seriously, i’m not sure i’ve ever had a busier or more tiring forty hour period as friday/saturday.  after work on friday, we made the drive down to orlando.  we got a late start and made a longer-than-normal dinner stop in tallahassee so our arrival was later than i had hoped.  hubby fell asleep after eating so he got a four hour nap while i finished out the drive.  we made it to my sissy’s by 00:30 but it was around 01:00 by the time we got our luggage in and got into bed.  though i was exhausted, i was unable to sleep so i angrily tossed and turned until the alarm went off at 04:30 – yes, we purposely got up after just 3.5 hours in bed.  my cousin picked us up at 05:00 and drove us out to clermont to meet up with her team for hills training.  there’s a residential street out there with a hill they call “big bertha”.  it seemed to be about the same height as our bridge but much less gradual.  i did it twice and only made it about a third of the way up each time before settling into a walk.  really, though, it wasn’t the incline that got me, it was the decline.  i was fine pushing myself up the hill but going back down killed my knees.  the first time down, i ran it full tilt and it hurt my knees.  the second time, i walked down in a zig-zag pattern and it still hurt my knees so i chose not to do a third repeat.  i did, however, run several of the side streets and ended up running a good bit of that side of the neighborhood, so i got in some pretty good mileage that way.  of course, i can’t say with any certainty, but my guess is that i did just shy of seven miles – by far my longest run to date.  and even with all of the hills (there were more hills than just bertha) i felt fine.  go me!  after the run and cool-down, we headed back to my cousin’s where she cooked breakfast for us and her family.  mmmmbaconandeggs.  when we left there, we walked the mile or so back to my sissy’s to refill our water bottles, change shoes, and be off to the next activity:  cheerleading!

niece¹ decided to give cheering a try for the first time this season.  and she must be pretty darned good because she had her mom and siblings, three grandparents, and an aunt and uncle there to watch.  she was absolutely the cutest cheerleader out there!  and very spirited – i heard her over everyone else.

look at that form!

getting great air!

after her game, dad offered to grab some pizzas and come by the house for lunch so we had a nice lunch with him and his wife before heading to nephew²‘s flag football game.  i’ll take this opportunity to point out how bloody hot it is in orlando right now.  i don’t know the actual temperature for our 06:00 run this morning but i can tell you that within the first two minutes of the run, i was drenched in sweat.  as hot as the bridge was on thursday, it is ten times hotter and stickier here.  ugh.  since we were tight on time between breakfast and getting to niece’s cheer, we didn’t shower and change.  and i felt a little funny about that.  but after sitting for an hour in the heat at her game, i was pleased with the decision.  thankfully, sissy has a nifty stadium tent that they brought to all the games to keep the direct sun off of us but the air was still stagnant.  i stayed drenched all day long.  and i stank something fierce.  but my family loves me anyhow and allowed me to remain under their tent.  anyhow, back to the narrative at hand… nephew had some great plays and his team won. 

totally intimidating the other team

going for it!

there was another game between nephew²‘s game and nephew¹‘s game.  we all sat around in the heat a while, getting eaten alive by ants, and then sissy, the kids, and i made a slurpee run just before nephew¹‘s game started.  he played awesome as well and also had a win.  i can’t believe how grown he’s getting.

look at that MAN barreling down the field

great pass!

after that game, we got a “recess”.  we all came back to the house and jumped in the pool!!!  the adults mostly stuck to the hot tub to rest their weary bones.  it was a welcome respite and gave me an opportunity to show off cobalt.

nephew2

niece1

nephew1

i ♥ cobalt!  after the pool fun, we made a quick dinner of various leftovers and got showers (way overdue, let me tell you.  we had to take our clothes down to the laundry room because after leaving them in our room while swimming, the stank slapped us in the face when we opened the door!) and then headed to the kids’ halloween dance.  niece¹ dressed as a puppy, nephew² dressed as tebow, nephew¹ was too cool to get dressed up – i guess you could say he went as a teenager!  sadly, hubby took the pix there but had the wrong setting on so they all came out terrible blurs.  you can take my word for it that there was a lot of cuteness there.  the dance was put on by the organization that does the cheerleading so all of the different cheerleading groups performed a dance number, which was really fun.  niece¹, of course, did fabulous.  the two oldest groups were much more choreographed and impressive but i was astounded at the provocative moves and costumes.  these kids are all thirteen and under!  we also got to meet nephew¹‘s girlfriend, who is in the oldest cheerleading group, for the first time.  it was amusing to see how they acted around each other.  they’d get within three feet of one another, look in opposite directions, smile out of the corners of their mouths, and then go different ways.  LOL.  i’m so glad to see that they have so much innocence left.  their “dance” consisted of texting each other from opposite sides of the gymnasium all night.  really, he spent almost the whole night with us old fuddy-duddies.  nephew², on the other hand, spent the night dancing with a group of the second-oldest cheerleaders.  he was totally a ladies man!  niece¹ just had a good time hanging out with her friends.  we made it home in time to watch the last bit of the gators game and then i finally got to go to bed after forty straight hours of being awake.  haven’t done that in years and it is much harder than it used to be.  we laid down in bed and both let out a huge sigh.  said i to hubby, “they do this every weekend!”  i just couldn’t do it… three kids going 90 mph in three different directions all the time.  gracious!

so anyhow, as tired as i was after my forty hour waking binge, i slept a whopping four hours before waking up and tossing and turning the rest of the morning.  insomnia rocks!  /sarcasm.  luckily, sunday was a much calmer day.  i gave up and got out of bed at 09:00 and started working on making plans.  i was hoping to see my brother since i haven’t seen him all year but i called both him and his wife and got voicemail on both.  i did make plans with my friend jenny to get together with her and the hubby for dinner.  that left us the rest of the morning and afternoon to do some much needed resting up.  and make a kohl’s trip.  dinner with friends was healthy and fun and we were in bed at a decent hour.