Coaches Weekend

This weekend Ryan officially became a crossfit coach at our gym. As a result, we were invited on the coaches getaway weekend. 14 of us rented a house in Pacific Beach, WA for the weekend. Ryan, Ben, and I got in late Friday night and jumped right in to some serious game playing ;)



warming up for the first workout

Saturday we had a packed day starting out with a team workout on the driveway in the morning. The owner of the gym actually brought barbells and weights with him and made us all workout. It was actually a lot of fun. After breakfast we had a long roundtable discussion on ways to improve the gym, followed by another workout...this time on the beach! Ben and one of the other coaches' dog had a blast chasing us around the beach. After the workout several of us braved the freezing cold water...at least up to our waists. Ben even followed us out into the ocean enough to the point were he was actually swimming! That's the furthest he's ever gone into water voluntarily! After we got all cleaned up, we had a very late lunch followed by a seminar on shoulder mobility. It made me realize I have a lot of work to do to make my shoulders function properly! We finished off the night with s'mores and a bonfire and probably way to much catch phrase playing into the wee hours of the night!

the group after our first workout

Ryan doing burpees

 

Round table group discussions...and cuddling with Ben...

Ryan officially becoming a coach

The coaches of Stoneway Crossfit

Sunday morning everyone packed up and headed their separate ways. Since we were already on the coast, Ryan wanted to get in a couple hours of surfing, so we headed to a surfing town a little further south and Ben and I walked the beach while Ryan practiced his surfing.

Beachin' it with Ben

Heading out to surf ;)

Washington beaches...

Now I'm exhausted from the weekend and back at work. It was a blast hanging out with an awesome group of people though!

Big weekend slumber party!

New York, New York!



An awesome time was had this Memorial Day weekend in New York City! This past Christmas we told Ryan's parents that if they booked a trip to NYC to visit Ryan's brother Aaron, we'd do the same. That way we could see more of the family at one time! Ryan and I took the red eye Friday night and were surprisingly lucid all Saturday despite having little sleep on the plane. We started right out with brunch down the street from Aaron and Chena's apartment in Long Island City before heading into Manhattan for the afternoon. First stop was a trip to the 'Top of the Rock' aka the Rockefeller observation deck. Last time we were here we did that at night when all the city lights were on, so it was great to be able to do it again during the day. 





We finished up our Top of the Rock experience just as it was about to start down pouring, so it was perfect timing for a little happy hour! We did a little bar hopping and ended in Brooklyn for a night cap on a rooftop bar. Other than about and hour or so of rain, it was a great day for wandering around the city.


Sunday was a beautiful day, so we stayed outside as much as possible! We started out with a stroll through central park. Did a little relaxing on a blanket a little watching of street performers. We wandered around the city a little more and ended up in Madison Square Park for a late lunch. Our last site to see of the day was the site of 9/11. It was all still under construction the last few times we were in NYC, so this was the first time we saw it all completed. It was really a beautiful and powerful site. I loooove the fountains they created in the footprints of the two towers. There's still a little construction going on in the surrounding areas, but the freedom tower, fountains, and museum are completed now and it was great to see them all together.
















Monday was our last full day and it was BEAUTIFUL out. I suppose some people may have thought it was a little too toasty out, but I thought it was perfect ;) We spent the morning wandering through the Natural History Museum...mostly to see all the dinosaurs...which were awesome! We also got to get a good peek inside the attached Hayden Planetarium...which is one of my favorite building in NYC ;)






After a morning of educating ourselves...we spend the afternoon drinking on a boat! Aaron had booked us a harbor cruise for a couple of hours. It felt amazing to be out on the water on such a hot sunny day and we got great views of the skyline and sailed around the statue of liberty which was pretty awesome to see a little closer up. It was just a great time sitting in the sun and enjoying ourselves ;) After the cruise we wandered through the Chelsea market and picked up a few treats and some artwork.














After picking up some delicious Rice to Riches, we spent the evening playing games at Aaron and Chena's apartment. Ryan and I had a mid afternoon flight home on Tuesday, so we grabbed breakfast with Aaron and Chena in the morning and hung out in a local park for a while before packing up to head back home. It was great being in NYC in the late spring...a little warmer than our last trip in January. Good thing we have a great reason to visit often, I can't wait for our next trip!
 

8th Place!!!!



I did absolutely nothing competitive last weekend...but I watched 6 of my good friends kick some serious booty in the North West Crossfit Regionals and end up in 8th place!!!! The Crossfit Games (See this post and this post from last year) are like the Olympics of Crossfit. In order to make it to the games, you have to qualify through the Regional events. In order to participate in the Regional events, you have to have top scores in the Crossfit Open. The Crossfit Open is literally open to anyone in the world. You do the workouts and log your scores from home or your gym or wherever you are. The top 45 men, 45 women, and 30 teams from that move on to participate in their Regional event. This year was the first time that our gym qualified as a team to go to the Northwest Regionals!!! 



Our team was actually ranked 10 out of 30 teams to make it to the Regionals...and we happen to be great friends with all 6 of the members of the team, so obviously we had to go cheer them on!! They have been working incredibly hard to get to this point, and I'm so proud of them. They competed with the other 29 teams from the region in 8 events over 3 days and ended up ranked 8th in the Region which is HUGE for their first time competing in the event! The top 3 teams from each region move on to compete in the Crossfit Games in July, so they didn't quite make that cutoff, but they certainly proved that they deserved to be there! It was so awesome to be there to cheer them on and I'm so proud of them all! I can't wait to see what happens next year ;)

















Staycation

We did a sort of staycation this weekend. With our Marriott membership, we get a free hotel night once a year. Ours for this year would have expired today, so I figured we should find somewhere to go and use it before it expired. We drove up to Bellingham, WA Saturday morning and started out with a nice long hike. There were great views of the little towns nearby and the Puget sound. The top of the hike was a lookout over a really steep cliff...a little terrifying to get too close to the edge, but it was really pretty!











We could have made it home after the hike, but we've never really spent time in Bellingham, so we grabbed some dinner downtown and spent the night in our free hotel...with a hot tub ;)

 

Sunday afternoon we lazily made our way back down to Seattle, with a stop off at the outlet mall and a few hours of BBQing and a friends house.



Also, this weekend was Ben's 4th birthday...and today is Ryan's birthday!!