Thanksgiving Weekend 2014, Everly's Dedication

Hmm, haven't posted on the blog for over 2 months... Why not throw one up today?

I don't like to post when I have nothing to talk about and obviously I need time to post. Today the stars have aligned. I have a topic and I have time (for the moment).

So, where to start? Everly's been sick all weekend. Her first little cold virus and it broke my heart. She was all stuffed up and so pitiful. Luckily my parents were here and they were a huge help as always. There were plenty of cuddles to go around.

Our friends from KY visited and mom and dad encouraged us to go hang out with them for awhile Saturday night. It was really great to see them and relax for a little bit.

We went to Nightbell, which is a newer speakeasy type restaurant/lounge. It's Katie Button's second place in Asheville (her first restaurant is Curate and if you're in Asheville you should make reservations and go because it's the best place in town in my opinion!). We really enjoyed the drinks and the small plates we tried. The margarita was delicious and the lobster roll was SO GOOD.

Sunday morning we got up for breakfast before church. Everly was being dedicated at church so I had bought her a beautiful cream colored dress for the event. I'm sure you can guess what happened. Holy poop storm. #firsttimemom

Should've took her to breakfast in her PJs and changed her at the church. Oh well. Luckily I had packed a second dress.

The dedication went great and she LOVED being up on stage. She's such a ham. I was just really grateful for the prayer from our church family.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Have you started decorating for Christmas yet?

Get any good deals on Black Friday?

jackson hole vacation :::: part 2

i typed up this whole post before blogger decided to freeze and make it magically disappear. that's not frustrating at all. 

anyways, we arrived in jackson on monday afternoon and alex, one of the ranch hands, was waiting for us a the airport. we got our bag, filled up our water bottles at the cool hydration station, then loaded up to go to the grand teton fly fishing shop. the ranch manager, trey, was there to help us pick flies for the week and we also got our fishing licenses. 

then we loaded back up with alex and three other ranch guests and headed up to the property. the ranch is only about 10 miles outside of jackson but the road is pretty rough so it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get up there. it went by pretty quickly because we were all looking for wildlife [we saw some chizzlers, antelope, mountain goats, and a moose!] and chatting. it also gave alex a lot of time to tell us all about the ranch. 

once we arrived he dropped us off at our cabin. we stayed in cal cabin and it was perfect for us! it was the furthest from the main lodge, but closest to the good fishing and had a great back porch that overlooked flat creek. 

cal cabin

living room 

bathroom

bedroom looking into the living room

back porch looking down on the creek

after we got settled in we went to yoga. we decided to practice outside, but that might not have been the greatest decision. we picked prime mosquito time so it was a little hard to find your OM when you're being eaten alive. it honestly scared me a little because i was nervous we were going to be bug food the whole time we were on the ranch. luckily that was the only time the insects really bothered us [well brad had welts all over him and itched for the rest of the week, but that was the only time they bit us]. 

we went up for our first dinner [every night at 7 we had appetizers on the porch then moved inside for dinner at 730] after yoga. the food was amazing the whole week. it was local, fresh, unique, and delicious! we never ate the same thing twice and you definitely didn't have to worry about going hungry [FYI-- they ask dietary preferences ahead of time and they can accommodate anything, they just need advance warning]. 

the lodge

the right side of the lake

more lake (to left looking out from lodge), horse stables, and there's a bald eagle nest in there too! 

lake

the sleeping indian... and yes, that is snow!

the sauna sits right on the creek

after dinner we walked around and checked out the property. we also had some local brews [the fridge in the lodge was stuffed with soft drinks and beer].

a great first day in jackson hole!

hello marathon hunger... aka holy crap i'm hungry

up until about a month ago i was really pleased with how my eating/fueling was going even as my mileage started creeping up. i did my clean eating routine through the week and had a cheat meal on the day of my long run. if i needed a boost before a run, i'd eat some JIF on toast.

i even lost some weight, but i think it's because i'm losing muscle [not cool].

well that's all changed now. i'm a bottomless pit! i usually eat every 3 hours or so, but i'm even getting hungry in between that!

do you all have any insight? i have worked my butt off to lose this weight [and still have some more to lose] so i do not want to screw this up!

vacation part 2::: NYC day 2

thursday morning i got up and did 5 solid miles in central park [love].

we got ready and then went to lunch at the shake shack.

