Dallas Trinity River Levee Run

This weekend Taylor and I ran the Trinity River Levee Run.
He ran the 10k (6.2 miles) and I ran walked the 5k (3.1 miles).

Yes, walked. A 5k.
Le sigh.
Ever heard of placenta previa? I hadn't until recently (more on that another time), but suffice it to say, the decision to walk was per my doctor's orders.

There was a brief moment (or 5) that we considered skipping the race. It had been unusually (and uncomfortably) cold and rainy/snowy in Dallas for the past week, and the thought of getting up extra early on a Saturday in that weather seemed like absolutely torture.

I blame it on the fact that we signed up for the race months ago - it was probably beautiful out then.
Silly us.

Anyway, after a very sleepy conversation at 6am on Saturday morning, we decided to go for it. We got into our race clothes, I quickly made some energizing peanut-butter toast (for me the baby) and we headed out to Trinity Groves.

Walking to the start - there was still snow on the ground! And it was cold:

We (surprisingly) found parking pretty easily, and made our way to the starting line. We had about a 20 minute wait before the races started (the 10k-ers started at 8am, 5k-ers at 815am), and we ended up standing in a patch of sunlight that warmed us right up. Facing the Dallas skyline:

Where you position yourself within the race-pack before the start is pretty important. If you're planning to run aggressively and try to beat a personal time record, you need to put your self near the front. However, in longer races, it is important to position yourself near people who will be going about the same pace as you.

Let's just say that I went almost to the very back of the 5k pack.
Behind all the actual runners.
BUT I did position myself in front of all the people with strollers.
I had a little dignity left.

The race itself was great. I did run over the starting line, just so that I wouldn't look like a total wimp, but I slowed down to a walk after that. A little before mile 2, I actually ran into Taylor, which was a fun coincidence. The 10k and 5k courses are slightly different, but they merged back at that point, and we just happened to be at the same place at the same time.

Taylor actually got a picture of himself while he was running:

He also got pictures of other runners. The 10k-ers look so serious!

I only got scenery pictures:

Taylor finished first and then walked back to finish the race with me. I ran across the finish line too, because you can't just walk!

Post-race we feasted on bananas and chocolate milk. Nothing better than a banana after a run walk.
And then a few hours later we celebrated by going out for tacos.
Can't be too healthy on a Saturday morning, ya know?

Overall, I finished #804 out of 993 5k runners, at 00:46:56 with a 15:07 pace.
Taylor finished #491 out of 979 10k runners, at 00:55:12 with a 09:53 pace.

Days Gone By

Why hello there. Remember us? No? I don't blame you. It's been a while.

A long while...

...and a ton has happened.

Do you ever get to that point? Where just so much has gone by that you start to wonder if you'll ever be able to catch everyone up? I'm there. But I'm going to try...so here goes.

Twenty-four

The last time I posted was at the beginning of August (oshbighsh that was a long time ago!). Since then, my 24th birthday came and went :) Taylor is an awesome birthday celebrator and started the day by surprising me with my favorite breakfast when I woke up:

Yum, right? I think yes.

These little pretties were around for a good two weeks before my birthday - Taylor is a pro at getting presents ready super early so you have to stare at them for days until they can be opened!!

I did have to work on my birthday but I got to come home to 24 gorgeous roses!!! After (finally) getting to open the beautifully-wrapped stack of birthday presents from my sweet husband (and a few cards from family members), Taylor and I went out for a steak dinner at Papa Brother's Steakhouse. My birthday just happens to fall during Restaurant Week in Dallas so we got an awesome deal on our 3-and-4-course meals. As a side note, Central Market had a promotion going for Restaurant Week where you could get a coupon for a 4th course if you spent a certain amount at the store before you went to dinner. We definitely participated!!

Our delicious meal started with two house salads, went on to share a bowl of lobster bisque (our special "4th" course thanks to the coupon), and then had the most phenomenal steak and potatoes I think I've ever had. At this point we were pretty much stuffed to the brim but I was still determined to at least try a dessert - fortunately for us, our waiter rocked and asked if we wanted to just go ahead and box up one of our two desserts. Yes please! So we shared a slice of heavenly chocolate-peanutbutter cake and brought home a slice of cheesecake. Papa Bro's may have become our favorite steakhouse. Yum yum yum. And yum again. Oh two awesome things about the restaurant? 1. They have shawls for women who are chilly inside - no joke! I must have looked cold at one point because a waiter came over and asked if he could bring me a shawl! I thought he was joking at first. 2. After dinner, right as we were about to leave, another waiter came around with little boxes of truffles for each couple! So fun!

Time Art
So from the moment we moved in to our apartment, Taylor has had a vision of putting up a huge modern-style clock in our living room. Remember our big blue wall?

This was his vision of where the clock should go (sketched up in Photoshop) - see how big it would need to be???

Building your own clock is a little more complicated than you might think...you can't just buy hands and knobs and expect the thing to work - you need to actually buy the clock mechanism. This was a little big of an ah-ha! moment for me. Don't laugh.

