Ford’s Birthday Party

(sidenote – I’ve been a really crappy blogger – I hate blogging this late after the event – I forget most of the details and have to think of something clever to say…)

We celebrated with family and close friends and had so much fun. It was great to have everyone come over to the house and check out our new place (even though it was (and still is) so bare!).

We BBQ’d hot dogs & brats, had baked beans, chips & salsa, and veggie trays.
And of course, a smash cake for the birthday boy and cupcakes for everyone else. He actually didn’t dig the smash cake as much as I thought he would. He just scraped the frosting off the cake and then got mad when his hands were sticky. Silly boy.

On his birthday we gave him our gift – the Little Tykes Cozy Truck – and he LOVED it. He loves going for rides, opening (& closing) the door, tailgate and gas cap (again and again).

He got extremely spoiled by everyone and got lots of clothes (yay for fall & winter clothes), some cool shoes, books and toys.

 

Tinkerbell Half Marathon Recap

I know this is almost a month overdue.
I really don’t have any good excuse as to why I haven’t posted it… we’ve just been busy living life!

Be prepared for a TON of pictures!

First of all, the weather in CA is absolutely wonderful! It was so gorgeous when we got off the plane in Long Beach. We got to our hotel, dropped our luggage, got some lunch and hit up the expo. It was a blast. We got a ton of compliments on our jackets. Thanks to my super talented cousin we had the best looking Tinkerbell jackets there!

Met up with Alice as soon as we entered the park! 🙂

We hit the hay fairly early since we had an early wake up call the next day.
it was TIME to FLY! 😉

Linds and I had to start back in Corral C (since she was running under Sundance’s bib) and the start was way congested! Holy smokes there were a TON of runners! We didn’t cross the start line until 20 minutes after the initial start!

We ran out around Anaheim for about a mile and then weaved our way back into the parks! The next 6 miles (I think) were in Disneyland, California Adventure, and Downtown Disney.

It was magical. I didn’t even feel like I was running!

We stopped for a lot of pictures! The lines were long. When you have 2 corrals of runners in front of you… there are a lot of women in line! haha!
Had to stop for a pic with Captain Hook & Smee!
Tinkerbell was on top of the drum, but it was hard to get a good pic of her!

Stopped with ALL the princesses. This was one stop my Mom and I passed on last year, and I regretted it.

Ran through the castle and stopped to take a picture!
I didn’t take any pics once we got out of the parks, and I finally grabbed my camera as we were coming down the chute –

we resulted in this gem of a photo!

Love ya Linds, don’t hate me for posting this pic! 🙂

We had a blast. Linds and I had a great race! We only stopped to walk during water stops and had to make a couple potty stops. She was a champ… she was having some seriously shitty IT band pain and we still pushed each other to sprint it in at the end. 🙂

Here are a few more pics from our trip…

I’m a huge Winnie the Pooh fan! Makes me feel like a little kid again!

Anyone else run the Tinkerbell Half? Anyone doing the Princess Half and getting their Coast-to-Coast medal? (if yes… I’m extremely jealous!)

Tinkerbell Half Marathon 2013 – Here we come!!

the 3 of us…

are headed to CALI to run this…

and we are SO excited!!!

excited to run in the most magical place – Disneyland!

excited to get out of the COLD weather!

excited for a girls weekend!

 

 

Anyone else running the Tinkerbell Half Marathon this year?
My Mom and I ran it last year, you can read the recap here. 🙂

 

I got my Mom to CrossFit! & a Reebok Coupon

Remember my previous post about bringing all the blogger girls to Elevated CrossFit for ‘Guest Days’?
Well on the last day I was somehow able to convince my Mom, Joanna & Carly to join me!
Let’s just call it a #CrossFitMiracle 😉

My Mom has always been a little (okay – a lot) afraid of CrossFit.
She worries about not being able to move for a week after, not knowing the movements, and not being able to move for a week after. 😉

The key was getting Carly and Joanna convinced to come try it. They usually do long runs on Saturday, and well, my Mom didn’t want to run alone, so she had to come to Elevated CrossFit too.

Our workout was fairly simple –

AMRAP 10 minutes, in teams of 3, complete the following:

athlete 1 runs 200m, the other two will be doing as many reps as possible of:
athlete 2: KB Swings
athlete 3: Push Ups

Joanna, Carly and I were on a team, and my Mom joined in with Cayson and her Mom – and I’ve already forgotten our score. We had a great time and that’s all that matters.

Everyone did awesome! I was so proud of my Mom and Carly and Joanna. They were out of their element but still kicked major butt!

After we got done with the WOD we were goofing off and trying to get everyone to do hand stands against the wall.

poor Carly… she slammed herself into the wall and Joanna and my Mom were there to catch her and hold her up,
but she couldn’t stay up on her own –

which is why it’s just us 3 in this pic.
We were all laughing hysterically.

Then I was trying to do some more pull ups unassisted and Carly managed to snap this pic on her phone –

really blurry, but still, it’s proof I can do pull ups. 🙂

I could only get 4 or 5 strung together. My arms were FRIED from all the workouts that week.
I even tried to do a few handstand push ups.
I was going for 5 in a row, got to 4, then basically crumpled into a sweaty heap.
Thank goodness I had an ab-mat to break my fall!

p.s. Reebok sent me the red tank, it’s actually the CrossFit Racer Long Bra Top. It’s awesome.
The great thing about their CrossFit apparel line is that it’s made with CrossFit athletes in mind.
This tank fit perfectly, was soft and comfortable, and didn’t cause any chafing or raw spots.
And like all my other Reebok tanks, it utilizes the PlayDry technology which means it moves moisture away, accelerates evaporation, and increases ventilation. So for a sweaty chick like me – it’s awesome because it keeps me cool (literally) and makes me LOOK good. 😉

