Week in Review (February 2 - February 8)

Tuesday (17,030 steps) - Work from home. I had to switch days because Ben wasn't able to get the day off and we were FINALLY having our appliances delivered. They arrived within their window, but that was basically the highlight of the delivery. First off, what a shock that the change I had made weeks ago adding the haul away was not on their work order, and I was told only "they would see what they could do" about getting the old appliances taken. OF COURSE. To keep the story short, they were not able to install ANY of the appliances. The outlet for the fridge wasn't working, they thought because the new fridge had too much "output." So we had to have an extension cord and drag it across the entire kitchen for it to work. The hardwire for he dishwasher was too short (or alternatively, needed an electrician to add a dedicated outlet), and the cable for the stove wasn't long enough to reach the closest outlet, but they used an extension cord for that as well to test to make sure there wasn't a gas leak. What a freaking hassle that all was. 

Took Pika for a walk, then went on my run. Coach finally has me doing some speed work, and I'll admit I was feeling apprehensive about this run because my legs were pretty tired. Turns out, the run went VERY well, with the exception of getting about 80 texts during the run, plus phone calls. That was annoying. Bathroom is almost done!! 

Also, we managed to coerce an electrician to come over, and he was able to fix the wiring for the fridge outlet, installed the plug for the dishwasher, AND dropped the cable for the stove through the wall, which was actually even better. So happy we have so many good contractors to help us!

Torchy's for dinner, which was delicious.

Wednesday (11,272 steps) - Work in the office. Someone stole my lunch out of the freezer, so I had to run down the street to buy food. WAS NOT HAPPY. Ben also called while I was at work to alert me to "pouring water" under the kitchen sink. Apparently, Home Depot never capped off the water line when they did not install the dishwasher, so we had water running under the sink/cabinets/floor for 24 hours in. We have an insurance claim in with them now. (I can't make up all the stuff that is going wrong!) Ariel went with me to take Pika for a short walk when I got home because I hadn't done anything all day. 

Thursday (10,615 steps) - Work from home. Ben finally got the last of the cosmetic stuff done in the bathroom, meaning, I actually could brush my teeth and use my own toilet! It was SO windy that I skipped my run again. I did take Pika for a walk, did Bodypump, and rowed for a bit. Finally, FINALLY the guys were done with the bathroom. Finally!!! (Well, except for the glass. We have to wait about three weeks for that. But since we still have our rod and shower curtain, the bathroom is fully functional).

Friday (10,193 steps) - First shower in the new bathroom, and it was awesome. Water much hotter than it was before, and the water pressure is much better, thanks to our cool shower head. Work in the office (boo, hiss). Did my run with hill repeats after work. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be, although I didn't quite time the hill correctly, and pausing my watch somehow messed up the timing of the intervals in the program I had put in my watch. 

Ah well, I know I did them all! And with this run, I managed to nail all my runs all week, without walking during any of them. Woo hoo!

Saturday (34,168 steps) - Met up with the group to run Dirty Biz. I hate running on Fridays before a long run because I just seem to start out tired, and this was no exception. Tyler and Joe took off, and I felt bad that Kristin kept stopping to wait for me, I know she is so much faster and better trained than I am right now. For the first few miles I thought I was a bit overdressed, but then the wind picked up and it was FREEZING. Really happy to be done with this.

Went to 4 Noses for a beer, then home for a quick shower before picking up more cookies and then driving around for hours delivering. 

Ariel and I did stop and pick up Mac n' Cheezy, which we haven't had in ages. 

I met up with Kim for a beer at Rails End. 

Sunday (12,321 steps) - Drove to Runners Roost Boulder for the first run club in 11 months. We still started from the trail head, but luckily the fast people didn't catch us until we hit the top trail, so I was at least able to keep up on the descents. 

Delivered cookies to Carrie and Ben, then met Greg and Tyler at New Image for pre-Super Bowl beers.

We watched part of the Super Bowl, but weren't really into it. Fell asleep on the couch.

Monday (17,452 steps) - Work from home. Walked Pika, and then went for my run. It was easily my worst run in at least a month. I had to walk at least 6 separate times and my calves were sooo tight even during my warm-up that I thought they might burst. I'm really sick of this issue and wish I could find some relief. I at least hit all my faster tempo paces. Did another Bodypump video before picking up A at practice. Heather came over to pick up her cookies and look at the house.

Stats:

• 113, 051 steps
• 29 miles run
• 12 minutes rowing
• 52 minutes cross training

THE WEDDING!! (and...) Week in Review (September 22 - September 28)

Tuesday (21,552 steps) - Work in the office. After work I ran to Cherry Creek to pick up a few things before going to Green Mountain Brewing for run club! I ran with Mo and Colfax again and only stuck around for one beer.

Wednesday (14,271 steps) - Work from home. Apparently, I hadn't done any packing (or even writing any packing lists) outside of what I needed for the wedding.  I did, however, have time to run to REI to pick up my newest unnecessary purchase:

This is a Selk'bag...

Everything else I hadn't planned, so I spent my morning between emails and work getting everything ready. We double and triple checked all of our stuff. Ben took Ariel to her last cross country meet of the year because I couldn't get off work QUITE that early. A  had told us there were no spectators allowed, so Ben headed up to the AirBnb. Turns out, I was able to watch her from the road. She had a great run, getting a PR! She was just edged out of top 10 overall (?!?!).

As soon as she was done, we headed up to Vail. Our only stop was at the Target in Silverthorne to pick up a curbside delivery. Arrived just after dark to our amazing weekend house!

Heather and Lora came over to join us for dinner.

