On Friday, I grabbed lunch with my parents. My Momma was pretty excited that her new glasses matched her shirt. She’s pretty goofy! I showed her this picture and she clapped. Never a dull moment with her! <3
Then I came home and cleaned our whole house! Well, minus the bathrooms. That’s on my to-do list for today! I was worn out after cleaning, I’m sure Jake felt really sorry for me after being at work all day. ; ) Jake got home and we went to meet my friend Katie and her boyfriend for dinner.
We went to Civil Kitchen, one of our favorites, and shared a HUGE beet salad (I forgot to take a picture) and this amazing steak. Both were incredible. And those brussels were delicious, too!
Katie’s boyfriend hates pictures, but I told him he had to take one. Sorry for being mean, Layne! ; )
Love her! We hadn’t seen each other in WAY too long.
We accidentally coordinated. I loved it! Jake’s doesn’t like to match.
I did a 10 mile trail run at Two Rivers on Saturday. It was hard. Mentally and physically. I wanted to stop at mile 4. Normally my miles on trail fly by because I just love it so much, but I struggled Saturday. My pace was pretty good for being on trail, I think I finished my 10 with a 10:18 average, but I just felt sluggish. I was also chugging all the water. It felt good to get a long run in. I hadn’t ran anything long for almost two weeks.
Two Rivers is beautiful.
I’m not sure if I have talked about this before, but here’s a funny-ish story for you! I have bigger legs, I always have. I don’t really love that, especially when trying to buy jeans – it’s HARD! But, I am learning to embrace my legs because they are strong and allow me to work hard. So, that being said, when Jake called me a mountain goat when we first started dating, I was NOT amused. Men, right? ; ) Well, after I got offended at being called that, he tried to explain that it was a compliment. I didn’t believe him. This has been an on-going discussion for probably over a year now. I always give him a hard time about it. The other day Jake told me he got me a surprise – it was this shirt. The brand is Run Steep Get High and it’s a mountain running clothing line. Their symbol is a mountain goat. I love it! I guess presents CAN help you get over being offended. I think I need a few more… ; )
After my run Saturday (Jake chopped wood for 3 hours while I ran), we grabbed wings from Coyote’s and then stopped by his parent’s house for a little bit. We decided to have a date night to celebrate our engagement, so we grabbed a glass of wine from Cellar and Plate, then went to dinner at Metropolitan Grill – one of our absolute favorite restaurants. We had a blast and started planning our wedding and honeymoon! I’ll share more on that later!
Metro brings out this incredible bread and dipping sauce before you get your meal. I think I could eat 7 of those rolls…
Jake and I shared this Caesar salad – doesn’t it look awesome?
Okay, this is one of the best meals I’ve ever tasted and I am not a huge pork fan…Jake got this and I ALMOST stole it from him. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was a pork dish with green chiles. Holy yum. It was amazing.
I got my usual, the Yoakam. It’ apricot balsamic glazed steak with bread and cheese. It’s an appetizer, but you can get a half size, so I typically just get it as my meal. We had a lot of leftovers, so we were going to use them to make lunch for Sunday! We were both pumped about that.
Jake and I love bourbon, so we picked up a new one to try. I did not really like this one at all, but I love trying new things. It just had a bite that I wasn’t a huge fan of. Any bourbon drinkers out there? What’s your favorite??
Aspen is under that blue blanket. This is a fight just waiting to happen…when our girls are ready for bed, they are so grouchy. I think Lu is giving Aspen the evil eye right here…
On Sunday, we met our friends Scottie and Brandi at the lake to paddle board! Before we met them, Jake wanted to finish some things for the race courses he put together for the Single Track Mind Festival that we are going to this weekend. I decided to get another day of trail running in while he did that. My plan was to get 7 in, but my ankle had other plans. Eye-roll. I was really good after 3 miles! My legs were pretty dead, but I was expecting that after running at Two Rivers two days in a row. It was a beautiful morning.
