20 Miles + Anniversary Celebration

You know those Mondays that roll around and all you can focus on is downing one cup of coffee after another? Yeah, today is one of those Mondays. I am fairly confident that my tiredness today stems from another wild weekend. And although the weekend was busy and full, it was the kind of full that fills your heart and makes memories that will last a lifetime. That kind of business, I am okay with.

Saturday

Landon and I woke up early, Saturday morning and got ready to run our 20 mile training run! Not only was this the longest run in my training cycle, but it was the longest run I’ve ever run before! Needless to say, I was a little nervous. However, instead of focusing on what could have gone wrong, I chose to focus on what was going to go right!  I made Landon and I some peanut butter/ honey toast and drank a little water before heading out to meet up with our group! Thanks to my sweet sister, Benaiah stayed home and slept a few extra hours, while Abby held down the fort at home!

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Once Landon and I got to our meet up spot, we did some dynamic warm up drills before heading out.

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We started off with a good sized group, but eventually we all found our own paces and drifted apart. Landon and I followed the first 10 mile path talking the entire way. Once we hit the turn around spot, we hit up a water/Gatorade station (ice cold Gatorade mid-way through a run tastes glorious!) and that helped fuel us to finish the last 10 miles strong. Landon put his hard core music on when we had about 1.5 miles left of the run and I am now convinced I need to listen to some good pump up music on the last bit of my marathon. It did wonders for my energy levels! Since we didn’t have our guide with us, we ended up getting a little turned around and finished the run for a total of 20.6 miles.

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I was so excited to not only finish TWENTY MILES, but I finished feeling super strong! I felt like I had some left in me, which was really the confidence boost that I needed for the race! Watch out marathon, here I come!

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Benaiah greeted us with big smiles when we got home and I took one of the best showers in my life. Abby and I hung out for a while, before Landon, Benaiah and I headed to my in-law’s to help them move into their new place. After spending a couple hours moving boxes and eating slices of pizza, we spent the rest of the evening lounging around and attempting to not move as much as humanly possible. 😉 I learned after running twenty miles, I really don’t like to walk much later that day.

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Landon and I ended the evening with a new, favorite movie of mine, The Case for Christ, and a big bowl of homemade cheesy popcorn. YES.

Sunday

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Sunday morning was much more relaxed. We kicked off our rest day with giant smoothies, devotions and hot, steamy cups of coffee. After getting ready, we headed out to door to church and enjoyed a great sermon and rich fellowship!

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Since Landon and I only had a ‘mini’ anniversary celebration on our actual anniversary, we decided that Sunday we were going to drive back to our honeymoon destination and eat dinner at the spot we shared our first meal together as husband and wife. Landon’s parent’s agreed to watch Benaiah, which meant we had the entire afternoon through evening to ourselves! As weird as it was to be without Benaiah, it was refreshing to be able to get away and have some quality time together.

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On our way down, we pulled off on this scenic over-look. Isn’t it amazing?

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I don’t know if you guys know this or not, but I adore history and Galena is full of amazing history! President Grant lived in Galena, pre and post-Civil war, and resided in this home after coming back from the war. Of course, I had to read all of the signs and learn as much as I could about the interesting homes we were looking at. As I was reading through the history, I realized I was becoming just like my father. My dad would always make us stop and read signs, so we would learn about the history of the specific spot we were visiting and now, here I am, ten years later, reading signs out of my own, free will. 😉 Good work dad!

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I wouldn’t mind a house like that…

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After getting our history fix for the day, we meandered our way downtown to our dinner spot. Landon and I fell in love with this quirky, somewhat odd diner that serves delicious food, almost two years ago.

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I was super excited to hit up Durty Gurts again and dive into a basket of their amazing sweet potato fries.

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Craving, fulfilled. I ordered the Hawaii Five-O burger, but substituted chicken breast for the burger. It literally was one of the best ‘burgers’ I’ve ever had.

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Landon ordered “Shut the Front Door” off their menu, which was basically a bacon cheese burger sandwiched in between two glazed donuts. It tasted about as amazingly crazy as it sounds.

To finish off our very healthy meal ;), we ordered our traditional wedding anniversary dessert of a strawberry shake and it was everything I hoped it would be and more.

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Seriously, I think this was one of the best shakes I’ve ever had. Maybe I was just really hungry. I don’t know… Either way, it was so special to share our third strawberry shake (we have one each anniversary) to celebrate two years of marriage to my favorite human ever. You are such a wonderful man, Landon.

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We picked up a sleepy, but happy Benaiah later that night and came home exhausted, but with full hearts and stomachs. This weekend was definitely one for the books. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

Questions of the Day 

  1. What is your favorite thing to order at a resturant?
  2. Are you shake person?
  3. Name the highlight of your weekend!