In May we went to visit Ryan's family and friends in Washington State. We flew into Seattle, rented a car & then drove to Spokane to visit the Schroders. It's a long drive, but it's quite interesting - Who knew the middle of WA is a desert?!?! We spent about 4 days in Spokane and got to see a ton of people. On Friday we had dinner with Ryan's brothers Mike and Jason and their families, as well as with mom Teresa shortly after arriving in town. It was great to catch up with everyone & we had lots of laughs! Saturday was visiting and site-seeing, and then a nice dinner with Dad & Jeanie at a GREAT steak-house just over the Idaho border (yes, this was Theresa's first trip to Idaho!) Sunday was Mother's Day and we had a big family get-together at Aunt Mary's place. We had the Sexton family and the Schroder family there, so we got lots of visiting in and Theresa got to hear lots of stories about Ryan's childhood! Monday we had breakfast with Bob & Lu Schroder (grandpa & grandma) and with Ryan's cousin John. After that we spent the day doing some last minute site-seeing and visiting with the family. It was a great trip! Jaylin and Rosko are growing up way too fast! Jaylin even knows all the words to Johnny Cash's "Boy Named Sue"! Awesome! On Tuesday we woke up & drove to Gresham Oregon (yet another state to add to Theresa's tally) to visit Ryan's sister Chelsea. We went to dinner at a great little Mexican restaurant with Chelsea and Will and then had to hit the road again to drive into Seattle. We spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday roaming around Seattle & the surrounding area. Jeanine and Josh Wendt were great tour-guides and showed us a lot of local hotspots - one of our favorites was "The Beverage Place"! We stayed at a great hotel in downtown Seattle called the Pan Pacific close to the Space Needle. It was great! Unfortunately, we had to leave on Saturday morning, but it was a good feeling to get back home in the humidity we're used to! While we were gone, Dottie Pottie stayed at ACE Pet Resort in Sarasota. We think she had just as much fu on her "vacation" as we did! She had her own "room" and even had a few "play times" with the staff there. For any of you locals, we highly recommend ACE! (But book early - they fill up quick!)
After several months of studying, Theresa finally passed her last course needed to earn her "AU" designation (Associate in Underwriting). She started the courses before she moved to FL and took the last one course in mid-June after taking a break to take some other insurance courses. Now that the AU done, it's time to start the ARe (Associate in Reinsurance) course work, so there's not too much time for celebration! This new designation will also most likely take over a year to finish due to the length of the courses. (And now that she's making the announcement about starting it, there's no backing out!)
Since the Sarasota Half Marathon, we've sort of backed-off of the running. We were both feeling kind of "burned out" so we figured it was a good time to take it easy. Eventually, we knew we had to start picking it up again. Unfortunately, Theresa started having some back problems & was unable to start running - so she focused on walking. During this time, Ryan started commuting by bike to work! It's just over 10 miles round-trip and only takes about an hour for him to make the trip. Don't worry - he is a very safe & aware biker - his coworkers even have a map of his route & know who to call if they think he's taking too long to get to work. After several weeks of trying to figure out what was going on with her back, Theresa finally had an MRI and learned she has "protruding disks" in L3 and L4, and has arthritis in L4 and L5. The good part of all this is that there's no surgery required! The bad part is that there's no real way to "treat" it - just manage the symptoms. The doctors think the ain will flare up a couple times a year and then subside. With the right training and such, Theresa will be able to run and mountain bike again, but has to be sure to switch up the workouts so she doesn't aggravate things. While all of this back stuff was going on, Ryan ran in an "Adventure Race" with Megan in Tampa. The two of them had to run through an obstacle course made up of a mud-pit, "army crawling" under a rope course, running through tires, and even running through waist deep water in Tampa Bay - never mind the fat that they had to fight off bid-size mosquitoes through it all! Ryan and Megan definitely had a great time and plan to run in the next one on June 26th!
For the Fourth of July Holiday we went to Georgia for a long-weekend. We drove into Atlanta on the 3rd and prepared for the Peachtree Road Race the next morning. We were there with Theresa's parents Ron and Margaret, and also Aunt Jeanine & Uncle Rick and their son Mike. The morning of the 4th we participated in the race. Margaret came in 1st, followed by Ron and Jeanine (due to the number of participants, we're not sure one crossed first). Theresa and Ryan walked the whole thing due to Theresa's back and met the others at the finish line. After a smelly cab ride back to Starbucks, we all headed back to the hotel to meet Rick & Mike in order to make the trip into the mountains for the rest of the weekend. We went to Al's house for a great big cook-out and fireworks that night. Riley and Abbie were very excited to play yard games, ride 4-wheelers and watch the fireworks. On Saturday we took a small hike to Horse-trough Falls and got to wade in some REALLY COLD water! Later that day we went to our favorite place, Paul's Margarita Deck for some cold beer & people watching. Sunday was very relaxing & we spent the day around the cabin and finally ended up at the Fishing Lodge watching Jeanine, Rick, Mike, Al & Riley catch trout. Riley got the biggest fish of the day & it'll actually be mounted as his "biggest catch"! He was very proud! After a big family dinner at the cabin, we all hit the hay. Monday morning was back to FL for Theresa and Ryan. We spent the day in the car while everyone else was hiking the Appalachian Trail. It was hard to leave everyone behind having fun knowing that we had to get back to "real life". It was a whirlwind trip, but it was really nice to see everyone!
Well - that just about covers it! Hopefully we'll be better at keeping up on our posts so we don't have to write another book next time!