So Taylor found a clock-part website and ordered two large hands and the actual clock part. Then he went to home depot and found scrap pieces of wood in the right size for the hour-marks. Taylor decided that the clock should be white so it could stand out against the blue wall, so he spray painted all the parts:

When they were finished drying, Taylor set everything up on the floor to see how it would look. My pink book is on the floor for scale - it's a huge clock!

We borrowed an extremely tall ladder from Taylor's parents, and one night got our new clock up on the wall! Taylor measured everything out perfectly and it looks AWESOME!

We got the clock up just in time because a few days later we had a bunch of friends over for a little (wine & cheese) birthday get-together. I always forget to take pictures during parties, but here are a few of the munchies we set out beforehand!

Miscellaneous Goings On
Okay, my next few thoughts are truly random. I have a habit of only remembering what we did if I took a picture of it, so sorry if we seem totally scattered :)

If you live in Dallas you've probably heard of Half Priced Books. If you're outside of Dallas, you have an excuse...but you're definitely missing out! It's a store that...believe it or not...sells books for half price! Taylor and I LOVE books. We love reading them, and we love having a library. We do not, however, love how heavy our books are when we have to move. When we moved in, we had about 6 boxes of books! Lately we've been trying to get our apartment in better order and generally just weed out all the "stuff" that sits around forever. Unfortunately, books tend to fall into this category. Taylor uses his Kindle most of the time so he doesn't often add to our bookshelf, which is good because I do. Frequently. I blame it on HPB. I love brand new books, but lately I've been trying to only purchase them on sale...because I tend to go through them pretty quickly...and since you can't go wrong with a book that's $3-$7...you end up with a lot of them. And then they end up in yet another stack on our shelves. You see the problem?

Anyway, one day we decided that we were going to purge our bookshelf. Did I mention that HPB will buy used books too? Purging becomes a lot easier when you can actually get money back for cleaning out your apartment.

We packed 98 books and a huge stack of magazines into a massive bin and set out for HPB. I have to admit, we picked out and saved our favorite books (and cookbooks - I cannot part with those!) so we still have a "small" library. Don't worry, we weren't going totally crazy!

Afte HPB took 20 mins to sort them...we ended up with a whopping $58. Okay, so it wasn't a crazy amount...but we were definitely happy to put $58 go into our savings account and have less "stuff" in our apartment as a result! I still love buying books...but something about getting less than $0.50 for each one definitely makes me only want to buy them on sale from now on :)

On a totally different note (see? this is a prime example of the random pictures on my phone)...one night we went out to dinner at Deep Sushi in Deep Ellum (using a Groupon of course!) and they brought it to us in a boat - LOVE it!! It made me really happy :)

Our last bit of news is our biggest life-change at the moment. I've been accepted into my company's 10-week training program. What does this mean? In a nut shell, I've been promoted to an Account Executive within my company, but have to go through a 10-week training program at my company's NY office to get there. It's a selective program - they only hold two of these 10-week classes a year and each class is comprised of a select few people from our offices around the country. My class has a total of 9 people in it, including me. There are two guys from LA, one guy from Boston, one girl from Atlanta, and four people from NY. We just finished week 1 and it was the longest week of my life. I worked approximately 70 hours and got about 20 hours of sleep for the entire week combined. Despite the crazy amount of work and being totally sleep-deprived, I love it. My industry (TV sales) is SO exciting and fun and I can't wait to learn everything I can. I'm a dork, I know.

This is the stack of books we walked into on day one. Oh.emm.gee right?

And so, that's where we are right now: plugging along in Dallas & NY.
Xoxox
Gwendolyn & Taylor

Dallas from a Distance

Last week Taylor and I braved the 100+ degree weather and set out to try to capture a perfect picture of the Dallas skyline. Taylor’s dad has a bunch of skyline pictures from various famous cities hanging around his office, but was missing the most important one: Dallas! With his birthday approaching, my photographerly husband decided that taking the perfect picture would make the perfect gift.

Taylor had, of course, researched the best looking pictures of the Dallas skyline…and then figured out where you would have to be to take them. Here’s the thing about a skyline picture: you have to be pretty far away to get the whole thing.

We drove out to West Dallas and parked at Trinity Overlook Park. The Trinity River is a river that passes through Dallas. You could technically call it a Texas River since all 710 miles flow entirely within the state of Texas (cool huh?). Anyway, the city of Dallas is currently working on a development project (aka The Trinity River [Corridor] Project) to redevelop the area, build parks and recreational sports areas, and basically just revive the area to make it a fun outdoorsy destination for Dallasites.

Right now from Trinity Overlook Park you can see the Dallas skyline, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge (you know, the one with the huge white arch that you can see when you’re driving downtown?), and a whole lota nothing. The project officially started in the 2000s…and 11 years later…there’s clearly still a lot left to do. I think it’s an awesome idea if they could get rolling again!

