SLO in Arkansas: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Lake Season 2011

is officially here!! Since the weather was gorgeous and turned to hot summer temperatures almost overnight, we made a quick decision to head to the lake on Memorial Day with the boys. Silas and I are old pros at prepping the boat, and can get things ready to go pretty fast when we want to:) The boys were really excited too. We loaded up the car Sunday night and everything was ready to hit the road right after breakfast on Monday.

The new SUV handled the boat like a dream. Silas was so impressed with how well it pulled the load. The Yukon got some great reviews in this area when we were researching it, and it definitely lived up to the hype! We were on the water before lunch and spent the rest of the day driving around the lake, swimming, and hanging out with friends. Jace is a hand full this year. He hangs over the side and throws everything in sight into the water! First rattle out of the box he had thrown his paci over. Then he got hold of the suntan lotion and tossed it in. There is never a dull moment with these monkeys:)

This is Tyson's 4th summer on the lake, and he is so comfortable out there. He loves taking a turn at driving, and does a great job. Jace just likes to honk the horn! My favorite moment of the day was when Tyson jumped into the water. It was really hot and he had been asking to swim for a while. We finally anchored and I got in before him. The water was about 72 degrees and FREEZING. Poor Tyson had no idea it was cold, and just jumped off the back. When his head popped up out of the water his eyes were the size of saucers and bugging out of his head!! I couldn't stop laughing:) He adjusted fast and had so much fun swimming around. Jace loved the water too, but would get cold after a bit and start asking to get back on the boat. The boys took naps while we drove around. It was a great day as a family and a wonderful kick off to summer break!

I am so happy we are able to get to the lake and back in one day. It is so much easier than spending the night! I am hoping to get several more trips in this summer. We have fun stuff planned for the rest of the break while the boys are out of school. Summer swim day with our friends from church is starting up in the morning, we will hit the library for story time, the water park, and hopefully Magic Springs. We are heading to Texas this weekend for a family graduation, and we are all so excited to spend some time with TX family!! I love this time of year!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Dream Team

I ran the marathon relay this weekend. It was awesome! My team was awesome. Our outfits were awesome:) I didn't know these girls before running with them, and have made some new running friends. We got together for a girl's/team night to carbo load the night before the race. We got our outfits ready, made some cute running bracelets, and talked strategy. We ran well and got 3rd place in our division. More than that, we just had fun and enjoyed the day together.

Silas was a rock star as usual at any of my races. The course was pretty disorganized with few water stations along the way. He and the boys paced with me and gave me water and Gatorade between water stops when I needed it. The boys had fun cheering out the windows and I loved seeing my family along the route! Having their support and encouragement makes such a difference for me:)

It was a pretty tough course and a much warmer day than we were used to. I ran the second leg which had some killer hills in it. Luckily I had practiced my route before, so I knew where to save energy and where to push it. I ran my 6.62 miles in a little over 58 minutes, with an average pace of 8:51. Being part of a team really made me push when I wanted to slow down.

Here is my team running to the finish with our last runner. She actually smoked us all she was running so fast!! I was already in my flip flops so I wasn't moving too fast myself:) Overall it was a great day. I had so much fun with my team, and enjoyed racing "for fun" if there is such a thing!! I did learn one thing.....I am not a fan of 10k's! It is hard to push that far at a pretty fast pace. I will probably run at least one more real 10k so I at least know my time for that distance. Otherwise I am sticking to 5k's and distance:)

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Mama's New Ride

I have officially joined the ranks of "suburban mom." Except that I now drive a Yukon XL, but it is pretty much the same thing:) As the boys have gotten older, and bigger, we have been toying with the idea of upgrading the car for a little while. With summer on its way and several trips planned, along with getting the boat to the lake, we figured we would go ahead and start looking for something that fits our needs a little better.

We had several appointments planned to look at several older models of the same vehicle, but just could not find anything that fit exactly what we were needing. So after about 5 hours of shopping, we decided to head to dinner before going home. And of course that is when I saw this one sitting in a lot and we drove in just to take a peek at it! Needless to say it was just what we wanted, and didn't require too much thought at that point:) We left and ate dinner, came back, traded the Honda in, and brought this bad boy home. It was an interesting evening too, since there were tornadoes all around, the sky was green, sirens were going off for over an hour, and rain was coming down sideways the wind was blowing so hard. That made for some fun times cleaning out our old car and getting car seats transferred, etc! Luckily the storm passed while we were finishing up at the dealership, and we had a quiet and peaceful ride home while the boys slept.

I love this thing! It is about the biggest thing on the road, which is what we were looking for. There is plenty of room for the boys, our stuff, and everything we need for the lake or trips. I didn't realize how squished we actually were in the car until we got everything in this and had tons more room to spare:) I took the boys for a little drive around town this morning to try out the DVD system, which they loved. They better not get too used to it....I pretty much reserve that thing for road trips only:) I love the dark interior too. We had looked pretty seriously at another vehicle very similar, but it had very light gray interior, and the carpet showed every juice and crayon stain! Thankfully the dark hides a lot more stuff:)

The boys are very comfortable in their captain's chairs in the back, and we can fit 3 more people in the third row. I am still getting used to the idea of not having my car anymore. It all happened so fast! I miss driving the 6 speed, but it sure is nice not to have to shift all the time anymore. Now I am just hoping gas prices stay down!

