Family Getaway - Smokies Edition

Sans the photographer, Justin, as always.

This blog post has been on my to-do list for a while.  It's essentially a recap of my 34th birthday celebration and getaway to the Smokies.  Back in September.  Haha.  Better late than never, right?

My actual birthday fell on a Monday.  It was a low-key kinda day.  I woke up early to run 3.1 miles around our neighborhood.  

Had blueberry waffles for breakfast.  Enjoyed a lovely playdate at the zoo with good friends.  Ate some ramen for lunch (Asian tradition of noodles on your birthday for a long life).

Did some sewing while the kids napped.  

Finished a fun fall dress for Lissie!

Worked at the Y for a few hours when they woke up.  By the time we got home, Justin had come home from work with a lovely takeout meal from Hattie B's that we ate with some collards I had made the night before. 

 Oh, and of course - per tradition - ice cream cake for dessert.  It was the best - a simple birthday with family.

That Thursday, though, we picked Lissie up early from school and headed out on the three+ hour drive to the Smokies - with my parents and Justin's dad in tow.  After settling in at our resort - we used our timeshare to get a spacious three-bedroom suite at Great Smokies Lodge (also known as Wilderness at the Smokies), an amazing kid-friendly place with an awesome indoor waterpark - we had a lovely dinner at Bennett's BBQ.  

The next day, Friday, sort of threw us for a loop when we decided it was in our best interest to take Lissie to an urgent care to take a look at a skin abscess that had been bothering her for a while and was getting worse.  After a morning getting poked and prodded (during which she was thrilled to be able to spend quality alone time with both mommy and daddy watching Doc McStuffins and, afterwards, getting an ice pop), she was given antibiotics and the all-clear to enjoy the rest of our vacation.  

When we got back we donned our swimsuits and headed to the waterpark for some splashing fun.   

After lunch and naps, the grandparents took the kids out for ginormous chocolate-dipped cones and miniature golf at the resort, while Justin and I headed out to run a seven-miler on a not-so-scenic greenway as part of our training for Ragnar.

We got back in time for dinner - Lola had made my Filipino favorites (adobo, pancit, kare-kare, lumpia) - and another ice cream cake for dessert.  Happy birthday to me, yet again!

The next day we started off with a hearty breakfast before burning off the calories hiking to Laurel Falls.  It was a perfect trail for the oldies and the littles, plus it was a lovely day to see the beautiful leaves starting to turn and the breathtaking waterfalls.  

When we got back to the resort, it was time for a late lunch and naps for all.  Afterwards, we (primarily Lissie, who did it four times) enjoyed the outdoor lazy river and another trip to the indoor waterpark.  We also checked out the arcade area, as well.

We ended the night with one final scrumptious meal (Justin cooked steak!) and the last of the ice cream cake before saying goodnight to the Smokies one more time.

Sunday morning we had a quick breakfast before driving to Knoxville (about halfway home) for Mass.  We ate a quickie lunch en route and ended the trip back to Nashville with a fun ice cream social at Lissie's school.

Super fun weekend for sure.  Lots of fun memories made with the whole family.  

Like Lolo, like Lissie.  Same pouty-lipped look of concentration while playing on their technological devices.

And, two months later, Lissie still asks when we're going back to the Smokies.  Not to worry, Lissie.  We'll definitely be back as soon as we can.  

Happy belated birthday to me!

Ragnar Relay TN 2014

I like to run.  I've got more than a handful of half-marathons and even a couple of full marathons under my belt.  But when I first heard of the Ragnar Relay - running with a 12-person team approximately 200 total miles - I was definitely not interested.  At all.  I've had friends do it and rave about it, but the thought of being in a stinky van with runners for over 30 hours on no sleep really just did not sound appealing.

Then I thought about it a little more.  And, last year as I was driving from Cool Springs to my parents' house, I encountered a few Ragnar runners on their final stretch to Nashville, and I was starting to get more intrigued.

