Miles 9 and 10

The weekend after the wedding weekend, Mike and I went up to Cumberland to hang out with his grandparents, aunt, mom, sister, and Carson to celebrate his mom's birthday. It was also our weekend to run 9 miles and we impressively woke up at 8am on Saturday to try to fit in these miles before breakfast. It was very dramatic. The temperature was gloriously under 70, but we were in the mountains. We had guess at our route (thanks MapMyRun!), be very careful and aware running on the shoulder in an area where there are not a lot of runners, and all 4.5 miles 'out' were downhill. There was also the added fun fact that breakfast at our hotel ended at 10am. By the time we started running, we had to average 9 minute miles to have 5 minutes left in the continental breakfast....this wouldn't be a big deal, but Mike was very excited about the Belgian waffles. I begged him to 'just leave me behind' a few times, but he refused to leave me out of eyesight. Instead, he did his own version of cheering me on where he lied about how close we were. Our 9 mile run truly took a team. I forced us out of bed and on the road....Mike's motivation got us back to the hotel in time for breakfast:)

Mountain face we ran past

Leading the charge! (This was still the first 4.5)

The rest of Saturday was spent recovering with Mike's family. I went on a shopping trip with Leslie and Aunt Linda where we visited THE BEST TJ Maxx and I found a new favorite black cardigan to keep me warm in a freezing office. Later that evening we ate Rachel's request of Thanksgiving Dinner (minus the sweet potatoes and something else) since she will be in France for the holidays. We ha cheesy olives for appetizer and German chocolate cake for dessert....the best German chocolate cake I've ever had....the icing was homemade. Unfortunately, I have no documentation of this meal because we inhaled it. After dinner, we played a fun game where we all requested songs for Carson to play without considering what was actually in his repertoire.....he was a very good sport and even played a little bit of "Africa" (from our wedding) and "Farther Along" (one of my favorites that my grandfather sang. Rachel was a really great sport and sang with him during some songs. It feels really good and strangely familiar to end the day with music.

The whole bunch of us on the front porch minus Aunt Linda who was the photographer!

Leslie, Rachel, Aunt Linda

On Sunday, we hung out a little bit more and then headed back to Washington D.C. with a haul of saltine cracker toffee and some new recipes:) Because we were trying extra hard at adulting, we decided to stop by the Costco in Gaithersburg on the way home. Words can't describe the feat, but I can tell you our marriage is stronger than ever. It turns out that it was 'tax-free' weekend. Costco's saving grace was that this one had a giant bottle of Suja brand Mighty Greens juice:)

Friday I teleworked and appreciated Mike's giant supercomputer to work on:)
Turns out you're never done learning about statistics. 

We also finally made it to Capitol Sushi! It was very delicious, but we were slightly underwhelmed after the build up. I really appreciated the pre-seasoning, but would have liked a better "ending" to the experience. We fixed that with Pitango Gelato:)

We finished our 10 miles this past Sunday. I survived even though Mike beat me by like 20 minutes. Someone remind me to wake up earlier for long runs.

Beautiful sunset Saturday evening!

This week we have plenty planned! We are saying goodbye to Meimi who is leaving to China for her Fulbright year, going to Restaurant Week with GGSS friends on Friday, set to run 11ish on Saturday, and christening Kelly and Alex's apartment with some Settlers of Catan on Sunday.

Hope everyone has a good week!