Grandpa's Lilacs

I am soooo lucky to have the opportunity to make my grandparents home (my mother's home) my own. It is so chock full of memories that could never be recreated. I actually cried last summer when I thought for a few days it was time to move on to someplace new. Silly I know.

One huge benefit of this home is a huge lilac tree in the backyard - that luckily multiplies some with replanting - that was pride and joy of my grandpa. Now every spring I am reminded of him and his love for all things gardening/flowering. I look forward to picking this fragrant blooms and enjoying them throughout the home and sharing with others. Even cuter is my other grandpa now brings me lilacs from his yard when he comes to visits.

 

Before I know it the peonies will be in bloom and another gorgeous sweet smelling reminder of my Grandpa VanEvery.

Gambler Half Marathon 2015

The poor Gambler must have some curse on it as every single year the weather is horrible. This year was no exception. My view as I gave myself a pep talk to get out and go running was this:

 

 

Not exactly ideal for a 13+ mile run. Especially a run I was highly highly unprepared for. As in my longest run was 6 miles, and a majority of my runs were of the 2-4 mile variety. But I really wanted to participate to support this great event in my community and figured it can't be that bad....

 

 

As you can see from my face it probably was that bad and then some lol. I actually wasn't all that sore or in pain running other than I unfortunatly got a cramp in my calf around mile 4 that stuck around the remainder of the run. Mostly I was just misereable wet and cold. The rain would not let up and it was cold and windy. Bad combo for a girl that hates rain and cold. The highlight of the race was seeing my mom and little brother twice. They graciously volunteered at a water stop (that we passed twice) and cheered me on. They were just as misereable in the rain I am sure.

 

 

I was crazy happy to finish and get out of the rain. Somehow my Garmin VivoSmart had me at  17.38 miles so I for sure have a horrible stride and/or dodge a LOT of puddles along the way. Regardless a full day of steps before noon!

 

 

I figured all that running the the awful weather earned me some after run treats. Chocolate milk for the nutrional value, a donut, and a shock top. Totally deserved and normal combinations right?

For real look at how soaking wet my feet were! Yuck

I also threw in a nice warm cozy bath with some awesome Arbonne products to help warm me up and work out at least some of the soreness that I knew was for sure headed my way later that day.

Overall my time was nothing to get excited about or brag about but hey I finished another half marathon in very less than stellar weather.

 

Official race time was 2.27.52 which was an 11.18 mile pace. For sure slow as a turle for most true runners but not as horrible as I expcted considered my lack of training. One of these days I need to really train for a race again and try for a respectable time :)



Easter Flights and Cape Air

In the interest of not paying a small fortune for airline tickets (due to schedule issues) we ended up traveling on Easter this year to Vieques. Obviously not ideal but we made the most of it starting with Easter Bunny headbands - that I more or less wore all day. And fun Easter cocktails and treats throughout the day.

We have been flying Cape Air from San Juan to Vieques the last several trips. I can't say enough how amazing it is. Truly life changing as far as the trip goes. The ferry is cheaper yes - but such a time killer and rough on those of us like myself who don't do well with motion....

San Juan

Vieques

Cape Air has lots of flights and its a mere 25 mintues of fun before you arrive ont he island. The views you get to enjoy while en route are to die for. Such pretty pretty views of both San Juan and Vieques along with the water. All the pilots are always super friendly and nice and luggage restrictions are essentially the same as your main airlines so nothing to be concerned about.

 

San Juan

 

My poor mom is even more claustophobic than I so struggeld a little with the extra small plane we ended up on the last flight but for the most part the planes are large enough and with plenty of windows to be more fun less stuck in a tin box with no means of escape.

 

San Juan

Color Vibe 5k

I love these color runs. I mean really what's not to love about running or walking through poofs of fun color and looking like a bright tye dyed explosion when you are done?

Luckily the forecasted rain held off until we finished or I might have been not quite a fan.

This was more of a walk, talk, and throw color on each other than true race so no times to report. Just fun colorful pictures.

Starfish Beach

 

Another must find beach on my list this trip was the Starfish Beach. Again the cool instagram photos were killing me with desire to fnid this beach. 100's of starfish, seaturtles, and more?? Yes please! We had tried to find it last trip but must have been the wrong time of year or we just didn't look hard enough as sure enough the minute we pulled up to the beach by the pier we saw 100's of starfish in the water. SOOOOO pretty and cool. We loved snorkeling around checking them all out.

 

There were also a lot of really realy pretty fish by the pier. Sadly we didn't see any sea turtles but now thinking maybe we should have swam further out? Either way this is a must visit beach if you are on the island. It's the beach to the left of the old navy pier. Driving out onto the pier is fun as well and another great viewing spot for fish.

I even managed to capture a fun picture of Erik enjoying the day with a Medalla. The beer that always taste delic on the island but we would probably turn our noses up to here. lol.

Black Sand Beach Vieques

I had always heard (and saw via instagram cool photos) about this neat black sand beach in Vieques but had never managed to find it. This trip I was on a mission to find the black sand and the starfish ( coming in another post) and luckily found both! Soooo pretty and unique. We were told it was quite a treacherous hike to the beach but it truly wasn't bad at all, made even easier with a medalla of course ;)

The black sand was so darn and fine and pretty. I took about a million pictures of it.

 

I also loved the pretty cliffs surrounding the beach itself. We enjoyed a little swimming (more wading here as was somewhat rough) and a nice picnic before heading back.

 

Erik even managed to pick up a friend along the way....

If you visit the island this beach is a must see and way way easier to find than I realized.