the burger and shake were amazing. my favorite burger ever. the fries were just ehhh. brad even said he liked it better than in and out [but he made me add that the 'animal style' on a shake shack burger would be the best ever].

we spent the rest of the afternoon in macy's, bloomingdale's, and some other stores. i loved seeing all the Christmas decor!

we went back and got ready to go see wicked! i was so excited that i finally talked brad into seeing this! last time we were in NYC we went to see the lion king because it was one of the shows brad thought he'd actually be interested in. i'd seen wicked on tour with my mom and LOVED it but brad has always had this aversion to it for many reasons, one of which being, WAIT FOR IT... he's never seen the wizard of oz!! but since this trip was kind of for my big birthday, he let me pick.

it was every bit as wonderful as i remembered and brad even said he liked it better than the lion king! i'm so happy he liked it! after the show we were walking to dinner and i got to meet the actress who played Glinda. she was really nice and signed my playbill! we had dinner at joe allen's then we headed to a bar we found near our hotel that we loved. i could not even tell you the name of it, but we ended up there almost every night we were there. they had tons of beers on tap and brad enjoys trying different ones.

so that was the end of day two! one more day of vacation round up to go!

have you seen the wizard of oz?

vacation part 1::: vegas

last saturday b-rad and i were up early to fly out to vegas. i got some gorgeous pics of the fog/mountains/sun coming up as we were leaving.

we landed in vegas as scheduled around 1 (via atlanta) and took a shuttle to our hotel, new york new york [no we did not plan this, it just worked out that way!].

our room wasn't ready yet so we dropped off our luggage and made another important journey [the most important thing on brad's vegas list].

he'd been talking nonstop of animal style burgers and fries since we booked the flight.

after in and out we went back and checked in. we were pleased with our room, it was smaller than the last room we had in vegas [at the venetian] but the price was great and the rooms were clean and had everything we needed. well, scratch that, i would have loved a fridge, but no dice.

we took the monorail down to the venetian for the expo and packet pick up. [i bought two monorail passes via the RnR website at a discounted rate and they came in handy. i don't mind walking but the strip drives me crazy because you can't just walk. you have to go up and down stairs almost every block].

dinner the first night was okay. we ate at chin chin which was a sushi/chinese type place in our hotel. then we played some blackjack.

on sunday [race day] we got up and ate breakfast at il fornaio [in ny,ny]. it was convenient and really cheap because they were doing a 2 for 1 deal for runners. i had a waffle with strawberries and it was delicious! kind of nice to carb load at breakfast since i never get to. after breakfast we played some craps then went to a sports bar to watch some of the football games. brad stayed there while i went to get ready for the race [full post on that coming later].

after the race i met up with brad and we took the monorail back to the hotel so i could shower and get ready for dinner. we had reservations for julian serrano [in aria].

most of the tapas were great but those meatballs were not. they were apparently made ahead of time and were served after they were reheated, however mine didn't get reheated. yuck. we have an amazing tapas place in asheville though, so i'm pretty partial to it. [if you're ever in asheville you have to try it, it's called curate].

after dinner... yes brad has on a suit and i have on jeans. my only dressy outfits required heels and that was not happening an hour after 13.1 miles.

on day 3 we mostly walked around and looked at the shops.we had a great lunch at max brenner [in the forum shops] and i fell in love. we split a chicken caesar salad and a bacon, avocado, lettuce and tomato sandwich [and those fries with the sandwich were the best!]. then for dessert we had this chocolate lava cake with ice cream, berries, and a mini shake. the little tin had warm chocolate sauce in it. sooooo good.

 after lunch brad went to play craps and i went to the atrium in the bellagio. it was decorated beautifully for Christmas.

i can't remember what we did or ate on monday night, so obviously nothing too exciting! we went ahead and packed up because tuesday morning we were flying out to NYC. more to come!

I used my camera in the locker room at the gym... Such a rebel.

I'm trying out some color today. We'll see if it's readable.

Today was my first day off in a week and I was determined to milk to for all it's worth. Let me be very clear, I LOVE to sleep. LOVE IT. But I really hate getting up and feeling like so much of the day is gone. So I got up at 8am (still later than I normally get up) and headed to the Rush. Does this mean I'm officially old?

I had 4 miles of speedwork today, and to be honest, I didn't exactly know what that meant. So I just ran a mile warm up, then worked the speed up and down the rest of the time. Intervals? ish?

