Tuesday, May 7, 2013

5K Foam Fest-Nashville Race Recap

*DISCLAIMER* The majority of my opinion of the event in general had to do with the weather. I know that we can't control the weather but you can control some things.

5K Foam Fest-Nashville

This took place right outside of Nashville on a Cowboy ranch/farm event location. I did the race with 3 of my friends. One of my friends husband came and took pictures of us. Bless Steve's heart because it was miserable!

Pros:
-Glad we had an earlier start time (8:40)
-Glad my SUV had 4 wheel drive
-Glad I have great friends that stick together
-The first couple bouncy/foam obstacles were so fun!
-The lodge that had the fireplace burning
-We got medals for this race and a cool shirt.

Cons:
-It was 44 degrees and raining. After the race, my hands were so cold, I couldn't move my fingers to open my granola bar. :(
-The trails we had to "run" on were impossible to run. Way too muddy. Way too steep in some areas, thought we were going to wipe out and hurt ourselves.
-Lack of race personale/medics on the course. Saw several people, including my friend, who had to stop and we didn't want to leave her incase she needed someone.
-Long lines for some of the obstacles in the middle of the race.
-The water obstacle lines (inner tubes specifically) were crowded and people wouldn't keep moving.
-We skipped some of the obstacles because we were freezing and exhausted. We wanted to save our energy to climb the big death drop slide at the end of the race. (Skipped the double 8 foot wall climb, the cargo net, the electrical belly craw, the second inflatable slip n slide, and unfortunately the death drop slide)
-When we finally got to the death drop slide, a race attendant was waiting telling everyone that the first slide was closed due to 3 people breaking their ankles and the second slide was a "go at your own risk" because they didn't have enough water to make the slide slippery enough. We opted out because we didn't want to risk.
-We had to park across the street in a huge field. Luckily, I had 4 wheel drive but LOTS of people were getting stuck in the mud and they only had 1 tractor to pull people out.
-We didn't have any way to rinse off any mud and then because we parked so far from the actual race and had to walk back to our cars, we had to hold towels up for each other to change in the cold out of our cold, wet clothes.
-Not many photographers on the course and not many places where our friend could get to, to take pictures of us on all the obstacles.


It seemed like the Foam Fest race company didn't consider the amount of rain and cooler weather Nashville was predicting for Saturday. I know they said it was a rain or shine event but I feel like more people would've enjoyed it if they would've post poned it. Next time it would be better to plan for it in June, July or August.

Honestly though, I'm not quite sure I'm a mud runner. I enjoyed the foam bouncy houses but all the mud and water/mud pits, not a huge fan. Regardless of the weather and such, I did complete the 5K Foam Fest and can mark it off my list!

I'll leave you with some pictures!

Heather, Me, Nicole, and Emily (Freezing but not realizing what we got ourselves into)

Walking the plank over to the starting line. I'm pretty sure that we had more flooding during this race than they anticipated.)



Fun FOAM!

Let the race begin. 


First obstacle: don't let the balls hit you in the face.

This was one of my favorites!

Slip n slide that wasn't as wet as it needed to be.

A picture of the slides in the distance that we didn't get to go down :( 
One of the many GIANT, muddy hills we had to climb. 


Em went first! 

Then Nicole and then me!

Completely wet and frozen. 

Not amused. 

Is this over yet? 

Poor friend Heather wasn't feeling well and she still managed to finish in this miserable weather.


Eh, we did one slip n slide, we don't need to get even more wet and do another. 


Coming upon the slide where we opted out and walked around it to the finish. 

In line for the snacks, shirts, and medals. 

Warming up by the fire after the race. 
Happy Tuesday!


Thursday, May 2, 2013

New Blog Series-What's in my kitchen?

I realized how much I've missed blogging. Sometimes you just have to prioritize your life and blogging took a back seat for awhile. I really want to try to do better and post more for me. I love looking back on past posts and it's kind of like an online scrapbook!

Anyways, on to the point of this post. It's hard to believe that I've been a Pampered Chef Consultant for  a year now. April 30th to be exact! I have sold (so far) $11,827.07 in my career. I have recruited 1 consultant under me and she is going to be awesome at this! I am ready to kick it up a notch and really build my business.