These Skratch chews are my favorite. It’s seriously like eating candy…YUM. Still super obsessed with this hat, too! <3 It’s comfortable and stays put. I was about a mile from finishing, when I started to climb a hill and landed sideways on my ankle. Normally I can catch myself when I start to roll an ankle, but I had just lifted up my other foot to climb, so when I pushed off of the foot that was on the ground, I was really pushing off of my ankle. I didn’t see a rock and I must’ve stepped right on it. As soon as I did that, I knew I sprained the ankle pretty badly. It immediately dropped me to my knees, then I sat in the middle of the trail and cried. It knocked the wind out of me, too, which I think scared me a little. Then I was just mad. I stared walking back, then was able to run the rest of the way, but I stuck to flat areas.
With our amazing leftovers from our date night Saturday night, Jake made burritos for us to eat on our way to the lake! He knows I need to eat RIGHT after I run. I try to run on an empty stomach because eating the wrong thing before a run makes my acid reflux TERRIBLE. But I’m also the worst hangry person in the world – Jake’s a lucky guy, huh?! ; ) I’m SO glad we had these for after my run…I inhaled mine! They were incredible.
Ready to hit the water!!
It was the perfect lake day! Brandi and I may or may not be pretty burnt…
This is so impressive to me! Brandi is awesome.
We had an absolute blast! Scottie’s face in this picture makes me laugh! My ankle was pretty sore at this point and it had started to get a little swollen. I needed to get home and ice it.
Jake and I ran by the grocery store on our way home to grab some stuff to prep lunches. We saw these and couldn’t resist. So. Good.
Jake threw together this mixture, which we will make into burritos for his lunches! It tasted really good!
We went to dinner with our friends Michael and Kindal, who are getting married at the end of September. I failed to get a picture with them – we were having too much fun! We cannot wait for their wedding – it’s going to be SO much fun!
We went to dinner with our friends Michael and Kindal, who are getting married at the end of September. I failed to get a picture with them – we were having too much fun! We cannot wait for their wedding – it’s going to be SO much fun!
Yeah, I got a little sun on the lake…I put sunscreen on too late. I’m REALLY bad about sunscreen. It drives Jake crazy.
The ole ankle is pretty swollen. Ugh. I’m really hoping it heals up quickly. I’m also really bad about being patient…I want to run Tuesday!
Aspen was worried about me. Or annoyed that I was taking her picture. The verdict is still out… ; )
Jake and I are going to do a core/weights/prevention/stretching circuit together in the mornings. We started with arms this morning. This HURT. I hadn’t done anything with weights or lifting since we left for Colorado. It always blows my mind how hard it is to get into shape, but then how quickly you can lose it.
We finished up our egg muffins this morning. I am going to make more for the rest of the week this afternoon. These were so yummy and it was nice to know we already had breakfast made.
The icing and heating of the ankle begins! I’m determined to be healed by Saturday…
Made some cold brew to get me through this Monday! I have a bunch of computer work to do today, so I’m going to knock all of that out! This is my last weekend before I defend my dissertation proposal. GULP. For any new readers, I am in the last year or my PhD program at Mizzou. My emphasis is Literacy and Technology and eventually, I’d love to teach full time on the collegiate level. I will graduate in May – WAHOO!!!! I am about to start my dissertation, I just have to defend my proposal next week and get approved to start! It’s kind of surreal…
We are going to Two Rivers again tonight to set up the air bag for Single Track Mind – check it out on Facebook if you aren’t sure what it is – it’s a seriously good time! They have mountain bike races, running races, a concert, food trucks, different vendors, camping…all kinds of stuff! There’s even a cash payout for the races! I’m (hopefully) racing the heavy half when my ankle heals and then I’m leading a fun, short trail run on Sunday! Come run with me! : )
P.S. A reader asked to hear the story of how Jake and I met and started dating, so I will do a write-up about that tomorrow!
I hope your Monday is wonderful!