TMNT Birthday

What a weekend we had!!!!

Nick's birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated on Saturday. 

We threw a joint party for him and our neighbor, Dan (who's birthday is on Wednesday).

I asked Nick while he was at OCS what he wanted to do for his birthday, and being the "simpleton" that he is, all he wanted to do was grill out with the neighbors.

So that's exactly what we did!

And because every man deserves a Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles party...

He was not a fan of the party hat.

Dan celebrated his 22nd birthday....lol.

Of course, Nick wanted car parts for his birthday.

I got him this B&M star shifter for his car.

Nick got an ice cream cake from Ben & Jerry's (his favorite).

A birthday cigar...

 Ribs, burgers, salad, pasta salad, cheese plate, my famous chicken salsa dip....perfection.

Nick, of course, wanted to take the guys out for a ride in his car.

The birthday boys!

As for yesterday, Nick's actual birthday...

We didn't do much.

We started the morning off with a cranky baby...

Then church...

Nick wanted to have breakfast at one of our favorite local breakfast spots, Station Grille in Natick.

And he bailed on me to go on a birthday run, so I ran all by my lonesome....

My pace was a few seconds slower than Saturday's run, but I also ran a more hilly route.

I'll take this week off from hitting the pavement, and do more strength and conditioning at the gym.

Also...my running tip for the day (and I'm not expert...but this is just something I learned from running experts...like Runner's World magazine)....

If you are subjecting yourself to do treadmill work outs, make sure you run at a slight incline. 

I usually keep it at a 2.0, but 1.0 is fine too!

It mimics outdoor running.

You'll also notice a dramatic difference when you run outdoors on how much easier the transition from treadmill to pavement is!

This is just from personal experience as well!!