{ 9 Year Wedding Anniversary }

Today is our 9 Year Wedding Anniversary. Hubby planned a day and night in Toronto for us on Saturday. We have an overnight babysitter so we are going to relax and enjoy our evening in the city and sleep in the next morning (is it sad that's the part I'm most looking forward to?!?!)

I saw this idea for gifts on the hour as birthday or anniversary gifts from Thirtyhandmadedays.com and thought I would do that for Josh.

I decided to put together 9 gifts - one for each year of our marriage and put a little recap note with each gift of that year of marriage. It was really fun - and actually challenging - to look back at the last 9 years. I thought I would easily remember everything that happened during each year, but I need to pull out scrapbooks and look through the date stamps on my iPhoto to get it all organized. If I can keep this up it would be a great way to look back on 15, 25, 30+ years of marriage together.

My Notes on what happened each year

Since today is a work day I centered most of my gifts around what he might be doing at that time of the day: breakfast, post workout food, coffee, afternoon snack, etc. But then I threw in a few things that were more of Anniversary type gifts: funky socks he's been asking for, wallet, movie tickets, Toronto Soccer tickets.

Here's a glimpse at the notes from our years of marriage and the gifts I sent with him.

Pre-workout Banana Muffin

                                    

Post workout smoothie & granola bar

I gave the funky socks with year three, but I forgot to take a picture

Just a nice note!

Movie Date Night!

Toronto Soccer Tickets!

New Wallet with picture already inside!

Afternoon Snack!

Afternoon Coffee Pick Up!

I packaged them all up and wrote the times of when (or approximately when) he should open them throughout the day. Before I went to bed I left them with a note in a bag by his workout stuff for him to see in the morning. 

This was the text I received this morning. I would say he was excited about the bag of gifts and I was glad I got him excited for every hour to see what the next "year" brought! Isn't that what marriage should be about? Being excited about al the years together?!?!

Happy 9th Anniversary Honey! 

Training while Traveling

Taking a 2 + week trip away from home right in the middle of marathon training can either be a much needed slow down/break/recovery or be a big set back. When people have asked me how our "vacation" was I say it was more of a visit than a "vacation". To me the word "vacation" means that I don't cook, plan activities for the twins, worry about babysitters, and run and workout on my own schedule. Traveling with two 3 year olds isn't really a "vacation". While I don't consider our visit back to Minnesota a vacation it was the perfect place to visit and still keep up with my training for Chicago Marathon for the most part.

One helpful piece is that my Mom is training for Chicago as well. She completely understood my need to get out and get miles in during our stay. She of course was more than happy to hang out with the boys while I did that - she love her Nana time with them.

Her husband is a great help as well when she and I wanted to do our runs together. She said she was getting tired of her same route by her house (in a suburb of Minneapolis) and wanted something different. I miss (in an aching kind of way) the lakes that are blocks from our Minneapolis house so headed into the city for our first long run together of our visit.

10 mile (16k) run around the Lakes

The suburb of Toronto that we currently live in has an amazing trail system. The problem I have with it however is that 1) I don't know it all that well so it take quite a bit of planning ahead of time to route a run in the 16k+ range. and 2) It's a bit choppy, to get a long route in you need to add city streets into the  mix, which is fine but it makes me miss my easy to navigate lake runs.

Minneapolis has an amazing "chain of lakes" path that I could spend all 22 weeks of Marathon training on. What's even more fantastic about this is that I can access this path system by running about 8 blocks from our home in Minneapolis - no getting in my car and driving to a place to then start a run. 

Our Mpls home to 2 nearby lakes great for running!

Each of the three nearest lakes to our home are about 3k around with short connecting path in between. It makes for a perfect 16k run. On the last day of my visit in Minnesota my Mom and I decided to run Lake Harriet and then the Minnehaha Parkway for something a little different and because the parkway is better shaded. The Parkway connects to Lake Nokomis (which incidentally was 4 blocks from our first home together when we got married - can you see a trend with us and loving to live by Mpls Lakes?!?) from Lake Harriet with a 5.8 mile path - perfect for getting the long 20+ mile distances needed for Marathon training!

Lake Harriet & Parkway 8 mile run

On our two runs around the lakes that my Mom and I did we ran past a few friends of ours - the same two girlfriends on both Saturday mornings without evening talking to them ahead of time about going out for a run! We are in sync for sure! 

There were a few runs I needed to get in during our visit that we were in the Minneapolis area to take advantage of these lake paths. 

