weekend getaway

This past weekend we were able to getaway sans Noah again... hooray! There was a graduation dinner for Jon's fellow 4th year residents that graduated this year on Friday night and one of his co-residents got married the next day in PA, so we went to that too (both perfect excuses to get dressed up and party without the boy in-tow). I took Noah up to gma's house on Thursday night and got him settled in, then took the train back to the city and met Jon for the dinner on Friday night.

Noah had a fabulous time at gma's house. His Thomas the Train obsession has been in full effect lately which was perfect timing, because my mom has the full set of trains at her house! He also LOVED riding in gma's car and listening to the radio on the way to the "stowe" (which is where he thought we went every time he got in the car). He turned into quite the gardener over the weekend, helped wash grandpa's car, and was in heaven in an actual yard. It was kind of sad because he had a hard time understanding that he couldn't just run into the street. I actually had to teach him what a yard and a driveway were (so we spent a lot of time in the BACKyard!).

We had a great time this weekend. I was so excited to actually ride the train back here on Friday night by myself, without having to keep a 2-year old entertained. I even brought my book and ipod and was so ready to relax. Then the guy that was sitting next to me got up and a lady with her 3-year old took his spot! GRRR! I really tried to be polite, but there was no way I was going to interact... so I immediately put my ipod headphones in and tried to ignore. I was totally the jerky lady that I hate to sit by when I travel with Noah -- but I REALLY wanted some peace and quiet! Luckily, I had a transfer midway and got on a nice empty train for the rest of the ride :)

It was also really nice to wake up to an empty apartment on Saturday morning (kind of sad when I saw Noah's little crib empty, but I got over it!) We went out together and played tennis (something we never get to do anymore) and had a nice relaxing morning. UNTIL we got to the rental car place across the bridge and they were "out" of cars! It was SO ridiculous! They just gave our car away like it was no big deal -- isn't that what a "reservation" is for??? So, we headed back over the bridge and went home to try to find a car and there were literally NO rental cars on the island of Manhattan! I felt like an urban castaway! We even called all of Jon's friends that were going to the wedding too, in hopes of hitching a ride with one of them, but they had all left by then. We finally decided to jump in a cab to the train station, go up to my parent's house and rent a car around there. We ended up missing the wedding ceremony, but made it just in time for the reception. We were really glad we decided to go even after all the rental car drama. It was a beautiful reception and it was a lot fun to hang out with Jon's co-workers.

So, it was a successful weekend...

here are some pics:

graduation dinner @ Terrace in the Sky

Christi's wedding

helping "gwampa" wash his car

doing some kind of car-washing dance, I'm sure...

SO happy!

ps -- Noah just woke up from his nap screaming, "go to gwama's house!"... I guess we'll be making another trip soon!

the graduate

Last week, Noah graduated from his pre-pre-preschool class that we've been attending this past year. It was a parent-and-me toddler class at the local YWHA that we loved! We met tons of great friends and Noah learned so much this year. He graduated with honors in knowing "The Days of the Week" (i.e. he was obsessed with that song and made the teacher play it EVERY time so he could do his crazy dance to it!) and now I don't know what I'm going to do when it's THURSDAY! and we're not going to "school."

But, we're excited for our pre-preschool class next year that he'll be attending and some of the same friends from last year will be there which will hopefully make the transition from me not being there a little easier :)

here are some pics of the graduate:

getting his diploma

(actually if you look close enough he's pushing it away! too good for that, aparently.)

the graduate

(in shock)

Class of 2008

video disclaimer: He was having an off-day this particular day, so the dancing isn't it's finest -- there's usually a signature finger-pointing move involved also. He was actually sitting at the table by himself in a bad mood until his teacher turned on the music and he got up and started boogy-ing.

here's what I caught:

10K

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting the news... I did it! I ran my first 10K and beat my "goal" time. My official time was 57:43. I had a lot of fun and it felt amazing to achieve a goal like that. It has really just given my workouts so much more purpose and helped to keep me motivated.

The weather really didn't cooperate... the high that day was 96 degrees or something ridiculous like that. It was the first really hot day of the year and a lot of seasoned runners were saying that they were almost 5 minutes over their usual time. I really didn't have anything to compare it to, but it's nice to think that I could've gone faster :) There were some pretty sick hills right smack in the middle of the route that kinda did me in and my legs were serious jell-o by the time I made it across the finish line. I had to keep moving them for awhile after the race, because if I didn't I probably would've just collapsed!

But overall, it was a great experience and I feel like I have definitely caught the running "bug" and the second I finished the race, I started thinking about the next race and trying to beat my time. I'm going to try a 5K in a few weeks at the Teterboro Airport runway... it'll be pretty nice to run down a nice flat surface this time!

here are some pics:

finished!

Noah trying to steal my medal!

cooling off after the race and eating bagels -- yum, carbs!

Nike + ipod = AWESOME!

For Mother's Day, Jon bought me the Nike + ipod sport kit that attaches to the ipod nano I recently got for Christmas. I finally received the shoe attachment in the mail last week, so I've been using it all week. And I must tell you it's the coolest thing ever!

You place the Nike sensor in your shoe and the ipod attachment in your ipod, then as you're running you can hear feedback -- your pace, time, distance, and calories burned -- anytime you press the center button. You can keep track of every run, track progress, set goals, and even challenge other Nike + users to races! You can set it on an open-ended workout, or there's even 5K, 10K, etc. settings so you can track your progress. And itunes has tons of workout music you can download that is even set up for the length of a 5K or 10K... so awesome.

I'm completely addicted and I've only used it for a week. It's a huge motivator to set goals for myself and really achieve them. I even found out that my "short run" that I thought was "a little over 3 miles" is actually exactly 4 miles! It's like having a personal trainer right there with me.

So, here's some news... I'm running the NYRR Mini 10K on Saturday! It's my first race ever and I'm super nervous/excited. I've really just been kicking up my daily run a notch and I realized that I needed a real goal. So, one day I headed out to do a full 6.2 miles and it felt amazing. So, I decided I need a real goal and I needed to just take the plunge and try a race. Hopefully I won't get trampled by the crazy marathon qualifiers!

My goal is to run it in no more than an hour (let's just say 59 minutes :)

stay tuned.

"Happy Burt-day, dear Dad-dy!"

We celebrated Jon's 31st birthday this weekend. Unfortunately it wasn't as extravagantly planned as my b-day weekend was... sorry hun! In fact, most of the day was downright lame. (I really am sorry.) He spent most of the day doing manual labor... helping move our friends out in the morning and then re-installing all of our air conditioners with "professional brackets" (i.e. getting rid of the wood blocks holding them up in our window sills) as our managment company threatened forced entry to remove them if they were not installed correctly by Monday! And I spent the entire afternoon cleaning the apartment -- I mean REALLY cleaning... something that had been LONG overdue. lame, lame, lame. (except that I think the OCD in Jon secretly really liked the fact that the apartment was finally clean on his b-day!)

Luckily, we were able to end the day by going out to dinner that night. Thanks to the Bennions who babysat Noah, we were baby-free and could actually go to a restaurant without worrying if they would have a high chair or not. And again, the lame b-day planner that I am... I didn't even make reservations anywhere! I figured we would just go to one of our old fav's that we never get to go to anymore, but Jon really wanted to go someplace new. So, he found an awesome Argentine restaurant in SoHo called Lomito. The food was amazing and it was SO nice to get out alone together.

(And fortunately, Noah decided to wait until we got home that night to wake up vomitting and continue to do so every hour until 7am! At least he waited until after Jon's b-day :)

here's some video of Noah's rendition of "Happy Birthday!":



Happy Birthday! We love you.