back from vacation
Well, hello! I feel like it's been longer than 2 weeks since the last time I posted. I'm trying to remember what it is like to blog! Ha! Not that I haven't been writing... I am taking 3 graduate classes this summer, and each class has required a weekly paper, usually at least 5 pages in length. It has been kicking my butt and keeping me busier than I would like. But, thankfully 2 of my 3 classes are done (with As in both!), and my other class is fairly easy. After I'm done with my summer classes, I only have ONE CLASS LEFT of my master's! Woohoo! I love learning, but if I don't have to write another paper, I think I'll be happy...If you follow my Instagram, you know I haven't just been swamped with homework. We just spent the last week at THE BEACH! Even though I spent almost every afternoon working on homework, it was a great little getaway with the kids and my parents.The company my mom works for owns a condo down in Gulf Shores, Alabama that we have been going to for the past 15 to 20 years. I absolutely love it there and am so happy that we've had the opportunity to take both kids now to one of my favorite places. Kids definitely make the experience a little different than pre-kids, when I used to be able to just lay in the sun all day, read several books, and sleep. This year, I still woke up at 6 AM to run every day and there certainly isn't any relaxing in a chair and reading anymore. But, I think it's a pretty fair trade off!
It was so much fun watching Kenna learn the physics of the ocean. She absolutely loved playing in the sand and waves. She would go back and forth between the sand and the ocean, putting water into a bucket, and then dumping it out on the sand or in a hole that we dug. We also walked up and down the beach for seashells and of course, spent some time in the pool.
Miles, on the other had, wasn't the biggest fan of the ocean. He's scared of the vacuum - it's loud and comes at you, and the ocean isn't much different. After putting him in the water a few times, he stopped freaking out. But, he spent most of his time at the beach taking naps. (Ugh, jealous!) He did love the pool though! He kept splashing himself in the face!
We had a great time and were not looking forward to leaving - that is, until we decided to take a little detour on the way home. Every time Matt and I have driven by ourselves (as in, no other adults with us in the car) down to Gulf Shores, we've taken a detour to check out another place. On our honeymoon (my mom's boss's wedding gift to us was a week at the condo), we decided to stop in Memphis on the way home to go to Graceland. While it was a bit expensive, it was worth the extra stop and now we never have to go back again! Ha! Two years ago, we spent the night in Nashville on the way home - visiting Fat Bottom Brewery and Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream.
This year, we decided to go a little more out of our way and stopped in New Orleans. Well, actually, we never really made it to New Orleans. Instead, we ended up in Abita Springs at Abita Brewery. And it was worth every second! Let's just say, free beer samples that you can tap yourself made this the best brewery tour we've ever been on!
Of course, we also had to stop by Cafe du Monde on our way home - even though it wasn't the original place. I have been craving a frozen Cafe Au Lait since Saturday...
We also made one more stop on our way home - to have dinner with this sweet lady!
I've been reading Heather's blog for a few years now and was so excited to get to finally meet her in person! I missed getting to meet little miss Emma Kate, but it was still nice to get to chat for a little bit with Heather as we passed through.Now, it's back to reality... and back to training. I enjoyed a laid back week, with some shorter, slower runs and skipping my planned long run once we decided to break our drive up into 2 days (Miles was not having the car ride). I promise I will update you guys on running - it was definitely not a good week of training last week, but thankfully, my hip is feeling a million times better this week. Hopefully it can survive my 12-miler this weekend...