Potato State Wedding

Wow, I am just way behind on postings all things Jess lately. My schedule has been crazy and I've been sick...yes, again. My immune system is not liking me right now. Which could easily be enhanced by the craziness that was my weekend in Idaho.

Now almost a week and a half ago, just 4 days after getting home from our trip, I was sitting in front of my lady friend, Thalia's apartment at 5:30 am.  We headed to the airport and had awesome timing because the parking area bus was there waiting for us and there was no line at security. I couldn't believe it! I didn't even have time to get my ID and such out before it was my turn. By the time our flight landed I had got three hours of work under my belt and was ready to celebrate Heather's wedding weekend!

Heather was there beaming from ear to ear ready to take us off to get our nails done. Ahhh relaxation...

Poor guy had to deal with the two missing/starting to grow back toenails.  At least I warned him beforehand. After getting our nails done we got lunch, checked into our Bed and Breakfast, headed to the rehearsal, back to change and then back out to the rehearsal dinner.

The happy couple ready to say I do the next day!

With all of the must-do's done it was time to get ready to head out to celebrate Heather's Bacholerette Party! First stop, The Balcony which is Boise's local gay bar...awesome is all I have to say. Oh and cheap. I couldn't believe how cheap the drinks were. We continued on to a few other places, the last of which the boys met up with us.  I finally passed out fell asleep around 5 am. Yep, that means I was up for more than 24 hours straight.

The next day Thalia and I rolled out of bed around 9:30, and tried not to vomit lounged around until it was lunch time. After eating a much needed cheeseburger and sweet potato fries it was time to help get the reception ready. Pretty isn't it?

Wedding time was right around the corner.  Heather (and Kylie) looked beautiful!

They did it!

After the reception it was time to hit the bars again. This time I wasn't quite as out of control, but it was another 4:30 am kind of night. Just 2 hours after going to bed we had to be up to head to the airport. Oh yeah and my voice was almost completely gone.

So that is: 46 hours in Boise, 6 hours of sleep, 1 great weekend! My 26 year old self just cannot pull of weekends like that anymore. I'm just now getting over my cold and hoping that I'll be able to complete a 12 mile run this weekend. The Denver Half is in a few weeks...eek and I'm way way undertrained. I suppose I can run/walk it for fun?

Whirlwind

Man it’s been a whirlwind lately. The past month has flown by. Updates from our trip to come but let’s recap what happened after I got home from Missouri and California.

That evening Josh’s friend Peter and his new girlfriend came over for dinner. Nice to see Peter but after no being home for 10 days all I wanted to do was hang with my boys and veg out on the couch.

Monday it was time to get back to the gym and Tuesday I finally got in another run and tons of laundry while Josh was a golf league. Wednesday we had dinner at our friend’s Ryan and Claire’s house…awesome. I hadn’t seen them in a while and it was nice to relax and enjoy dinner with them out on the patio. Thursday Josh’s dad was in town. We went out to eat at Martini’s Bistro. Of course I had to have some key lime cheesecake.

Friday I had a surprise dinner for my friend Sarah G in Boulder. She was totally surprised which was awesome!

Saturday, another crazy day. I did an 11 miler:

Distance: 11 miles Time: 1:45:36 Avg. Pace: 9:36 min/miles

My legs were a bit on the sore side from that one. Stretch, snack and shower later we were headed to Denver to celebrate Claire’s b-day. We had dinner at Lime which was delicious. Then there was a little of this...

and a little of that.

Great time…not so great hangover the next day.

By Sunday I was crashing hard but started getting ready for our trip. The next few days leading up to our trip were no picnic either. I think this is the first time in a long time that I’ve had something to do every day and night for several weeks in a row. Thank goodness for vacation!

I'm Home!

But not for long.  Lucky and Josh greeted me at the airport on Sunday night. I was so excited to see my boys! This trip was the longest that Josh and I have been apart since before our wedding. Crazy right?  That night Josh's friend Peter and his new girlfriend came over for dinner. They are in town visiting from Minnesota.  Once they left I crashed hard. I am so exhausted in every way possible.  In fact I've had to take a nap every day after work just to get through the rest of the evening.

My training schedule is totally off. I did another hilly run in California on Saturday morning and ran a solid 5 miles on Tuesday night.  Luckily it wasn't too difficult to re-adjust to the altitude though it did slow me down. 

