lots of happy

The past few weeks have been a blur.  An out-of-town, oh-my-aching-back, and that-was-such-fun blur.

Work had me in Charleston, D.C., and Plymouth for three of the past four weeks.  I seem to remember blogging about Charleston and Plymouth, but somehow missed the trip to D.C.  It wasn't really a trip to D.C. for me, I was in Maryland across the Potomac from the D.C. airport.  But Jack and Jr came along on this trip and they rode various public transportation methods (subway, bus, trolley, water taxi) for several days to do some sightseeing while I attended class.  After the classes ended, we headed down to colonial Williamsburg for a few days of fun that also included a trip to the ocean (of course).  Jr had a blast at Virginia Beach, even in a torrential downpour.  This is him in the ocean (on the right of the row of three people in the ocean) and maybe me taking a selfie while wearing Jr's new, soaking wet, hoodie in the downpour.  See even in the rain, the ocean is the best.

This is us with Neptune.  He is really big and so is the turtle in his hand.  We were drenched but happy.

After we got back from Maryland/Virginia, I headed to Plymouth.  Then Jack picked me up from the airport and we headed to Bryce Canyon for my birthday the next day.  Or maybe we went there so Jack, Stu, Shi, Herschel and Whitney could run another race, this one a five mile around Bryce Canyon.  Since it was five miles instead of 5K, and since Bryce is nearly 8000 feet up, they all seemed to be a bit less competitive.  Sort of.  It was a walk/run thing I think.

While they were out running, Audrey, Ellie, Calvin, and I headed to the gift shop where we found new things to play with.  We were clearly happy.

Before we knew it, the (obviously) least competitive of the runners was passing us and crossing the finish line.  She came and went so quickly I almost missed her.

Next came this one:

 Then these two:

And then this girl, who, remember, has an adorable seven-month-old baby boy but she still completed the race:

Incredibly, nearly everyone in our group won a medal this time.  Apparently this race has fewer competitors, but lots of guys in certain age groups (thus more competition).  But everybody finished even at that elevation.

The race was sponsored by the local scout troop as its annual fundraiser.  One of Jessie's friends owns a running shoe company that was at the race selling their shoes.  Jack got involved in an auction for a pair of running shoes and used his ebay skills to get this sweet pair of red--no wait, they aren't just red, they are RED shoes, and the troop got a little closer to having enough money to buy a trailer for hauling their camp gear.  Everybody won on that deal.

After the race there was a little bit of goofy posing:

And this boy is such a good baby.  No, I didn't give him any Diet Coke.  Please.  I would never give a seven-month-old Diet Coke.

Then there was a lot of hiking and laughing and eating and good times in another of my favorite places--Bryce. 

After we got home and back to work, Stu reminded us that since one of the former Grizzlies hockey players was on the team that won the Stanley Cup this past season, he (the player) would get to have the Cup in his possession for some period of time, so we all headed up to the Capitol to see the Cup.  Not gonna lie, it was very cool.  Like, give you a buzz of excitement in your stomach cool.

 Calvin agreed.  It was awesome.

During this period of nonstop travel, my back decided to do its muscle spasm thing.  Boo.  This was not good.  Riding on planes and sitting in classes or office chairs for hours and hours over days and days and days is not a way to settle down those wound-up muscles.  Eventually I stayed in town for long enough to get in to physical therapy for a couple of sessions.  My back is much happier and before long I'll get to go back to zumba and get my jiggle back on.  And I'll also do a bit of core work to try to save my back from future trouble.  Or I'll mean to do that but forget until the next time it freaks out.

So, except for the pain in the back part and a few other parts of life that kind of suck but hey that's life, it's been a month of good times and fun memories.  Just like August should be.  Since it's my birthday month.  And this year had a little bonus related to my birthday.  I'd been thinking for some time now that I was 56.  Guess what?  I was only 55.  So it's like I had a birthday but didn't get older.  See that's totally a gift I've got going on there.