Tired mountain weekend

I planned a trip up to the mountains of NC last weekend to see family and have some fun just like years past. Last year, it was a boys weekend as I took my big boy up to my parents cabin and we had a great time. This year my wife decided to go with us and we were going to pick up one of my brothers on the way. The wife wanted to leave saturday morning so I decided to mow the grass and get a run in friday evening. The run was good and very humid but I was able to get 5 miles in. I was planning on getting everything packed and loaded friday night also so we could wake up and go. Seeing as I didn't get back from the run until 9:45 and haven't eaten dinner, I knew there was no way to get that done so I would wake up early and get going. After eating dinner I went upstairs to pack some and the beautiful wife and big boy were arguing over sleeping so I took over and finally went to sleep with the big boy in our bed at midnight. I did wake up at 7 and packed and loaded the van as the wife took her time (she isn't excited to see my family) but an hour after I had planned to leave, we were off. Picked my brother up on the way and proceeded on the 3.5 hour drive to the cabin. 15 minutes away from the cabin, we (I) missed the exit from the highway and didn't realize until I noticed we were about 5 miles to Tennessee. Going through the mountains on a highway did not allow us to exit and turnaround so 37 miles later, we were turned around and headed back to where we needed to be.

Finally getting to the mountains and trying to meet up with my parents at a festival in Waynesville, the big boy got freaked out about something and wanted to go to the cabin. So we told my parents that we would be at the cabin and they could stay at the festival so the big boy could play. We had fun at the cabin as another brother of mine (one below me) and a family friend drove up from Orlando to visit also. My brothers went kayaking on a river and I could of gone but wanted to spend time with my wife and son so I stayed at the cabin. We went for a family walk later up the mountain and enjoyed the amazing views and millions of butterflies. We had a great family dinner at the cabin made by my step mom and really enjoyed the evening. We all watched tv and/or movies while some read books.

Now came time for everyone to sleep and this cabin has only 4 beds but there were 10 people in the cabin. So, everyon goes to the proposed beds and my wife and I were suppose to sleep in a bed in the same room as my parents when my wife comes out of the room and says, "I can't sleep in there cause your mom is snoring!" So I tell my little sister to go sleep in the bed we were going to sleep in and we would sleep on the sofa and the recliner. The wife went to sleep on the recliner and exhausted me slept on the recliner with no blanket or sheet or anything. I did sleep some but didn't mind to much about not sleeping but was worried about the wife and big boy. We all woke up and had a quick breakfast and then the Orlando group had to leave. The big boy freaked out again and wanted to take pictures instead of being in the pictures. We then went to church and had a great breakfast at my favorite country club in Waynesville.

Needless to say that after a long and sleepness night, I have been exhausted all week and have not had any runs or workouts. I am feeling better today and am planning on getting a run in tonight. Was a great time up at the mountains with family and can't wait til next year to do it again, but next time I'm going longer and doing more.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get!

Finally a run

Went for a 6 mile run last night before the rains moved through our neck of the woods. I struggled through some of the run as 2 weeks off of running will do. It was really humid as I was sweatting before even leaving the house. My neck was hurting some from reading some of the book Born Standing Up by Steve Martin on the bus ride home. I couldn't releave the tension until after the run when I got home and stretched. I kept a good 10 minute pace and walked twice to take in some water. On the last mile it started to rain with just a couple of the biggest rain drops I've ever seen and not a single one was getting me and I wanted to be washed!

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get!

Not much

Not much going on here in my neck of the woods. Our focus has been on spending good time as a family since we were out of town the weekend before witout our big boy. I decided not to go for any runs so I can spend time with the big boy as much as possible. We are going up to the mountains of NC this weekend to spend with my family from Florida at the cabin they rent every year. I am very excited to go because I love the area with such beauty and plenty of fun things to do. I am planning on getting a run in tonight as the weather is not dangerous hot today.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get, and do your best to have laughs with them also.

7 years of love

The beautiful wife and I celebrated 7 years of marriage with a wonderful trip to Charleston SC. The first day was spent with some old friends of ours from Greenville with an amazing breakfast made by their son and then we all went for a boat ride around Charleston harbour in their boat. I was stationed there for 4 years in the Coast Guard and loved every second of it. The boat ride brought so many memories back while we all enjoyed an absolutely beautiful day on the water. We enjoyed sitting on the beach with me in the shade relaxing all of our worries away. Then my cell phone rings and our a/c people call and say it is going to cost $800 dollars to tear apart our house to find a small leak in the a/c system. This really pissed my beautiful wife and me off and we told them to not touch anything else and get the hell out of their. My father-in-law was there and got it back up running while mother-in-law made an appointment with their a/c company. As of right now, nothing is knowingly wrong with the a/c system but we are keeping a very close eye on it.

The bed & breakfast we stayed was awesome as it was right on the battery and 2 of the rooms are haunted. We were in the room between the 2 haunted rooms and didn't see anything. We ate at some amazing restaurant with some of the best meals I have ever had. The city has improved on several things since I lived there which was some 18 years ago. We enjoyed all that the city had to offer with a good ghost tour of the city one late night, long walks around the city, and afternoons chillin on the great beaches. I was able to go for a 4 mile run one morning through the city with several greetings from the local aquatic wildlife there. As I ran along the harbour, several dolphins were playing in the water some 100 feet from me, absolutely awesome.

I'll post more later. Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get!

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone had a good 4th and ours was nice and fun. We went to a kids parade at a close by community that has a decorated kids fun parade. We went with several of our neighbors and walked with our kids as they rode their patriotic decorated bikes.

We played around the little park there for a while and ate the .50 hotdaogs and drinks. We did this last year and we will continue doing this every year. It was a very hot day but I had planned ahead and brought our 2 outside sunbrellas and chairs and really enjoyed the event. We then went to our houses for a couple of hours to get some rest before we would go to the big firework display in a small town next to ours. We got to the empty overgrown field around 5:30 and we were the only ones there until around 7:30ish. We played games with the little ones while the wives sat around the vehicles. The fireworks were good and we all enjoyed them. Traffic was real bad leaving there and took us a while to get home. It was 11:30 when we finally got home as the big boy and I slept in the tent I make in his room. We love doing this every weekend even though it leaves me with knots in my back and shoulders.

Saturday we decided to hang with the inlaws at their pool which is not my idea of fun, but... we actually hung around their pool for awhile and I enjoyed every minute of it. I mostly stayed in the shade the whole time but still made every effort to play with my son. They have a big slide there and when I went on the slide and told the big boy to watch me, HE FREAKED OUT! He told me never to go on that again. Very cute.

I did manage to go on 2 runs this holiday weekend and the first one was thursday night with a quick good run around our community. According to the nike plus data, I ran a 7.20 mile for the 4th mile. Not sure about that but I definetely enjoyed the long run. I ran again after the pool and the heat was a little to much so I took it very easy. Sunday was rest day as the big boy started to get sick which ended up having me stay home on monday to take him to the doctors. I haven't worked out or run since saturday but I am happy that it has rained those 3 days I've missed.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get.

and

I use the word "and" way to much. I am going to make a big effort to use the conjunction only when absolutely needed.

Monday run & swim

Went for a run last night and was able to keep a 9:30 pace pretty easily. It felt real good and I enjoyed the whole run. I was planning on running to one of our community pools and getting a couple of laps in, and when I got to the pool that is 1 mile from my house a swim meet was going on. No swimming there. So I kept hammering on and then decided that I would keep a good strong run and see if the other pool was available. I got to the pool 15 minutes before it closed so I hurried up and swam for 15 minutes. Felt great and I am planning on doing this more during the summer to beat the heat.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get.