Back from the ABYSS

It sure has been a long time since I last posted but at least I didn't let a full year go by, right? RIGHT! Excuses, excuses, excuses. Those are my reasons for not updating the world on my life; that or I'm just not that interesting. So, what has happened since July 2012? Well, I haven't been back to Hawaii yet - wahhh! - and I think about it every day. I also haven't been back to Disney - double wahhh! I guess more importantly than both of those is that my sister had her second baby, Juliet Teresa, in February. This kid is the spitting image of her father (whereas Miranda is a McLoughlin girl through and through).

OMG SO DARN CUTE.

Since Juliet was born her sister, Miranda, has gotten really animated and turned into a little walking, talking person. She'll run around my front yard screaming "EMBER! THERE'S A CAR COMING! COME HERE NOW!" at my dog or she'll tell her mother to "FaceTime Christine?" You're two, not twenty... haha, she knows what FaceTime is. Is that sad or awesome? I'm not sure yet.

She also enjoys the occasional picture-text war:

Follow the picture text leader!

Anyway, back to me! Since the beginning of the year I've started running 5K races throughout the area. It all started randomly with the ThinMint 5K because it came with an (ugly) shirt and a box of cookies! Who wouldn't run for cookies!? I ran that race without training; just doing my normal walk a lot (about 90 minutes a day) and stairclimbing at the gym. Somehow, I managed to finish the 5K with a decent pace of 12:30 per mile -  YOU GO SHORT LEGS - and on a runner's high decided to do more, more, more.

Give me all of the cookies!

For the next race, I enlisted Kyle and my sister, Teresa, to join me. It was the Paws For Life race in Chesapeake City, MD where you get to run with your dog! Woohoo!! I didn't actually run with her because she'd pull me over, but Kyle did. They ran the entire thing in 27 minutes and the dog was still hyper.

This was Teresa's first 5K in years, she also popped out two kids, so hooray for running!

Oh look at those hips, they don't lie!

Before Picture: Ember has no idea she's about to run 3.1

The run itself was harder than I expected. It was trail running and the trails were incredibly muddy from the week of rain we had right before the race. There were sections of trail where your shoes would actually sink about 1 - 2" into the mud. Just a little bit dangerous, no biggie! But in the words of Teresa, "I'm never running again!" and "Oh god, my expensive shoes are a mess!" I'm not so sure she had fun.

Next up? The B+ 5K which raises money for kids with cancer, the Color Run in Philadelphia and probably 800 more because I've turned into a running monster. I'm currently hovering around 5 miles in 55 minutes which is pretty awesome for someone who just decided to pick this up a month ago.

A big reason I keep going is because I, honestly, cannot believe that I am this good at it. I've never been athletic and always hated the gym so why do I love running? Who knows.

I have a secret though... and I'm not telling yet! Holla!

WE STILL ARE PENN STATE

I'm a huge talker... I never shut up. It's a problem. I am also highly opinionated. This is also a problem (sometimes). But because I am emotional and have a tendency to get hyper and/or excited about things I'm not exactly articulate.

This is especially true when it comes to the Jerry Sandusky scandal and the subsequent fallout at Penn State. I've had family members ask me what I think on multiple occasions but at the time I was conflicted and dumbfounded. I really just didn't want to talk about it; not because I was supporting the football program or mad at the country for bashing Joe Paterno, but because PSU is like a family and this was a huge blow.

My college roommate, Michele, sent me this article last week and and it is everything I wanted to say to people when I was asked, "what do you think." This person read my mind along with all other alums, current students and lovers of all things Penn State.

WE ARE MORE THAN THIS TRAGEDY 

(click link)

 "The actions of a few do not define us. The knee-jerk reactions of others will not end us. Our school taught us more than organic chemistry and music theory. It taught us to persevere. To overcome. To succeed – with honor. That is who WE are. That is what WE are."

THE NOTHING CAN'T STOP KAUAI

One of the biggest attractions on Kauai is Waimea Canyon a.k.a. the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. It's the largest canyon in the Pacific and was carved by flooding on Mt. Waialeale's summit. The landscape in the area changes pretty dramatically depending on how far you drive into it. We passed through a dry mountainous region, saw sections of red clay with almost no vegetation and stopped at the gorgeous Kalalau Valley Lookout for the most beautiful view of my life!

I could stare at the first picture forever. The way the ocean blends into the sky so you don't know where one ends/begins. OMG. Heaven. This place is a pure slice of heaven. I will say that Kyle almost had some minor heart attacks as I took pictures of the view because I was illegal and hopped the safety railing to get closer past the tree line. It's all fun and games until you're in peril, I suppose.

As we walked around the ridge of the canyon the clouds kept moving in and taking over. We joked that it was The Nothing from "The Neverending Story" coming in to destroy everything. Unfortunately, if The Nothing did take over Falkor wasn't around to save us.

We tried to stick around to see if the view came back but once the clouds descended into madness there was no view for quite awhile. I'm just happy we got to see a short glimpse because if I had driven all the way up there for clouds I would have been upset. Outside of the canyon, the sky turned back into it's brilliant blue self; The Nothing hadn't taken over the beaches so we headed to the coast.

Lydgate Beach Park is touted as one of the best beach parks on the island. It was nice, I guess, but covered in driftwood making less room to sit on the sand. We ended up sitting farther back and having to climb over the driftwood each time we wanted to get into the water. To beat the heat (and to avoid the burning of the sun), Kyle sat in the shade of some trees while in the distance I saw that someone had built an A-frame fort to lay under. I'm kicking myself for not getting a closer look, maybe playing a rousing game of indians in a wigwam, but I was preoccupied with some Fire Rock Ale and a book about WWII. That's a hardcore vacation read!

The one big adventure we planned began the following morning... a 5 hour zipline through the rainforests of Kauai. The ziplining was done on the Kipa Ranch which is where they filmed a bunch of movies, most recently "The Descendents" with George Clooney. Holla back, Georgie! One of the ziplines was 1,800' long straight across a valley. You flew above the canopy of trees and had a gorgeous mountain view. Quite possibly the best view though was Kyle in his snug outfit and helmet. Am I right?

The company, Outfitters Kauai, also has exclusive rights to a "blue pool" on the ranch. They built a water zip over it along with a couple diving platforms; one of them was 16' high! Looking down at the water from that platform was nothing short of scary. But after psyching myself out for a couple of minutes I finally decided to jump off... halfway down, I started screaming and it wasn't because I was scared! It was because I was like "OMG WHY HAVEN'T I HIT THE WATER YET!" I hit the water with a giant splash, my bathing suit bottoms went right up my rear end and all I wanted to do was jump off again.

Five hours of adventure was enough for one day though. Afterwards, I was pretty tired so we hit up a food stand called "Puka Dog" where they carve a hole in a Hawaiian sweet roll, plop a giant hotdog inside and cover it with lilikoi mustard, if you so desire. It was easily the best hotdog I've ever had.

Magnificently delicious!

We closed out the first week of vacation by hanging out at the sand pool with the resident chickens, local pig and each other. I was trying to infuse the last drops of relaxation into my blood.

I absolutely loved this island and it's chill level; I know I don't have much to compare it to since I've only been to two islands but that just means I need to invest in visiting all of them! What's next? MAUI!

Anyone want to help me earn more Hawaiian Airline miles so I can afford to go back ASAP? 

I'm not kidding!