Christmas this year was unlike any other we'd shared thus far and I loved it! Looking back, we laughed about how Brayden has changed so much from his past three years of Christmas celebrations.
On his first Christmas, he was only 10 months old and not very interested in opening presents at all. Last year, he was a year and a half and ok with it but didn't really care much about the opening presents part. This year though...he LOVED ripping paper and opening presents! Such a huge change from previous years. It really is amazing to see how much they grow, develop, and change as time passes by!
Anyway, we celebrated our little family Christmas on Saturday morning because our plan was to spend Christmas with my brother and family in Texas. Hauling all those presents to and from Texas didn't sound like a pleasant idea!
After we finished opening presents, we decided to take Brayden to Ihop for Grinch pancakes, which he then decided to call them "Grinch cakes"! His excitement over his "Grinch cakes" was hysterical!
On Sunday, we loaded up our vehicle and made our way to Texas to see my brother and his wife. No trip to Texas is complete without a stop at Buc-ee's!
Or seeing the Buc-ee's mascot for that matter!
That night, my brother took us to Wimberly, Texas to look at the trail of lights! These lights were gorgeous and so neat to see! Brayden LOVES Christmas lights, so this was a delight for him as well!
We made so many fun memories over the weekend and really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with my family!
This giant gift bag was almost as tall as Brayden! I couldn't resist putting him inside! :)
Now, the saddest day of the year for me has arrived...the day after Christmas. I absolutely hate when everything is over, all of the presents are opened and the family gatherings are through. It just all goes by so fast! Oh well, only 364 days to go....
There's only 14 days until Christmas and it's so hard to believe. I absolutely love this time of year and I'll admit - I get really sad once it's all said and done. Soaking up the memories and moments this season brings and seeing the wonder in a child's eyes are some of my favorite things about it.
Thank you for being patient with me on this Rock n Roll San Antonio Half Marathon recap. Over the weekend, we performed a Grinch production that reached right at 5,000 people, so this recap is a little behind and I'm sorry for that. More on The Grinch later...now, on to Rock n Roll San Antonio!
Although this race was held in downtown San Antonio, I stayed at my brother and sister-in-law's house which is about 45 minutes or so from downtown San Antonio. With this being my first time to run Rock n Roll San Antonio, I had to do a little research on the start/finish line and parking. Thankfully, this one started and finished right in the same general vicinity (unlike New Orleans...which I'm not complaining about, because Rock n Roll NOLA has its own special charm). In the end, I decided to go ahead and purchase a ticket to park at the Alamodome so we didn't have to fight traffic and parking garages. If you missed the Expo recap and would like to read that also, you can do so here.
After laying out my clothing the night before the race, I was ready to go!
The Alamodome was all lit up for Christmas and even had Christmas music playing from the speakers! It was such a fun start to the morning!
My dad and sister-in-law (Kayla) rode down to the start line with me and hung out until I finished! I thought that was so very nice of them!!
This race was a large one, kind of like New Orleans with 20+ corrals and began right above the River Walk.
I ended up in corral 9 and this was the crowd ahead of me!
Before long though, we were at the start line and ready to go!
As I was standing there waiting on the race to start, I started to ask around to fellow runners about the hills and was relieved to hear their perspective. From so many others, I'd heard that the hills were horrible here and unrelenting. Thankfully, I was informed that the route was changed this year and shouldn't be "that bad". In my head I thought "we'll see about that..." Being from Southwest Louisiana with completely flat ground and zero elevation kinda makes you see even the slightest incline and term it a "hill".
Also, I went over my race game plan in my head again. Since I'd been so sick most of November, I didn't get to properly train for this one and wanted to just finish standing upright. My longest run was a 10 mile trail run at the end of October. I also only went to Orangetheory maybe three times in between. I knew I could do it, but I just didn't know how fast. So, I decided to walk when I needed to walk, take my time, and take pictures. This was actually just a training run planned for Princess, anyway!
Before long, we were at mile 3 and I had 10 miles to go!
Rock n Roll always has such entertaining bands along the way and I loved
it! At mile 4 or so, there was a praise and worship band which was fun
to hear on a Sunday morning! They also had mariachi bands all over the
place and a group of dancers at one of the major hills.
With this being San Antonio's Tricentennial year, there were celebrations going on all over the city! I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take this picture. I had to laugh though...runners didn't form an orderly line for this one and people kept slipping in to take their photo in front of me. I thought in my head "obviously these people have never run Disney!" (It truly was comical!)
