Sisters Trip to Eureka Springs Arkansas

With us all turning into grownups and stuff my sisters and I decided we should take a trip together and it basically came down to us only being able to agree on these past 3 days at the end of June here to make it happen this summer.  So Courtney flew in early Friday morning.  Gretchen and I picked her up from MCI then made our way to Warrensburg for Beth.  Since she has the nicer car we let her take over the driving duties for the 3ish hour trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  We stayed at Matterhorn Towers.  Gretchen said it was the most beautiful place she had ever seen but she is 4. 

Eureka Springs is a super cute, super hilly town with quirky streets lots of art and shopping.  Fun place for just hanging out and doing some people watching.  With Gretchen in tow we didn't do a lot of shopping which was fine with me.   I mostly wanted to avoid the shops with lots of breakables.

Gretchen and Courtney enjoying the spread that Joyce put out for breakfast.  A continental complementary breakfast  had a nice assortment of fresh fruit some pastries, cheese and salami.  The only downfall was no half and half only powdered creamer.  I need real cream with my coffee.

After a stop at Mcdonnalds for coffee we headed over to Withrow Springs State Park for some hiking.  We covered the War Eagle Trail and Dogwood Trail for about a 3 mile hike.  Gretchen held up pretty well, only a short stint of on my back style travel towards the end of the hike.  The War Eagle Trial was listed as difficult, not something I would think most people would be comfortable taking a 4 year old on.  I thought she did well on it and the only other hikers we saw had kids Gretchen's age or younger so if you're the outdoorsy type you'd probably be fine with the kids.

The bat cave was closed, good thing cause it looked a little scary.

Top of a cliff.

Pitstop at Sonic for diet cherry lime aids.  I must do for Courtney every time she makes it back to the mid west.

On the way back to town we made a stop at Quigley's Castle,  the billboards along the route made it seem like a must see!  It was not so much castle as a rock house and grotto type garden but interesting nonetheless.

I tried to convince the group that we should get matching tats.  Gretchen was the only one on board with the idea.  Guess I know what we are doing for her 18th birthday.

What's Up

Gretchen and I took a little trip.

Had some playground fun and visited some museums.

At the art musum Gretchen pointed out all the nakedness in the painting and sculptures.

She seemed to enjoy the Air and Space musum the best.

She thought we walked too much and prefered to ride on my sholders.

Gretchen at the race expo playing a running game.

And oh ya we visited my sister Courtney and ran the Rock and Roll DC marathon. 

It was her first marathon and she did fantastic!  It rained the whole race so was pretty chilly despite being 45ish out.  I was happy to get the 26 miles in since my mileage has been so low latly but it wasn't the most fun race.  I've been having plantar fasciitis issues and my feet kinda hurt after the first  6 miles so not great.  Finished in 3:58.  After the race I was so cold, getting back to Courtneys place for a hot shower and dry clothes felt like quite the treat.   

I am diganosing and treating myself.  I am stretching and foam rolling tons, doing fun foot exercises, icing my feet and wearing weird socks.  I have also been avoiding running on hard surfaces such as concrete and pavement( except of course for the 26.2 I ran on Saturday.)  I think it's working but hard to tell for sure.  My feet definiatly hurt less but it's not gone.  All very frustrating but hopfully it will go away soon.

We took a little trip

I picked the perfect weekend to visit my sister in Washington DC and run the Woodrow Wilson Half Marathon that was mostly taking place in a national park.

Or not so much.  The race was postponed till November 10th, don't think I'll make it seeing as how I live in Missouri and all.  Here are some pictures of me not running the race.

This is a cute picture of Gretchen and Gwen not of me running.

This is of a guy walking while holding a monkey also not me running a half marathon.

But no matter Gretchen still enjoyed her plane trip.

Riding the Dinosaur train with her aunt Courtney who had our entire visit off work thanks to the government.

We spent lots of time just hanging out.  We visited a  playground, the Building museum where they had lots of interactive building activities for kids and visiting our cousins Dave and Sarah.  Gretchen loved hanging out with their kids learning about fairies and riding a bike.

Courtney was also watched Gretchen for me in the mornings so I could go for a few runs on my own. 

Picture from my running route.  While the national parks are technically closed and signs were posted as such there were plenty of runners and bikers out and the police were cool with it.  Courtney also took me to the YMCA for a workout.  Um this Y is a little nicer than what I'm used to.  We went all out and ran hills on these super cool curved treadmills.

Then rowed it out,

and went for a bike race.

After our tri we hit up the free weights to finish it off.

Fun weekend and still got lots of running in even though I really wanted to run the race but I couldn't of seen this happening when I paid for the race or bought the plane tickets.  First time a race I signed up for didn't happen.