The first was when Josh and I headed to Wisconsin for his 20 year class reunion. We didn't have the boys with us (they stay with my Dad and his wife for the weekend) so it made it easier to get out together. I had another 10 mile run (actually I think I was suppose to do more like 12, but hey I was on "vacation" right?!?) on the schedule. Josh was nice enough to keep me company and let me follow him around his home town so I didn't get lost. We did a combination run of Lake streets (no path around this lake) and trails. Just as it's fantastic to have a Mom who understands Marathon Training it's equally fantastic that my husband does as well. 

Pre 20 year Class Reunion Lake/Trail 10 mile run 

We spent the final days of our visit to Minnesota at my Mom's cabin on the Lake. I started and finished two 4.5 mile runs from this lovely beach. My Mom and I took the yoga mat out to the end of the dock to do stretches after our run and then I planted myself in a lounge chair to watch the boys play in the sand! Pure Bliss! 

Lakeside Cabin Run

Ok, I guess this part of our visit I would call "vacation"! 

Post Run Lounging!

Even though I got a fair amount of running in and two 10 mile long runs I still feel like I'm playing catch up on my return. My first long run on our return with the group was a 25k (15.5 mile) run. 5 days later and I'm still feeling a bit sluggish. Luckily I'm still 8 weeks away from the Marathon so I have time to get back into the groove!

How do you get your exercise and/or training in while on visits/vacations away from home? 

Thank You Notes

I have started a new trend after visitors have left us or we have left someplace. I send picture Thank You Notes using Shutterfly.com's mailing service. It's really slick to drop pictures from the visit into a card, write/type a personal message on the inside, input the recipients address and click send! After our visit to Minnesota I had 4 Thank You Notes to send. During nap time today I uploaded the pictures from my phone, created the cards, and for less than $15 they will be created, stamped, and mailed for me! Each time I do this it gets easier and easier since I have most addresses saved now in my account so I'm not spending time looking up or inputting them.

I really like the way pictures from the visit personalize the card and I know the Grandparents love seeing pictures of the grandkids! My parents are good about keeping things like this and so I imagine us all looking back on them one day as a great archival piece!

Here are a few of the cards I sent for this trip.

This cute card is for my nieces! I don't get much girly time being the Mom of only boys and being an only sister to brothers so I took advantage of some mani/pedi time when we went to Wisconsin for the Hubby's 20 year Class Reunion!

Our time with Nana & Papa included so many fun things: wild blueberry picking, Sea Life @ the Mall of America, hanging out at the cottage on the Lake, USA Hockey Hall of Fame, and a visit to the World's Largest Hockey Stick!

When spending time with Grandma & Grandpa it's all about BOYS! My Dad built the boys an amazing tree house in his back yard! They were able to ride in a big Caterpillar truck at his work and hang out with a professional fisherman a/k/a Uncle Bill and his boat! What more could two little boys ask for?!?!

Traveling with Toddlers. . .ALONE!

I didn't take my first plane trip until I was 12 years old. I actually flew by myself to California to stay with my Uncle and do DisneyLand and SeaWorld! The twins on the other hand are just over 3 years old and veteran air travelers. If I'm counting right they have already done 8 round trip air trips. This trip was going to be different, they were traveling with just me - no Daddy, no Nana or Grandpa to help! Hubby was driving us to the Buffalo airport (WAY less expensive to fly out of than Toronto), but we had to leave the house by 6 a.m. to make our 9:00 flight. I have never in all the boys 40 months of life purposefully woke them up at 5:30 in the morning! They were so excited to go to Minnesota they popped right out of bed!

Since we've done this so many times before I have packing, passports, tickets, etc. all figured out. The other thing different about this trip is that the boys are potty trained. They do really good with letting me know when they have to pee, but they have only been out of diapers since January so they still don't give a lot of lead time before the pee just comes - and we all know how small the airplane bathrooms are!

Waiting to board the plane!

I packed the usual books, iPad, DVD player, blankies and snacks. This time I wanted to pack a couple of games that may be able to pass the time on take off and landing when the iPad and movies aren't allowed. Then there's the teacher in me that had to make them educational as well!

My good little travelers!

Pinterest is again a wonderful place for getting ideas for educational toddler games. I came across this idea of Busy Bags. I put together three different activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler and specifically from her free printables for preschoolers. Really fantastic stuff!

I made 3 of everything for the boys' friend down the block who just became a big brother. I thought his Mommy would appreciate something to grab to keep him busy when she's taking care of a newborn.