One of the most touching parts of this race was around mile 8 or so. It was called the "Military Mile" and for about half a mile, photos of fallen soldiers with their names, ages, and the date they were killed in action were listed on these pictures.
Never in my life DURING a race has a moment touched my heart like this one did. It seemed like an endless number of pictures kept going by. Nothing but complete silence could be heard, except for the sound of the runners shoes hitting the pavement. My eyes filled with tears at the photos of soldiers with their babies and families. My heart so admires our veterans and those who dedicate their lives for our freedom. We truly should be thankful for them.
As we neared the end of the military mile, I stared to hear cheering. It grew louder and louder and as I looked up from the photos, I saw people with flag after flag after flag...and they were cheering US on. This is where I could no longer hold the tears back and I lost it. Some of those holding the flags were dressed in fatigues and it was so great being able to give them a high five and thank them for their service. It might sound a little cheesy, but my heart was definitely swelling with pride for our great nation we live in. Yes, we have our flaws just like any other nation...but for real, it's pretty great.
This whole entire mile has seriously made my top 10 favorite race moments list!
Around mile 11, we hit our first major hill. This one reminded me of the underpass near the Contemporary (for my runDisney friends)! At the top of the bridge were dancers dressed in their cultural costumes - it was so cool!
Ya know I gotta take my traditional mile 12 photo!
As we were nearing mile 13, I started to realize that we hadn't seen The Alamo. I thought maybe I missed it, but at that moment, I heard another runner say to her friend that she was bummed we didn't run in front of The Alamo. Kinda funny since that's one of San Antonio's biggest landmarks. My brother later told me that they were doing construction at The Alamo so maybe that's why? I'm still not sure!
My dad and sister-in-law were waiting for me near the mile 13 sign, so I stopped to say hello and take a picture!
The finish line wasn't far behind and just like that - I finished my 32nd Half Marathon and you know what? The hills were NOT bad at all. There were only two of them which was totally doable to me! (I'd honestly had this environment of one giant hill that just kept going up and down and up and down the entire race!)
I also received an extra medal since I ran Rock n Roll New Orleans this year, too (lets face it, that extra medal is one of the only reasons I signed up for San Antonio)! We didn't stick around long because the race took a little longer than I wanted it to - I think I finished in 2:36 or something along those lines.
On our way back to my brother and sister-in-law's house, we stopped for a coffee break and I ordered the Candy Cane Mocha. It was SO good!!!
We also had a late lunch at McAlisters which I (of course) loved!
Brayden wasn't amused that he had his own Rock n Roll San Antonio shirt, too...but I still made him take a picture with me anyway!
That's a wrap on our Rock n Roll San Antonio Half Marathon weekend! If you're interested in a video recap, check this one out below! :)
Well, despite not being fully prepared (due to this prolonged sickness I'm finally almost over), Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio weekend is here!
I'm currently registered to run the half and am looking forward to experiencing the sights (and hills...yikes) of 13.1 miles in a new city. To date, I've only run 10 miles of training, so I'm not expecting a lot from this race experience other than just that...the experience. This will also be a good training run on my way to the Princess Half Marathon in February.
Some things I'm looking forward to this weekend include:
Seeing the River Walk all decked out for Christmas
Visiting with my brother and sister in law again and spending time with family
Expo shopping
Things I'm not looking forward to:
Running hills
Hills
More hills
Did I mention the hills?
I had to seriously laugh out loud last week when I was reading a review of this race course that called it a "flat course". Clearly the person who wrote that has never run a race in Southwest Louisiana...with zero inclines or even the slightest bit of a hill. We shall see what I think about the course after running this race!
Ready or not, here we come!
Be sure to follow along on Instagram for all of our race weekend fun!!
Have you ever run Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio? Any advice?
This week seriously flew by. Since I was off work on Monday, I was thrown off all week and couldn't remember which day it was! There were several really stressful days at work too, which led to a really bad headache that didn't let up. An extra unplanned rest day took place because of it but oh well. This week hasn't been the best in terms of working out but that's ok. I'm not technically training for anything anyway, so keeping a base is what's most important to me right now.
