Happy Birthday!

Charlie and his dad clowning around as usual! Happy belated birthday Mike!

The Baker's at Rock Barn~

Today is Charlie's mom's 60th birthday! Happy Birthday Cindy! That's her above hanging out at their country club, Rock Barn. When I first met them all I heard them talk about was Rock Barn, but I had no idea what that was! haha that's so funny! But now I know! Charlie's dad Mike celebrated his birthday a few days before Cindy's and Charlie's is November 15th! So many birthdays all smushed together~! The first picture of Charlie and his dad makes me laugh so much! Happy Birthday!!!!!

~Costumes for Dogs~

I really wish I could have a dog so I could dress it up for Halloween! I found these super cute pictures on Google and I had to post them! I love golden retrievers and labs so much! They make the best dogs and I miss Bailey and Sandy so much. Nest always dresses them up for Halloween. When Bailey was a puppy I got him an orange sweater that had bat wings on it...it was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Sandy was a witch last year and Bailey was a Harley dog! I'll live vicariously through all the other *lucky* people who have dogs.

Almost Halloween!

PLUS

EQUALS

Note to Self:Don't forget camera on the most beautiful day

This past weekend we did a little biking and a little relaxing! On Friday after work we did a short ride (about 14 miles or so) until it got too cold and dark. We knew it was going to rain Saturday so we got our ride in before! Smart thinking! Saturday we shopped around at our favorite mall for some fall sweaters! It's getting pretty cool here and you can never have too many! We went to a bar by our old apartment to watch football and the UFC fight. I was pretty much one of 5 females in the whole joint. It was interesting to say the least. Sunday we rode our longest distance to date! 25.5 miles! It was pretty hard, the wind is blowing so hard by the water and there's water everywhere here! It was such a beautiful day~ well the perfect fall day actually and I forgot my stinking camera! I was so mad, but here's some photos to give you a sense of it all. The leaves were beautiful and it wasn't too hot or too cold! We rode all over Virginia and DC. DC is really small so you can get around to seeing lots of things in a short amount of time if you are not in the car! The Marine Corps Marathon was on Sunday and we rode past some people wandering about with their ice packs and race numbers still on! That will be us soon enough, great:) We rode down to the reflecting pool and the Lincoln memorial. Charlie hasn't really seen any of this stuff which is really sad since we've lived here over a year! He likes to save seeing the monuments/museums for winter because they aren't so crowded...well, in theory that might be true;) You might as well just give up hope of seeing anything in the summer...it's that miserable with all the tourists!

Oh well! Monday it rained all day. It was pretty much the gloomiest day I've seen in a long time and I would have rather been curled up by the fireplace vegging out, but there are those pesky little things we call BILLS that have to be paid, ugh. I went to class instead after work, then Charlie and I went to our favorite place ever, Hard Times Cafe~it's just so homey inside. We frequent that place at least once a week.

(Disclaimer:These pictures are what you could be seeing had I brought my camera! But thanks anyway Google image~!)

~Our Second Biking Adventure~

We went for another bike ride last night after work and it was freezing! This picture is not of us, it's just a representation of how cold I was. I had shorts on and a jacket, but the daylight is getting shorter and shorter around here. By the time we got home, it was pitch black and not even 7:00 pm. We rode 14.5 miles and it wasn't too bad, but I'm still really uncomfortable on the bike! Hopefully I'll figure this thing out oneday!

~Our First Biking Adventure~

We went on our very first bike ride on Saturday! It was quite an exciting day! After starting off at Nest's favorite spot, the bike shop, Charlie got some fancy butt padded pants and we left to change into our wannabe biker gear and head out. Thankfully there's a trail directly across the street that connects to the Mt. Vernon trail and goes anywhere in DC and Virginia that you could possibly want to go! I almost crashed head on with some poor, helpless girl because I "was riding my bike like a 5-year old girl" says Charlie. I took the turn too narrow, but somehow managed to avoid a pretty bad crash! Phew, that was a close one! We went to Alexandria (that's where the Christmas attic is Nest!) and saw a wedding and all the leaves falling. It was really beautiful! We also rode to National Airport and hung out with John McCain's plane for 5 seconds. No human sitings though...maybe next time! We also went along the Potomac River where it was freezing cold and there was a horrible stench of port-a-potties....gross (hence Charlie's facial expression in the picture above) We rode 17.5 miles and I was really shaky on the bike. Charlie had to explain braking a few hundred times and I had to practice getting off my bike! He's much better than me, but it was our first outing so I'm allowed to be terrible! The trails were really crowded since it was Saturday. There were families, joggers, walkers, Tour de France-ish dudes whizzing by, and dogs galore! It was a little too crowded to go super fast, but Charlie got up to 30 mph and I got up to 22 mph. Overall, it was really a fun day! My whole body hurts today and I splurged on the fancy butt padded pants like Charlie!