The first one I put together was a number matching wheel. I had a bit of fun with my new laminator! I printed out the wheels, cut them out and laminated them. I got the clothes pins from the dollar store so it was a pretty inexpensive project. This will be a good activity to grow with the boys. This time around they matched the colors. Since we were playing it on the plane during landing I didn't push it too much. It will be a good one to have around for future learning!

Clothes Pin Number Match by Confessions of a Homeschooler

The next one I did was a letter match up. We already had the magnet, plastic letters so all I had to do was print out and laminate. This one was a little trickier on the plane because I didn't have anything magnetic for the letters to stick to, but it was a good one to have on our trip to pull out when I needed the boys to be occupied with something.

Alphabet/Number Review Cards 

I did similar letter match up, but this one was meant to focus more on letter sounds.

A-Z Beginning Sounds

The last one was their favorite. Pictures of things they love (Superman, Batman, Hockey, Footballs, etc.) and a glue stick = lots of fun (and a bit of education as well)! 

My First Color Book

All of these activities came back home with us and I plan to pull them out again during this last month of summer vacation!

St. Jude Country Music Nashville Race Recap

I scheduled this trip to Nashville in the dead of winter in Canada. My friend told me that it would be hot at the end of April so we should only plan to run the half rather than the full. As this Canadian winter dragged on and on I got more excited about my warm weekend in Nashville.

Then the week before the race came and rain was in the forecast. I don't mind running in a bit of rain and I was actually happy for the cool down it would bring since I hadn't ran in shorts since September!

I arrived in Nashville on Thursday evening and we attended the expo on Friday. I can't say for sure if things were set up differently this year than past in terms of security because this is the first time I was at this race venue. My friend and I were commenting on how this would be the safest race we have ever run similar to when flying after 9/11 was the safest time to fly.

There was a lot at the Expo about supporting Boston. There was a photo booth, lots of apparel with support Boston messages, and we were all given bracelets to wear during the race. 

After the Expo we went to check out the country music scene in Nashville. I really enjoy country music, I always have so this was one of the reasons I wanted to do this race. There is a street in Nashville that the course runs down called Broadway. There are several - like 3 blocks - of bars and restaurants that start playing live music at 10 a.m. and go until 3 in the morning! It was fun to walk along the street and hear the live music coming out. I was moved by the music to buy cowboy boots! 

We headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner. The idea was to take a little nap, but I found Steel Magnolias on TV and we rested watching the movie. I forgot how much that can make you cry at the end! 

Then we checked the weather to prepare our gear for the morning. This is what we saw:

Really?!?! 100% Rain! Ugh! So we prepared for the worse and figured we would make adjustments in the morning if things changed with the weather. I again used the Runner's World What to Wear tool. There was a difference in what to wear depending on if it was going to be a light rain or a heavy rain. So I prepared for both. I set out shorts for sure and was going to decide between a short or long sleeve shirt in the morning. I got a vest just before getting on the flight and was glad I did. It helped with the rain a bit. 

One of the security measures that was put in place for the race was using a clear plastic bag that we were given at the Expo. We were told at the Expo and again in an email that the only bag that was going to be allowed at the bag drop would be the clear plastic bag we were given, no exceptions. Our bags were also going to be searched. It felt like this was going to be a very safe race.

We woke up at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning and the weather had not changed for race time. So I decided on shorts, a long sleeve shirt that I knew I could push the sleeves up easily if I got warm, & a vest, visor to keep the rain off my face. Oh and a very fancy garbage bag to attempt to stay dry and warm until the race started.

Luckily our hotel was right at the start so we stayed inside until nearly 10 mins before the race started.

The race started in waves based on the corral you were assigned to. I was in corral 9 so luckily I didn't have to wait too long to start. My chip time was around 11 mins off the gun time so not long. There were 36 corrals I believe, so there were people waiting quite a while in the pouring rain. 

Corral 8 was 2 minutes a head of us so and I happened to be at the front of our corral. I started out the race pretty slow because I felt like people sprinted at the start with such a wide open space in front of us. It was a crowded race as well, 26,000 runners so I was taking my time, seeing what it was going to be like to run in pouring rain and trying to warm myself up a bit.

I kept the garbage bag on for about the first mile and then I had to bite the bullet and let it go. I was instantly soaked! At first many of us tried to avoid the puddles around and then realized that really splashing through a puddle was not going to make us any more wet than we already were. Every step I took I could feel the sloshing of my soaked socks. Fun!

