Weight loss and training camp...

After almost 1 year of Jenny Craig, I've lost just over 20 lbs. All of that was lost over the first 5 months and I've spent most of the remainder of the year maintaining. I say "most" because I've lowered my goal weight another 5 lbs and have had a couple struggles along the way. One being the 3 lbs I gained (and then re-lost) after 5 weeks in Grand Cayman and the other being the 4 lbs I gained on my recent month-long trip to visit family. I can honestly say our summer trip home is always the hardest for me to behave. The trip consists of many a night out with friends and an alcoholic beverage in hand almost every night of the week. Not so conducive to the Jenny Craig program! I tried to counteract most of it with workouts but even that is hard away from my home equipment and twice weekly Pilates class. I am happy to say that after a week back on track, I've lost 2.4 of those unsightly 4 I gained.

Things should be smooth sailing now because Rian took off for training camp today so our lives now have structure. Well, for the next 5 months or so. Another NFL season is upon us! This will be Rian's 9th year...unbelievable! It feels like just yesterday we were hoping he'd make it through his first season. As an "NFL wife" without children, training camp is always fun for me. Of course I miss my husband but I also love the freedom of a month to myself. Quiet days, no cooking (well, I don't cook that often to begin with, but at least I don't have to feel guilty about it), and the only things I have to put away are those that I, myself took out. I'm heading out to dinner with my friend tonight to celebrate the beginning of training camp...shhhh, don't tell the guys!!

World's prettiest road trip???

Here are a few pictures we took while driving from Vancouver, WA to Ephrata, WA. It takes about 5 hours but the scenery can make you forget that part...

Start off with Mt Hood



Past Multinomah Falls...



Past Mt Rainier (near Goldendale, WA)...



Up through the Columbia River at Vantage, WA...



The "wild horses" statues above Vantage (the sagebrush means you're definitely in Eastern WA now!)...



And, arriving at beautiful Blue Lake, WA to my folks' lake house...





Since we moved to Buffalo 5 years ago, I've really grown to appreciate where we grew up. I miss it so much and can't wait to move back closer to home...

The beautiful Pacific NW

We had a really nice time on our trip back "home" to the NW. We had 3 weeks of family time and 1 week of play time.

A very close friend of mine from high school got married on July 5th at Lake Pend Oreille (near Sandpoint, ID) so we drove there on the 4th for a weekend of camping and wedding fun. We had 3 boats full of people out on the water to watch the Hope, ID fireworks. The weather was perfect...not a whisper of wind. Here is Rian's picture of the "world's best 4th of July plate". He told me he'd already eaten the burger and baked beans on the first trip through the line...



They had a small ceremony in a little church in the woods and then back to their lakefront cabin for an outdoor reception. It was so fun and the weather was beautiful all weekend. And, I got to see other close friends from high school that I never get to spend time with.





We spent our last few days in Seattle playing "tourists". We stayed at the Edgewater Inn, right on the waterfront. We ended up getting the exact same room as last year, which was perfect. There are worse places to be than sitting on the balcony watching the ferries and sailboats go by, with Mt Rainier on the horizon. The Alaska cruise ships were literally right outside our room!





We took a 2 hour Argosy Lakes Cruise one day and finally did the Underground Tour of Seattle. It's fun spending time doing the things you never do when you live there.



The weather was absolutely beautiful all 4 days we were there. I can honestly say there might not be a more beautiful place than Seattle on a sunny day.





Now we're back home and Rian is counting down the days before he has to report for training camp (7 left!). This time of year is always feels like summer is over. It may as well be fall for us since football season is right around the corner. This is about the time that I start getting excited for football games. After 7 1/2 months of travel and leisure, it's always nice to be grounded for awhile...

Wasting time

I'm sitting in Detroit waiting to head to Seattle. Rian and I have recently gotten "Priority Passes" that enable us to utilize the club lounges in the airports. So, I'm hob-nobbing with the business elite. I look so official sitting here with my laptop and Starbucks coffee. Although, the jeans and sweatshirt don't quite fit in and god forbid anyone looks over my shoulder and realizes I'm perusing perezhilton.com. ha ha

I will admit, these lounges are pretty nice. Free internet, coffee and food that you can enjoy in a comfortable chair! I will definitely be back, now that our passes are finally in with our passports instead of sitting somewhere at home...

Well, better go so I don't miss my plane.

Triathlon

Rian competed in his first triathlon last Sunday. Our friend Brian asked him a few months ago if he would be interested in participating to help raise money for his PUNT Foundation. If you know my husband, he's always up for a challenge! This was the 5th annual Pittsford Triathlon and consisted of a 300m swim, 15 mile bike ride and 3.1 mile run. Rian was excited about it at first and then as the day arrived, he kept saying "what did I get myself into?"

