(Ironically, Jason and I were both posting blogs about our trip at the same time today without knowing it. Here is my version and the next one is his version. I would say they show the differences in our personalities quite a bit. 🙂 )
It’s been a long time…ten weeks, actually, since I last updated our blog. A lot has happened since then, of course, and so I will just grace you with the highlights. Our lives have been a little hectic in the last month, but we still have much to be grateful for.
I’ll start with the pregnancy…31 weeks down…9 to go. He still appears to be doing great and is moving very much. Nothing like a few swift kicks to the ribs to wake you up in the morning! 🙂 We just had a baby shower yesterday and got lots of nice things. I don’t have pictures yet, but I may post them later.
Now we’ll go back to when the hectic schedule really got hectic…
My Grandpa Weber passed away April 18. The timing of his death came as a surprise to us. We found out just before Christmas last year that he had a terminal illness, but we didn’t think it would take him this soon. He fell on Good Friday and hit his head, which made him digress much quicker than he had previously digressed. It is very hard to think of him being gone, but it was also terrible to see him laying there so helpless and unresponsive. He was so full of life with an opinion or response to everything. I’m sure the finality of his death will continue to set in over the next months, especially when the baby comes.
Grandpa’s funeral was April 21. We left for our last childless get-a-way trips to California to run Big Sur on April 23.
California was beautiful! We spent two days in Napa Valley. We had a wonderful and relaxing time there. We toured a local winery and went to a beautiful redwoods forest and just enjoyed the sights and sounds of Napa Valley.

Robert Mandovi Winery


The courtyard of our motel in Rutherford, CA (Napa Valley)

Our room in Rutherford, CA
After that we drove to Monterrey, CA were we picked up our race packets. Jason ran the Big Sur International Marathon which is an extremely beautiful, but difficult 26.2 miles along Route 1 from Big Sur, CA to Carmel, CA. The scenery was outstanding and the weather, aside from a stiff wind whipping off the Pacific, was good for running (cold and overcast). They said to add 20 min. to your projected finish time because of the degree of difficulty of the course, so Jason was prepared not to PR this race. He ended up finishing in 4:01 which was less than 10 min slower than last year. He said he felt great aerobically the whole race, but his knees hurt pretty bad on the downhills by the last 3 miles or so. All in all, he was very happy with him time and the race effort in general.

Jason nearing the finish line (Jason wanted me to explain that the walkers next to him were in a different race and he was actually running in this picture and NOT walking.)

After the race

Pebble Beach Golf Course

The courtyard of our motel in Carmel, CA (the room with the half open door is ours)

Our motel in Carmel, CA

The top of a 2 mile long hill that Jason ran up around mile 15 (I think)

Pacific Ocean

I ran the 9 miler ( I know, I’m a pansy). I had a great race as well. I have continued to run throughout this pregnancy. I’ve even run long (8+ miles) at least once a week and tried to keep my weekly mileage around 15 mi/wk. I’ve been really slow, however, with more frequent walk/bathroom breaks. 🙂 I just hoped to do it in at least 2 hrs. I ended up running it in 1:37! I was thrilled with this time even though it was still a 10:45 pace. I felt great and I got to run along the Pacific too. The baby only complained near the tops of a few of the hills. . .

The happiest I’ve been since I’ve been pregnant
We finished our vacation in San Fransisco with a brief evening and morning stay. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge and road a Trolley car and experienced the city a bit.

The view from our room in San Fransisco

Our room in San Fransisco

San Fransisco Bay

While we were there we found out that Jason’s dad had a 100% blockage in the main artery to his heart and a 40% blockage in another one. The doctor wasn’t sure initially if it could be repaired/bypassed or not so that was a hard blow. By Tuesday, when we were flying back home anyway, the doctors had decided they thought they could fix it and scheduled his open heart surgery for Wednesday morning. Jason decided to fly to Illinois from San Fransisco and I flew home alone. This made for a stressful, emotional, exhausting, day on so many levels.

Jason’s dad had a very successful surgery on Wednesday morning and was able to go home this past Saturday! We were so happy for that and Jason was glad he was able to be with his family during that scary time.
Jason flew home on Thursday night and I got sick with the flu on Friday. My entire extended family, who attended the funeral, has been getting this bug since then. I was just glad we didn’t get sick on our vacation or in Illinois. I am feeling better now, but still not 100%. Jason hasn’t officially gotten sick, but seems to be fighting it pretty hard. We’ve been getting lots of sleep trying to kick this thing and get back to normal.
So, there you have it, the long, but short, version of the last 10 weeks! Maybe it won’t take me so long next time to keep you updated. 🙂
Posted in Life