No Rest for the Weary

Once again we booked the EARLY flight out of town. The last time there were very few concerns about whether we were going to be able to fly out. This time Mother Nature wanted to make this trip just a bit more interesting.

After heading out to my parents place the night before, the 3:15am wakeup call was not a pleasant surprise. After a quick shower we were on the road and heading to the airport. I was hoping it didn’t look like a homeless shelter since so many flights had been canceled because of all the snow. The one blessing of having a 6:15am flight is that zero hour is even early at the airport. The lines were relatively short and we were through check-in and security in less than 45 minutes.

Sitting at the airport before our first flight. We are just happy to be through security on time.

So there we are in the concourse nice and early. Shortly before our departure they loaded the plane and the door is shut 5 minutes early. Are you kidding me? All this crazy weather and we are actually getting pushed back from the gate before our scheduled departure. NICE!!!

Is this Spokane or Salt Lake City?

The de-icer starts working its magic and then the stall begins. We sat just 100’ from the gate and waited for over an hour as the captain and flight attendants did absolutely nothing to inform us of cause for delay. Under any normal circumstance I really don’t worry too much about these delays but when your layover is just 25 minutes there really isn’t much time to spare. After trying to calm down my worrisome mother (she REALLY wants to make it to Virginia on time), I tried to make a quick call and see what other options we had incase were didn’t make our connection.

OK now this is Salt Lake. Bone dry.

After learning our only option would be to fly through Atlanta and get in 5 hours later, we really wanted to make this flight. About halfway to Salt Lake our ever so talkative pilot finally makes a verbal appearance and was ‘pleased’ to inform us that we would be arriving at 9:30am local time. Perfect, that would give us exactly 5 minutes to exit the plane and make it to the next.

We made the flight.

Thankfully we arrived about 5 minutes earlier than expected and were able to get on our connecting flight with just a few minutes to spare. There were only two people behind us and one was a crew member. I am glad that we made the flight because Mom was not going to be happy if we had to figure out another option.

A view our of the plane.

The Shenandoah River!

We landed safely in Washington D.C. and made it to my sis's place. Even though it was a bit of a stressful trip, I am glad we made it.

Foreign Shopping

How many of you shop at the same grocery store, religiously? You know exactly where everything is and you can get what you need and get out as quickly as possible.

Well since I am now eastsider (east side of division), I now have to shop at the local Albertsons. I walked in and honestly it felt like I just entered a foreign country. I had no idea how the store was laid out or where anything was.

I walked aimlessly throughout the entire store trying to find some of the necessities. I would have asked some of the employees where to find stuff but I wasn't sure they would understand me or I would have even understood them. I am happy to report that I did EVENTUALLY find everything I needed and made it home before this crazy snow storm hit.

Ice Phenomenon!!!

I am pretty fortunate to work at a place where I am not stuck in a cubicle or staring out of a window at the building next to me. As a landscape design/build company we take pride in our work and we like to showcase our skills at the office. We have a large pond with a waterfall and stream entering into it.

Each year during the cold winter months the pond and waterfalls freeze over and create some pretty cool ice sculptures. Since the temperature varies each day, so does the amount of ice. The "sculpture" is always changing.

6' Waterfall- The water is flowing behind the ice wall.

Stream Cover in Ice- The water is also flowing under the ice cover.

I have seen this occur the past few years and I am always amazed on how different and cool the ice looks. Well this year, we experienced something completely new.

No one in our office has ever seen this happen. I really can even explain how it happened but this is done 100% by mother nature. There was no tools involved in doing this.

At one point we looked out the window and saw this perfect circle forming in the ice. Because of the water moving in one direction from the waterfall and the other from the stream, apparently the friction of the moving water caused this circle to form.

Shortly after the video the circle froze over again but I have to say this was one of the strangest and coolest things I have ever seen. I probably wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself.

Movin' Day!!!

Moving is never fun, well unless you have some of the greatest movin' buddies around. This Friday was my big moving day. I didn't have to work so my plan was to get an early start and just keep going until I was all moved out.

In the beginning it is actually kind of exciting since you know by the end of the day you will be in your new place. Then you really start to realize how much 'CRAP' you really have and that this task can become a bit overwhelming. I am glad to say that I have some of the greatest friends that would drop everything to come and help me out. My buddy Chris showed up bright and early and help me with the first few loads while Jessi, Roger, Natalie, Trish, Tiffany, Eric and Emma showed up after work and helped me finish up. Jessi and Tiff even began cleaning the old place and I even think they dragged Eric into vacuuming. Seriously? Are you kidding me? It was above and beyond .

My last move was from one room into an entire house and was pretty simple. I really didn't have that much stuff. Now reverse that and after two years of living in a house and trying to stuff all my things back into one room, well didn't exactly go so well. Thankfully the new place has (well had) a garage and now it is packed full. Now the fun really start as I try to get rid of some stuff and hopefully simplify just a bit.

Thanks again to everyone who helped. I honestly would still be moving stuff over right now if it wasn't for all the help. I think the reason we hav no pictures of the move is because of how fast everyone was working. Now it is time to get settled into the new place and HOPEFULLY find someone who wants to rent out the most fawesome house ever. Anyone interested?

Winter Wonder Workouts!!!

This post is going to cover a TON of stuff but it has just been that kind of week. It is winter and between my job and training everything is suppose to slow down, but what fun would that be.

Since I enjoy food so much, my new tradition is to join my triathlon club, Tri-Fusion, for the Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot at Manito Park. We all show up pretty early, freeze our butts off and then run one or two loops. Honestly it is way more fun than it sounds and I wouldn't want to miss it.

Tric, Nat, Greg, Sheena and myself before the race.

Jessi and I running SUPER fast:)

So if I didn't get enough running on Thursday morning a group of us got together on Friday after our big dinners and decided to work off those extra calories. I had a feeling that this run was going to be just a tad bit different then the leisurely jog yesterday. We started off at a rather comfortable pace as everyone began to warm up. Soon Roger and Hosh decided to pick up the pace and left the rest of us following in the wake.

I believe we ran just over 6 miles and we averaged just over 7 minute miles. I haven't ran that fast for quite a few months and it was exciting to get back at it. My knee was feeling good and the run, though tough, was a lot of fun.

Paul (Portland Tri-Club), Ty, Josh, Eric, Me, Roger before our 10K run.

Taking in all those calories we just burned off!

Saturday was spent in the Thompson's basement since mother nature decided it was time for Spokane to receive our first snow. Originally we were going to brave the cold weather and hit the road, but after over an inch of snow we were stuck in teh basement. These rides can be brutal but with such a great group of people, they really fly by. Even if you have a crash, freaking inside.

Roger, Me, Jessi, Nat, Turtle(Nate), and Tric

Roger and I making sure I didn't do any damage to his bike after my crash. I was not to worried about mine but definitely don't want to ruin his bike.

I finished the weekend up with an awesome swim workout on Sunday and couldn't wait to get the next week started. Thanks to everyone who helped me stay motivated through all the workouts, you guys ROCK!!!