A Great Weekend

It's time for a happy post! I have had a great weekend. 

It started with an 18 mile run.  Lately, I've had this trend where I've had one good long run followed by one horrible long run.  Last week was terrible, so I was hopeful / nervous for this run.  I knew I had to come at it with a different plan of attack than last week, and my plan seemed to work.  It was a slower run, and I easily could have gone faster, but I felt great in the end, and I'm still on track to finish the marathon in my goal time.  Yay!

I was fairly sore after my run, and I felt myself start to stiffen up, so I asked Hans to fix breakfast (kielbasa and eggs with poppyseed bread is one of my favorite meals), while I did a quick yoga routine.  This resulted in a proud mommy moment when Anna ran up behind me at the start of my routine and did mountain pose with me.  It was absolutely adorable, and I love the fact that she's starting to pick up things like that.  Hans tried to take a quick picture, but she ran off to grab a book before he could get the camera out. (Note that I'm also proud at how much she likes books.)  After yoga, I enjoyed a delicious meal followed by a wonderful, refreshing shower.  I actually felt really great and was ready to take on the day...until I came downstairs.  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I was exhausted!  Luckily, Anna hadn't taken her nap yet and was starting to get a little tired as well, so Hans took her up for a nap, and I laid down on the couch.  The only thing I really remember after that was thinking how good lying down felt, and the next thing I knew it was an hour later and I was waking up from a very relaxed sleep.  I wasn't even in a great position on the couch, but I felt wonderful.  I stayed in my prone position for another 15-20 minutes until Anna woke up from her nap.  Well-timed, dear child!

After our lovely sleep, we loaded up the bikes and headed downtown for the Richmond Folk Festival.  We decided to bike simply because parking and traffic down by the festival is a nightmare, and I really think we made the right decision.  It was a great way for me to keep from getting too stiff after the run, and it's great family time for us anyway.  That said, I was pretty exhausted still, and I do think the bike simply wiped me out.  It was also kind of a grey day, so walking around the festival wasn't quite as enjoyable as it usually is.  There are a lot of things I wish we'd done differently, but we still had a great time anyway.

Folk Festival or Bust!

After the festival, we got the car and picked the dogs up from the kennel (Hans had dropped them off while I was running).  Then we went home for dinner and a relaxing evening at home.  We ended the night with an episode of Orange Is The New Black and s'mores (after Anna was in bed).  Yum!

Today had a lot of options.  It was a cool 44 degrees this morning, but the sun was out and shining.  We'd talked about going back to the festival or possibly taking long family ride on a new bike trail.  We weren't quiet sure what we wanted to do, so we made a temporary plan.  We'd bike to church (not drive because it's only 4 miles and the weather was gorgeous), have lunch with my dad and friend, Cindy, and decide from there.  Getting to church was a pleasure, Anna was fairly well-behaved (for a toddler) during church, and lunch was quite enjoyable.  We were in a great mood, and could have done anything, but I decided I really wanted some time at home.  I wanted to spend some time with the dogs, and I had some cleaning I wanted to tackle.  We ended up cleaning for a couple of hours and I finally finished a project that's been bugging me! 

After cleaning, we loaded up the car with all 4 dogs and headed out to Dad's for burgers off the grill.  I love going out to Dad's.  Dad still lives in my childhood home, so I'm fairly comfortable there (even though there have been tons of changes), and he has a much larger yard.  While Dad cooked the burgers, Cindy, Hans, and I played with Anna.  She loved chasing the dogs around the yard, and the dogs loved having the space to just run.  It was heart-warming to say the least.  After a lovely dinner, and some extra play time for Anna, we came home tired, full, and happy.

Now the house is quiet.  The dogs are wiped out, Anna is sound asleep in her crib, the windows are open and airing out this old house, and I am simply feeling wonderful.  Frankly, this is the best I've felt in months.  I hope this all holds out for a while, but either way I'm relishing this time.  I am extremely grateful for a fun, happy, relaxing weekend, and I'm ready to tackle the week ahead!