Road trippin' to Iowa!

740 miles
12 hours
5 kilometers
4 people
1 winery
1 brewery
1 corn maze
1 round of frisbee golf
1 observation tower
LOTS of pics and LOTS of laughs!

That about sums up a long weekend trip to Iowa!

Danielle (my cousin), Mike and I road-tripped to Oksaloosa, IA to visit my cousin's fiancé (Blaine) and to accept a challenge to run a 5k last weekend.

[back story: First off, Mike and I have been training for this 5k for months, it seems. We are NOT runners. Even though we've both been dropping pounds and working out, we're not distance runners, so we both had to train for this. Having this race looming on the calendar has kept me motivated to stay on my diet and work out as much as possible. When Blaine challenged us to run a 5k, I timidly accepted. And, now it's history.]

We left at noon on Friday and headed south on I35. Six hours later after driving through miles and miles and miles of cornfields and wind farms, we arrived at Blaine's house.

Bright and early Saturday morning we were dressed and headed to Eddyville (about 15 minutes away) to run the Cargill Ghoul Gallop. Did I mention that it was a Halloween fun run? Yep, it was. So, we dressed up in costumes.

Mike left me in the dust within the first 2 blocks. I stayed with Danielle and Blaine for the next block and then decided to do my best and run the race. I ran by myself most of the time, and that's a challenge for me. I'm not good at keeping a slow, steady pace. I like to think I can run faster and get it over with. I ended up walking three times because I couldn't keep my pace up.

In the end, I finished 33:45, Mike was 28:19 and Blaine and Danielle followed me. It was a hard 3.1 miles having to run into the strong NW wind along a dike on the river on a grassy path for about 1 mile. But, we finished!

After the race we cleaned up and then headed out to visit a huge winery with 100,000 vines. How cool is that!??! It was gorgeous! We got lost in a corn maze, drank some luscious libations at a brewery, shopped in Pella, IA, ate some de-lish Chinese food and then went back to Blaine's house and crashed on the couch to watch a movie.

Sunday morning we headed out to play a round of frisbee golf. (I'm better than Mike, btw!) We also climbed a 104' observation tower that overlooks one of Iowa's only lakes. hehe! True! It's man-made and used to be a mine. It's huge and very pretty. By the time we ate our picnic lunch and climbed the tower it was early afternoon and time for us to head north.

We packed a lot into our short weekend. It was great and I'm looking forward to our next 5k and trip to visit Blaine. Bring it on!

Danielle and Blaine are getting married!

I've been absent lately. Very absent. I haven't written for months, even years, really. I feel like making a New Years resolution in September to blog atleast 3 times week. But, I know that life will get in the way and spending time online writing about this, that and the other won't take priority.
So, on this fantastic fall Sunday (it's the first day of fall today!!!), I'll blog about my recent photography session with my cousin and her fiancé. YAY!
We trekked to William O'Brien State Park, Marine on St. Croix and then down to Stillwater one recent Saturday afternoon. The weather was HOT, really hot!

Here are some favs:

The countdown has begun

I'm beyond excited right now for vacation in less than a week! It's the annual Sylvester family vacation to Birch Lake near Ely. I just have to get through a mildly demanding work week and then we're FREE!

Looking at the long range forecast kinda makes me cringe, though. I see daily highs in the 60s! YIKES! My only consolation is that rarely are these forecasts even close to correct.

Lots to do this week! Sooooo excited! Look out Babbitt, here we come!

The best of: family is my hobby

I think family can be considered a hobby, don't you think? I consider mine my favorite hobby.

This past Memorial Day weekend Mike and I camped in Hayward with two sets of aunts/uncles, two cousins and my uncle's father. We had four campsites in all and spend the weekend laughing, eating, drinking, fishing, relaxing and shopping. Quite successful if you ask me.

But, I've learned that I need to learn to vacation. I spent ALL day today fighting to keep myself awake at work. I blame getting up too early and going to bed too late at night over the weekend. each morning I was awake by about 6:30. I was showered, dressed and had the dog walked all by about 7:30 and then sat around bored for the next hour until everyone else got up and moved about. I just can't sleep in.

The morning walks I took with the dog were so peaceful. We walked up and down a hilly, maple tree and trillium-filled forest road. Such a gorgeous walk, and such a good workout for me. The road took me up and down long hills and kicked my butt even though I could only walk and not jog them. Loved the mornings!

We took the boys go-carting, shopped in Hayward, dined on the lake in the sun, caught fish and enjoyed each others company.

Diets suck- plain and simple

I'm the crabbiest person right now! Long story short: I have nodules on my thyroid, I'm not growing cancer because they've been biopsied, but I was thinking they're the reason I can't lose weight over the last many years. So, now I'm on a super strict diet.
I went to a endocrinologist on Friday (for a second opinion) and she pretty much told me that my thyroid is working fine unless my blood work is wrong. I'm still convinced that it is, but that's another blog post entirely.
The doc on Friday recommended a book called The 17 Day Diet by Dr. Mike Moreno. She said she's on the diet and many of the nurses she works with are, too. So, I went to buy it and the cookbook on Friday. I've been on the diet since Sunday and all I want is real frickin' food! I'm not into veggies and meats. I'm barely a meat eater as it is, and now I have to shove protein and fresh green veggies down my throat all day long.
Yikes-- I sound a little bitter.
I guess the reason I'm on this diet is that I'm sick, sick, sick of not being able to lose weight. I don't eat like a slob and I exercise, yet I gain weight like crazy. I'm so sick of it, I'm working this diet to the "T". And, it's making me very crabby!
This diet is also very expensive. I was expecting that, but I've bought things like flaxseed oil for about $23/bottle, some agave nectar for about $8/bottle and all the fresh veggies and meat on top of that. I've never used rice vinegar in my life until I had to cook a stir fry tonight. (I've had better, by the way.) Ever heard of kefir? The best way to describe it is mostly plain yogurt with a squirt of milk. I guess it's supposed to be good for digestion and intestinal health. I make smoothies with that every morning. If I could have a smoothie for each meal, I'd be happy with this diet, but I can't. I have to get probiotics and oils and protein and fresh greens and Greek yogurts and all kinds of other things I wouldn't ordinarily buy.
Ba-humbug. I've got another 14 days of this diet segment left. And, I'm counting down.