June Recap

I've been such a bad blogger, going for weeks at a time without even a thought of posting. Chalk it up to travel, or sheer exhaustion; both are true. 

Two days after Collin and I returned from our concert trip, Abigail and I drove out to visit Mac. This is the first summer he isn't at home, and we had a wonderful day visiting by the pool, and enjoyed a great dinner at a local restaurant with a great menu. It was fairly easy to eat vegan there, and the food was great. As always, time passed too quickly, and we were sorry to say good-bye and head back home again. 

One week later, Abigail and I hit the road again, and drove 500 miles to Pennsylvania. My dad has been asking Abigail when she was going to come and stay with them, and she decided this was the summer. We planned a two week trip for her, with me staying the first four days to recover from the drive, and visit with everyone myself. Come Friday morning, Abigail and I did a short run together, and then I packed my bags and headed out. Only, I didn't go the entire way home. 

Next stop: Miamisburg, Ohio. Verne and Mac drove together, and met me there. We enjoyed a nice dinner out, and visited with Autumn later in the evening. Verne, Mac, and I ran a 5K race Saturday morning, and all placed in our age groups. Whoo hoo! We went back to our hotel and cleaned up, and then attended the wedding of Mac's childhood best friend, Nate. The wedding was beautiful, and the reception was fun. Too bad we had to a long drive home that night. Mac was sweet, and drove my vehicle so I could ride with Verne. 

My 30 Day Vegan experiment ended last Tuesday, but I think the (mostly) plant-based way of eating is here to stay for me. Verne brought me three dozen donut holes to celebrate on Wednesday afternoon, and I did eat four of them, but I've been back on the vegan bandwagon ever since. I feel really good. I have tons of energy, and I'm enjoying the way I'm eating. That's not to say I'll never eat meat again. Or eggs, etc., but for the most part, I'm pretty happy with my diet, as is.

More driving. Someone had to pick Abigail back up, so Verne scheduled time to go with me. We drove part way last Thursday, spending the night in very hilly Morgantown, WV. Verne and I ran a light 2 miles (If you count hills as light!) Friday morning, and walked a few more. We had another race the next day and didn't want to wear ourselves out.

It was wonderful to see Abigail's face Friday afternoon, and have her arms wrapped around my neck. I missed that girl something fierce! Her daddy did, too! We got to visit with my mom and grandma, and Verne's grandma in the afternoon. Later in the evening, we had dinner with Verne's parents and introduced them to geo-caching. That was fun, and I think his dad is hooked.

Saturday morning came early, and Verne and I ran a local 5 mile race, while Abigail and Verne's mom participated in a 2K(1.2 miles).

I was thrilled that my brother Brian was cheering me on at the finish line. You'd never guess we were related, would you? ;-)

Verne ran this race years and years ago, but this was my first time, as I've only been running since October. I was thrilled to take first in my age group, but disappointed when reading over the race results later and realizing that an old friend of mine was there with her husband and son. I totally missed seeing them. It's hard to recognize faces that you haven't seen in at least 12 years when you're amongst 500 other runners.

After cleaning up and having lunch with Verne's family, we arrived at my parent's just in time for Verne to help with hay. Abigail and I kept my niece occupied while the guys unloaded the wagon. I got to practice my galloping skills as Sydney and I pretended to be horses. Fun! After the hay was unloaded and stacked neatly in the barn, Uncle Verne and Abigail took Sydney for a walk where he taught her to throw stones in the water by the bridge.

Now I'm home once again, and hope to not have to get in a vehicle for any length of time in the near future. I'm looking forward to the lazy days of July! What have you been up to?