For fun, I am going to start a new blog series called "What's in my kitchen?"
After a few weeks of getting it up and running, I am hoping to make it a link up so all of my wonderful followers and join in and post about their favorite things in their kitchen/share recipes/etc.

So without further adieu: One of my FAVORITE pieces in my kitchen, The Deep Covered Baker (From Pampered Chef)


This is picture from the pampered chef website and I'm going to add some of my own pictures, too!

This is one of mine and Derek's favorite recipes: Chicken Parmesan Soup. Made in the MICROWAVE in 12 MINUTES!

I also love making a pork tenderloin in the microwave in the DCB, family fast fajitas in the microwave in the DCB and cakes...in the MICROWAVE in the DCB!

I love it because it is fast and delicious! You can also use it in the oven and I've done that once, I believe. I use this at least once a week in my kitchen!

Stay tuned next time for another one of my favorites in my kitchen!


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Spring Break Trip 2013

Our spring break was the week before Easter this year. We were definitely more than ready for spring break and I had an exciting trip planned with my hubby, his parents and sister. I'll recap day to day!

Friday March 22nd- Flew out to Phoenix, AZ

Saturday March 23rd- Derek and his dad went to an Indians spring training ball game. Kenzi (SIL), Sandy (MIL), and I went on a LONG walk to the shopping area. We went to some shops and ate lunch at this awesome burger place, SmashBurger. Great burgers and awesome sweet potato fries! When we got back from walking (a total of almost 5 miles), Kenzi and I laid out by the pool and got in the hot tub. The weather was gorgeous but the pool wasn't heated and it was like an ice cube! We ate that night at a little diner restaurant called The Village. They had awesome pie!



Sunday March 24th- We were suppose to go to an afternoon Indians game but we decided against it and took off for our side adventure. We were going to drive 6 hours to the four corners (Colorado, Arizona  New Mexico, and Utah) then drive a little over an hour to our hotel "The View" at Monument Valley. We decided after many stops (to see Montezuma's Castle, gas stops, food stops, bathroom stops, etc) to go straight to Monument Valley and get up to the 4 corners on Monday. We got to see the sunset at Monument Valley and it was a sight! We ate at the restaurant in the hotel, because it was the only restaurant around in a 50 mile radius. We were in Navajo Nation.  Kenzi and I split the Navajo Sampler for dinner and the others got fried chicken. The lodge where we stayed was really beautiful!















Monday March 25th- My sweet hubby's birthday. He was our faithful driver and drove about 12 hours on his birthday. We got up to see the sunrise. All of the rooms at balconies but it was REALLY cold! We wrapped up and took pictures. Kenzi and I took a silly video where she videoed some of the sunrise while I played "Circle of Life" from the Lion King in the background. The landscape just fit! :) 
We ate breakfast in the Lodge and then drove on the dirt road down to some of the monuments. We took off from there to drive to the 4 corners. We got there, took pictures, bought some navajo jewelry from the booths that were there and headed back to phoenix. We took the longer route to see the painted desert and petrified forest. It was really cool but we were all ready to be back to the warmth of Phoenix. 



























Tuesday, March 26th- We finally get to all go to an Indians game! We rested up that morning by going to the pool/sun bathing and reading. The weather was incredible, mid 80s! The game was good but we lost. We enjoyed our seats provided by a radio station that Tom (FIL) gets free tickets to events sometimes. I really loved having my awesome zoom lens (70mm-300mm Canon) at the game.  We ate at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Derek's birthday since we got back to Phoenix late on his actual birthday. We went out for ice cream later that evening!











Wednesday March 27th- We packed up, checked out of the hotel and took the in laws to the airport for their earlier flight. Kenzi, Derek and I didn't fly back home to Nashville until later, so we got to go to the afternoon Indians game. They played at another ball park this day that was beautiful! We enjoyed our trip but when we go out there next time for spring training, we are just going to stay put! Our rental car read that we drove 1,100 miles in the 5 short days that we were there. 















And there ya have it! Our spring break...a million pictures later!