I did more research, talked to more friends, and decided that it was time for me to give this challenge a shot myself.  So, back in May we started to pull folks in to form a team - which, crazily enough also included my self-proclaimed non-runner husband - for the Ragnar Race TN in October.

Justin and I had gotten a double jogger in April, and we quickly eased into a routine of working out most days at nearby parks.  And, thankfully with my new employment at the Y, we also got to squeeze in some treadmill runs on icky days, as well.

Unfortunately, with all of the running, Justin's old knee injuries started to flare up and he ended up seeing an orthopedist and getting weekly physical therapy.  Even with help, he wasn't able to run more than a few miles without pain and throughout the course of training never made it past running the hilly Percy Warner 5.6 mile loop.  I was more than a little nervous about how he'd do running three legs through the mountainous terrain leading back to Nashville.

To make matters more interesting, our team started losing people and we were worried about having to run with only 10 runners - making the possibility of us having to run longer distances and more legs something very real.  Thankfully, down to the wire (pretty much literally) we were able to beg more friends to pull through and we were back to 12 folks - each running three legs for a total distance of between 10-21 miles.  Phew!  I signed up to run 18 total miles, and Justin took the easy 10.8 due to his knee issues.

The day of the race, our van (the first six runners) met bright and early at 5am to make the drive to Chattanooga for our 10am start time.  Everyone was half-asleep yet anxious for the race to start.

Team Caddywampus' Caddy Wagon

To check off each leg as we go.

We got to the starting point in time to get our gear, go to a safety briefing, and decorate our van before our first runner took off.  We cheered her on along the way, before making it to the next exchange for the next runner to take over once she arrived.

The second leg was, by far, the hardest leg of all: almost seven miles literally straight up  the infamous steep incline (over 1300 feet in elevation gain) of Suck Creek Mountain Road.  We gave that stretch to our veteran ultramarathoner, and he even had quite the time getting through that stretch.

Then it was my turn.  Luckily, what goes up, must come down.  And I had an easy-peasy 5.10 mile coast downhill at a fast 8:15 pace.  The best feeling was passing two runners along the way (known as a "kill").  But my favorite memory of the whole race was when I went head-to-head with this guy to the finish.  We were both fierce with determination to get there first, and thankfully lots of pictures were taken.  The stranger ended up winning by a nose, but he was a good sport and congratulated me on giving it my best effort, haha.

The relay continued on.  Justin had a great first leg, and we met up with the second van for them to take over while we grabbed a bite to eat at Cracker Barrel and rest up a bit before our turn was up again around 8pm.

Now, I've never run at night outdoors.  Much less on the road, wearing a reflective vest, a headlamp, and a tail light.  I'm also slightly afraid of the dark and having my fellow teammates talk about The Walking Dead and zombies, the movie/book Gone Girl, and bears made me all the more anxious about my turn to run MY LONGEST LEG, 6.8 miles, in the dark.

So, yeah, when it was my turn, my imagination got the best of me.  When my turn was up at around 10pm, I kept thinking about the scariest parts of Gone Girl, I got freaked out by any cars or fellow runners coming nearby, and when I had to run over a moonlit cemetery, a pitch black bridge, and near the entrance to a not-lit-at-all state park, I jetted out of there as fast as I could go.  My legs were starting to wear on me from fatigue, and I ran this stretch much slower at a 10:00 pace.

When it was Runner 5s turn, we waited at the end for quite some time before it came to everyone's attention that some vandals stole a few of the road signs so a bunch of runners - ours included - got lost.  Our runner ended up running 8 miles, when he was only supposed to run just over 4!  We were all pretty peeved about it, but he took it in stride saying simply that he kind of wanted a longer night run, anyway.  Better him than me, for sure.

Justin finished off the night run with an easy 2 miler, that he ran the fastest ever at an 8:29 pace.  We caught very little shuteye during our brief respite.  Sleeping in an uncomfortable minivan is never fun, much less when your legs are screaming for stretching out.  But we probably caught maybe an hour or so of snooze before we were up and at 'em for our final runs.

