So far, this has been an amazing weekend.

Friday night, almost immediately after Brian walked in the door, we walked right back out to hit the road for our two our drive up to Fort Wayne.

For my birthday this past April, my mom paid for my registration for the Fort 4 Fitness half marathon.  Not only did she sign me up, but she signed herself up too!

It feels like we both trained forever for this race, but when this weekend finally arrived it seemed to come so fast!  My mom was planning to walk the race, and I was running.  My goal was to hopefully have a better time than my previous half marathon, which was around 2 hours and 7 minutes.

We woke up very early on Saturday morning and headed to Parkview Stadium in Fort Wayne .

We both finished strong!  I had hesitations about reaching my goal, but I stuck with the 2 hour pace group and finished in an 1:56:53!  My mom, the woman who was worried about not coming in last and was planning on walking the whole thing, got caught up in the race atmosphere and decided last minute to RUN the entire thing…in under 2 and a half hours.

It was an amazing start to the day.  I will give you a full race recap later in the week 🙂

After the race, we came home and had a delicious lunch.  Mom made a Greek salad with feta cheese, black olives, pepperoncini, cucumbers, tomato, and tuna.  So delicious, especially after 13.1 miles.

 I also found some dehydrated green beans from a local farm in Mom’s pantry.  They were so delicious and salty.  Perfect for nibbling.

 After lunching and snacking, we headed to out to do some olive oil tasting and painting.

 We tasted several flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

 I tasted a delicious combination of fig balsamic vinegar and garlic olive oil.  I thought that this would be great to put on roasted vegetables and salad, which I eat a lot of, so I bit the bullet and purchased some fancy vinegar and oil.

We then headed next door to a little shop called Wine and Canvas.

They were just opening up a new store front and were hosting free mini paint classes.  Dad did not want to paint, but Mom, Brian, and I decided to give it a whirl.

Typically they rent out space at a restaurant, teach participants how to paint a specific painting while the participants enjoy glasses of wine.

 At the new shop, they will do the same thing, they just won’t have to rent out the space from another location! (although they will still do some painting classes on location t00!)

 The experience was fun, but the painting didn’t really suit our style.  Luckily, they paint different pictures every single time.  They had examples of trees, flowers, skylines, and just about anything else you can think of.  All in all, we enjoyed the experience.  I would love to sign up for a real class (wine involved!) next time Brian and I come up to Fort Wayne.

 Mom’s Painting:

  Brian’s Painting:

 My Painting:

After our wine and canvas experience, we headed over to the Fresh Market for some samples and groceries.

 By the time we were finished at the Fresh Market, we were all more than ready to put on our jammies on and get cozy.  Mom grilled some tilapia and made garlic mashed potatoes.  I roasted up some veggies with my new garlic olive oil, and boy were they good!  A little bit goes a long way.  I used half a tablespoon on an entire pan of broccoli, squash, and onions.  They were so flavorful, that we ate them all up.

 Once we were done with dinner, my dad asked me to record some vocal harmonies for a song that he was working on with one of his friends.

 My dad has always been musical and very into music and music production.  Recently, he purchased some recording equipment and has started a little recording business as a hobby to do on the side of his regular work.

 It was fun to record, sing, and hear the semi-finished product right away!

 Then, to end off the night we had some apples from a local orchard dipped in carmel with some chopped peanuts on the side for a little crunch.

We had an amazing Saturday.  I love being able to spend time with my family, and can’t wait for my next visit 🙂

What was the highlight of your Saturday?