Monday, May 23, 2011

New 5k PR

I have had a lot of fun racing recently:) I ran my fastest ever 5k this Saturday morning and finished with a time of 24:25 officially. I am tempted to say that my real time was 24:22, since that is what my watch read when I crossed the finish line. The timing company had major trouble at the race and NONE of the timing chips registered our times, so they had to go back and figure them all out by looking at pictures, etc. It was a nightmare to say the least! My average pace for the 3.1 miles was 7:53. Silas thinks I can get down to 7:30 minute miles pretty easily:) I am just happy to be seeing 7 minute miles! I ran a 7:31 first mile which is also my fastest mile to date. I am getting ready to start hitting the track some for some speed work, so I may get to a 23 minute 5k soon, or at least that is my goal for this year. I managed to get 1st place in my age group too, which is just icing on the cake:)

Sunday morning I was up at 5:15 am to meet my relay team for a nice 6.6 mile run. We were practicing my leg of the relay race coming up this weekend. It was tough!! I think it was a lot harder since my legs were tired from racing the previous day. There are also some killer hills on my leg, which don't help either. I am a bit sore today, which is unusual! I am really excited about the marathon relay and ready to run on Saturday. The temps have warmed up a bit, along with the humidity, which I am not used to yet. So far it is looking pretty nice for the weekend, and I hope it holds!

I don't think I have any more races until early July after this one, which is weird! I have it on my agenda to join the Y this week, so I can start swimming. At least I will have a bit more time to do other things if I am not racing on the weekends. I will use June to focus on getting some more good long rides in on the bike and build up my swimming base. I am riding at least twice a week at this point, but only about 30-45 minutes at a time. It is great cross training, but I am really itching to get out on the road for a good 30 or 40 miles. I love being outside so much!

Summer is just around the corner! Which also means it is about to officially be boating season!! I am so excited and can't wait to get out on the lake. The boys are really excited and keep asking about going. They put on their life jackets and play around in them, which is super cute. We pulled the boat out a few weekends ago and cleaned it up a bit. It was nasty dirty from the winter. I sure miss having it in the garage! It needs an oil change and then should be ready to go. I am really hoping for no blown out tires this year:) We could use a little less drama. I am excited to get some open water swims done too, since training in a pool just doesn't cut it when your race swims are in lakes. I keep running into women in town who did the same tri I am going to do in July. Everyone has raved about how much fun it is, and it is making me so excited:) Well, I am off to get ready for work. I do manage to keep my work hours up around my training, though it isn't nearly as much fun to do or talk about!!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Art Show

The boys had their end of the year art show a few weeks ago at Mother's Day Out. I love going. All their teachers dress up and the kids have a ball running around, seeing their friends, and showing off their projects from all year.

Jace was very proud of his art, and loved posing by each picture.

Tyson, on the other hand, acted weird and silly and would barely stand still for any pictures!

They both had fun though, which is all that mattered. Their last day of school was Thursday this week, and I seriously almost cried when I picked them up. The year has gone by so fast. I loved their teachers dearly, and am so sad that some very special ladies are not returning next year. Luckily, lots of the same kids will be back in the fall, which will be nice. Tyson is registered to start Pre-K in the fall, and we went to his Pre-K preview this week too. He will start a real curriculum and they have lots of fun things planned. I can't believe how fast it all happens! Lots of changes with these guys are happening at home too. We have a busy summer planned and I am ready to jump in!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Oh Yes I Did!!!

These pictures have totally nothing to do with anything I am going to say!! I was a very busy bee this weekend!! I ran my third 5k of the season on Saturday morning and managed to place higher than I ever have before:) My overall time was slower than usual, because it was a trail run (which I had no idea about until I was on the starting line!), but I managed to come in 5th place overall female! I have been trying to place in the top 3 of my age group at the races, but placing in the "overall" category wasn't something I thought I would do at this point! It was fun to say the least.

I was on such a runner's high after the race that I went ahead and registered for the sprint triathlon I was planning to do in July. Once I register I feel much more committed to my training, so that was a good feeling as well. I am getting seriously excited about that race to say the least:)

And then it happened. I decided to "just take a look" at some of the marathons coming up for the fall/winter around our area. A lot of my running friends are running the Chicago marathon in October, but the race is already full, so that wasn't really an option. Then I remembered how I was planning to run the St. Jude half marathon last December, but it was full when I went to sign up too. I took a peek at the site, saw that registration was already open, read a description of the course, looked at Silas for affirmation that I was CRAZy, and signed myself up right then!!

So there you have it. I am officially signed up to run the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis the first weekend in December this year:) I was already planning to run a few half marathons this fall, which I am hoping will be perfect for my training schedule. I really want to put more into this training round than I did for my first, and have some big goals for my second marathon. So my summer will be committed to swim, bike, run. I am working on my speed right now with the short races. Then I will hit the tri in July. Then I will get back into my long distance frame of mind with my sight set on a new personal record in the half marathon in October (2 different races), and finish the year out with the full marathon on December 3rd. Then I plan to catch up on my eating and sleeping all winter!!! I am really hoping that training through the late summer and fall is much more pleasant than the winter running I had to do for Little Rock. Any cold weather running I do this winter I want to do just for fun:) I AM PUMPED!!! (and fully aware that I am crazy)

Little Man

My baby is so big too!! He loves that blankey and paci, but we are working on getting the paci to go away:)

And he talks so much it's crazy!! This kid has a huge vocabulary. Too bad his typical first response to any question is "No!" We usually ask him if he did something, so he has learned to instantly defend himself:)

His hair is getting long, especially in the back. I still can't bring myself to cut it yet.

Jace will be 21 months old next week! We moved Tyson into a twin bed when he was 20 months old. I am thinking Jace may be making a move of his own in the near future. We have started talking about his "big boy bed," and I am so ready to re-arrange their rooms and get everyone settled so I can organize their stuff better:) I still can't believe I am about to have a 2 and a 4 year old!!