Summer has flown by like normal, can't believe it's already labor day, so here's a few snapshots of my summer!
Summer has flown by like normal, can't believe it's already labor day, so here's a few snapshots of my summer!
0 Comments
After looking through my vacation photos I decided to split them into 3 categories for this post. Kyle and I crammed a lot of good food, drinks, and sightseeing into our vacation but we were also able to relax and not rush through anything so it was a perfect combo of planned stuff and just going with the flow. Asheville was a neat town and pretty small. We were able to see most of the city in 2 days and then spent the rest of the time checking out the other sights outside of the downtown area. I doubt we'd vacation there again to see the city but I wouldn't mind stopping back to stay in a cabin in the mountains and grab a meal or two in town since the food was amazing. FOOD! DRINK! EXPLORATION! I took a quick hiatus since the end of March and went a on a fun vacation in North Carolina. Needed some fresh air and a spring reboot! I will have some more posts coming soon, I am switching up things with my hours so will be adjusting to new routines and all but hopefully that means consistent posts. Including some from my vacation, but here's a quick bit on it. The vacation actually ended by doing a 3.6 mile race which included running up a hill. (Actually felt/looked more like a mountain and increased 1,000 feet in elevation!) It was super tough and I definitely had to run/walk parts since it was steep and I didn't prepare much, but it was beautiful and fun to do, good end to a trip that included a lot a lot of food. My time was around 43 minutes, so not super fast but the inclines were killer so I'm happy. And Kyle finished at around 32 minutes so he kicked my butt! Here's just a few pics from the race but more to come from Asheville, NC. Currently... sick of this snowy weather especially now that it's March (even if it does look pretty) Currently... want to retire my winter coat and hat for a few or more months please! Currently... loving creamer again and impulsively bought some candy flavored creamer, almost makes the long winter bearable sipping hot coffee that tastes like an almond joy Currently... doubling up my workouts a few days and love feeling the calorie burn #summeriscoming Currently... had an iced latte when it felt like spring the other day (such a tease!) Currently... dreaming of vacation but a little worried it won't be warm Happy New Year everyone! 2013 was a fantastic year and I'm looking forward to this year even more. Here's a quick list of some of the fun things that happened this past year: * My 3rd nephew Henry was born January 31st and he is super cute and I love seeing our family grow! * Tried new things health wise by starting to run and ran my first races a 10k and 5k and hit goal times for both! * Met Kyle and had so many awesome adventures with him and lots more to look forward to! * Traveled to a couple new states/cities: New Jersey, Oregon, and Pittsburgh also traveled back to Delaware, Ocean City, MD, and of course Ohio for lots of family time and events. So those are the major points from last year and could go on and on on everything else but that would take forever, so probably easier just to look through old posts for more details if you want! I rang in the new year with Kyle and his friends in Pittsburgh. They had never been there before so we got to be "tourists" for a few days and do lots of exploring and trying fun new restaurants. Photos below! I can't believe the holidays have already come and gone! Wow time really does fly but I had lots of fun spending time with family and friends over the last month and a half. The holidays were a little different for me this year but still so good, I also overindulged A LOT but totally worth it! I'm getting back to the health kick now but more on that later... This year (well last year now since I'm a little late on this post) I spent Thanksgiving in Virginia since I had to work a little that week, but I did get to spend with Kyle's family and made my Grandma Metzger's famous noodles to make it feel more like home! It was really good and I had all the yummy foods that go along with that day, but the company was even better than the food, I am lucky that I was able to have someone else's family here in VA to spend the holiday with! I was also able to do some baking with Kyle in preparation for Christmas. We made buckeyes, chocolate covered cherries, and gingerbread men, along with some eggnog cocktails! Sooooo good and was my first taste of eggnog and I have to say I'm hooked for sure. For Christmas I celebrated with Kyle the week before and then headed back to NR for the week of and spent a lot of time with the family and catching up with friends. It was so much fun watching the twins dig into presents this year, they loved opening gifts and helped out everyone, especially opening Eric's presents hehe! And I know Henry is not far behind, next year will be even more fun with all 3 of them older! I hope everyone else had an amazing holiday season and enjoy the photos! Yikes! Where does the time go?! I'm not sure how it's already DECEMBER! I have so much to do in the next few weeks to get ready for Christmas. I need to do some shopping for gifts, make lots of yummy treats while still staying healthy, and also spend lots of time with family and friends! I have atleast started the decorating and have up my little tree and some trinkets in my apartment. I love this time of the year except for maybe the extreme cold and blizzards that come with winter... Well since I've been so bad at blogging the last few months, here's some photos of what I've been up to, enjoy! I vacated the DC NOVA area for the 4th of July since I've already done the whole "tourist" national mall fireworks thing before. I was also in need of the beach so Kyle and I hit the road to Cape May, NJ (got to check a new state of my list). It was nice to get away and very low key we checked out some local sites, went to some wineries and a brewery, an enjoyed the sun and sand (maybe a little too much sun since we did get a little burnt one day). I have never ever ever been a fan of running like ever, even when I was young or doing sports in school it was my least favorite workout. But I've always kind of wished I could run so I finally set a goal to run more and eventually do a race. I've seen my sisters do plenty and then even my parents jumped on the bandwagon. So Brittany was the ringleader and found a half marathon she wanted to do in Cleveland which also had a 10k the same day so we all signed up for it. It also happened to be on my Mom's birthday and Chris and Sonya planned Henry's baptism the same weekend. Training for the race was tough but I'm so glad I did it, before, I had only run 3 miles a few times and could run 1-2 consistently if I wanted to. So increasing to be able to run double the distance was tough. I had some up and down runs, sometimes it felt super hard just to eek out 2 miles while other times the long 5 mile run felt great. By race day I wasn't following the plan I had planned out exactly (picture above) but I still felt confident. My goal was to finish in under and hour which was a pretty high goal since it would mean my pace would have to be quicker than I normally went. Race day was great, the weather was perfect and it was so awesome to be doing it with the family. I ended up running mostly by myself and I did not use anything to pace or keep time. I just checked the time on each mile marker and tried to guess how fast I was based on starting after the gun went off because of the corralling. I ended up meeting my goal and finishing in 58:07 so I had plenty of time to spare :) I almost beat Chris too, he ran past me in the last mile and finished a little ahead of me!
I'll probably do another few races at some point but I am taking a break from running right now and trying something new (Insanity) but I guess I am already signed up for the Color Run in Columbus in July but that will be more fun than competitive running with the girls in the family and friends! I never tend to make a big deal of my birthday but I do enjoy spending extra time with friends and family for any type of celebration and I was super lucky this year with lots of fun dinners and a great birthday! The theme was definitely FOOD which is probably obvious from all of my photos being of the food and not the company whoops! Next time I will try to be better about capturing the people since that's what makes celebrating so much fun.
I ended up trying a bunch of new restaurants in DC and Baltimore and I even got to celebrate on my actual birthday with family. The Schreiners decided last minute to take a trip to DC for spring break from North Carolina and it worked out perfect to meet up with them. Overall pretty great bday week (as long as I avoid the actual age...) Enjoy the photos below of all the yummy food and a few fun gifts! |
Categories
All
Archives
February 2016
|