Today was my definition of a perfect day. I think today is what makes me me and what I have always wanted to portray on this blog. It was the perfect balance of exercise, leisure activity, good eats, and family time.

I started off my morning by teaching Group Step at my favorite gym with my favorite people (sounds corny but it’s true!). I came home, took a quick shower, packed lunches, and set out with the boys for a picnic lunch. We rode our bikes down to Edgewater Lake and parked our butts on the rocks that line the lake.

We ate first and then just relaxed for a bit, enjoying the weather……

………and watching the boats.

It didn’t take too long for those 2 lovely words to come out of C’s mouth “I’m Boooooored” so we took a little walk down to the pier (to be honest I had had enough of laying in the sun anyways but I let him think it was his idea – the tricks of a mom – hehe).

Love the view of downtown!

We then biked back home, dropping C at a friend’s house on the way, and then enjoyed some quiet time.

J and I ended the day by grilling out and making homemade ice cream (yum!). It was pretty baller. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Now I need to go take my second shower of day because I am sticky and stinky – we haven’t turned the A/C on and don’t plan on it for awhile!

Happy Memorial Day everyone – hope your day was a fantastic as mine!

Random question: Do you have your A/C on?

My husband has an iron stomach.

Not just with alcohol, but with FOOD. Lots and lots of food.

When Alicia invited me and J to attend the 2011 Silver Spoon Awards at the last minute, we were elated! J may have even done a little dance in our living room.

We had attended last year and knew of the amazing food that would be offered at the event. J even went as far to say he was not going to eat all day so that he’d be ready come Thursday night – hehe.

So, we starved ourselves all day got all prettied up and went downtown to the Marriott Key Center building for this fantastic party.

According to their website:

The 17th Annual Cleveland Magazine Silver Spoon Awards Party, a strolling food and wine tasting event, is one of Cleveland’s finest social and culinary evenings where guests will sample delicious signature dishes from thirty of Northeast Ohio’s best restaurants and eight international wineries. All participating restaurants are 2011 Cleveland Magazine Silver Spoon Award Winners.

Simply amazing. 32 of Cleveland’s best restaurants (and Jay was determined to try all of them).

We didn’t waste any time digging in. Here is a list of what restaurants were there and the ones we tried:

As you can see, J dominated 24 of the 32! Hehe – that’s my boy!

Surprisingly, two of our top three restaurants were the same. And even more surprising, my favorite at Deagans was the spicy shrimp tacos and J’s favorite at Paladar was the fish tacos. Eerily similar.

Alicia remarkably puts this event together every year and we were very excited (and grateful!) to be offered tickets.

Thank you SO MUCH, Alicia, for organizing such a wonderful Cleveland event, and for offering my husband the opportunity to test his stomach capabilities. I think he was happy with end result, though he mentioned that next year he’s determined to eat at all 32!!

What’s your most favorite local restaurant where you live??

Tonight I ate my weight in chocolate.

It was amazing.

And now I need to roll myself into bed. Ugh. TOO.MUCH.FOOD. (but seriously delicious food)

I had the pleasure of attending an awesome CLE event tonight involving lots (and lots!) or amazing Cleveland restaurants (more about this in a later post). But whenever I’m at an event I have a hard time turning down food. A barbecue, birthday party, buffet……I think you get the idea.

And after spending last weekend traveling I really need to get back on track. Like NOW.

So, here’s the plan:

• NO unnecessary snacking (my biggest problem!)
• Smaller afternoon snack – lately it’s been getting out of hand
• No eating after dinner – kitchen is CLOSED
• Focus on fresh fruits and veggies

I don’t necessarily eat foods that are BAD for me. I just eat too many of them. I like volume (TWSS!).

A cannoli the size of my head. It was delicious.

I’m hoping to reign the good eating habits back in quickly. I really just want to focus on feeling good. And I do NOT feel good tonight. But, let me tell you – it was totally worth it. Every bite.

What do you do to get back on track? What’s your first step?

Or “Old People” vs. Kids (as a certain someone named it)

Tonight was the night everyone looks forward to all season.

Where the parents try to prove they can still outrun their kids.

Where the kids get to coach themselves.

And make their own rules.

And just have fun after a long season.

Maybe next year they’ll actually beat the “Old People”.

