Birthday Weekend Fun!

Lunch on Friday was a bowl of greens, leftover meatballs, hummus and carrots, plus some fruit.

If you have Spotify, check out this playlist. I’m OBSESSED. Talk about some awesome throwbacks!

A girlfriend, Ashley, tagged me in this on Facebook. Don’t those look amazing?!

Kayla and I had a race Saturday morning, so we met at Galloway to grab dinner and properly hydrate before our early morning wake-up call!

We shared a veggie burger and fries.

Then it was up early to drive 50 minutes to our race! I chowed down on half a bagel with PB and honey.

We were both excited for this race, but also nervous. We had heard it was pretty challenging, but we knew the views were going to be amazing.

My friend, Jordan, came down from STL to run it, too! I love having girlfriends who are awesome runners, it makes races so much fun!

Jordan’s boyfriend, Trevor, had a mountain bike race Sunday morning (which he placed second in!!!!), so he was our crew for Saturday morning. Thank you, Trevor!!

I ended up coming in as the 5th overall female and placing 1st in my age group! This race was HARD. I definitely had to use some tough love on myself when we climbed hills. There really weren’t any flat sections in the course, and as soon as you would ascend a hill, there would be another one waiting for you. While this race was tough, I loved it and definitely want to do it again next year. This was also my last race as a 28 year old!

I posted about my amazing cross country coach a few weeks back, the one who was SO encouraging and inspiring – here he is! He’s still running and kicking butt. His wife, Jenny, came in 2nd overall! They’re both incredible.

We survived!!! I have to brag on Kayla a little…she had never ran anything over 5 miles before this race, which I didn’t know! There is a disclaimer for this race and they encourage experienced runners only to sign up, and that it shouldn’t be someone’s first 6 miles. Well, Kayla KILLED it and it was her FIRST 6 mile race. I was (and still am) SO impressed. She had a goal of finishing under 60 minutes, which is impressive for this hilly course, and she beat that goal! She finished in 59 and some change. WOW. I think she has caught the racing fever and I am currently trying to get her to sign up for her first half marathon. She’s awesome!

 My plaque for 1st! I was laughing really hard at Kayla here because she was being such a Mom – she chased me down the hill to get pictures and it cracked me up…while awards were still going on…right where I was standing.

Then it was home to change, get our fellas, and meet friends at Early Bird for brunch! I had the lox and bagel sliders with sweet potato nugs and it was delicious!

Jake was on call all last week and this weekend, so we needed to stay kind of close to home in case he got called in, which happened A LOT. I think he had almost 30 hours of over time! But after brunch, I was pretty worn out, so we went home and I napped. Then it was off to my parents for a family BBQ! Can you tell which friend hates pictures? ; )

We had all this goodness!!! Jake’s Mom, Penny, made an amazing broccoli casserole, Cynthia made an incredible sweet potato hummus, Katie brought a potato casserole which was delicious, and Kallie made an awesome homemade salsa!! My parents grilled brats and these little steak and bacon bites that I love. Everything was SO good.

I love these people! Thank you for celebrating with me, guys! I don’t think my nephew, Ralph, liked me holding his paw…

My Mom made my favorite cookies – No Bakes!!! Mmmm.

After dinner, we met more friends at a bar and played Jenga! It would scare me so bad every time the blocks fell over…

Then we went to a new country concert and did some line dancing! It was a super fun night!

On Sunday, I spent most of the day cuddling my girls. Jake was still on call, so we didn’t have any crazy plans. It felt really good to just be lazy!

Jake got called out to work in the morning, so I made myself breakfast and binge watched Scandal on Netflix. It was PERFECT.

Jake came home with flowers and the sweetest card ever, so we relaxed a little more, then he got called out again. Poor guy!

I think 29 is going to be the best year yet!!

Jake came home again and we were starving, so we went to Galloway and shared these nachos. About the time our food came out, Jake got called back to work, so we got everything to go and he headed to the shop.

I crawled back into bed to watch more Scandal and enjoy my BLT. I never just lay around all day, and after being out until almost 1:30 the night before, it sure felt good to just chill.

Lu was enjoying Scandal, too!

I had the rest of my BLT for dinner, then Jake called about 8 pm and said he wouldn’t be home until around 11, so I took myself to get birthday ice cream. Which I ate while watching Scandal…I had a VERY lazy day…it helped that it was drizzly all day.

Then I had this for breakfast!

Some of my girlfriends are having a BBQ tonight for my birthday, so we will go to Katie’s house for that this evening. I can’t wait to see everyone again! I’m going to spend the day meal prepping and working on my dissertation.

Happy Monday!