Raleigh: Paavo’s happy place

Paavo had arguably the best week of his life! Nuff said.

Cheering on runners in the rain and eating Nana’s cookies – what more could you want?

Itinerary: 7 nights in Raleigh, NC

We were in town for the Umstead 100/50 mile races. I was running the 100 and my sister Emily was doing her first 50 miler. The entire family was showing up to support.

We stayed with some favorite cousins who have hosted us now for two years in a row and while the races were successful, the highlight of the stay was definitely all the fun Paavo had playing with his 6 and 8 year old cousins.

From the moment he arrived, he was moving non-stop. He dug up every toy in the house, incessantly said “kids” and “toy room”, and midway through the stay, he even began calling his cousins by their real names. For any kids (or parents) who have hung out with Paavo thus far, you will know this is a big deal. To Paavo, all children assume the name of “Kid”. But not his two NC cousins. He was giving hugs, chasing them around, and waking up from naps saying their names and quickly crawling down from bed to find them. He had a blast.

Playing non-stop in the toy room

Along with the toy room and non-stop kid action at our cousin’s house, there were also plenty of quality kid to-dos in the area. We hit up a couple kid museums, thankfully covered by our Glazer Kids Museum membership (thank you Tampa FL trip!). Other than the museums and family time both inside and outside the house, we didn’t need to go anywhere else. Lesson learned: visit people with kids!  

Some memories and milestones:

  • Paavo was moving up and down the steps without us watching him. He’s been up and down stairs for a while now but always with us holding his hand or spotting him. We cut him loose this time!
  • He hung out upstairs in the toy room with the other kids without us parents watching him the entire time – we were admittedly nervous at times, but made an effort to play it cool

The race. Emily and I both had good runs and it was great getting the family together. Jeff flew in last minute from CO, mom and dad drove down from OH, and Emily’s family all made it down from DE. It was a really good event for the family. Emily rocked it out there and crushed her first ultra. Read her race report to learn more about this race and to see photos of the area.  I hung on for 3rd OA in the 100 mile race, though my body took a beating the final lap. It rained the entire day which overall was very helpful, but it did get cold later in the day and that wore me down. But really the distance just took its toll on my legs. I kept running the entire way, but slowed dramatically. Brother bear was super helpful and paced me the final 37.5 miles. Good quality family fun!

umstead 100

Pre-race jitters!

We ate well. It was fun doing more cooking at our cousin’s house. We ate out a few times, but were mainly home cooking this entire trip. Good food, better for the budget, and nice to eat more from home for a change.

That’s about it. Short and sweet. Paavo loved playing with his cousins and we were happy to let him loose so he could be “one of the guys”. Running was good here, though we didn’t explore much outside of the race or the local neighborhoods. And food was home cooking – tough to beat that! Thanks for the great visit NC!

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