The next morning I texted my Mom to see if I could run on her treadmill.
I really wanted to try out my new Bose SIE2i sport headphones that Reebok sent me.
My Mom responded that they (Joanna and her) were out running about a mile from my house and that I should join in and run them home.
So I quickly changed (got bundled up – it was freakin’ COLD outside!) and headed down the road.
I ended up only running 3 miles but it was fun to hear them complain/rant&rave about CrossFit.

and I fell in love with the Bose SIE2i sport headphones.
Hands down, the MOST comfortable earphones I’ve ever worn.
and most definitely the best sound quality in any sport headphone I’ve ever owned.
I love that there’s a remote on the cord and lets you control volume and change tracks on my iPod nano. No fiddling with the buttons on the actual iPod, or trying to take gloves off to get the scroll wheel to respond. Those Reebok & Bose people are pure genius!
the armband fit pretty comfortably over my long sleeve top and only slipped down once.
AND  it has a shorter cord, so no more getting tangled up in my watch, water belt, or yanking the earphones out of my ears when I accidentally snag the cord. (it does come with an extension piece if you do need the extra length).

 

The folks at Reebok sent me this coupon code to pass on to all my readers!
I’m a huge fan of their apparel and shoes!
(and the new Bose SIE2i headphones – but the coupon won’t apply to those)

 

Their apparel is great and designed with athletes in mind. Every piece of clothing that I have from Reebok has quickly become a favorite.
Comfort, fit and quality are all top-notch!
They never restrict movement, never chafe, and look great!
Make sure you check out their SHOP! The coupon is good through the end of the year!

*disclaimer – Reebok provided me with the Bose SIE2i headphones and the CrossFit Racer Long Bra Top at no cost to me. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own.*

#GetAfterIt goals – CHECK!

Remember the post where I mentioned my #GetAfterIt CrossFit goals?

Ya know…

Back Squats & Deadlifts over 200 lbs & Pull Ups & Hand Stand Push Ups?!

Well, I got the Deadlift goal 3 days after I posted my video (205lbs).

2 weeks after I posted my #getafterit goals, I got my (huge) Back Squat goal at 225lbs.

 

I’m happy (more like ecstatic) to tell you guys that in the last 24 hours I achieved the other 2 goals!

On Thursday night I was finally able to string together multiple kipping pull ups. I did a set of 5, 7, and then 6 more.

Last night was also special to me because I was able to bring a bunch of girlfriends to Elevated CrossFit to do a workout with me.

Megan, Me, Janae, Holly, & Breeann @ ECF

Megan, Breeann, Janae and I were on a team together and tackled a BEAST of a WOD! (Stephanie was also there – but left before pictures! She teamed up with her hubby, Jake, Chris & his friend, Chris – they KILLED it in 25 minutes!! Holly teamed up with her hubby, Jorge, and Trent and… um… I don’t remember. LOL. #blondemoment)

In teams of 4 (with only 2 people working at a time)
complete the following:

300 pull ups
400 push ups
500 sit ups
600 squats

We finished in 32:00! Which was amazing! Tyson wanted to cut us off at 30 minutes, but Janae convinced him to let us finish. (I would have been happy to stop – I had also done the workout at 6pm with Jen, Van, and Michelle – I was exhausted… but really, if Tyson had made us stop, I would have been irritated. ha!)

And TONIGHT…

I finally got Handstand Push Ups!
(they were kipped and I got 3 of them!)

I am SO excited. I was just goofin’ around after the WOD and thought to myself, “Yikes, I gotta work on HSPU, that’s one my goals for the year!!”
So I set up an ab mat and got into position for one and was superclose to getting to full extension, but I had pushed too far away from the wall. But I tried it again, and it felt effortless. I sat (stayed?) in the handstand position and called out to everyone “DID YOU JUST SEE THAT?! I just did a freakin’ handstand push up!!!” Tyson retorted, “Yeah? Let’s see another one, then”. So I dropped back down and got another one! Then the guys made some goofy comment and I started laughing and lost my position. I was able to get one more after that, and probably could have gotten more… ((the first picture in the post is right after I got my HSPU, I had to snap a mirror pic, I was just SO excited! and if my face looks a little red, it’s because I got nailed right in the face with a nerf ball when we played dodgeball after the WOD, thanks Coach!))

and even better – somehow, I convinced Janae to come back to Elevated CrossFit for one more WOD, AND I convinced Rachelle to come try it out too!

Sarah, Me, Janae, Courtney, Rachelle, & Cayson

this was our “tough chick” picture 😉

Tonight’s WOD was

Teams of 2 – 5 rounds of
50m partner carry (each)
20 Med Ball Tosses (each)

I teamed up with Cayson (since we are similar size) and Janae & Courtney teamed up, and Rachelle and Sarah teamed up.
I had SO much fun cheering them on during the WOD and I love that they had a good time!! (except when Rachelle tripped during a partner carry – I must have that effect on her. #mybad)

 

I am so proud of all my girls that came out for Guest Days at Elevated CrossFit. Everyone did SO amazing. I was excited to share something that I’m passionate about with all of them and I would LOVE it if they joined me more often! *cough, cough* Megan & Rachelle & Holly & Stephanie *cough, cough*

Tomorrow is the last day of Guest Days, the WOD is at 9:30 and ANYONE is welcome to join me. I think I might have my Momma and Joanna and Carly convinced to join me. WAHOO!

 

Can I just say again how FREAKIN’ stoked I am about my pull ups and HSPU?!
I am thrilled with all the progress that I’ve made over the last year with CrossFit.
It has been such an amazing journey and I can’t wait to see what next year holds for me!