Floating, Football, & Fast Feet!

Although fall is finally here, the weather hardly felt like it in September. With the heat continuing, it was actually nice to extend that warm weather a bit longer. Although, this did make for very warm field hockey practices and games. Between at least three practices and one to two games each week, Brayden’s field hockey skills have greatly improved over the season. She has a real passion for this sport and is quite a leader on the field as well. They played Country Day, Myers Park, Providence, South Meck, and Marvin Ridge. Hanleigh continued her weekly gymnastics class and is working on her back tucks.

The four of us spent a beautiful afternoon floating down the Catawba River on tubes. We packed some drinks and snacks, played some jams, and mostly relaxed. It took about two-and-a-half to three hours to float a few miles. There were many others on the river as well and it was so much fun. We can’t wait to do it again. We met up with my friend from college, Courtney, as well as her two kids, one morning at the Whitewater Center. I haven’t seen her in a very long time and she recently moved to the area, so it’s great to have another friend nearby. We spent some time visiting GG and Dadaw as well. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Jim’s house along with Mom, Kyle, and Cammy.

I spent a long weekend at Ocean Isle with Kendall, Julie, Heather, and Tonya. We had an absolute blast trying to figure out how to put up the Shibumi Shade with no wind (note: I don’t recommend doing this from a practicality perspective, but it will make you pee your pants from laughter). We exercised, danced, laid on the beach, had incredible conversations, ate great food, and drank delicious cocktails. It’s awesome to be surrounded by such incredible women. While I was there, Trent did an F3 run to honor the 20th anniversary of 9/11. They placed small American flags at police stations and fire houses. That’s a very respectful way to pay homage to such a somber day in history.

We had a couple get togethers with our wonderful neighbors as well. We celebrated Michelle’s birthday with a wonderful ladies night at Beth’s house, and we had a great dinner at Amy and Greg’s house in their beautiful backyard. It’s nice to be able to spend quality time with great friends and not feel the need to go out to an expensive restaurant to do so. The next day, my former co-worker, Bob, and his wife, Terry, stopped by to say hi. I hadn’t seen them in a couple years and they are two of the happiest people I’ve ever met. Their vibe is truly contagious. Once they left, we drove to Raleigh for the NC State versus Furman football game. This would be the first one of the season that we attended. As always, we were the first to arrive at the tailgating spot and we took the obligatory “standing-on-top-of-the-table” picture. It was awesome to be back together with our pack of friends that we hadn’t seen in two years. Hanleigh spent an afternoon with her friend, Nina, at Carowinds and had a great time. We did have an interesting situation arise during that day regarding the wearing of seatbelts. It was definitely a lesson learned for one mother as well as a lesson for our daughter in standing up for yourself and speaking up on what is right.

In preparation for the Cooper River Bridge Run, I treated myself to a neuromuscular massage, which to my delight, also included some cupping to help extract any lactic acid before the race. We ventured down to Charleston and met up with the Dunlaps, Farrells, and Whitcombs, for what would be three days of hilarity and fun. Our weekend was filled with dancing at the clubs, enjoying delicious cocktails, tasting exquisite food, mixed in with a bit of running for about an hour during the race n Saturday. We kicked off Thursday night with dinner at Edmonds Oast followed by dancing at Uptown Social. Friday morning began with yoga on the porch, visiting the expo to pick up our race packets, lunch at Taco Boy, shopping on King Street, cocktails at Stars, dinner at Muse (where our server treated us to a half drank bottle of limoncello while we waited for our table, followed by a dinner that he served to us having no clue what we were going to get). The next day, we were all up around 4:45 a.m. getting ready for the race. We made our way to the aquarium, onto the boat, onto the bus, and got in line to start the race. Usually this race is in the spring and training for it occurs around February. This time, the training occurred in the hottest months of the summer, so all of us were very doubtful in how we would perform. Surprisingly, most of us did much better than we had anticipated. I actually had a personal record and finished the race in 48 minutes and 53 seconds, which was a 7:47/mile pace. Trent finished the race in 50 minutes and 16 seconds, which was an 8:06/mile pace. This was the first time ever that I had beaten him. I will actually qualify for a faster corral next year, which was quite shocking to me. Maybe training in the heat, because it was so incredibly hot and challenging, prepared us more than we thought. After the race, we bounced around town and visited The Rarebit, Republic, Citrus Club, and capped off the day with an unbelievable dinner at R. Kitchen, then back to the house for dancing in our kitchen, and then back out again to the Warehouse. What an incredible weekend!!! Trent and I will be going next year again, but this time by ourselves. Looking forward to that! While we were gone, Brayden had a field hockey game in Asheville and Nana watched the girls. Thank you so much for taking care of our babies, Mom! We really appreciate it!

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