McCain's plane
Planes taking off at National Airport. They went right over our heads!

We got stopped by this train

Bike Love:)

Me! I totally don't look official, but I'll fake it til I make it!

Alexandria

Park in Alexandria

Me pretending to know what I'm doing
Charlie looking more official!

A nice couple took our picture!

Jack-o-Lanterns

Here's our jack-o-lanterns...Charlie's is a large bat and mine is a spooky haunted house, or the Bates motel! (Que psycho music)
Before the carving began!

Adventures in Pumpkin Pickin'

Charlie and I went to pick some pumpkins a few weeks ago. We stumbled across a quaint little farm and somehow spent 70 bucks on 2 large pumpkins and a few smaller ones to decorate the house with! What a rip-off! Oh well, it was fun and you only carve jack-o-lanterns once a year!

Run, Forest, Run

This past weekend Charlie, Nest, and myself participated in the Baltimore Half-Marathon! Charlie clocked in an amazing 2 hours, Nest came in at 2 hours 5 minutes, and I came in at 2 hours and 19 minutes! The race was a world of difference from the Rock & Roll Half we did in Virginia Beach over Labor Day weekend. Charlie and I stayed together at the Rock & Roll race and ended up doing a 2:30:20 which was 20 seconds too slow to qualify us for the National Marathon here in DC next March, but we just wanted to finish! We all ran together until the first 5k or so...which let me add was all freaking hills! No one told me that so I was getting really tired and out of breath. I have a tendency to breathe too fast which is really bad so I've been trying to work on getting that under control! I dropped back 20 feet or so from Nest and Charlie and finally got sick of trying to catch up so I decided to let them go and go at a pace that was comfortable for me. I got to the 11th mile under the 2 hour marker and was super excited because before the 11th mile, I really had no idea how fast/slow I was even going! I realized I had 30 minutes to run 2.1 miles so I got super excited that the end was in sight! I saw the camera man who takes your final picture from a crane above and started sprinting to the finish, but that was nowhere to be found! They tricked me! At the Rock & Roll marathon, the camera was about 30 feet or so from the finish so I assumed the case was the same in Baltimore, boy was I wrong? I just kept running and running through Camden Yards until I finally yelled at some poor helpless security guard and said "where the heck is the finish!" He told me it was "up a ways" gee thanks. Well I finished and had Charlie and Nest waiting on me, which I was thankful for because I was proud of my time! We're still debating on what to do about the National Marathon. Charlie wants to run the whole, but I think it's going to be hard to train in the DC winter and I think we should only do the half...we'll see! If I do the half, I'll be the only one! Nest, Danny, and Charlie are all wanting to do the whole. Peer pressure!

Bikers!

Charlie and I got fancy new bikes! Mine courtesy of Nest of course! Thanks Nest! Love ya~! We haven't gotten a chance to ride them yet because we've been a little sore from the marathon! Tomorrow is the day though! I'm so excited to go for a bike ride, but we've got to map out our route. I hope I don't fall and break something! I was almost impaled when I did a test ride on an Orbea. That wouldn't have been good. We've got all the fancy stuff that you need to get (helmets, airpump, extra tires, lights, the works!) This is an expensive hobby! My parents are super hardcore when it comes to biking, my mom and Danny are both Ironman, but more on that later. Maybe Charlie and I will follow in their footsteps, hopefully! I think we have a long way to go before we're like the guys in the picture above! A really long way...sigh

Trick-or-Treat

I love Halloween! I love the leaves changing and everything! I think everyone should put up decorations! It just brings in the spirit of fall and Halloween so much better! I've even got my costume already (see pic), well I've had it since last month, but I was getting a head start! I'm going to be disco Barbie. Charlie thinks I should drop the Barbie part, but I'm going to win this battle! Charlie's costume consists of....an afro and that's it! We've got to get to work on his! Well and something to do!