Great season, Force!!

What’s your favorite sport?

Besides the love I had for all the exercise we did on Friday morning, the next best thing was all the friends I saw and/or met at FitBloggin.

Me, Katie, Alicia, and Tina

Let me tell you – it’s extremely uncomfortable asking a stranger to take a “jumping” picture.

But I did it anyway (I have no shame, seriously).

Everyone I met at the conference was super sweet and pretty damn cool.

Gotta love redheads (Monica and Brit)!

I’m still trying to teach the peace sign.

Maybe this is something you’re born with? You’ve either got it or you don’t (sorry, Beth – haha!).

I was very lucky to get to meet so many great bloggers.

(Amanda and Heather are on the ends)

And in addition to all the great people, I came home with a TON of swag:

My favorites have to be the New Balance tennis shoes, capris pants, and head phones!

Unbelievable!

My mind is still swarming with information I learned regarding blogging, as well as with all the new people I met. I’m not going to bore you with the gritty conference details, but I do want to say that this weekend was quite the experience. It really forced me outside my box and to break out of my comfort zone. I’m really glad I went and put myself out there. I keep telling myself it builds character.

Random question: were you born with the peace sign gene, or is this completely awkward for you??

Hope you had a great Monday!

Hey guys!! I hope you had a great weekend – mine was quite the whirlwind!

I’m sure there will be plenty other recaps of the entire conference so today I just wanted to talk about the fitness fun we had at Fitbloggin. Friday morning was spent with lots of activity!

We started the day bright and early with a 5k walk or run. My poor roommates now know how much of a morning person I am NOT.

Alicia, me, and Beth

But the scenery more than made up for the early wakeup call. We ran along the harbor and it was beyond beautiful.

I seriously would consider moving to Baltimore. Waking up and running along the water front every morning wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Tina and I kept a pretty good pace and picked it up at the end – she really pushed me that last mile. She has come far in her running this year!

Beth, Katie, me, Jenn, Matt, Tina

After breakfast Beth and I attended a kettlebell session, which was pretty great actually, and then went to Cathe Friedrich’s fitness challenge, which was taught by Cathe herself. This class was right up my alley! Lots of energy and intense intervals. I was sweating by the end of the 25 minutes (but who are we kidding, we all know how much I sweat)!

If that wasn’t enough, right after Cathe’s class we went to a Fitness Trampoline class with Abbie Appel.

This goofy happy face was before the class started. I did NOT look like this after. Seriously, this class is NO JOKE. My azz is still sore and this was Friday morning.

I was really, really impressed all around. Abbie was amazing, the class was extremely tough, and it was for all fitness levels. Win win. Hands down, this was my most favorite part of the entire conference. If I could afford one of the trampolines I would invest in one today. If you ever have a chance to participate in a class like this I highly recommend it!

If you can’t tell, I really enjoyed Friday morning. I’m all about trying new things and pushing your body to the max. I know some people took these classes to have fun, but if you know me, you know I’m always about the workout.

Ok, well I’m off to enjoy some down time with my handsome hubby – maybe I can get him to massage my sore booty??

Did you do anything different this weekend that pushed you outside your comfort zone??

Glad you guys enjoyed the video of Biggie! I guess I should have mentioned that J had covered the back side of the baby gate with plexiglass. That’s why he couldn’t get a grip with his feet! So now we’ve since bought another gate and stack them one on top of each other. It seems to be working (for now!).

Anyways, I was thinking today as I was starting to prepare for my weekend that I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that I’m going to Fitbloggin. It’s being held in Baltimore this weekend!

I had originally made plans to go with Allison some time ago, but she had to back out due to her lame work trip to Jamaica (seriously, whose work takes you to Jamaica??!………….so jealous). There are some other great bloggers going, too, but I’ll definitely miss my partner in crime!

In any case, I’m going to be honest about this weekend. I’m nervous. Yes, I know that makes me sound like a sissy, but it’s the truth. But let me explain why:

• I’m not a big time blogger, I do this for many reasons but I do not do it to make money
• I’m not great at first time meetings – I’m better after I’ve gotten to know you. So I feel like I don’t really get to show people my true personality in such a short time frame.
• Will anyone even know who I am?
• Most of the other bloggers are 4 to 5 years younger than me!
• People taking pictures left and right and getting a picture of my azz and posting it on their blog. Not that anyone will take a picture solely of my butt, but you know what I mean. No one needs to see that. I like having control of the pictures that get posted – my blog, my pictures.