Currently Training For:
Dopey Challenge 2018 - Walt Disney World
Rock n Roll New Orleans Half Marathon 2018 - New Orleans, LA
Contraband Days 5 Miler
4 on the 4th
Rock n Roll San Antonino Half
Saturday - Walked 6 miles at the San Marcos outlet malls Sunday - 2.5 mile hill run plus 7 miles of walking at Sea World Monday - Orangetheory Endurance Day Tuesday - Rest Day Wednesday - Unplanned Rest Day Thursday - Another Unplanned Rest Day Friday - Orangetheory
As mentioned in yesterday's post, we traveled to Texas to visit my brother and sister in law this past weekend. I wasn't sure how many times I would get to lace up my running shoes while there, but it just so happens that it worked out twice for me!
On Sunday morning, my brother asked if I wanted to go for a run with him and I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity! He literally lives in "hill country" and I was kind of worried about elevation and inclines.
Again, Orangetheory proved to be paying off because I didn't feel near as fatigued or worn out as I expected to feel!
We also saw all kinds of deer that morning. It was so neat to see them out and about as that's not something I'm used to seeing super often around here.
In total, we made it 2.5 miles in the run. I felt great afterwards and was ready to begin our day at Sea World. By the end of the day, I calculated that we walked 7 miles at the park (not including the morning run). Needless to say, our feet and legs were tired by the time it was all said and done!
After discovering that New Braunfels has an Orangetheory, I signed up for a Monday morning workout. This was my first time visiting a different OTF gym and it was really a cool experience! The coach was AMAZING and helped me out a lot with my form and suggestions on ways to tweak things. The class was also super small (only 7 people), so that was pretty cool too.
This workout was an endurance workout and after logging so many miles at Sea World the day before, my legs did NOT want to move on the treadmill. It really was a great workout, though and I left feeling refreshed!
The remainder of the week was a huge bust. Between stressful days at work, headaches that wouldn't let up, and rain, I didn't even manage to step outside for a walk. I'm making up for it this morning with my second Orangetheory workout for the week.
There's no major plans for the weekend here which I'm looking forward to. Our cruise is just around the corner, so I might pull out my suitcase and begin the packing process. Other than that, I plan on keeping it pretty low key and I'm 100% ok with that!
Our Father's Day weekend this year was spent in the hill country of Texas! My brother and sister-in-law recently made a move to the hill country (literally last week) and they invited us to spend the weekend with them. Jason was scheduled to work nights on Father's Day Weekend (sad times), so he wasn't able to join us.
We had so much fun on our Texas adventures, I wanted to share them with you today!
No trip to Texas is complete without a stop at Buc-ee's! This "rest stop" seriously has it ALL including home decor, clothing, and food!
We also got to meet the "real" Buc-ee and Brayden gave him a high five! :)
On Saturday, we spent the morning at the San Antonio Zoo! It took us about 3 hours to walk all around and see everything the zoo had to offer. We also arrived just as the zoo was opening, so it wasn't terribly hot and the animals were all out for us to see!
This was also Brayden's very first zoo experience! Fun times!
He LOVED the fish!
Randomly, we saw that one of their elephants was named Karen! Of course, I had to take a picture!
We arrived at the giraffe area, just in time to feed a few of them. It was so cool to take part in this "extra" experience and see the pure joy on Brayden's face. He LOVED it!
This really was a super cool experience and totally worth the extra money to participate!
One of the giraffes was named Brayden, so we (of course) had to take a picture with his sign!
Birds are also another favorite of Brayden's, and he loved seeing the pink flamingos!
After the zoo, we cleaned up then had a Father's Day dinner of BBQ to celebrate my dad.
The brisket was melt-in-your-mouth kinda good! YUM!
It was a delicious meal!
Sunday was travel day, but we still spent the morning exploring the surrounding areas around my brother and sister-in-law's home.
This pancake at Granny D's was seriously as big as my child!
The downtown area of Gruene is precious! We walked through a flea market type area and a few of the downtown shops. We also explored the oldest dance hall in Texas, the Gruene Hall! (This is where George Strait used to play, back before he was discovered!
The river was also pretty busy over the weekend...campers and tubers were all over the place!
It really was a beautiful weekend with perfect weather! The view from my brother and sister-in-law's back porch isn't too shabby, either! :)
Our weekend ended at In-N-Out Burger, something I only get to have when I travel to California and it had been YEARS since I'd had a burger from there! This place always reminds me of Disneyland!
I might have also purchased a burger for Jason and surprised him with it! :)
That pretty much sums up our Father's Day Weekend in Texas! I loved spending time with my family (minus Jason) and can't wait to do it all over again! We are already planning our next trip! :)
How was your Father's Day Weekend? Did you do anything extra special?
