Beach day with Nikki

Nikki took the redeye home so we could have a beach day together before she left.  

The whole family came with us and it completely made my day.

The boys even jumped in the water with their clothes on, just like they used to do when they were little.  

The boys were playing, Ben was surfing, Alison was reading and Nikki was searching for sand dollars: 

Girls Trip to Sonoma!

Nikki flew all the way here to go on a girls trip to wine country; something on both of our bucket lists.  She flew in Sunday and Monday morning we made the 8 hour drive up to Sonoma.  Nikki loves road trips and the time flew by as we caught up on life.  We also laughed more than I have in a very long time and laughter to so good for the soul.  We made it to our Airbnb by late afternoon and picked up groceries and tacos for dinner.

Tuesday morning we went for a hike in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.

We found a waterfall, which just made my day.

Then we went to downtown Sonoma and had a charcuterie and wine tasting at Zina Lounge.

We walked around downtown, had the most amazing dinner at 'The Girl and the Fig' and then explored the evening farmer's market.  We ended the day with a movie and some pampering.

Wednesday, we went to a wine tasting at Cline Family Cellars.  The atmosphere was gorgeous and the food delicious, but this was the one spot that we felt they were a little pushy. 

But that didn't stop us from having fun.  We actually found it pretty funny how little wine they gave us to taste.  They would put 3 little drops in your glass and then ask a million times if you want to buy a bottle.

One of the things I loved most about this trip is that we just let the day take us wherever it wanted...no plans or agendas.  For 2 moms of high schoolers, this was heaven.  

We ventured to another winery, Benziger's, and it was just what we needed.  We were able to find a cozy spot in the vineyard and stay as long as we wanted.  

This sums up wine country.

We ended the day with some ice cream.  A local shop had fresh strawberry ice cream and gluten-free waffle cones!  It was a huge treat for me :)

Although we didn't do much besides eating, drinking, talking, laughing and relaxing, this was one of my most favorite trips.  I am so blessed to have good friends all over the country!

 

Rick's visit

Rick came to visit for a long weekend.  He got to come with us to Colin's last regular basketball game before the playoffs.  Then spent the afternoon playing more basketball with Colin.

We went out to dinner one evening, which was lovely.

And spent the rest of our visit just hanging out and playing games.  We've had to had some construction done at the house, so Rick got a glimpse of what it's been like having a handyman around a little too much.

 

Eli got a car and license!

Eli actually got a car a few months ago when we found a good deal and has been able to practice driving it for his test.  Our driveway now looks like a car lot!  Maybe someday we'll actually use our garage as a garage, but for now we are pretty good at the car shuffle.  I've been super impressed with Eli's driving and how well he's done learning.  Still, the test is hard to pass and it's very common to not pass the first time.  But thank goodness, Eli's experience was smooth sailing and he passed with flying colors!

The Carlsbad 5000

The Carlsbad 5000; the world's fastest 5K.  Ben ran this race, back in 2018 (Finished in 18 min!) and it was such a fun race to be at.  Elites come and run and pros give talks at the Expo.

2018

Considering we live just 20 minutes from Carlsbad now, it seemed fitting to run the race again.  Ben wasn't able to race with me, but he helped me with my training and was my support crew on race day.

I've been training for the last several months and feel pretty lucky that this is where I get to train.  People travel from all over to race here and I get to run it on just a normal day.

After my last speed work by the ocean, I picked up an acai bowl on base.  The size of this thing made me laugh!  I got a lot of bang for my buck that's for sure and it hit the spot after a hard run.

I'm also blessed to be able to run this trail on my normal days.

They do the race in heats and the Masters Women (40 and up) start the whole thing off.  It was an early morning, but also really pretty to watch the sunrise while warming up.

I loved what the announcer said right before the race: we are the women who have the experience under our belt and the ones who have put years into the sport.  It was a perfectly fitting reminder for why I ran this race.  I turn 44 next month and training for this race was in effort to regain some speed that I've lost over the last several years.  And it was also a season of thankfulness that I'm still able to run without injury.  Running has been with me through many seasons of life and I know it won't last forever, so right now, I'm just thankful that I get to be where I am.

My race recap...it went really well, but not as great as I was hoping.  My goal was to run a 7:30 pace.  My first mile was a 7:22 and the second was 7:32.  The road was pretty narrow which made getting around other runners challenging and it was pretty easy to just fall into a groove with the runners around me and not really pay attention to really pushing my own pace.  Everything was going pretty great until the sharp U-turn and then a full mile uphill (it was not a big hill, but just an annoying gradual incline that never ended).  They changed the course, which is good because when Ben ran it, it went over the train tracks and you would have to stop and wait for trains.  But I was pretty mad that they changed the course to make the last and hardest mile ALL uphill.  I got discouraged when I realized that I couldn't hold the 7:30 pace up the hill and wasn't going to make my goal.  My last mile was an 8:00 pace and I was able to kick it to the end and finished in 23:49.

I came in 108 of 736 women.

Perhaps the best part of the day was getting breakfast after the race :). I will be talking about the blueberry pancakes for a very long time.

 

Happy 16th Birthday Eli!

He's 16!!!  It's craziness.  Our schedule was also craziness the weekend of his birthday, so we had to extend the celebration over several days.  After we finished school on Friday, Eli opened a few little presents and then we went to Dave N' Busters.

We got a pretzel and new sweatpants in the mall afterwards.

Saturday, Ben took Eli and Alison to Chili's for lunch, while I took Colin to his basketball game.

Then we opened presents before Alison had to go to work.

I got fake tattoos for little party favors :)

Then we went to see the Mario movie.

And to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner.

We had the best view and got to watch the sunset while we feasted.

Somehow Eli found room in his tummy for cheesecake at the end of the day.

Happy Birthday Eli!  We are SO thankful for you!