Thursday, April 12, 2012

Spring Break Review

Last week was my spring break from Wilson High School.  Where did the time go?!  I am sitting at work already anxious for my next day off.  This morning, I couldn’t even pull myself out of bed in time to do a workout—“relaxing” is so exhausting! HA

…I wouldn’t really call my spring break relaxing!
My spring break started Friday, March 31st.  Brian and I had a really great weekend filled with training.  You can read all about that in the previous post.
Monday was Brian’s birthday!  He turned 29.  I woke up early bought cupcakes for us at Sticky Fingers Bakery (vegan cupcakes!), and then we packed up and left to go to Luray Caverns.  We even took the Frank with us, and he stayed in the motel while we toured the caverns.  
Luray was beautiful—we didn’t tour the Shanandoah’s too much while we were out there, but the scenery was awesome, even from Days Inn.  Franklin had fun too—the motel had a ton of land for him to run around.  The caverns were amazing!  Luray Caverns is basically a dot on the map.  From the outside, it looks like it’s nothing exciting, but as soon as you step down into the cavern; it’s like something from another world.  Our tour guide (Trask—what kind of a name is Trask?), took us through a 1.25 mile loop around the caverns, and we even got to hear the stalactite organ plan!  I must have taken at least 40 pictures.  






We were famished after our tour so we went straight to a Mexican restaurant in the city of Luray.  This place used to be a McDonalds—you can see where the big M on the side used to be--but they did a great job of converting the inside, and the food was exactly what we wanted.  Then we went back to the motel watched Kentucky clobber Kansas in the final game for March Madness and went to sleep.
Tuesday, we leisurely made our way back to DC.  Eventually we decided that we should probably do some sort of a work out so we packed up our bikes and ventured down to Hains Point for a brick.  We did 4 loops around the Point in the bike (about 40 minutes), and then ran a loop together.  This is progress for me because I usually take off full sprint after a ride and leave Brian in the dust.  It was great to get in a mid-week workout together, especially because its so rare to do anything but swim together during the week.  The weather was great too!  We got to wear short sleeves and shorts!!  
Brian worked on Wednesday, but I had big plans for my last day at home.  I woke up and finished painting the kitchen cabinets ASAP—I started at 7 AM and finally finished around 10.  Then, I started baking cakes.  I made a lemon poppy seed cake for my mom’s birthday (April 5th), and a lemon with buttercream cake for Easter.  I obsess a little over making cakes so the entire baking process took until about 3:00, at which point, I had to take Franklin over to the groomer for his haircut.  When we got to the place, the groomer wouldn’t respond to the buzz up to his apartment, and didn’t answer his phone.  YIKES.  (He called back later saying he was in the hospital)  So I was left with a dog that looked like a mop.  The poor thing needed a haircut SO bad that I finally pulled out the scissors and cut him myself!  I’m sure there’s a few spots I missed, but I think this is pretty good considering his squirminess.  It took me 3 hours!!!  Yep, there went my workout time!  BUMMER  For the rest of the evening, I did laundry and finished icing the cake.  
I had every intention of working out before I left for Columbus on Thursday, but I hadn’t packed, and I knew that the 7 hour drive was going to be rough so I ended up just leaving as soon as my bags were packed.  My 7 hour drive turned into a 9 hour drive after 5 bathroom stops and 2 loooong construction zones.  I took a 45 minute fartlek run when I got home (surprisingly fast after sitting in a car all day!!), and then went out to a Mexican Restaurant to celebrate my mom’s birthday with my mom, dad, little sister, aunt, and grandma.  It was good to be home.  I forget how crazy my family is sometimes!  

I woke up Friday and went for an hour long bike ride in tundra like weather.  BRR!  The flat roads of Ohio felt like they were all uphill.  The rest of Friday was insanely busy!  I ran some errands with my mom.  Then, my mom, aunt, sister, and I went shopping--we found some great finds at Ulta, World Market, and especially 5 and Below (a phone case for $5?!  Who can beat that?!).  Then, I went over to visit my friend, Nina, and her family.  Her two boys are getting so big!!  Finally, I met up with my family at Red Lobster. Yum-O!

Saturday was NOT a morning for bike riding--even though I had every intention of waking up early and going for a long ride!  I didn't even go on a run.  Instead, I finished icing my beautiful Easter "basket" cake!  By the time I finished, everyone was awake and prepared to clean up for my mom's side of the family Easter party.  After the house was spotless, we ran out and did another shopping trip (yay!).  Then, I had the bright idea of having an Easter egg hunt for my cousin's baby, Dean (if you're reading this Travis and Birdie, thank you for not saying anything when I bought way too much candy for your little boy!) so I bought a few bags of candy and a bag of mini plastic eggs.  Our Shore family party was too much fun!  Little Dean was a riot--he was so excited by the search for colored eggs that he barely cared that there was any candy in them.  


Easter was a whirlwind!  I went to church with my family in the morning--then a quick stop over to see Brian's parents--followed by a visit with the Hay side of my family--back home for a quick hour ride--finally out to eat with my dad.  It's always nice to go to church with my family.  I miss the closeness of my childhood parish.  Plus this time, the choir had band instruments including chimes and a rainmaker!  Brian's parents are doing well--they are in the process of moving to Charlotte, NC!  The Hay side of the family is always fun!  What a unique bunch :)  I gave my grandma pictures of my new house and she shared them with the rest of the family.  I must take some pretty good pictures because everyone was really impressed! haha  My mom and sister took off to visit my older sister in San Diego after they left the Hay Easter party so it was just me and my dad after that.  I took an INCREDIBLY windy bike ride when I got home from the party (well, at least it was warmer this time!), and then hung out with my dad for a bit.  We watched a few episodes of Rescue Me and went out to dinner.  Its been a long time since I've had the opportunity to have some one-on-one time with my dad.  As much as I love hanging out with the whole family, its great to have a chance to sit and talk to just my dad sometimes :)



Anyway, the next day (my last day on spring break!), I drove home to DC.  Nothing too exciting except that it didn't take me 9 hours this time.  I was so pooped when I got back that I didn't even bring my stuff upstairs.  In fact, its been such a tiring week that my bags are still sitting next to the door!  I had a wonderful spring break.  No, I didn't really get a chance to relax, but it was a really great time!  I would've liked to train a little more for ironman (notice, I didn't even mention swimming), but it was great to get in something I don't have a ton of time for normally-- a little sight seeing and family time!  Now that I'm back in the real world, it has been hard to adjust to having to wake up at 5AM again, but I think by next week I'll be back to normal.  I'm looking forward to a 60 mile bike ride and a 95 minute run this weekend!

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