Hello From NC!

Greetings from our new home in North Carolina!!! Sorry for the radio silence on the blog, but it's been nice to focus on this move. 

We closed on our new home a few days ago and we are knee deep in the unpacking process! It's just me, E, and my Dad here right now but we have already been able to accomplish a lot. E is loving her new home! As of last night I have a fully functioning kitchen and that is always the biggest chore.

My goal is to be completely unpacked by tomorrow so we will see if I can make that happen!

Hope you all have a great weekend and I hope to be back next week with regular posts. 

Last Class

One of the things I have been dreading about this move was saying goodbye to my SLAM Leavenworth family. Well, today I have to do just that. I would have never thought that this group would change my life in the ways that it has. Not only has it enriched me so much as an athlete and changed me but it has provided me with friendships that will last a lifetime.

I remember coming to SLAM late last July at the insistence of my friend, Lauren. I was absolutely terrified. I had never been to an organized fitness class and I had no idea what to expect. I was intrigued though, because I could bring E with me and I didn't have to throw her into daycare. Before here I had never heard of Stroller Strong Moms. I went in completely blind. However, it wasn't what I thought it would be. It was far better. I was instantly welcomed into this community of women and encouraged every step of the way. 

SLAM is exactly what I never thought I needed. I have found that in order for me to support and nurture those around me, I have to do the same for myself. Having that hour for me in the morning with other like minded people has been life changing. 

Not only did they embrace me but they embraced my family. Welcoming E and Kyle into the family was icing on the cake. I know these workouts make an impact when Kyle is sore the next day and raves to everyone at how butt kicking they are. 

I realized through the HIIT workouts that I was so much stronger than I thought, but that I had so much that I could work on to improve and get better. I had no idea how important core workouts were when it comes to running. Solely because of SLAM I was able to over 10 minutes off of my run times for every distance (5k, 10k, and half). I knew that I had made the right choice by joining. Also having the option of Track workouts as well as Yoga is so beneficial. You also can never go wrong with themed classes haha.

 What I never expected were the friendships. These women are incredible and at a moments notice they are willing to drop everything to help each other out. To pick up kids, make meals, pick up slack when needed, be a shoulder to cry on, and someone to have a drink with. It is going to be hard to keep my emotions in check during class this morning because at the end of that hour, it will be all she wrote for me here. I will never forget this group of remarkable women and I know that they are friends for life. 

There are 11 SLAM affiliate locations around the country and I highly recommend it! Please check it out if you have one in your area. Stroller Strong Moms will change your life. I am lucky that I will get to join another location when I arrive in NC and I'm looking forward to making lasting friendships there as well. However, I will be sad about saying goodbye to this incredible family I've been a part of for the last 10 months.

Strawberry Picking + A House Update

Earlier this week, E and I decided to join friends for the first day of Strawberry picking at a local farm. I knew this was the perfect activity for E, as she is pretty much obsessed with strawberries. It was such a beautiful yet hot day for it. It's safe to say that she really enjoyed herself, I think she ate more strawberries than made it in the basket. Whoops haha.

All she wanted to do was eat them haha.

She was happy as a clam in those strawberry fields.

So thankful that my friend snapped these photos of us picking them together.

My partner in crime. <3

It had already been a good day because I got a message from our realtor that the appliances had been installed in the house and everything looks beautiful. She said the rest of the repairs had been made and now we just wait to close. Which is happening in 6 days! Holy cow that came quickly. This process has been so smooth and I couldn't be more grateful.

Now the plan is to just enjoy our last few days here with Kyle. We won't see him again until June 16th, so E is getting all the snuggles she can. My Dad arrives tomorrow and on Sunday we begin the trek east. These 11 months have flown by!

Hope y'all have a great day!

Checking Things Off

Over the last few days we have been doing our best to check off things on our list of things to do here. I think we were pretty successful this past weekend.

On Friday, Kyle was home early so we decided to finally check out the Carousel Museum in Leavenworth. I've heard awesome things about it. It has a vintage carousel that goes up to 13 miles per hour! That's insane to me. It was only $1.50/person and E loved it!

Afterwards we walked down to a local bakery called Sis' Sweets to indulge in some very delicious treats. It was so worth it!

 Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the Flash Dash 5k in North Kansas City. This race was created in honor of a gentleman named Brandon Russell who passed away after running the Rock the Parkway Half Marathon last year. It was an amazing event. A ton of people turned out and even though it was a bit rainy, it cleared up for the start. It was also my last race here with my friend, Lauren. 

Earlier this week I booked us a tour at the Roasterie in the city. It's one of the few facilities that air roasts their coffee beans. It's such a unique place and I'm so glad we were able to check this popular place off of our list. E even looked adorable in her hairnet haha.

The rest of the night was low key since we had another race on Sunday morning.

We headed off to Parkville for the Christmas in May 5k. This was officially mine and E's last race in the midwest (for now) and it was crazy haha. It poured rain the whole time!!! It was still a lot of fun though as a few of my SLAM sisters were running as well. We were soaked by the end but I'm glad we stuck it out and still did it.