It’s definitely going to be an experience and force me to get “outside my box”. But that’s OK. I push other people to do that every time I teach a class and need to practice what I preach. Try before I cry, right??

I made a batch of cookies tonight for a friend and ended up eating way too much of the dough and now have a belly ache. #Fail

Ugh, I do it every time I’m nervous!

But for now I’m trying to focus on the positive. I’m looking forward to meeting new people and seeing the city of Baltimore, since I’ve never been there before! Is anything a MUST SEE (or eat)?

Do you have trouble in big crowds with new people? Or are you a natural socialite??

Thanks for all the nice comments on yesterday’s post. I wasn’t even sure if I should post that because I thought it would be boring (and steal the thunder from those actually running yesterday) but J convinced me to do it! I’m glad he did.

So, we’ve been having trouble trying to find a place for Biggie to stay while we’re not home. We briefly had him in a crate, but it was so small that when he went to the bathroom it was SO GROSS to clean up. Yeah, that didn’t last long. I couldn’t handle it.

Our next solution was to set up a baby gate that would keep him in the kitchen while we were gone. But every time we came home he had broken out of the kitchen and was roaming free!! We had no idea how it happened since the gate was still up. I couldn’t figure it out. Was he jumping the gate, was Diddy actually helping? What was going on?

So we set up a baby doggy cam. Check it out:

My absolute favorite part is when Diddy comes over and is like “What’s up, Man. Alright, peace out.”, and just leaves him there! Hehe.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Today was the Cleveland Marathon, Half Marathon, and 10k. It was an emotional day for me (and I didn’t even run!). I couldn’t stop thinking about last year’s race.

Last year on this day I was running the perfect, most rewarding race of my life. It will forever be etched in my mind as such, since it was the first time I ever experienced a GOOD marathon.

Sometimes you just have a perfect day. Last year’s Cleveland Marathon was my day. The weather was perfect, my attitude was great, and I had my friends and family there the entire way.

I think you can see the emotion on my face here at mile 9:

And I was still smiling at mile 17 when I saw the fam again:

Seeing my family at miles 4, 9, 17, 20, and then the finish line is what helped me get through this race. I could never ever do this without them. So if you’re ever asked by someone you love “Hey, do you want me to come to your race?”, say YES! It can make or break you – I promise.

Sidenote: J is seriously the most amazing spectator, route-scouter EVER. If you ever need help with a race course as a spectator let me know – for realz – it’s really impressive actually.

Anyways, (back to the race) how could I not get up this hill with both J and C by my side??

And how cute is this guy waiting for his mama at the finish line?

One of the best moments of my life was crossing that finish line with my best guys.

When people ask why I run, this is why. I may not be the fastest runner, or ever qualify for Boston, but that’s OK with me. The feeling of accomplishment, of pure joy, knowing I finished something I set out to do months before is the most amazing feeling ever. So many emotions I can’t even explain.

So, even though today’s weather wasn’t perfect (50′s and rain), I sure hope that some of the people running today’s Cleveland marathon experienced (even if just a fraction of!) what I did last year. It’s a feeling everyone deserves to experience at least once in their lifetime.

Congratulations to all the runners!!! I can’t wait to read all the race recaps this week!

So tell me this, if you’re a runner, why do you run?

This past weekend I got to spend some time with two of my longest (and bestest) friends.

It’s not often that the 3 of us are all together so it was a nice treat!

Plus, anytime I get to see this guy I am a happy “auntie”:

Seriously, doesn’t that picture just make you wanna go out and make a baby today?? Man, so cute!

But while the kids were playing outside, J and I just couldn’t watch. Not sure why we can’t just let the kids have their moments. We always have to join in and show our “skills”.

J showed off his unicycling skills:

He’s thinking “this seemed like a good idea 5 minutes ago”:

#Fail

He made it about 2 inches. (T.W.S.S.)

I showed off my mad hula hooping skills:

It’s definitely not like Wii hula hooping!

#Fail

Oh well. At least we were entertaining for the kids (and adults!).

What about you – are you one of the kids?