Grandma Woods visit to NC

Less than two weeks ago Colleen's mom (Grandma Woods to Avery!) called us and said "I won a few days vacation time in a work raffle and I have to use it by March 31st, are there any cheap flight to Raleigh from Manchester?"  Well we looked it up and there were indeed, so we had a nice surprise visit from Monday through Saturday of this week!

Now that Avery is talking so much, she really enjoyed her time with Grandma Woods, and we think Grandma Woods had a fun time playing with Avery too!

While she was here, cousins Charline and Christine came over and we had a big family dinner where Colleen made her delicious mushroom stroganoff, Jim made garlic cheese bread, and Grandma made lemon lavender cupcakes!

It was also nice having a babysitter so that we could finally go out for an "adult dinner"at Ruth Chris Steakhouse with just us two, to celebrate Jim's birthday.

It was a nice night and we sat out on the patio and have lobster, crab cakes, dessert, and coffee!

We also were able to go for an 11 mile run together (because of the baby sitting services!) as we are getting ready for Colleen's race (Run Raleigh Half Marathon) in 2 weeks, and both of us are running in the Flying Pirate Half Marathon in 3 weeks on the Outer Banks with cousins Lori and Scott participating and cousins Charline and Christine joining us in our 4 bedroom beach house!

Speaking of running, we ran last weekend in the Second Empire Classic 5k race

It was a hot Sunday afternoon to run so we didn't get our PRs, Jim's sub 19:00 and Colleen's sub 24:00 will have to wait for another time.  But Jim still finished 3rd in his age group and won a nice wine glass and gift certificate to a running store

And with her finish in that race Colleen is now 3rd in her age group in the spring race series we are running in.

Here is a determined Colleen during the race:

Jim with a pack of older guys trying to draft off of him:

And the pain of crossing the finishing line of a 5k, yes a short race really can hurt that much, especially on a hot day

(Jim read on a running blog about improving 5k times and a posting from a member of the US Olympic marathon team said he hates 5ks because they hurt and he equates trying for your 5k PR to: "Imagine holding your breath. Now imagine holding your breath for as long as you possible can.  Right at that moment when you have to exhale , hold your breath for 30 more seconds."   Yet we still really enjoy these races for some reason, that's how we know we are addicted!)

Thanks to Christine for baby sitting (and cheering us on!) for that race.  We had a great after-race dinner at our favorite Mexican place in town called Cantina 18 where the fish tacos and veggie tacos are yummy, and so are the Margaritas!