We all drove up to Rochester on Sat and had a nice dinner at Black and Blue before settling in for a good night's sleep. Got up around 5:45 and headed to the local high school to get everyone's things set up in the transition area. Our "group" of competitors consisted of Rian, Brian, Ryan Neill (long snapper), Tiffany Neill (who was teaming up with her husband and doing the run portion) and Bobby April, the Special Teams coach. Everyone did very well and it was impressive to see them take this challenge head on. Of course, after reading the "official triathlon rules", almost everyone would've been disqualified for things such as mounting their bike in the transition area. Ok, ok, so maybe we didn't listen that well during the debriefing at the beginning...oops!



I enjoyed being a "support person" for Rian and took picture after picture to document this event for these guys. Who knows, maybe next year I can get involved. I say "involved" because I'm more apt to team up with another person and share the experience! ha ha I think I could train to run 3 miles but training to run AND bike AND swim is another story. But, never say never. Maybe that will be something I'll be ready for next year. After all, we did just buy bikes and yesterday, I rode 5 miles. I know it's only 5 miles but it's a start!

Here are a few more photos from the big day. I laughed when I saw the huge smile on Rian's face as he pulled in from his biking leg. I said "you looked so happy to be out there!" and his response in true-Rian fashion, was "I kept laughing and thinking what am I doing out here?"




He finished with a total time of 1:31:17. Not too shabby! His goal was 1:30:00 and he said if he'd had his stopwatch, he would've pushed himself to meet his goal. Oh well, something to shoot for next year. I'm so proud of him!

Little Cayman adventure...

Backtracking a few weeks, I wanted to share the "vacation from our vacation" that Rian and I took for our 7th anniversary weekend. On Easter Sunday, we decided it was time to book a trip to Little Cayman to check out the diving at the world famous Bloody Bay Wall. 5 days later, we were off.

We boarded a 15 passenger plane (which felt more like a small bus) and took off on the 35 min journey. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful so we had a smooth flight. We landed on a small airstrip (that used to be grass) and exited the plane. We just kind of stood around at the airport/post office/fire station and waited for them to pull our bags off the plane...no worries about "lost" luggage here!

It was about a 2 min drive to the Little Cayman Beach Resort. Along the way, we passed the one church on the island as well as the one little grocery store and one rental office for cars/mopeds. We got settled into our beautiful oceanfront room and took in the view. Right outside our door was a hammock, that Rian found his way into more than once!

We decided to rent mopeds and tour the 10 mile island (the road was 23 miles around). What a fun trip! The mopeds were a great time and driving on the left hand side was getting to be pretty normal for us after a month on Grand Cayman. It took us 4 hours total (we stopped a lot to take pictures and a swim to cool off). After getting back, we got cleaned up and went to dinner. The resort was all-inclusive with meals and diving. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was served buffet style and the table had several delicious "island specialty" dishes. We were not disappointed in the food!

On Sat morning, we headed out on the dive boat. 2 dives in the morning and 1 after lunch. We met a group of people who get together each year to dive in Little Cayman. They were all underwater photographers and we were lucky enough to get our picture taken off the wall. And, they also shared some beautiful photos they took during the dives.

We dove again on Sunday twice in the morning. We saw a 8-10 ft reef shark on one dive and I felt like I sucked down about 1/2 of my tank while watching him casually swim by. Very cool! I have to admit, Little Cayman diving is even better than Grand Cayman. The visibility was spectacular and the sheer wall (starts at 20 ft and goes down to 6000 ft) was absolutely amazing.

We spent Sunday afternoon out in the sun and took a short kayak trip across to Owen Island. On Monday morning, we decided to take a bike ride down to Mahogany Estates to feed the iguana. They were all over the side of the road when we went by on our mopeds but we didn't have any treats for them. This time, we brought bananas. They really enjoyed this and one even took a piece out of my hand!

All in all, it was by far one of my most favorite trips. We would never give up our beautiful Seven Mile Beach view in Grand Cayman but I hope we are able to return to visit Little Cayman each year so we can continue to enjoy the quaint and quiet life that exists on this "island that time has forgotten"...And, to explore the underwater paradise that awaits us there.

Home Sweet Home

Well, we are settled back into reality after a wonderful 5 weeks in paradise. We got into Newark last Fri to find out our flight to Buffalo was cancelled due to weather. So, we got a nice little romantic night at the Newark Courtyard Marriott! ha ha

Thankfully, we were able to get out the next morning and after 40 minutes in a holding pattern waiting for the fog to lift, we landed safely. We had a full day of running errands before we headed up to the Seneca/Niagara Casino for the Make-a-Wish gala. Rian and I have gotten involved with this wonderful foundation and this was the main fundraising event of the year. At the end of the night, they had raised $570,000!!! Wow! A very successful event and we had a really nice time.

After almost a week back in the states, I'm having to work hard to keep our Cayman trip in the front of my mind. It's slowly fading away...boo hoo.