I felt really good through the entire race. I walked through every water stop for my walk breaks even though I didn't drink at all of them. I was afraid of getting too much water into my tummy and not sweating it out. I have done that before and it's given me such a bad stomach ache. The course was hilly - not steep hills, but several rolling hills. It was a challenging course, so I was really happy I wasn't running it in 80 degree weather.

I usually try to find someone I can chat with a bit during the race, but everyone was really quiet. Just listening to their music or concentrating on not slipping on something. I listened to my music until my ear buds got so saturated with water I couldn't really hear out of them anymore!

Around mile 9 I realized that I was running a pretty good time despite the conditions, but I was going to have to maintain a faster pace if I was going to finish in under 2 hours. So I kept an eye on my watch and kept it as close to 5:10/km as I could. I was less than a mile to the finish line and my watch ticked closer and closer to 2 hours. I was getting nervous that running in this weather was going to get me close to sub 2 hours, but not quite. I ran as fast I could muster with still keeping myself safe in all the puddles. 

I crossed the finish line with my watch saying 2:00:36. Crap! That is still a PR for me, but I was SO CLOSE to making it under 2 hours. I hoped that my watch was off.

And it was!! My official chip time was 1:59:48 - just a hair under 2 hours - I'll take it!

I had very crazy split times. I definitely got faster as the race went on - but look at that difference between mile 10 and the finish! A minute faster pace - Whoops! I should have been doing that the whole time! Oh Well, Blame it on the Rain (cue Milli Vanilli song)

 Here we are in the shuttle that our hotel had for the runners at the finish - we are sopping wet, but we both ran personal best times and we were headed to a warm shower! 

I'm not sure I would run this race again - I would recommend it to others, but I think my experience is unlike any other year. Usually it's warm/hot and this year wasn't. Nashville is a really fun place to visit! Hopefully I can go back someday with better weather conditions!

What are the craziest weather conditions you have ever raced in? Is there a particular kind of weather you enjoy running in most?

Mommy's Time Away

I always get excited about a weekend away for myself when I'm planning it. Once I'm faced with saying goodbye to the boys I have that mommy guilt twinge in my stomach. I fight that twinge with baking. I figure if I bake some items that at least the hubby & twins will have something to eat while I'm gone. My husband is more than capable of taking care of the twins for a weekend. He has done it several times before and really enjoys his "boy time". 

This morning before my flight I made some banana chocolate chip muffins. One of the twins asked me what I was making and when I told him he said "I love those Mommy!" Which made that mommy guilt twinge in me go away a bit! 

Here is the recipe I used for the muffins. You can omit the chocolate chips to make them healthier (I dare you to try to omit chocolate!)

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

3 large ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or melted butter if you don't have applesauce)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup flour
Chocolate Chips (to taste)

Directions

Mix sugar and egg with mashed bananas. Add applesauce (or butter). In a seperate bowl mix together the soda, powder, salt and flour. Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 18-20 mins. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

I of course used Chipits from Hersheys - it's good to know someone in the industry! 

Do you do anything special before you leave your family?

Races = Travel

Recently I have been thinking of places I want to travel and then checking the race calendars to see what race I can do there. I'm traveling to Nashville, TN for the Country Music Marathon this weekend. A weekend away with just me and a friend. . . I'm looking forward to some "me" time! 

My very first destination race also happened to be my very first marathon in Paris, France. My Mom was celebrating her 50th birthday and wanted to run her 10th marathon some place international. It just so happened my spring break was the right timing to make the trip with her. We started our vacation in Amsterdam visiting a family member, spent a few nights in Prague, Czech Republic and then ended our vacation with the marathon and more sight seeing in Paris, France.

Paris Marathon with my Mom!

I checked two huge things off my bucket list 5 years ago: Travel to Paris and Run a Marathon!

This past September I took a girls weekend to Montreal to run the Rock n' Roll Half Marathon. My Mom traveled with me as well - she has the Races = Travel bug too!

My Mom & I at Montreal Half Marathon

Montreal was the first Rock n' Roll series race I have ran. It was a ton of fun! So much great music along the course that I hardly listened to what was on my iPod. I was eager to run another! A friend that also ran Montreal with me suggested the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville. Count me in! I have always wanted to go to Nashville and I love country music! 

If the weather isn't too hot and I'm having a good running day I may be able to check a couple more things off my bucket list this weekend: Travel to Nashville, TN & run a sub 2:00 half marathon!

Do you plan your travel around races? What is your favorite place to travel to for a race? What's on your travel and/or race bucket list?