This is the view from the park:

The park was just our starting point so we set off a dirt road (yes really!) to get a better view of the skyline. The first picture is the path leading forwards and the second is looking back. You can see the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in the distance of the second picture!

The walk took about 20 minutes (and included crossing under highway 30!) but was totally worth it for the view when we got there! This was now our view:

We set up our photo-shoot on the banks of the river and took pictures before, after, and during the beautiful sunset. Taylor spent a long time taking panorama pictures of the entire skyline…and I’m glad I had a book to read!

Taylor is still working on the final picture for his dad – but here’s a little glimpse of the work in progress:

I have to say...the Dallas skyline has certainly grown on me over the past two years! So pretty :)

The Pearl Cup

Taylor is quite the coffee connoisseur. Which is why it was no surprise to me that soon after we moved here, he discovered where to get the "best" cup of coffee in Dallas. May I introduce: The Pearl Cup.

DMagazine awarded The Pearl Cup its title of "best Dallas coffeehouse" and it sure does live up to its review:

Even though it's on well-known Henderson Avenue, you might miss the place if you were just driving by. Once inside (and assuming you found a spot to park), you're greeted by a large case of delicious pastries. The cinnamon buns are amazing. So amazing that they are the only food-thing on the menu I've tried so far!

The atmosphere is a mix of cool, funky, and fun. It's usually crowded but we've always been able to find a place to sit, enjoy our snack, and people-watch. There is usually a total mix of people present: college students working away on their laptops, old guys reading the morning paper, girlfriends chatting over their coffees, and even families enjoying a light meal (yes, they do have food like crepes and panini's on the menu!).

The lattes and cappuccinos are phenomenal and of course come with a beautiful design created in the foam. Don't you just want a sip?

 

Deliciousness? I think yes.

The Before.

The After.

The Pearl Cup.

Go. You won't be disappointed. I promise!

Oh.Em.Gee!

Have your heard the news?

Trader Joe’s is coming to Dallas!

I ‘bout near fainted when my husband told me about it. My first thought: now we can stay in Dallas! Now don’t you go and laugh about that. You try to imagine living in a city without your favorite stores. It’s awful.

It’s like all my dreams are coming true. First H&M, then In-N-Out, now Trader Joe’s?? OhEmGee. I can’t wait!

Haven’t heard of Trader Joe’s? Well you’re missing out. It’s incredible. Generally their stores aren’t as massive as a regular supermarket, but they pack a lot in. They have super duper fresh produce, breads, and cheeses. They have funky gourmet foods (like special pasta sauces, yummy soups, fun cake and bread mixes, out-of-the-ordinary bottles of juice and soda, and delicious cookies and sweets). A good majority of the store is “Trader Joe’s” brand stuff, so you can’t get it anywhere else! They also have the best prepared foods (their sushi rocks, no joke!).

Sigh. I’m in love.

Dallas, you just keep getting better and better.

Now all we need is a good bagel shop….

Bayley Ree

A few weekends ago I got to participate in an all-day photo-shoot for my sweet sister-in-law, Bayley. She is a senior at ACU and will be graduating in just a few short weeks! Taylor, the awesome brother that he is, offered to take pictures of Bayley, and so the three of us set out on a mission to capture a graduation-announcement-worthy picture. We took pictures in four locations with two outfit changes for our model.

Before we started, Taylor had asked Bayley if she had any creative ideas on locations to take pictures. She promptly replied "an elementary school, of course!" Such a cute idea, right??? Bayley is an Education major at ACU and is currently finishing up her student teaching. She will be looking for a job as an elementary school teacher when she graduates, so a school was the perfect back-drop for our first stop. Isn't she beautiful?? (And yes, Elementary School does get cut off here...sorry!)

I got to take my own share of action pictures while they were working away (when I wasn't doing my job of holding up the reflector to get the perfect amount of light on Bayley), which yes, made me feel like a paparazzo sneaking around!

Next we moved on to Grapevine Springs park. Apparently this is THE place to take graduation/wedding/family pics near Coppell. It certainly was a beautiful park! How much do you love Bayley's outfit? I was so impressed that she could pull off cowboy boots and pearls!

A few more stalker-ish pictures of the picture-taking in progress:

Me and Bayley!!! I love my sister :)

Next, we moved on to Grapevine, and then ended in Deep Ellum:

Love me some fish-eye lens!

We had to get at least one of us!

These are in Deep Ellum (in downtown Dallas). Someone who used to work at Taylor's company designed these sculptures for the city. They're so fun for pictures!

This guy is my favorite!

Here's a few of Taylor and me. I love this little chick...check out the reflection in the picture! In the middle you can see Taylor taking the picture laying down on the ground, and on the left you can see Bayley holding the reflector.

Just hanging out with the iron dude:

So there you go! We had a blast taking pictures all day and ended up with dozens of really great shots. Bayley was able to narrow it down to one perfect picture for her graduation announcements, so I'd say we definitely accomplished our mission!