All Because of a Taco Salad...

Two weeks ago, for my long Saturday run I ran 13 miles and I felt awful! My breathing was off, which led to a side ache for most of the run, and I was really tired. Three days later, when I ran my 7 miler my feet were hurting and I had a couple of pains in my tailbone. Wednesday night I actually iced my feet because they were hurting. Luckily, I had my two day break, and then only a 10 miler the next Saturday. By then I realized what my problem was, when I had no problems before that and I had run a 12 miler and a few 10 milers. The night before that awful run, I had a taco salad for dinner! Of course everyone knows that you're supposed to have a meal high in carbs the night before a big run, some sort of pasta is best. I just didn't really think about it that week. I had been feeling so good on my runs and didn't think 13 miles was very far, compared to 16,18, or 20 miles. We just happened to have our leftovers scheduled for that night and taco salad is what we had. It didn't help, either, that we were out of bananas, my preferred snack before a run for the past 10 years, so I had a plum instead. Needless to say, I have made sure to have a good pasta dinner every Friday night since. It definitely pays off. Last Saturday I ran 15 miles and felt great!! I even managed to pull around an 8.6 minute pace. The best part is that I felt good on my run today and am not dreading my 8 miler tomorrow.

Note to self: Do not eat a taco salad the night before a big run!!

Swimming and Camping

Victoria and Karissa completed their swimming classes for this summer. Though I gave them the option to take anther course, neither of them was interested. Victoria has a ton of fun in the water and loves to get wet, but she always says she's nervous about jumping in and getting her face wet. I could always hear her telling her instructor how nervous she was, even though I was across the pool room, up in the bleachers; that's how loud her voice is! Of course, everyone already knows how excited Karissa is about the water.... Luckily, we've been swimming in our neighbor's pool every weekend for the past month now, so they are actually getting more comfortable even without lessons anymore. Karissa even lets me let go of her now so she can hang onto her ring and sit on a raft without clinging to me for dear life!

Here's Karissa with Jason at her last class. She was actually enjoying herself here!

Victoria was supposed to swim without her instructor here, but didn't feel ready yet. She'll get there!
Last night we went camping at a lovely site. There were some flowers and nice trees, the ground was even freshly mowed! Okay, so the chicas and I camped in our backyard just for kicks. We haven't been in a while and had to cancel our upcoming trip at the lake. To make it up to the chicas, we sent up the tent, started a fire in the pit, had s'mores, and really enjoyed our "camping trip". The first thing Victoria said this morning when she woke up was, "This was the most fun ever!"

Musical Theater

Last week Victoria and Karissa went to a musical theater camp. This was their "big" summer activity, besides our vacation in August. Karissa's was for an hour each day and Victoria's for 1 1/2 hours immediately following. It was at the Village Theater here in Canton, which was beautiful! They both got to sing, dance, act, dress up, and perform on stage, as well as learn some technical aspects of the performing arts. While there, we discovered that High School Musical will be performed there at the end of the month. Since my chicas are major fans of the show and the soundtrack, I jumped on the tickets! The teachers even commented on how Karissa knew all the words to every song on the soundtrack. Now, Victoria goes around pretending to be Sharpay or Hannah Montana (it's amazing how fast she went from her obsession with princesses to "rock stars", as she calls them!)

Here's Karissa holding her puppet after her puppet show.

Here's the videos of their final performances.

Finally!

Austin finally walked long enough for me and the camera was nearby, so here is a little video of him.

Long Weekend

We started our long 4th of July weekend with Jason coming home early on Friday with Slurpees, as a special surprise! I seriously could count on one hand how many times I have had a Slurpee in our 11 years of marriage, as opposed to the many, many times I had them as a kid. I don't if there's just fewer 7/11's around where we've lived, or if I've just been getting too old to care, but I sure enjoyed my special treat! Karissa, however, the weird eater that she is, wouldn't even try it. Victoria happily had hers the next day.

Friday evening we went to a wedding reception at the U of M botanical gardens and it was sooo beautiful and lovely. The kids had a great time between the yummy food, the dancing, and all the gardens we could wander through. I took some great shots there.

We had some friends over for a bbq on the 4th and used our special grilling rub we got from our grilling class. The chicken was excellent! Jason and I watched fireworks from our window. We figured since he and Victoria saw them two weeks ago, there was no need to have another tired day for her, or anyone else for that matter. We had to save our energy for the our tri-ward picnic at the park today in the 95 degree weather with humidity to make it feel like over 100! We enjoyed low 70s all last week, but Mother Nature decided to crank up the heat a little for the holiday. So, luckily, we were able to swim at our neighbor's house on Saturday and today in the afternoon. Even Karissa had fun and I enjoyed soaking my running legs (I'm training for a marathon).

Happy Independence Day!