Buried Treasure and Purple Dragon Snuggles

I also did a brick workout early this evening.  A 7 mile ride and a 3 mile run.  It was still nearly 3/4 of a mile before my legs felt normal.  Otherwise, aside from being windy, it was a nice workout.  My running pace average was actually much faster than it normally is, so that was a nice bonus!

On the way home last night, D informed me that he wanted to start hiking. I’ve been wanting him to find a physical activity he enjoys and to stick with it – whatever “it” is. And it certainly doesn’t have to be a family affair – I do most of my workouts by myself, and sometimes that’s exactly what I want. I don’t want him to feel selfish if he chooses to go somewhere alone. By all means! I need that to maintain my OWN sanity!

When the kids and I left for the Y this afternoon, D left with his geocaching and day hiking gear, and took off for Northwest River Park (a nice state park very close to home).  He spent nearly 4 hours hiking and treasure hunting – even found a few and buried some of his stuff too.  I got several texts from him while he was gone, but the bottom line is he had an absolute blast.  Here are a few of his pictures that I thought were pretty cool.

LIFE

It’s been busy, but I can’t complain.  Thursday afternoon, D and I were talking about R taking more gymnastics because she loves it so much.  So she’s now taking classes on Thursday’s and Saturday’s for an hour each. 

Thursday our entire region was biting it’s collective nails waiting for the storms to hit.  DC was hit the evening before, and it looked like things were heading our way.  All of the news channels were going crazy with weather updates, storm warnings, and tornado watches.  Schools canceled all after school activities, and the skies looked dangerous most of the day.  We’re still pretty edgy from the mess 2 weeks ago, so it was quite hectic.  I even sent my team members to work from home at noon because I didn’t want them out in the elements when things rolled through. 

We ended up only getting some rain and winds, but nothing damaging or flooding.  We got lucky – surrounding areas didn’t fare as well – but it really wasn’t bad here at all.  R still had gymnastics, we went out to dinner, and basically welcomed the break in the heat wave when the cold front rolled through over night.

Friday was more hectic.  I had to be all over the area for different meetings, etc, so my day started really early.  After work, I got my nails done, picked up a few bottles of wine, and headed to a friend’s house who’s been home alone all week (hubby is out of town) and seemed a little down in the dumps.  So I surprised her, forced myself on her, and we had a nice evening sitting on her porch and getting some Thai food.  Good times.

Saturday was an early morning.  I got R ready for her busy day, and headed to the gym before swimming started at 9.  We swam, played for a bit, hung out in the hot tub, and then showered up and headed to gymnastics.  We stopped for a quick snack (I was out of edible bananas), and then class.  She flipped around for an hour while I read.  D had been out with A getting a hair cut, grocery shopping, and fabric shopping (she has a new candy-inspired dress line she’s working on), and they met up with us for lunch at Golden Corall, which was really nice. 

Before I left for the morning with R, I noticed Bumble sleeping on my bed near Figment - the mascot for Epcot Center.  When I got home several hours later, this is what I saw.  My cat snuggling with the purple dragon.

M had stayed home to cut the grass, and then went to a friends house.

I had hoped to get a run in between the after lunch and before wedding time I had (about an hour and a half), but ended up falling asleep.  So, skipped the run, but not the wedding!

The wedding was very nice, and then we went to the reception, which was also nice. And I wore a dress, which is pretty much a miracle.

From D’s geocaching adventure, he texted me a pictures of a flower, saying “a flower for you”.  It was cute, so here it is

When I got back to the house after my brick workout, the kids were in the backyard.  It took me a minute to find my oldest.  She was near the top of a large tree in the back yard!

So now it’s time to prep for another busy week.  My goal this evening is to finish my training calendar, get lunches done, finish the wash, and try to do as much as possible to make life as easy as possible this week!