Obviously at some point someone ran by me and tossed a bucket of water over my head... Because there is no way one person could produce that much sweat in 40 minutes. It was way more gross than normal. And by normal I mean normal for me and other cool people... Like hookers in church I believe the saying goes.

And just a quick tangent, I ordered some more Active Bands and I'm stalking the mailman until they come.

Then I ran home, showered and went to get my hair done. I was trying someone new so I was a little nervous. But she was AWESOME and I loved what she did. Rebecca at Asheville Hair Design if anyone around here is looking for someone. She listened to what I wanted and then did it. Crazy right?

So happy that worked out. By this point I was starving and I knew just what I wanted to eat:  Panera. 

Delicious, but not as much food as I needed  wanted. So now it's 2 hours later and I'm hungry again. Maybe some fro-yo in my near future...

Tell me about your worst hair disaster... I had one lady in Lexington turn my hair CAMO GREEN not attractive, let me tell you.

Awesome Saturday

Yesterday was one of those great days. My boys and I slept in and while they hung out I headed out to get my 4 miler in. I knew that if I slept in I'd have to run in the heat, but it was worth it and I needed the rest. I got to the trailhead around 1030am and it was BUSY.

I love this trail, it's super flat and fast. It's also fairly shaded, which helped me not die with the heat. I did four miles at a 11:34 pace. Don't be jealous of my lightening fast speeds, I know, I'm awesome. And my post run red face perfectly accentuates my Cullen-like paleness. Yuck.

I came home to pick up the hubs so we could go run around. After waiting on him for 45 minutes I went and hollered at him politely asked what was taking so long. He replied... wait for it... "I was waiting on you to shower." Ouch. Well I had news for him, it was H-O-T oustide and I didn't want to have to shower again after we went running around (I prefer to minimize the number of showers and I have to take in a day. Honestly it's more the hairdrying that I don't enjoy, but anyways). So I talked him into hanging out with the stinky but just as cute version of myself. Lucky guy.

First stop was the new Neo Burrito that just opened at Biltmore Park. 

I have had Neo at their other Asheville location, and B-rad hadn't tried them before. They're very green and their food is great. We walked in to check out the menu and were UNpleasantly surprised.

 The menu's were on these three TV's... That changed CONSTANTLY... and weren't on any sort of repetitive cycle. We both picked out salads, but Brad wanted to add a fish taco. Too bad the taco menu wouldn't pop back up, So he skipped it.

We both ordered BBQ chicken salads (I got mine with tempah). The employees were very friendly, but you could tell everyone was still learning. We ordered the same salad but ended up with different stuff. We got seated and I poured my ranch all over my salad. I took my first bite and knew something was way wrong. Apparently the guy making my salad grabbed the wasabi ranch instead of regular (the salad comes with regular ranch, I get it everytime I go to the other Neo). And here's a fun fact about me... I do NOT like wasabi (or pickles, or olives, or mustard). Another fun fact, I don't like to send food back or complain (usually). So I tried to stomach thru it by masking it with queso (the chips and queso were awesome!). Then my stomach started turning and I was done. B-rad loved his salad (just like I usually do). And he ate a lot of mine too (he loves spicy stuff).

I loved how green the restaurant was (the other Neo is also). It was very 'Asheville'. They had plants hanging all over the place.

They also had this crazy contraption that I'm not 100% sure exactly what it was.

It rotated every so often, and you can tell they're growing herbs in there. Very cool. They were also growing herbs on their patio area. So simple and unique, a great idea.
I'm sure we'll eat here pretty often. I'll just be sure about the dressing before I dump it all over my whole salad. And I really hope they fix the menu situation. We weren't the only ones confused by it, so I'd say it'll get fixed eventually.

Next we went to REI because Brad wanted some hiking shoes. He tried some on but they didn't have his size. (We found them later at Diamond Brand in Kentucky Blue!)

The only thing I really, really wanted to do yesterday was go to Ya Ya's frozen yogurt that also just opened. B-rad likes to act like he has no interest in such trivial, dessert related places, but I made him go he humored me because he likes me a little bit. They had a seasonal strawberry lemonade sorbet that I sampled and decided to get (so not typical for me). I added fresh strawberries, chocolate covered pretzels and my hubs (who acts like he has no interest) requests sour worms. He proceeded to eat half of my froyo. It's a good thing I like him sometimes too.

I'm still way new to blogging and blanked on taking pics of the place and my yogurt. But it was delish and I loved every bite (except for all the ones Brad ate). Yogurt stealer.