Deltaville 5K 2015 and everything else

Hello friends! This has been a crazy and hectic last few weeks! I thought my life would be a little better after school let out for the summer but boy was I wrong. B has kept me on my toes along with everything else going on.

First, I got new prescription sunglasses! I've never had prescription sunglasses before but I am loving it. I also got new glasses as well. It has been an adjustment because I have developed an astigmatism and now I am supposed to be wearing glasses all the time instead of just to see distance. I am very slowly getting used to them and still being stubborn about wearing them all the time, but I am loving the prescription ones for driving.

Stylin'

My parents' 40th wedding anniversary was June 28th so I threw them a surprise dinner with their closest friends. It was perfect! They thought they were just meeting us for dinner...hehehe.

Surprise!

My "aunts and uncles"

Everyone had a great time, and even B was semi well behaved. The empty outdoor dining area helped because he could run around out there.

Argg!

June 30th was our wedding anniversary! We waited and celebrated with dinner in Urbanna. We went to a place called The Works and it was soooooo good! It was also so good to have some kid-free time.

4 years and counting!

Crabby hat. Crabby baby.

Friday we went out on the boat and B wore the best hat ever. We went out in the bay and it was a gorgeous day! Since there were storms the night before the humidity was low. I liked swimming out in the open water and even (finally!) got to drive the boat!

Saturday morning I had the Deltaville 5K. It is a fun race with an out and back course. I think I could have had a better time if it weren't for the guy who decided to dress up in sleigh bells (not jingle bells, legit sleigh bells) and a Santa hat and run near me through the whole race. The bells were absolutely maddening. I had 2 choices: go ahead of him or let him pull ahead of me, because he ran my EXACT pace. I tried pulling ahead and that worked for a little while, until my app told me I ran the first mile in 8 minutes 57 seconds. I knew I had totally screwed myself. I slowed down so I wouldn't hurt myself and here comes Sleigh Bells again....every time I got away from him he would catch up. Or if I let him get ahead, he stopped at the water stations and then started running when I got near him again. It was honestly horrible. I can understand dressing like that for a Christmas race...but not in July. It kind of ruined it for me :-( Next time I will just wait and move back into another wave so as to avoid that annoyingness...All in all though I was super happy with my finishing time. 31 minutes 48 seconds is really good! If I could run a consistent 9 something mile I could probably pull in at 30 or less like I have been trying so hard to do. Maybe next time...

I saw this on Facebook later and will be looking for it next year. They had CRAB RACES at the race!! I so wish I had seen this in person!

ouch

Saturday night I was super tired and my feet were so swollen. I understood why when I looked at my FitBit app. I haven't had that many steps in one day in a long time.

Sunday we went out on the boat again and went fishing for cobia! Apparently they are hard to catch because they don't school and they are extremely picky about their bait. But we got one!! Unfortunately he snapped the line before we could get him in the boat, but it was fun trying to get him in. Cobia can get very big and we weren't sure if he was a keeper anyways. I think he was just shy of the 37 inches they have to be to keep them.

Check out that mouth!

Feisty!

You can kind of see him below the water.

Personally I was happy just to drive

 

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend!

Summer Kickoff 2014

Summer time and the livings easy!

So happy that it is finally summer once again. It is my favorite season of all time for so many reasons: it's warm (hot) out, I can swim at the river, I can wear flip flops and shorts everyday, no work...it's so fun. 

This weekend we went to the river and although I was unable to get a run in there I made up for it today. This summer is going to be a little trickier than I thought with not having B in day care and also not having him on my gym membership. I'm not going to get to use the gym like I thought I would and that makes me sad but I'm going to do the best I can. Anyways today I actually got up early and went for a quick run. The picture above is of the trail that I run almost every time I go out because it is at the end of my street. I got up early because it was going to be so hot today. Not only did I want to keep the kiddo out of the heat, I didn't really want to be in it either. The weather was great and it was getting pretty hot by the time I finished around 7:20AM. Unfortunately my hip decided to act up. It hurt to run on it about half way through and I had to stop and walk a bit. Then I decided to limp-run which I'm sure was a sight. After a few minutes of that I was able to run again without pain. Not really sure what changed or why it worked but it did. Now the outside of my hip is really hurting. I guess it's time to really start taking those PT exercises seriously again. 

On another note, last Thursday night the hubby and I had a quick date night at a place down in the bottom called On The Rox. It is right across the street from Tiki Bob's and is owned by the same people. It is a bar though, not a club. They were having a special that night and they had Sly Fox beers on tap. Sly Fox is a micro brewery in Pottstown, Pa which is where my husband lived and grew up. One of the times I was visiting him we ate there and had a good time. On Thursday I had a beer with raspberries and blackberries and it was really good. If you are looking for a quiet scene though, Rox is probably not your place. It is more of a bar than a restaurant but we had a good time even though it was a bit noisy for us-I guess we are getting old??? 

My 2 guys over the weekend. Happy Father's Day!!

The end of the school year is always a little bittersweet, especially when you teach a resource in elementary school. As an art teacher I have the same students for 6 years. I get to see them grow from 5 year old babies to 11 year old big kids ready to tackle middle school. It is fun to see how they change and to get to know them. These flowers were from a student who came to us just last year from China. He quickly became one of my favorites. He learned English extremely quickly and is an amazing artist. He came up to me during his last art class and asked if he could come back and visit me in 10 years. I had to laugh, of course! 

I survived my first year as a working mom and now I get to enjoy this view for the next 3 months. It is going to be a great summer. 