We ended the weekend with a BBQ at a friend's house. It was a winner of a weekend to me!

We have a few more days to check off more on my list so hopefully we can make that happen. I hope you all had a great weekend!

I'm Ready

Over the last few months you have all read about the preparations and planning of our upcoming move. While the logistics of it have been relatively easy one thing that has not been easy are the emotions of it. When you move as much as we do you experience an array of emotions. There is the initial excitement of moving to a new place (or for us a place that we called home for 4 years), the stress of finding a place to live, and then the sadness of saying goodbye to the people and place you've called home for whatever length of time. 

For us the worst time period is after everything is packed up and right before leaving. Since last week, Kyle and I both have been in this weird state of emotional limbo. For me, saying goodbye to my amazing tribe of friends is going to be really difficult. It's also the first place that E had friends, her little group is the best. On one hand, I am really sad to leave. On the other, I'm ready to just rip the band-aid off and go. E and I are also leaving 2 1/2 weeks before Kyle, so there is that added stress. I've been through deployments but this is the longest E will have gone without him (I know that she will experience deployments/TDYs but this is new for her). 

I have tried so hard to not disconnect myself from my friends here but I feel like that is my safety mechanism and my way of dealing with leaving. It's hard, because I know that come next week I will be an emotional wreck. I am doing my best to make the most of the time that I have left here, but part of me wishes it was the 27th already. It is such a weird emotional space to be in. I am thankful that most of my friends understand this and often times feel the same way so they don't take it personal. 

I'm fairly certain that after I leave next week, I will feel better. Also, I will remind myself that I will still stay in contact with all of my friends from here and that it's possible that we will be stationed together again in the future. Or even get together with our families for a fun vacation. I've even discussed coming back next year for a few fun events. 

It's going to be hard to say goodbye but I'm ready. I'm ready to move forward and embark on this new adventure. 

Life Lately

I honestly feel like our days have been running together lately. We have been busy every single day and while it has been nice, we are tired. 

Here is a run down of life lately in the Smith House.

1. Last week we said goodbye to our household goods!!! It only took the packer 6.5 hours to pack the whole house which was absolutely amazing. The crew the spectacular and the loaders were just as great. Even though our stuff ended up in a split shipment everything made it to NC yesterday and we are already scheduled to receive our goods the day after we close on the new house! Woo! E didn't quite know what to think about all the boxes.

2. On Saturday we ran the last race for the Heartland 39.3 series. All I can say is wow, this race was by far the most challenging. I'm not sure if it was because of all the hills or because we were pushing E. We were thrilled when we finished haha. A few of my fellow SLAM sisters ran it as well and it was so fun!

We did also learn that it takes roughly 12 miles of riding in the stroller for E to fall asleep. These photos of E sleeping crack me up!

She wasn't happy when she got woken up at the end.

3. I enjoyed a pretty low key but wonderful Mother's Day. I was spoiled with breakfast at my favorite local restaurant followed by a trip to the zoo. Later in the day we attended a dance recitals for a few friends' daughters' and it was wonderful. The day ended with a low key dinner and being with my 2 favorite people. 

4. Now that we are living in an empty house we are able to really clean. We have spent the last day or so patching holes and painting. It's so tedious but it will be nice to have it done. We had our pre-move out inspection yesterday and I'm pretty sure we will be just fine when it comes to clearing housing.

5. Last Friday, we finally received Emma's ashes. The vet here in town was absolutely amazing with handling everything and we even received a precious casting of her paw print. It does bring us a sense of peace knowing that she is home with us.

I hope you all had a good weekend!

SLAM Mom Prom

For the last few weeks my amazing SLAM fam has been working on putting together a Mom Prom. Yes you read that right, Mom Prom. Well, last Friday it all came together and it was AMAZING! We were able to rent a space at the golf course conference center and have our event. We had it later in the evening and everyone provided drinks and desserts. It was perfect. 

 It was so fun putting together the decorations and decorating the room. We had a photo booth area set up that we could all take fun photos, we even had props for those that wanted to have extra fun.

 I had these photo boards made that were gifts to our instructors as momentos from our amazing year. 

Everyone who RSVP'd was also given a superlative. Our prom committee got together and picked out what they would be. Everyone really enjoyed theirs! Mine was "Mostly Likely To Be At A Race On The Weekend." You can't get more accurate than that. 

The best part was seeing everyone get dressed up. We are so used to seeing each other all sweaty and in workout clothes. So a chance to clean up and get done up was so much fun. I got my dress from Rent The Runway and I was not disappointed. It had pockets, enough said.

It was an incredible night. We danced, drank, ate, laughed, cried, and just enjoyed each others company. I am honestly so sad to be leaving this community of ladies. I've never experienced anything like this and the thought of leaving in 2 weeks is really really hard. However, I know that no matter what our friendships will continue.