Saturday 31 August 2013

Jay's Game, Peak Training Week, and Candy Flavoured Fruit

Last night we took Lucas out on a Mommy and Daddy date.  He adores the show Diner's Drive-ins and Dives, so we hit up The Lakeview (which was featured on the show a few months ago) for dinner.  He loved it, but was convinced the whole time that we were on TV because he had seen the restaurant on TV.  He plans to ask Eliza if she saw him on TV next time he sees her.  He also insisted that we ask the waiter if he met "Fieri."  Dinner was good, the milkshakes that followed were better.

Next we headed off to the Jay's game.


I adore  this boy and his big brown eyes!




We had a great time together, and hung on until the end of the 8th inning, which is exactly 7 innings longer then I thought Lucas would be interested in the game.  He did tell us that he likes watching basketball better "because these guys just stand around all the time."

This morning we ran a 13.1 mile stroller run to cap off our peak training week.  My grand total for the week is 60 miles, which is my highest mileage week ever!  I earned the lemon/vanilla cookie ice cream I made for tonight.  We tried this ice cream in Florida...

It was AH-MAZING.  Of course I set out to re-create it at home.  I used this lemon ice cream recipe as the base (substituting half cream and half milk because I didn't have any half and half in the fridge), and then mixed in some chopped vanilla sandwich cookies.  Leigh "just tasted a few (seven) spoonfulls" when I was at work the other night and has been raving about it ever since.

Last but not least, we found these grapes at the grocery store this afternoon.
No word of a lie, they taste exactly like cotton candy!  Which got us talking about other possible flavours of fruit.  Leigh's vote was for hamburger flavoured oranges, I could get on board with apples that taste like chocolate.

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Post Vacation Cleanse

Our vacation ended up lasting 20 days.  That's 20 days of vacation eating.  I guess you could call it a 20 day carb load extravaganza.  We arrived home on Sunday night, on Monday morning...And afternoon, we did this:

A little thing we decided to call The Post Vacation Cleanse Marathon.  A 26.2 mile, ice cream scented sweat fest.  It was a huge mental and physical challenge, and we were glad to be able to run it together (Thanks Oma!!!).  That marks our final LONG long run of our first ultra marathon training cycle!  The big day is coming quickly...VERY quickly.  We are overwhelmed with the support we have received from so many people. If you were waiting until closer to race day...Now's your chance.  Check out our fundraising page here.  We hope to raise as much as we can by September 21st for this amazing cause.

After dinner we headed to the drive-in to see Planes.  No better way to spend a summer evening.



Friday 16 August 2013

Siesta Key Kid's Summer Beach Run

We were at the beach on Tuesday morning doing our normal vacation thing when I saw a banner advertising this 1 mile kids fun run hosted by the Manasota Track Club and New Balance Sarasota.  I asked Lucas is he wanted to do it and he enthusiastically said yes, and of course hatched a plan to get Eliza to do it with him.

Race preparation for an event of this magnitude is serious business.  They got dressed in their "running clothes," for Lucas that meant swimming trunks and a t-shirt, and Eliza donned her brand new Tempo Shorts.  They also both needed GPS watches, because they obviously needed to know their pace.  Most importantly Lucas wore his brand new Nike running shoes.  Everyone who has ever been four knows that new shoes make you really fast, so this was key to a successful race.


While we ate dinner in the condo they ran around doing pushups (which lean towards looking like a seizure when done by a 4 year old), and other various unrecognizable warm up moves.  They were mildly excited, and we hurried them off to the beach to avoid breaking anything else in the condo.

They paid their $1 registration fee, and we headed down to the yellow lifeguard tower for the race start.   


Leigh provided a very animated motivational speech.


 Then they waited in the coral for the race to start.  At one point Eliza turned to Lucas asking "Lukie, are you scared?"  He had his game face on, so of course he answered no.


And then they were off...