OBX Family Vacay

For the first time in nine years of teaching and seventeen years of being a student, I did not start the school year this fall! Some people might feel odd not going back to work with everyone else-not me. It felt great to stay home and not rush back and away from my baby. I have two more weeks of maternity leave and then it's time to find a new routine for the family which involves me getting up way earlier than I am used to. The only time I've ever gotten up that early is when I needed to catch a flight and that involved taking a nap on a plane, not working with children all day and then coming home to a baby. I'll let you know how that goes...

In the mean time we decided to take advantage of the off season rates and go to the Outer Banks for a week. I loved it. It wasn't crowded at all and the weather was beautiful. It could have been a tad bit warmer for my taste, but the fall feeling in the air was refreshing and relaxing.

C would get up early in the mornings and go fishing on the pier that was next to our cottage. I stayed with B and watched the Today show and hung out in my pj's.

Jeanette's Pier

A few mornings we did go over to the pier to say hi to C. The little guy never lasted long in the Ergo though. One morning I let him fuss and went for a walk on the beach anyways with him strapped in and he ended up falling asleep in it.

After a storm came through on Monday it was too windy to sit on the beach so we over to Manteo and visited the aquarium. That was fun. B slept through the first part and then woke up half way through. It was fun seeing him watch the fish swimming around.

 

He seemed to like it :-)

 

We had a few good beach days, although my idea of what going to the beach means is going to be very different now. I am quite happy to set a chair down in the sand, read a book, work on my tan and take a dip in the water. This doesn't exactly happen with a baby. You have to keep them out of the sun but you can't put lotion on them. When he wants to be held you have to hide under the shade with him where it is cold. It was a fair amount of work. One day he crashed hard and took a nap in his little tent. I actually got to read an entire Runner's World magazine without interruption! It was amazing!

 

I'm cool and chilling on the beach!

 

One windy afternoon, the boys took a nap, so I snuck out and practiced my photography skills. I think I've come a long way from where I was. I love knowing how to use my camera properly.

 

The trip was a lot of fun though and a relaxing time. I wish I could always go in early September, but sadly it isn't so. Being a teacher you are locked in to taking vacation when school is out, rates are high, and places are crowded, but that's alright because I will get a large amount of time every year to spend with my son that I wouldn't get if I had a 9 to 5 desk job. It all evens out in the end.

 

On the beach with Mom and Dad!

 

How can you not want to squeeze that cuteness??

On another note, although I did not run at the beach like I had planned (I made sure to take my shoes but they never got used) I did get to the gym three times this week and went for a run today! This week was cycling and body pump and today I ran one mile in 10:50! It didn't even feel like a lot of effort either! The Wicked 10K is only a few short weeks away so I really need to get the training back in gear.

I have some other things I have gotten into lately, but more on them later!

Glow Run RVA 5K at Maymont

This past Saturday was the first ever Glow Run RVA at Maymont. It was a 5K. It kind of kicked my butt.

I haven't run anything since last October and I thought this would be a good way to break back into races. It was a good way to start after being out of the game for so long, but I had forgotten exactly what makes a "fun run". Fun run means lots of walkers...and kids. Now I have no problem with kids, but they kind of get in the way when you are trying to actually run. The first mistake I made was to start near the back of the pack. There were no corrals since this race was so small, so everyone just clumped together and I actually had to walk to the start line and then past it before I could start running. The "glow" part of it was kind of fun too. We got glow sticks to wear and they had colored lights on the trees and along some of the paths.  Here's what I figured out during this race:

The good stuff:
-running through Maymont
-running in the evening
-it was short

The bad stuff:
-lots of kids
-lots of walkers
-kids stopping in front of you to pick up dropped glow sticks
-HILLS.


Walking through the start!

Overall it was a fun race but not one that you would try to set a new PR during. The hills in Maymont are killer and the paths are pretty narrow so you cannot pass people very easily. On the upside, if you are from RVA you know how this city loves Maymont and what it means to us and it was cool to see it in a different way. Also, one good thing is that you did not have to run down to the Japanese gardens and back up. That might have killed me.

My favorite thing about this race was my new fan! B came to his first race to see his mommy run! It was awesome to see B & C on the sidelines and it will be even more fun when he can see and understand what is going on around him.

My littlest fan!

I already signed up for the HCA 8K in the fall that goes with the marathon. After this past weekend I know I won't be ready to start training for a half in the fall so that will have to wait for the spring. I'm excited to take it easy though and to be running again!

Back in the saddle!

I just got back from my first post-baby run! Literally, the sweat is still running down my spine. Damn that felt good!

The weather is awesome tonight. I took B for a walk and couldn't resist leaving him with C after that and hitting the pavement.

I ran down the street as fast as I could and a huge smile spread across my face as I raced downhill. After months of giving up my body to B while he grew inside me, I've never felt so free. It was magical in it's own way.

I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I ran one mile in 11:52. I've never been super fast. The fastest I've ever gone was 8 something, so to run this mile in under 12 after not running for nearly 6 months was pretty good.

First post baby race: Glow Run RVA!

wakeboarding

Although I have not done much running lately, I have been wakeboarding!

Lake Anna and my godparent's dock :-)

My parents have owned a boat since I was two years old so I grew up with water sports as my first love. When I was thirteen my godfather, who has a house on Lake Anna, got a wakeboard and I learned how to use it that summer. For my birthday the following March, my parents got me my very own wakeboard. I have loved it ever since.

My wakeboard is one of the first types there was and they are so much different now than they were back then. I hope that one day my husband and I will be able to get a boat of our own and then I will probably purchase a new wakeboard. I'd love to be able to do flips and tricks on it, mine is a little more difficult to use than the new ones. The technology has changed so much since I was 14! Plus I like having a boat with a wakeboard bar really makes a difference.

Cricket hates water, but I made her go out on the float!

 I hope there is a boat in our future. Summer just isn't the same without trips to the river and the lake.