Over the 4th of July one of my good friends AC got married down in southern Virginia which was a great excuse for my and Kyle to take a long weekend exploring the area, seeing family, and catching up (and meeting) old friends. It was a pretty packed weekend but nice to be out of the DC area over the holiday. The wedding was not until later in the day so we were able to do a little exploring around Charlotesville which was fun since I had never been before. We made sure to find good coffee, food, and desserts of course! Besides the eats, we walked around and checked out UVA. Besides the wedding we were able to visit with Kyle's grandma and see the building his grandpa used to run his wood working business out of. It is now a winery tasting room but still has some of the original architecture and signs. It was really cool to see plus the wine was awesome. We then met up with one of Kyle's best friend from high school and his friends family, it was great to finally meet them and have a great home cooked meal and just catch up!
I took off for the long Memorial Day weekend and headed to the Fingerlake region in New York. It was partly so Kyle and I could do the 8k glassfest but it was also for some much needed R&R, wine drinking, and just fresh air. Brittany and Dustin also drove up for the weekend so it was a cute little couple's weekend! The drive was 5-6 hours but included a Sonic pit stop and wasn't bad, and there was NO awful holiday traffic so that was good. We stayed at a B&B in Watkins Glen with our race being 25 minutes away in Corning. Watkins Glen is at the southern point of Seneca lake so we had awesome access to a ton of wineries around the lake. It was a beautiful area. I have to say the town was not anything too amazing, but was a good place to recharge and just have a quite and simple weekend. We found a couple yummy restaurants, my fave being Nickel's Pitt BBQ mmmm. We went to quite a few different wineries and I found some pretty good ones, but it was crazy how cheap the tastings and wines were up there. Tasting's were anywhere from $2-5 and some refunded all of that if you bought a bottle. They had a large variety of wines at alomst every stop and they pretty much said "pick 6" for the set price, which was good some of the time. However I really like a "guided tasting" where they really go over the wines so I can learn more about them. But I will definitely go back, I mean wine is wine! Along with lots of food and drinking we did check out the Watkins Glen State Park which had a lot of pretty water falls and we ran our race. The race was an 8k (about 5 miles) and went really well with Kyle being super speedy finishing in under 35 minutes, and I finished at around 50 minutes. My goal was to finish by running the whole thing so I was really happy, even with the temps starting in the 30s when we got to the race, but was probably 40s when we ran.
This year Easter fell right around my birthday so I took that as a sign to take a few extra days off work and have a long extended weekend back in Ohio with the family, I was even lucky enough to drag Kyle along with me. I have to say I'm super blessed with an amazing family and love anytime I get to catch up with them and especially when we all get to be in one place together which doesn't happen as often now that we're all grown up living in different areas and some with growing families! Speaking of that I got to meet the newest Kimmet, little Samuel at a week old and he is just adorable! The weekend was a perfect mix of family, food, celebration, and relaxation. The weather could've been a little better but I think spring is finally trying to stick around. Here's everything we we crammed into the weekend: coloring eggs with the twins, making ice cream, baking & cooking for all the parties, Good Friday mass, Sonny Jacks for a birthday drink, Easter in Cleveland with Jolly's, easter egg hunt, sunrise Easter mass, Kimmet Easter at the parents, and checked out the progress on the Clouse House!
Currently... wishing I was at the beach but I guess pools will have to do for now Currently... enjoying wineries and tacos and this guy, have already been to the Winery at Bull Run a few times this year Currently... taking advantage of the fresh produce at all the farmers markets around here (those cherries and cherry tomatoes were amazing!) Currently... finished my personal logo/mark and implemented it on my blog and website Currently... still obsessed with jeni's and love when there are new flavors, this one is one of my faves now (maybe jeni's will be a permanent part of my currently posts based on how much I love it) Currently... working in dc for a few weeks and really enjoying using public transportation and getting to see all the monuments daily 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! One of my awesome sister's just did a fun post titled "Currently" and it was fun to read so I decided to mimic the style and just have a random list per se of what is currently going on. Here is the link to my inspiration definitely check it out: Just Run With It Currently... would love to run out and buy Jeni's ice cream but will wait one more week until i'm in Columbus Currently... wearing my new tennis and contemplating what color shoelaces to buy for just a little more color! Currently... have been waking up early (6:30-8) every day weekends included and getting in my morning workouts which starts out my day pretty awesome Currently... think it's totally acceptable to enjoy a glass of wine and a donut at happy hour (especially a funfetti cake donut) Phew I survived 21 days without sugar so now what?..... First off I really liked the 21dsd program and would reccomend it to anyone that wants a chanllenge and wants a break from sugar. Plus I will definitely be using the book for recipes from now on and I will probably buy the new cookbook that can accompany the challenge and has even more healthy sugar free recipes. I don't think it changed my body too much that I noticed, clothes definitely felt better from the holiday eating frenzy. I also had pretty good energy the whole time and no sugar crashes. I still had my daily caffeine so that always helped me start the day but usually one cup was good enough and then food fueled me well the rest of the day. Overall it was a good challenging program that made me feel good but not life changing or anything. Next I will defnitely be eating sugar again and not be sugar free forever (evident by a few splurges the first day off the challenge). I will try to eat sweets and treats in moderation though and not go back to "holiday" eating. As far as more carbs and stuff I feel like my body does better with them so I will add them back in and stick to healthy whole grains with a definite splurge here and there. On my first day off the challenge my splurges starting with a little dark chocolate which tasted sweet enough even being 85%. Then after a 75 minute 100 degree level 2 power yoga class I indulged at brunch. I had a bloody mary and the chicken and waffles. All of it was so worth it and sooooo good! Later that day I did my P90X3 warrior workout around 6 and I just felt like I had more energy and more umph during it and I have no other explanation except the food I ate fueled me better. So I definitely think having the carbs and protein and whatnot helped me out, so we'll see how my workouts feel the next few weeks when I add some foods I haven't been eating back in! So that wraps up my sugar challenge now I just have my P90X3 challenge going on which is good for me for now! |
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