After a bit of parental encouragement, and a couple of (short) walk breaks the parents peeled off and they kicked it all the way to the finish line.  There was even an announcer at the finish, who said "hey we've got a race here" when he saw the two of them sprinting together to the finish.  Little did he know there was no thought of competing against each other in those little minds.  Along the way Lucas cheered Eliza on saying "you can do it Eliza!"  They ran side by side right through the finish line.





Then the most important part of the race; ribbons and freezies.




You have to check out your stats at the end...


It was about a 14 minute mile.  Not too shabby!

The kids were quite pleased with themselves.  Eliza kept telling us she "completed the race," and Lucas informed us that even though he felt really tired he kept running.  I think their dorky parents were even prouder.  It's fun to see your kids being brave enough to try something new, to succeed at something challenging, to encourage each other, and to feel proud of their accomplishments.  Lucas is eager to run when we are here again next year, and is "going to practice like Mommy and Daddy to be even faster next time."  Guess we have to find ourselves a good 1 mile training plan ;)

Friday 9 August 2013

Beach Run

A 22(ish) hour drive with three of the goofiest people on the planet left me with all sorts of things to share.  Here is a little glimpse into what was heard on the first few days of our trip.

Lucas-"I never want to go in the Bookmobile, it's got janky wheels. (for the record, I don't think he has ever even seen the Bookmobile and I'm not entirely sure any of us know what janky means)

Cooper-Can we watch 'Spicable Me? x10000000000000000000

Cooper (after watching Despicable me x10000000000000000000)-"Hey Dave, listen up please."



Cooper-"Poo"
Lucas-"Poo"
Me-"Hey, no potty talk guys."
Lucas-"He started it."
repeat x 1000

Lucas (after we tried multiple time and multiple approaches to explain Countries, Provinces, and States)-"Pennsylvania is my favourite country." (we have been reading The Magic Treehouse series, set in Pennsylvania)

Leigh-"We should make a Call Me Maybe song about this car ride." (and then he did)


Lucas (immediately after our arrival on Disney property)-"I am so excited to be here I feel like crying."

Cooper (leaving the beach)-"Mommy, this is our sweet home."

Lucas-"What are we doing tomorrow?  What are we doing the day after tomorrow?  What are we doing the day after the day after tomorrow?"

And just for good measure here are a couple of shots from my run this morning...


It's a tough life.

Monday 5 August 2013

We Are Still Alive!

Being the wife of a teacher, I always look forward to summer vacation.  Summer vacation is precious, concentrated family time.  Time where there is another normal, rational human being at home during the day, one who doesn't require help to use the potty.  Each and every summer Leigh takes one for the team and teaches 4 weeks of summer school before getting to enjoy summer holidays. That means that once our summer begins we jam pack every single second of every single day full of fun summer things.  Since summer school ended a week ago it's been all fun all the time.  We started with a 22 miler.

It looked like this on our drive to the trail.

You know you're in for it when you have to pack a cooler of provisions for your run.  You can see my new shoes there at the right side.  P.S. Brooks Canada you are killing me with the no women's size 11's in your shoes.  I want the pretty women's colours not the blah men's ones!


Jelly beans and peanut M&M's for fueling.  You can guarantee that I ate that juicy pear one right in the middle.

Then we packed up and went camping at Awenda Provincial Park with Auntie Karadev (Auntie Kara and Auntie Devyn are one to the boys)







Ridiculously cute 



Feeding the chipmunks peanuts...From the middle of peanut M&M's


Lucas didn't want the chipmunk to touch his hand, his shoe was fair game.

Cute face


Pride Rock



Plank
Breakfast after a rainy night

Ready to go canoeing





At the Midland Drive-in Movie





After several days of camping food carb loading (marshmallows) we ran a 24 mile long run that I sadly have no pictures of.  It was not pretty, you are not missing much.

And then this...




Leigh is the big 3-0!!!

So there you have it, our busy first week of summer vacation.  Next time you hear from us we will be writing from somewhere in the kingdom of Obama.