My last run - a 6.1 miler - was fairly unmemorable.  It was definitely my slowest, at a 10:25 pace, as I was getting pretty achy in the quads.  The country scenery was nice, and I did manage to pass a handful of other fatigued runners along the way.  But I finished strong and was ready to sit back and cheer on the rest of the team to their finishes.

Checking off the last of my legs.  Mission accomplished - 18 total miles done!

However, I was quite taken aback when I realized that Justin was going to run the next leg - a 6.8 mile stretch - when a fellow teammate was feeling under the weather.  Remember, Justin has knee issues and has never run more than the 5.6, so I knew this could end pretty ugly.  But, I had nothing to worry about.  Justin trudged on like a champion and ran that leg faster than I definitely could have at a 9:42 pace.

This guy ended up running over 13 total miles.  I say this "non-runner" is half-marathon ready!

Our van finished in Cool Springs at around noon on Saturday, and we all headed home to shower and rest before we met up with our teammates in downtown Nashville as we finished the relay together.

Van 1 at the end of their run.  99 total kills, whoo-hoo!

Wow, were we achy and tired!  But we managed to make it to the finish with our teammates to relish in the fact that we collectively ran 200 miles.  Amazing.  But oh-so-sleepy.  We had grand plans to have a celebratory dinner, but we were all so wiped that we postponed it for a later date.

Running to the finish as a team.

Team Caddywampus sans Brent

We placed 99th out of 220 teams running the 200 miles at an average of a 9:29 pace.

But, man, what an accomplishment!  So many friends thought we were crazy - we have three nights without kids and this was how we were gonna spend it?  Running a crazy relay on no sleep?  My rationale is that I'm setting an example for my kids on how to be active and have fun.  Plus they had a blast with their weekend with the grandparents, so it was definitely a win-win for us all.
Will I do it again?  Most definitely.  Sign me up for Ragnar TN 2015!

Cheers!

Halloween 2014

Somehow, this past October has been much busier than previous years.  Sadly, we weren't able to squeeze in our annual trip to Gentry Farms' pumpkin patch.  We only saw the Cheekwood scarecrows once.  And Justin's two weekends off were jam-packed with activities and parties that nothing else fall-related could fit!

We did manage to make our annual trip to Oktoberfest, complete with yet another year of a child (begrudgingly) wearing lederhosen!

As far as Halloween goes, when we asked Lissie a month or so ago what she wanted to be, she immediately responded with an enthusiastic "PIZZA!"  Justin and I half-heartedly tried to talk her into something that could be store-bought, but after doing a Google image search on homemade pizza costumes, Justin was more than willing to give it his best shot.  All I had to do was supply the teacher discount card to Jo-Ann, haha.

I'll admit that I was a bit worried that this would be a big fail.  That it wouldn't look up to par.  Or that, with Justin's crazy schedule, he wouldn't finish what he started.

I should never have doubted, though.  Because when given a challenge, he doesn't give up.  And he ended up going above and beyond and creating the best looking pizza costumes ever!

Since Lissie was going to get a chance to wear her costume at her school Halloween party, we decided to even up the playing field and take Xavier to Goblins in the Garden at Cheekwood so he could enjoy some solo Halloween fun, as well.

It was X's first time trick-or-treating, and Cheekwood always does a great job keeping the children entertained with art projects and a stroll through the gardens with stops along the way to get candy.  Xavier had a great time showing off his costume and loved being a ham for all the admiring passersby.

Lissie, too, enjoyed trick-or-treating around the church at her school and had a blast at her class Halloween party.

But, the best fun was saved for Halloween day itself.  We started off with trick-or-treating around the Y so they could show their new friends their costumes and, really, to just whet their appetites for more - haha.  After nap time, we made our way to our friend's annual Halloween party and trick-or-treating.

Just some pizzas eating pizza.

The costumes were a huge hit everywhere we went.  Major props to daddy for making their costumes!  Lissie's already requested something special for next year.  We'll just have to wait and see....