Haviland Trip To See The Twinsies

I've been home from vacation for 4 days and I still can't seem to get into the swing of every day life. It hasn't helped that I upon arrival home I promptly got sick. All week I've been wanting to blog about the trip, but I've been too sick to even want to type. I think I'm on the tale end of the sickies though and I finally feel up to entering the blog world again.

So since being on vacation to see Jadon's family was far more exciting than my current status I'll stop piddling around with boring info about post-trip-blahs.

Jadon and I headed out to Haviland KS (where he grew up) at 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Ya, 2:00 a.m. is craziness, but so is trying to fit a 14 hour drive into 1 day. So if we're going for crazy, we'll just go all the way. I actually slept for the first 5 hours of the trip while Jadon tore through more miles than was probably legal. No cop-stops though, so all was well. We made it to Fort Collin by 7:15 a.m. where we stopped at Starbucks for coffee to go with our breakfast. Once I was awake we stopped much more frequently as my bladder is about the size of a pea.

post-run, no need for make-up yet, I'll put that on 15 minutes before we arrive at the in-laws

We made it to Colby by 12:00 where we stopped for a "sanity" run. 14 hours of traveling requires this. 4 miles in the blasting wind and we were both ready to get back in the Tahoe. At this point though the trip got L..O..N..G.. Finally at 7:00 p.m. we pulled into my in-law's driveway - relieved & exhausted.

my amazing wonder in-law's beautiful house - one of my favorite places to be

It’s crazy how tired sitting on your butt all day can make you. You’d think I’d be itching to run a marathon, but all I wanted was bed. After a good night’s sleep though, running was all I wanted to do. My hips and legs were stiff & sore by morning -  begging to be stretched out.

The weather in Haviland was amazing. It's still winter in Wyoming, so I took full advantage of the heat and ran 3 times on Tuesday. Jadon and I also decided to do a new Body Rock workout. After run #2 we went outside to do the workout in the grass. Now, I don't know if 7 months without green grass had made us allergic to the stuff or what, but after only 30 seconds of laying in the grass doing crunches and we both jumped up yelling (well, actually only I was yelling) Our skin was red and burning and itchy. I honestly couldn't get into the shower fast enough. A cold shower, Benadryl, and a ton of hydrocortisone cream and Jadon and I were back to normal. I now refer to that grass as "Toxic-Grass"

ready to head out the door for run #3

I never have to think about my route in KS because it's all flat and it's all in squares - love that!

Enjoying the extra oxygen that comes with not running at 7,000 ft

running into Haviland

Twin bro - Aaron, showing me his mad climbing skills

the "rolling burpee" - a favorite

"No Amanda, he can't do it the easy way, I'll come show him how again!"

post-workout lounging - they were all pretty wiped out

Three of my siblings also live in Haviland so in the afternoon we headed into town to spend some time with them. Talking and laughing was great, but the best part was getting to go rock climbing with my brothers and then put them (2 brothers, one bro-in-law) through a Body Rock workout that Jadon and I do. I got to play "Personal Trainer" with them and really kick their butts in a workout.

Jadon has tons of family in Haviland as well, so after hanging with the siblings we went to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Ross. It was so good to see them :-) Grandma Ross told us stories from all of their worldwide travels, I had no idea they had gone so many places and done so many things. She's even been to the Copper Canyon in Mexico where the Tarahumara Indians live and knew all about how they are amazing runners long before "Born to Run" hit the shelves - Grandma has one up on Chris McDougall.

In between gallivanting around to see different family Jadon pulled a little schneekiness on me. He drove up to this house and pointed to a bike outside and said, "see that bike, do you want it?" What in the world? Come to find out he and Denny (aka - Papa Ross) had been scheming all afternoon & had found an almost new road bike for me! I tried it out and loved it but decided to think it over for the evening before buying it. Later that night Jadon & Denny showed up with the bike in the back of Denny's truck. Saying, "I could try it out in the morning to make sure I liked it.....and try it for the rest of my life, cause it was MINE!!!!! WOOHOO!!! I was SUPER STOKED!!!!

NEW ROAD BIKE!!!!!

