Today was stuffed with fun, filled with sun, and oh so awesome. I am stuffed with froyo and a pretty delicious dinner and I’m just counting down til I face plant into my own bed! Home sweet home to my semi-airconditioned apartment = hallelujah!

I started my morning off with a run along the water in Bright’s Grove. It was beautiful. I really miss running along the water there–it’s where I grew up and so this morning’s run was my normal route until last year! Missing it…

Who wouldn’t want to run here?

I didn’t feel awesome during my run. It was pretty hot and I decided to just do a simple loop and I think it was probably about 4 slow miles. After the run I did a quick playground workout using the monkey bars with the best view around, in my opinion.

My workout was a countdown with 10 reps each of squats, pushups, burpees, sit-ups, and (jumping) pull-ups, then 9 of each, 8, … 1 of each! It was really hard for me — the burpees got my heart rate up as expected but I looked at my heart rate and saw numbers higher than I have in a long time following the jumping pull-ups. Holy smokes I miss these workouts and am so happy to be back doing them!

I went to the water immediately following this one, which was particularly sweaty, and made good on my promise to jump in the lake post-run this summer. Done and done!

After I went back to my mom’s to change and pack up my stuff and grab lunch (leftovers), my afternoon was about seeing a bunch of friends (literally three different groups worth) on the beach.

Fun! And yes, I put on sunscreen but I still got a bit too much sun!

We also played volleyball, football, and all that good stuff. I haven’t spent this much time just doing things for the sake of doing them in a long time and let me tell you — it felt awesome!

After we’d had our fill of sun, a few of my friends and I had dinner at Skeeter’s. My fav restaurant! I love the view and even though our service was slow, I was smiling. It might have had something to do with the beer I had and the favour that Angela gave me driving my car back — laying in the sun + lightweight = recipe for tipsy.

I could not polish off this chicken club / caesar salad combo, but I did my best!

We ended the day with a stop at Kiwi Kraze for froyo when we got back to town. Perfection. My froyo was even festive and I didn’t mean to! Funny how that happens!

I was a bit ambitious and couldn’t finish this either…that’s a first! …but luckily I’ve got friends who could!

If this weekend was about fun and relaxation, I think I win! I saw so many friends — — and I even put a dent in my summer bucket list–>sailing, fireworks, friendship bracelets, jumping in the lake post-run, etc. I’m plugging away and it’s hard to believe it’s July. I fully intend to make a fall list or maybe just to break out the bucket list for life when this summer one’s done!

This week is pretty low key — bootcamp, some spin classes, a meeting with a prof about an independent study, and gearing up for my bike trip to Virginia (I leave next week). There should be ample time for blogging and I’m looking forward to my first week without school on my mind. I got my mark back — a 79 <– not my best but certainly not anything to be worried about — so even that back of my mind concern has been put to rest!

Did I mention I spent this weekend smiling?

candid, instagram-ed summary of the weekend!