Thursday (13,682 steps) - Planned to sleep in, but of course that didn't happen. Ariel, Pika and I met Heather and Lora at the pavilion for a run. Upon arrival, we realized that the venue did not have the planters of flowers on the patio like we planned on! Luckily, I had a wedding planner to handle all that, so we went for our run. I had mapped out a 3.5 mile run around town. On the way out we actually saw Ben driving into town, so that was fun. It was pretty running through the neighborhoods, and ... WE SAW BEARS. Real.Live.Bears.

We went into town to eat lunch, with Ben meeting us there after he was done with his errands. THEN, we had to go to the florist to BUY flowers because the venue told us they "lost the flowers in the freeze a few weeks ago." You mean... the freeze everyone in the entire country knew about a week beforehand? Ugh.... At least we found someone that was able to help us. There was a nail salon next door and Ben convinced me and A we should get our nails done.

It's probably been 15 years since I have gotten my nails done (and these are A's!)

No recollection of the rest of the evening, although I'm sure we ate something at some point. I do know I stayed up way too late waiting for Lisa and the rest of the Texas clan, but they were really delayed and I finally went to bed just before 11:30.

Friday (5,773 steps) - The big day!! I was of course up before my alarm went off. Had some coffee and chatted with everyone before Ariel and I had to head out for our errands. First up was stopping to get our hair done. MK did an AMAZING JOB!!!!

Ariel

Me!

We had just enough time to scarf down a breakfast burrito from Yeti Grind before heading over to get our makeup done. I couldn't believe how great she made both of us look. Before we knew it, it was almost time to go back to the BnB to meet with the photographer! We walked around Walmart for a few minutes to give Ben time to get out. After a photo shoot and making sure we had everything, we headed over to the venue around 3:15.

A high school friend gave this to me as a joke. I will never drink this, blech

Before I knew it, it was time to get dressed! I definitely wanted to wear heels for the wedding because I'm a midget. Ariel is a few inches taller than me, and Ben is 6'2" - so more than a foot taller! I channeled my inner "punk" from high school/college and wore some cool Dr. Marten boots:

While I was doing that, Ben was being all handsome and getting his picture taken too:

Insert heart emojis here

We did a "first look" - which was probably a good idea because Ben is pretty emotional, and I was a bit worried about him losing it during the ceremony. There was a really pretty area not more than 100 feet from the venue where we were able to get some really great shots.

Then it was time to get Pika ready!

And then a picture before heading out.... all of a sudden the time is here!!

The ceremony started right at 5:00 - and being folks that aren't super traditional, Pika walked Ben down the aisle (to the same song I would walk down with, because he didn't just want to "appear"). I LOVE THIS PICTURE:

Carrie signaled me and A to walk down the aisle (also not traditional):

Other than me facing directly into the sun, the ceremony went very well. Ben definitely got choked up and really struggled to get through his vows (but thankfully we opted to not use microphones so no one could hear him anyway). Perfect weather, perfect colors. Everything we were hoping for!!

Before we knew it... we were done! All the planning over in just a few minutes, and finally time to relax!! Rocky Mountain Taco was set up with their food truck in the parking lot and Outer Range was on hand with a few kegs of beer. We did a few pictures before the sunset - the rest are from a sneak peek our photographer sent over.

My niece Julia, Ariel, Ben, me, sister Lisa, niece Alyssa and her boyfriend Chris

One of my favorite pictures (without me, haha) is of my niece Julia and Ariel:

We were very busy throughout the evening. Ariel gave the most amazing toast/speech EVER:

Our first dance was basically a disaster since neither of us dances or has any rhythm, but we had SO MUCH FUN being terrible at it.

My absolute favorite picture!!!

Ben did NOT shove cake in my face, so that was nice

My expression in during the bouquet toss is pretty hilarious - I think I was just concentrating really hard since the first attempt ended up with the bouquet hitting the ceiling, so I had to try again. My niece, Alyssa, caught it!

I have no idea where the evening went. We had about 6 hours of time and it went by in the blink of an eye. I know there was a LOT of dancing (and I can't BELIEVE no one got the full "Thriller" on video, because that's been a goal of mine for like a decade). With that said, I recognize that having a "COVID" wedding is a little nuts, but with just under 70 guests, everything felt safe and comfortable, and we had an amazing and perfect night.

Saturday (8,982 steps) - Prior to the wedding we planned on doing all sorts of fun and outdoorsy things. Then once we got up to the mountains and realized we had the most amazing BnB ever, we basically did nothing. Heather and Lora stopped by before heading back to Denver. We picked up Rachelle and went to Vail to walk around.

Since we had beer left over from the wedding, we borrowed a tap and set up in the garage...

Also, Ben got me the cutest ring holder in the world!

Sunday (5,893 steps) - Um.... another day of nothing? Ben realized that Greg was still in town, so he invited him over to help us work on the keg. We had leftovers for lunch, went and got coconut margaritas from Agave, picked up burger fixings from the grocery store. Ben grilled for dinner and we watched Pitch Perfect. (Am I wrong in thinking this was basically a perfect relaxing day?)

Monday (12,270 steps) - We had to be up by 7 to start packing and cleaning up the house to have time to get everything done by 10 when we had to check out. We ran a few errands and then stopped at Outer Range to drop off the keg and have a beer before heading into Denver.

The drive was fine and uneventful. The evening was spent unpacking. Ben and I picked up Torchy's for dinner. What a way to end an incredible week!!

Stats:

• 82,423 steps (probably 4-5,000 more, but I didn't wear my fitbit during/after the wedding)
• miles run
• No cross training :(