As I mentioned previously, Brian and I spent the long Thanksgiving weekend in Rockport with the Trimyer family. We had such a good time! It was so good to see everyone. Brian makes the trip to Texas rarely and the last time was last Thanksgiving so he really enjoyed it. The weather was on the cold, damp, and windy side but considering our plan involved lots of eating, football watching, socializing, and card playing, it really wasn't a tragedy.
Thursday morning Joey, Rachel, Maggie and I had plans to run the annual Corpus Christi Turkey Trot - a 4.1 mile race. There was a kids K race, also, and Brian agreed to get up early and come with us to watch Jordan while we ran. That way both Jordan and Joey got to race. It was soooo cold!!! A crazy cold front had come through the night before, and the temps were in the 40's with 20 mph north winds - brrr! The temp wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the wind. Anyway, Jordan ran his race and he did very well. He ran the whole thing by himself. He specifically stated that he didn't want Mommy or Daddy to run it with him. This was the first time that he ran a race completely on his own. It was very fun to see! Afterwards, he and Uncle Brian headed indoors while we ran our race. Joey ran an awesome race, although he is somewhat disappointed for various reasons - check out his blog for details. Rachel and Maggie also had excellent runs finishing very close together. I was very happy with my time especially considering the wind - 36:38 watch time (36:52 gun time), a respectable 8:51 min mile. My time last year was 38:07 - yay for getting faster! I was midpack in my age group and would have had to run an 8 min mile to place in the top three so even though I probably could have run a little faster, it wouldn't have got me any hardware. My goal for this race was to dial in to a sub 9 min mile and try to stay there. It's the pace I need to get comfortable with if I'm going to PR in a half-marathon this winter. I accomplished that, and felt like I could have run a few more miles at that pace so I'm feeling confident that I can meet my goals.
After the race, we headed back to the house for showers, naps, and turkey, of course! - and pie! The list of food that was cooked for us by Bill and Carol during our visit was insane! There was turkey and 2 kinds of stuffing - with and without oysters, gravy, sweet potatoes, asparagus, green beans, rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. Jordan helped Grandma make the rolls, which was very cute to watch. Friday we had sausage, biscuits, and gravy for breakfast, gumbo for lunch, and enchiladas and tamales for dinner - I'm not kidding! Saturday was the highly anticipated seafood fest - fried shrimp - prepared by Joey, fried oysters, oysters rockefeller, and an oyster stew - I forget what it was called but it was super yummy. Interspersed in all the food was the pie - apple, pumpkin, cherry, chocolate creme, pecan. There was also much consumption of leftovers. Between the almost continuous food coma; the cold, overcast weather; and the warm, fuzzy feeling of contentment that comes from being surrounded by loved ones; I slept better than I have in quite some time.
Other high points were a visit by Carol's longtime friend, Stella, who brought a super yummy earthquake cake; testing out Joey's strawberry and sparkling wine holiday beverage - 2 thumbs up; Joey's Aunt Bootie and Uncle Gorman joining us for the Saturday Seafood Fest; watching Buckaroo Bonzai; playing cards with Joey and Brian - our game is Sgt. Major, a three person card game developed by British officers in India. We discovered it via Google during our last trip to Mexico. Rachel had gone to bed and we wanted to play cards so Joey used his phone to find a three person card game. We ended up playing it quite a few evenings on that trip. Last Thanksgiving, we went on a tear and played until 3 am. This year we behaved ourselves - we played every evening but went to bed at a reasonable hour.
Another fun thing is watching Rachel prepare for her Black Friday shopping excursion. Now anyone that knows Rachel, knows that she is very organized, but the way she plans out this day of shopping is amazing to me. After combing the newspaper for the sale info, she decides what stores she wants to visit and then she and Carol plan out the best route according to what time Rachel wants to be at a certain store and which stores are near each other. If I was that organized and focused, I might enjoy shopping more. Armed with her lists, Rachel, Maggie and Carol headed out while the rest of us looked forward to the UT - A&M game. I expected to get some text messages from Maggie - we virtual shop together regularly - but Maggie had no joy with the shopping or at least, she didn't find anything that she had to have. Overall though, they had better shopping results than we did football results.
