is.
Beast had a wrestling tournament in Redmond on Saturday. The Oregon Classic woman's meet. Its the only women's meet she will do this year (that I am aware of anyway), and the Classic is huge. We have gone every year accept last year for the last 9. She was wrestled in it at least half of that.
We left at 7:45am to get there in time for 10:30am weigh ins. Wrestling to start at 12:30. We made it in good time and got all registered and weighed in...then found out that they pushed the start time back to 3:30pm......So we watched Cascade HS wrestle in 3 different rounds......I read a lot, so glad I took my book....and we waited some more.

All the girls pre meet! Great turnout this year! Biggest yet

Finally at 4 they actually started wrestling. She had 4 in her bracket, with 3 matches. She kicked butt in her first match, pinned the girl in 30 seconds. Second match was a tough one...she fought hard to the end of the 3rd round only to get stuck and pinned right at the end. That one kicked her butt and she was totally gassed by her third match. It didn't go to well. She ended up with a third place medal and feeling good about her day.

Beast on the left, lets do this!

My Girl!

We literally were the LAST ones to leave the arena....then still needed to get food. I had not planned on being there all day so I did not pack accordingly. We were starving!!! Beast used her phone to find us a good place to stop in Sisters, Three Rivers Brewery, Good food and atmosphere. Then the VERY long, very rainy, very dark, very foggy drive home.....We made it home at 11......

My date for the night....To bad the didn't have a Knotty Redhead!

Monday was a holiday, YAY!!!! We really needed that after the non stop weekend. We pretty much treated it as a Sunday. Lounging around and relaxing. Bob came over and we shot off rockets that he and Moose built. That was really cool! Beast got some bestie time and all is well.

Rocket Man!!!!

Today was back to normal. Work, school, workout, kids, work.....chores.

I did get a workout in....A one mile walk down to Moose's school to drop off his glasses and the some yoga. It was a good change of pace and I think the yoga was a very good choice. As slow as it was, I needed the stretch.

COLD walk today!

Over all I am feeling good, not to sore and ready for the next challenge. What that is, I am still trying to figure out. Also my workout plan.....I don't want all my hard work to go to waste.....

On a side note, I ran 195 miles to prep for my half. Thats amazing.

EPIC RACE DAY!!

I did it!!! I ran a half marathon. 13.1 miles. And I met my goals for the race. It was EPIC!

The hardware and the proof!

Here is a play by play of my day.....

Got home very late (11pm) on Saturday and headed strait to bed (more on that in a later post).
Up at 6:30 with butterflies in my tummy....Tried to go through my normal morning routine as well as I could. Water, Buttered Coffee, 2 eggs with half an advacado, more water, banana. Got all my gear together and packed up. Paced the house a few dozen times while waiting for the Beast to get ready. Headed to the school/race zone about an hour pre race. Picked up my packet, hugs and greetings to folks. Lots of excitement and nerves in the air. I was to be running as part of the local Team RWB group, (Team RWB, Enriching the lives of veterans) and loaned a shirt to wear. Really cool to be part of an awesome group. This really added to the entire experience.

Team RWB

T minus 15 minuets, headed outside to "warm up". I don't really warm up usually, and again wanting to stick with my routine, I didn't want to mess up by doing any strange warmup and hurting myself. But it was good to get outside and used to the colder weather, and start moving around and working out the nerves.
A few weeks ago, my friend Rhiannon and I had decided we should run together. She has been training too and we have been keeping a close eye on each others pace. Since we had the same time goal and same pace, it only made sense to stick together. Her knowing her training partners would be kicking it in at some point and running their own race, as they should :-)
On your mark, get set, GO!!!! And we were off!!! So exciting being in that heard of people. 3 huge American flags leading our way. I love the energy of the start of a race. Finding your stride and pace, weaving your way through the crowd. We started to settle in and were in good spirits. The 3 of us, Rhiannon, Lisa and myself. I felt great, healthy, ready. Around mile 5, we started to meet the people coming back from the early group (an hour before our race, a group started the half that were going to take longer than 2.5 hours or were walking). The good jobs started and that keep us going for quiet some time. Then the speedy winners of our race started to come by, that was impressive. So fast. Like crazy fast. Still our good jobs keep coming, more and more frequently. I love the spirit of the running community. So much positive energy.
Around mile 6, we came across a large group of cheering fans, as I got closer I realized most of my were MY fans!!!! OMG I was so happy and surprised to see my best friends there cheering away!
We finally made it to the turn around point! Wow that took awhile! Knowing we would be going back past my cheering section was super encouraging! And they were awesome again! I was afraid that my face was going to hurt more than anything in the end because I was smiling so much, like the entire time.

HEY I KNOW YOU!!!

YAY encouragement!

Seriously, could I have a bigger smile? LOVED THIS SO MUCH!

Running buddies! Go girls go!

Miles 9, 10, 11 were very long. We kept good pace. By this time it was the 2 of us and we kept each other going.
Around mile 12, I was starting to get pretty tired. My feet were sore. But knowing we were less than 15 minuets away from victory kept me going. Then rounding the corner and heading into the final stretch, we kicked it in and enjoyed the finish. Who knew after 13 miles we still had it in us to sprint (well it felt like a sprint) to the finish? Crazy what the body and mind can do. I look up and see the race clock telling me I am going to make my goal of under 2 hours!!!! OMG really? I did it??? YESSSSSSSS 1 hour, 59 minuets, 8 second!!! And NO WALKING!!!!!

I was met at the finish by my family cheering and jumping up and down, my best friends screaming their heads off and Pea at the end with a camera, tears and a huge hug. I have never felt so much love by so many people in all my life. I had no idea.

Race stats:
13.1 miles, 1:59:08 time, 9:06 min mile avg.
45*, showers, light wind gusts.
FREAKING AMAZING!!!!

FINISH LINE!!!

Oh my goodness what did I just do?

My loves

So much support, no words.

He is proud of his mama. 

My Pea!! 

My running buddy!! Thank you for the support my friend!

Proud of myself!

Thank you to everyone who has been on this journey with me, your love, support, and  encouragement has kept me going and I am so thankful for all of you!