{some days off}

I had off for the last six days and it was very nice. The last time I had off this long was at the beginning of the year and it was only because I was deathly ill. Okay, not deathly, but still pretty ill and it sucks being sick over the holidays. First we had a sick little man, then I was sick. Boo on that!

 

Anyways, I ended up having the last six days off because I work Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and our office was closed on Thursday and Friday due to the holiday. It ended up being a pretty nice vacation, despite not going away anywhere totally awesome. But just because we didn't go away doesn't mean we weren't busy busy busy!

 

On Wednesday of last week, Ayden, myself, Victoria, and Parker all went to High Cliff for a picnic and a hike and everyone had a great time! We hiked up and down big hills and ran up the tower, took pictures, smiled, joked around, and had an all around good time. Oh, and got bitten up by mosquitoes. Haha!

 

Wednesday night, once again, all four of us, plus Victoria's sister and her family, went to see Despicable Me 2 at the movie theater and even though I didn't see the first one (despite Victoria loaning it to me... still haven't made the time to sit down and watch it), I thought it was super good and hilarious! I knew that if we were laughing hard within the first five minutes of the movie that it was going to be a good movie!

 

Thursday was the 4th of July. Ayden slept over night at my dad's house on Wednesday because Victoria and I were running in a 5k on Thursday morning and Jay had to work. We rocked that 5k, that's all I have to say about that. Well, I do have more to say. I set goals for each of us to beat in order to get a piece of the apple pies they were serving up after the run. I wanted to come in under 30 minutes and I set the goal of under 45 minutes for Victoria. I haven't really been training hard with running lately... just kind of taking it easy, so I knew that my goal was kind of ambitious. I knew I had done it before, but it had been since my half marathon that either of us had really run our races since we brought the kiddos for the May one and the June one was our mud run. We were both excited to just get out there and get going though.

 

I busted my ass during the run and I think I started out just a little too fast. I hit my goal and came in just under 29 minutes. It was hard though. I definitely felt that I maybe pushed myself a little too hard, but damn when I set a goal, I'm going to hit it! Victoria came in just a few seconds over 45 minutes, but I told her that she could still have her piece of pie. We each gave it our all and we deserved it! It was a good run and I felt really good about it afterwards!

 

Ayden spent the rest of the day hanging out at my dad's house playing with Alexis which meant that I spent the rest of my day reading and relaxing outside. We headed to the beach later that night with my dad and brother and sister and Ayden and my uncle for some fireworks. The fireworks were pretty good, but I have to admit that I miss being right under them like we were while we were in Point. Plus, down by the beach I was freezing. I had jeans, two sweat shirts and a blanket wrapped around me and I was still cold. Haha! And then Ayden and Alexis were in their shorts just playing in the sand and having a great time! It was definitely worth it, that's for sure!

 

On Friday we ended up hanging out with Jay's parents and some of their friends down by a different lake and having fun. We all played a game of croquet and Jay and his teammate were winning for most of the game and my teammate and I were losing most of the game, but we made a come back towards the end and ended up winning. Jay didn't like that, lol!

 

Ayden stayed over night with grandma and grandpa on Friday and Saturday night, so I had the majority of my Saturday and Sunday to myself. I did a few workouts, read some of my book, did a few wedding things, edited pictures, watched TV, did some cleaning. Nothing really exciting either of those two days. It played into my mood too.

 

And yesterday, to cap off my mini vacation, my sister, Emily, her boyfriend, John, myself, and Ayden all went and visited the Milwaukee Zoo! It was raining when we got there, but that didn't last long and we didn't let that hamper our good moods. We had a great day at the zoo seeing all of the different animals. Many of the animals were up and about and interacting in their enclosures so it was exciting. The gorilla even came up the glass and kicked it pretty hard twice... right in front of us! Kind of scary, but cool at the same time because so many times I've been to that zoo and the gorillas aren't even out! All I could think about was that for whatever reason yesterday was going to be the day that the gorilla broke through the glass and went on a rampage through the zoo and we were going to be right in front of it when it happened, haha! And we got to touch sting rays! The elephants were having fun! The brown bear was up and moving around! It was really a good day! Plus, I didn't have to drive which made it even better!

 

I'm excited for Wednesday because I get to go try on my wedding dress again. I think Ayden and I might also picnic on the beach or walk out to the lighthouse. We shall see. It will be another good mommy and Ayden day, that's for sure!

 

CIAO! LOVE ME!