It WAS a wild weekend

It was totally nuts around here this weekend! Friday Kelley's dad came down from Raleigh, and Meri (Kelley's sister) and Kaighleigh (our neice) came down from Charlotte. Her mom was already here, so we had a full house! It's pretty rare we had 4 people staying with us from out of town, but luckily we had enough room for everyone. The final preperations for the party were all made, and Meri and I ended up taking shots of Firefly. I haven't done that in years.

Saturday the party went off as planned. Evil Genius was loving it. I think she understood that it was her birthday and she was the star of the show, but with a 2 year old you never know. You know there ain't no party like a 2 year old's birthday party 'cause a 2 year old's party stops at naptime.

The girls were incredibly well behaved. I sat down with Bigun before the party started and asked her to let EG have the spotlight today. I fully expected Bigun to open all the presents and blow out the candles herself. Instead she was amazing! She actually handed all of the presents to EG and was practicing how to blow out the candles with her.... I've never seen a four year old use that much restraint and discretion. Bigun's birthday party is in 3 weeks, and I'm sure she'll blow the roof off then. More details in pictures!

The birthday girl in her pretty party dress. Morgan was under the weather and couldn't make it, but his girlfriend Natalie came to represent. She brought both girls those costume pearl necklaces.

This is my mom with the girls and Baby Barrett, my cousin Ben's first kid. For mom's mom, that's all three of her great-grandkids together, and should make a great pic for her. Both of my grandmothers were unable to come to the party this year.


EG LOVED the tricycle we got her. She can barely reach the pedals but she loves being pushed around on it.


Kelley's dad and EG opening presents. He has a large format printer for printing blueprints, so he printed out some poster size pictures of the kiddo that we decorated with. My office is the only room big enough to host that many people, so today my office is decorated with 3' pictures of my girls. I love it! and Mickey had a blast too.

Kelley's mom Neena (right) and sister Meri (like Mary but short for Merideth) hanging next to a giant picture of EG from our recent beach trip.


EG on the tricycle again. Notice the ice cream mustache. We asked her if she wanted a big cake or cupcakes and she chose cupcakes and ice cream. I like it.


Ben and Barrett. The baby was a hit! I'm the oldest in my generation, the only one on my side of the family with kids. So Meri's 12 year old and Little Barrett are the only cousins my kids have so far. It was great to have them both here.


Bigun having fun after the party.

Natalie and my dad hanging out having fun.


We decorated with these giant pictures and happy birthday banners. And yes, I have a fireplace in my office, and yes, it is awesome.


She dumped sprinkles over all the cupcakes, and was loving them later. She ended up covered in icing.


This would be a great portrait of the birthday girl if her hair was down and the door was clean. oh well.

I'm trying to use the URL for pics instead of uploading them directly to blogger so maybe they can be clickable to embiggen. I can't figure out how that works.

After the party, Meri and Kelley's mom went on home. But her dad stayed around for another night. He had to leave early sunday morning though.

Sunday was actually EG's birthday. We had the party on saturday so that all the family could come into town. But with everyone gone on sunday, we had the day to ourselves to celebrate. It turned out to be very special. I still had to get my long run in, and at the last minute I convinced kelley to pack up a lunch and bring everyone else out to Furman. I got to run in the morning, almost 7 miles, I haven't pulled it off of the garmin yet. But it was a good pace, and a fun run. I hit the trails and kept around the lake some. Since the lake path is a paved loop, one time around I ended up running with a couple of diapers and some wipes in hand. I was really making a good impression on the college chicks then, you know. The cool guy running with diapers.

The kids loved playing with the ducks and turtles and all of the other wildlife in the lake. They had a blast. Eventually Kelley found a gazebo to settle into where the girls could run around in the shade. Did I mention it was hot? Around 90 degrees. That's one reason I only ran 6.6 miles instead of the 13 planned. But everyone had a great time hanging out on the lake, and once I was finished with the run, we had a great picnic lunch. Actually, they ate before I finished, and I kept watch over the kids while I ate later. Leftover party food does make decent recovery meals, as it turns out. Then we took the girls on a hike through some of the trails that I was running earlier. The kids loved running around through the woods. Poor Bigun, bless her heart. She fell off of a curb in the parking lot, and skinned up one knee. Then she tripped over a root on the trail and skinned up the other knee. Oh boy.

Then we made it back home and got the kids down for a nap. It was so hot outside, I made it over to my folks house and got in a swim. Finally, it was warm enough and not raining and I could get back in the pool. I love bilateral breathing. The backyard pools are so short, I could get one breath in on the right side, and one breath in on my left side and hit the wall to turn around. I did 44 laps without really getting out of breath. Which is also wild, because I can remember last year in prepping for my first triathlon being proud when I could do 4 laps in that pool without stopping. Now 44 laps and i'm all "meh?" whatever. That's amazing. I am feeling it in my tricepts and shoulders today, though.

After swimming I just eat like there's no tomorrow. I know swimming burns the calories out, but geez it really makes me want to stuff the face and sleep it off. ah, good times.

So EG's birthday party was this weekend. Next weekend (GAH! ONLY 6 DAYS AWAY!!) is the Festival of Flowers oly tri. The next weekend is the marathon, and the weekend after that is Bigun's birthday party. Oh I can't believe it's already here. I mean it's here. I hope the training holds up. I hope it was a good idea to run an oly tri and marathon on back to back weekends. more recovery time anyone? So paranoia is setting in. Let's check that preparation looking at may's numbers:

Swim: 800 meters (ouch, fail)

Bike: 49 miles not bad

Run: 83.8 miles now THAT looks like a marathon training plan log.

Strength: 3.8 Hours

Yoga: 4 hours

I think last month's running was only about 30 miles. More miles on the run than the bike? that's a little surprising. The strength training and yoga are right on track. I did slack a bit on the Tri Power strength workouts. Work crap. I think that's normally about 6 hours a month. But overall I am pleased with may's numbers, except the swimming.

I'm in the taper now, and have to get everything slacking off. I'm going to try and get into the pool two more times this week, and I've got to get Jenny out on the road a couple of times, and maybe into the bike shop for a little checkup before the big race saturday. but running is only going to be about 6 miles on the whole week.

So I hope your weekend was as good (and wild!) as mine was.