Last but not least was a Saturday run with Joey. Joey and I used to run together regularly when I lived in Austin and it's always nice when we get a chance to run together. It doesn't happen too often. For one thing Joey has gotten considerably faster than me. Saturday was yucky weather but we sucked it up and did 4 miles in 37:13 - a respectable 9:17 min mile. Good for me, a little slow for Joey. I told him he could run ahead if he wanted, but he opted to take it easy and stay with me. Thanks J!
Overall, it was an awesome trip even with the cold weather and the travel delays getting home. I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner!
After the race, we headed back to the house for showers, naps, and turkey, of course! - and pie! The list of food that was cooked for us by Bill and Carol during our visit was insane! There was turkey and 2 kinds of stuffing - with and without oysters, gravy, sweet potatoes, asparagus, green beans, rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. Jordan helped Grandma make the rolls, which was very cute to watch. Friday we had sausage, biscuits, and gravy for breakfast, gumbo for lunch, and enchiladas and tamales for dinner - I'm not kidding! Saturday was the highly anticipated seafood fest - fried shrimp - prepared by Joey, fried oysters, oysters rockefeller, and an oyster stew - I forget what it was called but it was super yummy. Interspersed in all the food was the pie - apple, pumpkin, cherry, chocolate creme, pecan. There was also much consumption of leftovers. Between the almost continuous food coma; the cold, overcast weather; and the warm, fuzzy feeling of contentment that comes from being surrounded by loved ones; I slept better than I have in quite some time.
Other high points were a visit by Carol's longtime friend, Stella, who brought a super yummy earthquake cake; testing out Joey's strawberry and sparkling wine holiday beverage - 2 thumbs up; Joey's Aunt Bootie and Uncle Gorman joining us for the Saturday Seafood Fest; watching Buckaroo Bonzai; playing cards with Joey and Brian - our game is Sgt. Major, a three person card game developed by British officers in India. We discovered it via Google during our last trip to Mexico. Rachel had gone to bed and we wanted to play cards so Joey used his phone to find a three person card game. We ended up playing it quite a few evenings on that trip. Last Thanksgiving, we went on a tear and played until 3 am. This year we behaved ourselves - we played every evening but went to bed at a reasonable hour.
Another fun thing is watching Rachel prepare for her Black Friday shopping excursion. Now anyone that knows Rachel, knows that she is very organized, but the way she plans out this day of shopping is amazing to me. After combing the newspaper for the sale info, she decides what stores she wants to visit and then she and Carol plan out the best route according to what time Rachel wants to be at a certain store and which stores are near each other. If I was that organized and focused, I might enjoy shopping more. Armed with her lists, Rachel, Maggie and Carol headed out while the rest of us looked forward to the UT - A&M game. I expected to get some text messages from Maggie - we virtual shop together regularly - but Maggie had no joy with the shopping or at least, she didn't find anything that she had to have. Overall though, they had better shopping results than we did football results.
Last but not least was a Saturday run with Joey. Joey and I used to run together regularly when I lived in Austin and it's always nice when we get a chance to run together. It doesn't happen too often. For one thing Joey has gotten considerably faster than me. Saturday was yucky weather but we sucked it up and did 4 miles in 37:13 - a respectable 9:17 min mile. Good for me, a little slow for Joey. I told him he could run ahead if he wanted, but he opted to take it easy and stay with me. Thanks J!
Overall, it was an awesome trip even with the cold weather and the travel delays getting home. I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner!
3 comments:
It was so nice having you down for the weekend! We really enjoyed Brian and you aren't so bad to have around either.
Thanks again for all of the lovely presents! I am looking forward to trying out the jersey and knickers after my travel slows down.
R- So glad you liked the presents! The jersey looks great on you. :-)
J- :-PPPPPPPPPPP
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