How is it 2013?

Where have I been?  Living life.  Trying to savor each day as its own.  I end up rarely sitting down at my home computer. (I've already been called away fifteen times just to write this post.) 2011 was the last time I posted and it is almost a distant memory.  2012 had its highlights with only a few lowlights, at least that I can remember, so I'll just go from there.  Then we'll see if I can keep posting on a more regular basis.

• Drove my mom up to MD to meet my sister's newest baby Sloane.  I can't remember the last time I shared a hotel room with one of my parents.
• Ran the Uwharrie Mountain 20 miler for the second time.  Took almost an hour off my finishing time in 2011.  Plus I ran the whole course solo.
• Adrian had back surgery to resolve a herniated disk and bone spurs in his lower back.
• Nick turned 7 and all he wanted was his two front teeth.  And a baseball theme birthday party.  He watched "Sandlot" and had pizza and ice cream cake.
• Attempted (and failed) to break 2 hours in the half marathon, twice.  Stupid heat and humidity in the South.
• Said good bye to the Age 30-34 age bracket by running around the hideous campus of UNC with some of my greatest running friends.  (Go Pack!)
• Went to Central NY to see Adrian's family.  Day trips to the Syracuse Zoo, lower Adirondacks, National Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Celebrated Adrian's 40th birthday.  My attempts to throw a huge celebration were completely shot down.  Instead we went to Adventure Landing as a family to play laser tag and miniature golf.  We let him win at everything.
• Ran the Blue Ridge Relay again.  With the hangover, sleep deprivation, and constantly biting my tongue, I don't think I'll run it again.  It's hard for this wallflower to be "on" for 4 days.
• Travis turned 5.  GranDebbie came to visit.  He scored some action figures, a new guitar with a case and picks.  It was his "best birthday ever".
• Ran the Triple Lakes 40 miler, my second ultramarathon.  It took forever.  And I would definitely run that course again.  It's a beautiful set of trails in Bur Mil Park outside Greensboro.
• Ran about half of the Shut In Ridge trail race.  I was not fully recovered from my ultra and didn't fuel adequately for the mountains.  It was still a great trip to Asheville and I will attempt it again.
• Went to Central NY for Thanksgiving.  We explored for a day in Ithaca, saw family, crashed the local run club's turkey trot.  Took an alternate way back to also visit W-S before returning home.
• Christmas Eve tradition is at home with a big dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes, and crescent rolls.  Santa was good to everyone.
• Our friend Jared got married in Chapel Hill.  The boys had a blast dancing with the flower girls all night long.
• New Year's Eve was done at home.  Travis made it to 9 pm.  Nick had a bet that he could stay awake.  He was snoring at 11:30 so I let him sleep until 11:55 so he wouldn't miss the countdown.  Then we all slept until after 10 am on New Year's Day.

I think that comes as close as we can get to caught up.  If I get a chance (ha!) I will come back with more details and photos on some of the bullet points.

Off to the W-S

My mom and two of my awesome nieces who just graduated from high school.  They're off to NC State and College of Charleston in the fall.  Clearly the tall genes are from my brothers-in-law.

This is not even close to everyone in the family.

 

I took the boys to Winston-Salem to visit my mom and go to my nieces' graduation party.  They had a great time hanging out with some of their cousins.  The next day we went exploring behind my mom's house.  SECCA (South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art) has been in the old Hanes mansion for as long as I can remember.  We used to run around back there as kids and we would get kicked out regularly.  The curator lived in the house next door, no one lives there anymore so it's a little abandoned and disheveled looking.  And of course no trip to W-S is complete without hitting the major landmarks.  We went to Dewey's Bakery for some bread and Moravian cookies.  And then over to Krispy Kreme for hot doughnuts and cool hats.

It Happened in May

One Sunday afternoon we went to the Capitol building to see a couple of Adrian's former players officer commissioning ceremony.  It was a really neat event, low key and serious for all of five minutes.  Their moms cried a little.  I remember when these boys were just boys in high school and now they're serving our country.

On Mother's Day my sister Erica was visiting family in NC for a flash.  She only brought Dean with her since he is still at a very portable age.  We met up at the children's museum in Greensboro so the boys could have the freedom to run around.  I definitely recommend the museum, it had an airplane cockpit, a real fire truck and police car, a race car, and big garden outside with rabbits and chickens.  It was a great way to celebrate being moms together.