The next morning I got to see my sister-in-law, Jeannie! I think we're the 2 crazy additions to the Ross family and so we get along pretty well :-) After that I started to feel YUCKY - apparently I somehow ingested some gluten, because I was sick for the rest of the day. Honestly though I didn't really mind, I got to lay around on the in-law's comfy recliner, catch up on some TV watching & get lots of love & sympathy. By evening I felt much better and so Jadon and I picked up our neice Kaitlin (whom we hadn't seen yet) and headed to check out some puppies we'd heard about and get some groceries. The puppies were at a so called "Flea Market" a few miles from Haviland. It was definately transitioning from Flea Market to dump though -  I think I should notify Hoarders. The puppies were cute, but not exactly puppies - they were already 6 months old. If we get another dog, I don't want to miss the ULTRA CUTE PUPPY STAGE - I would have felt jipped to get 6 month old dog.

the Flea Market, looks like I could have a gotten a few bikes here as well. Shall I call Hoarders????

On day 3 we headed to Wichita to see Jadon's sister, Janeen, her husband Patrick, their son, Micah and their 2 newborn TWINS!!!!(Isaac & Malachi) I'm a twin so obviously I think they are the BEST! Malachi (the little girl) weighted 4lb.6oz. which is exactly what I weighed when I was born, so that was extra special. I've been praying for these 2 little miracles for a long time and so holding them in person was truly amazing. We spent the afternoon, holding babies & talking. Honestly there is nothing else I would have rather done. That evening Patrick made California rolls for supper (he's a pro) and then we all headed to Orange Leaf for dessert.

Jadon holding Isaac, Me holding Malachi

a "twin moment"

I'd never heard of Orange Leaf till last week. I discovered these awesome tiny little spoons in my mother-in-law's silverware drawer and asked where she got them. She said they were from a frozen yogurt shop called Orange Leaf. I have this thing with spoons. I hate big spoons and I love little spoons. They also have to be the right shape though. Eating a meal with an awkward spoon could ruin the whole experience. So... I knew I had to try out Orange Leaf, for their spoon if not for anything else. The frozen yogurt was as good as the spoons, so I was a happy camper.

These bowls are a little large considering a serving of ice-cream is 1/2 cup....FAIL on serving sizes Orange Leaf!

Me, Jadon and Janeen (Jadon's sister, whom I gladly claim as my sister as well)

Micah & Patrick - I'll claim them too!

The next day started with a short run and a Starbucks date!!! - my personal favorite combination.

A few hours of reading, journaling and talking, along with a few Americanos and my day was off to a perfect start! Things kept getting better too. We discovered an amazing health food store and I shopped my little heart out! Have you ever noticed that every single health food store smells the same? Why is that?

Later that afternoon Janeen and I went and got pedicures :-) I was told by the girl who did mine that I have beautiful, soft feet, but that I clip my big toenail too short - whoops! didn't know my nail-clipping skills would be called into question. So, that's something I'll be working on!

my feet are the ones with the extra short toe-nails

Race posing picture with Micah - I'm proud to be a factor in his interest in running!

Holding Mally again - I don't know when I'll see her again so I had to make the most of my time

There is a FLAT paved trail behind Janeen and Patrick’s house which was begging me to come out and rollerblade on it (since there is an absence of flat trails in Wyoming and I haven't learned to stop on my rollerblades) So I gave in and did 7 loops (almost 8 miles) on the trail - it felt wonderful to be zipping along in the Kansas heat! Rollerblading is definitely therapy to me.

Micah ran his first race a few weeks ago and had been asking to race "Aunt Audrey & Uncle Jadon" (After his race he called us to tell us that he ran so hard that a little piece of his heart burst out. That cracked me up! I think I know the feeling though) Never one to stop someone from getting on the "running band-wagon" Micah, Jadon and I headed outside for a race after dinner. Of course Micah won - as all kids do :-) At the end though he informed me that I might have been able to beat him if I hadn't been heel striking...WHAT? Where did he learn that? Someone has been listening in to my running conversations with Patrick. Just so you know, he was wrong. I was running in my vibrams and I'm sure my form was perfect ;-)

We finished the evening with watching videos of Jadon when he was about 3 or 4 years old...hilarious! Ask him to show you how he can "boogy, boogy, boogy" or whether or not he uses an old toothbrush.

Well, there is only one day left to blog about but I'm saving that for another blog. It'll be a good one!