California Runs (3 total) Stats:

Distance: 10 miles   Time: 1:28:34   Avg. Pace: 8:51 min/miles

Stats (for Tuesday):

Distance: 5 miles    Time: 48:02    Avg. Pace: 9:38 min/miles

It's been a whirlwind since I arrive back in Colorado.  Tuesday was my downtime night for the week. Last night we enjoyed yummy food and great company with Ryan and Claire. They were nice enough to make dinner for us. Tonight my FIL Jim will be in town. We're going to eat at our favorite restaurant in Longmont, Martini's Bistro.  Mmmm...key lime cheesecake.  Tomorrow I'm partaking in a little surprise and then Saturday we're heading to Denver to celebrate Claire's birthday. Busy busy.

So glad it's almost time for vacation! We will be on our way to France a week from today. I can almost smell the cheese and taste the wine already.

Freshman Year

After a long week, it was nice to wake up at my Mom's house this morning.  I scheduled a few tweets for work and headed out for a quick run before getting back to the grind.  It was a hilly run that looked like this:

Even with the hills I was able to maintain a pretty good pace.  Gotta love the 4000 ft elevation drop. I'm totally off of my training schedule but I figure I can get in a couple good long runs before we head to Europe in 13 days!

Time: 36 mins   Distance: 4.05 miles   Avg. Pace: 8:53 min/miles

After getting cleaned up and some work done it was time to take my little brother Riley to freshman registration.  It totally brought me back to when I started high school. I vividly remember going to my registration, even what I wore.  As I watched the kids in line, unsure of themselves, with anxiety and excitement taking their school pictures, trying to open their lockers and getting their class schedules I was thankful I was all done with that.  Though I did meet two of my BFFs Sarah and Lisa that year. 

Riley is playing freshman football this year which I think is great.  It's also a great way to get to know some of the new people that he'll be going to school with and being confident heading into the new world of high school.  He is also quite the ladies man. Every time we walked somewhere on the campus there were girls waving and calling for his attention. It was so cute.

After registration I took he and Emma for a celabatory frozen yogurt treat.  We stopped by FroyoLife.  It was delicious!  I basically tried half the flavors and had fun with all of the toppings.  Between the three of us we ate 2 lbs of froyo.  Delicious.  It was awesome getting some one on one time with my Californian siblings.  They are getting so big and are just great kiddos...ok teenagers.  I will be 30 years old when Riley graduates in 2014.  Man I feel old!

We headed home and so I could get some work done before Mom and Mike got home.  We had a nice evening talking, eating a delicious chicken, caper and artichoke dinner Mike made and hanging out.  It's nice spending some time with them not in heavy duty grieving mode.  Tommorrow my Uncle Ben, his girls and my Aunt Jan's family is coming over for a little BBQ. 

Girls Gone Wild or Just Camping

*Playing catch-up with this post.

I haven't been spending nearly enough time with the girls. This weekend we packed up the Escape and drove to Lake McCounaughy. Sarah and Lisa spent the night on Friday night because we were getting up super early to head out. Rache arrived around 5:45 am and by 6:15 we were on the road. Everyone was pretty groggy until we got to Ogallala where they go their coffee fix.

Once Thalia, Melinda and Sheila arrived we headed to the lake. We tried the spot where we spent the 4th of July. There was a huge family camped there and the water was above where we camped last time. I could not believe how high the water was.

This is where we had our first adventure...Thalia's car got a little stuck going back up the rough sandy road. Luckily with Melinda behind the wheel it made it up. I followed right behind. I was super nervous taking the new car up it but we made it on my first try!

Final we found a spot in Arthur's Bay and got all set up. It was almost 100 degrees and the water was the only place to be.

Note to self...97 degree temps, pink panty droppers, and nothing but a granola bar in the stomach are a bad combination. After a small incident and a nap in the sand I was refreshed.

We drank, we swam, we laughed and lounged. By dusk we were ready to eat and relax. Smores...mmm so good!

As is the trend there was another huge storm. We could hear the rain approaching as it crossed the lake which was pretty cool.  The next morning we took a dip in the lake to get the sand off, packed up and headed into Ogallala for some deliciousness at Valentino's.

We were the first customers there.  After we were stuffed to the gills we headed home, but not before we got Thalia this awesome mustache and mini Blizzards from DQ.

Good girls weekend for sure!