Wedding Cupcakes

My great friend Jess got married at the end of April in Emerald Isle.  My friend Beth and I had spent the last year testing cupcake flavors and recipes on our friends, family, and co-workers.  It was a lot of fun and a little bit competitive.  The final flavors were white cake with strawberry buttercream, white cake with mango buttercream, and yellow cake with raspberry filling and lemon cream cheese.  The colors of a sunset - perfect!  Beth made little chocolate seashells to decorate some of them.  The wedding guests and caterer thought we were real professionals.  We sort of rolled with that idea.  All the work and love that went into putting this together for them was our gift to Jess and Chris.  We wish them many years of happiness!

Sun, sand, and ocean - love it!

My boys playing frisbee with Beth's family

So romantic!

The bride with her cupcake girls.

Sharing cake - too nicely.

A groomsmen showing how to properly devour a cupcake.

Three Four and Easter

I was forced to turn another year older.  Again.  The same as every year I share my day with Earth Day.  And to make it extra special it was also Good Friday and I had the day off.  I had hit the trifecta.  A triple threat day.  Whatever you want to call it.
The night before my birthday we met up with friends for a Durham Bulls game.

On my birthday I slept in as much as the boys would let me.  Once they were up I just dozed off in front of the TV and occasionally said "leave your brother alone".  I left the house to run Easter bunny errands and eat lunch at the Q Shack (no one else likes it so I go by myself and don't have to hear any whining).  For dinner we went to Red Robin where they sang to me and gave me a hot fudge sundae.  Adrian said we should go to the AT&T store to see when our contracts were up.  Then he surprised me with a new iphone.  I didn't know how much I would love it, but I really do.

For Easter weekend we went to my mom's house.  The boys always have a good time there exploring outside and playing with our old toys.  We dyed eggs on Saturday.  Then on Sunday morning before my run I (or the Easter bunny) hid eggs in the backyard.  Note to the Easter bunny, next year Nicholas wants them to be harder to find.

Colorado Bound

Adrian had the opportunity to present at 360 Flex in Denver recently.  We all tagged along with him because we like Colorado and we had some family to visit.  We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and picked up a rental car.  After checking in to the hotel we went to the local mall and scouted out some dinner.  Then on Sunday morning I took the boys to Broomfield while Adrian started his conference activities.  We ate breakfast with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Mary, Jon and Emily, Dave, and Dan.

Travis learning to pet Otto.  Emily and Roman help him.

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Mary's awesome patio.

After hanging out I took the boys over to Boulder for a little hike at Chatauqua Park.  Their favorite part was the ranger's building with stuffed dead animals.

Overlooking the city of Boulder

 After our hike we went in to Boulder to wander around.  This was my favorite day of the trip.  We just wandered around with no schedule or goal in mind.  It was so relaxing.  We stopped to watch different musicians.  And had some lunch at a cafe.  Then before we left Pearl Street we had a snack at Crepes a la Carte.  Travis had never had a crepe but was adamant he wanted one.  Nicholas was skeptical.  We ordered a smores crepe.  It was out of this world.

The day trip knocked him out cold.

 Monday was a bust in Denver.  We took the light rail to 16th Street.  They liked the ride and asked at every stop if we had to get off.  We had lunch at the Hard Rock.  Our goal was the history museum and the US Mint.  I think the museum was history in fact.  There was a lot of construction in the area and we just couldn't find the building.  A long story I won't go into caused us to skip our tour reservation at the Mint.  We thought we could at least get in to see the gift shop.  No such luck.  We just headed back to the hotel on the light rail and considered the day a done deal.

 Adrian picked up some fake mustaches at the conference.  The boys loved them because they are natural hams.

 We were determined to make Tuesday a better day.  The day started off with me sniffing out a Chick Fil A.  I knew they existed in Denver and there had to be one near the mall, it's just the way it is.  Score, everyone was happy with breakfast.

I could relocate and have that view at work everyday.

 Next stop, the Aquarium.  Funny for a state with no ocean border, they had a lot of cool stuff.  Maybe they're making up for their geographical situation.

Creepy looking eel.

Love his face!

And this face just cracks me up!

Tigers in an aquarium?!

 We found a walkway that takes you from the Aquarium to the Children's Museum.  It goes right by the old abandoned amusement park (it's really just closed for the season).  Looks straight out of Scooby Doo.

 We had a snack and checked out the Children's Museum.  It was pretty similar to all the other ones we've been to.

 We decided to try our luck and go back to the Aquarium.  There had been a large field trip getting in our way earlier.  The lady let us back in to see everything again.

Getting up the courage to touch a sting ray.

Travis was brave enough to feed one.

The next day we flew back home.  It was a great family trip.  The boys behaved very well if you kept them moving.  They didn't do well sitting idle in the hotel room.  Lots of good memories.  Nicholas had a lot of good journal entries to take back to school.  Colorado remains one of our favorite places to visit.  I look forward to going back when they are older so we can do more hiking and exploring.