Luck o' the Irish

I love Saint Patrick's Day simply because it's the one day of the year when the whole country collaborates. Not to end hunger or create world peace, have you, but to all wear the same color in order to avoid being pinched. Seriously, whoever came up with this "wear green or you'll get pinched" deal is a genius. Nothing like peer pressure and a little physical punishment to enforce random holiday cheer. So every time I see someone wearing green on St. Paddy's Day, it makes me pretty darn happy that we can all be that organized. 

For our St. Paddy's Day hoopla, we headed downtown to meet up with the residents for a night of debauchery. Loved the night out with friends and, of course, seeing everyone's greens.

On our walk to the restaurant, we spotted this beauty chillin' on the cobblestone streets.

We match :) 

Both decked out in green and pinch-free.

The other highlight of our Saint Patrick's Day was the arrival of our friends Daniel and Connie's baby girl. Kenna Lee Cornett was born at 3:50 pm on March 17th and is healthy and adorable!

Meeting the new little leprechaun at the hospital on Sunday. Congrats Daniel and Connie!

Fun in Salt Lake City

This past weekend John and I went on an adventure to the great state of Utah. Salt Lake City precisely. John was interviewing for a job at a hospital there and I went along for the ride and to assure myself that I could actually enjoy living there. We definitely have some important decisions to make in the near future, but for the weekend, I was just glad to be off work, spending time with my husband and exploring a fun new city. 

Wouldn't you know, the rental car we got was a Sentra! It was almost like driving good old Al around again.

Our hotel was called Little America and along with the big room and marble tub, we also got chocolates on our pillow every night. Fancy!

The view of Salt Lake City from our hotel room window.

The mountain views were definitely the best part of the trip. So beautiful! 

We enjoyed a beautiful mountain sunrise on our ride up to Park City Sunday morning. 

We had some fun exploring Park City's Main Street.

Then we got to ride a ski lift/gondola from the parking lot the base of the mountain at Canyons ski resort. 

Where we were pleasantly surprised to find our favorite Oklahoma beer, Boulevard Wheat, on tap. Love John's glasses? Those are his "I-forgot-my-sunglasses-at-the-hotel" last minute replacement pair. 

Back in Salt Lake, we saw the site of the Olympic torch on our tour of the city. 

And just when this city was winning me over, I found a spot that felt even more like home---good old TCBY! A self-serve TCBY, actually. Fancy!

Just Keep Running

It's that day again, Sunday Run-day! Or at least that's what day it is for me. And this (above) is the bad boy I've been tackling every Sunday for the past 12 weeks or so. It's the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, AKA the Cooper River Bridge. Me, my mom and Larry signed up for Charleston's Cooper River Bridge Run back before Christmas and we've been training ever since. 

The race is a 10K and it's Charleston's biggest race every year (kind of like the Tulsa Run for you Okies). It's actually the third largest 10K in the U.S. and about 40,000 people race in it every year--wowza! The race is on March 31st, so we've officially passed the one-month-out mark now and I couldn't be more excited. I'm excited to accomplish a goal I've been working towards and I'm excited my mom and Larry are flying into town to complete it with me!

Race poster for this year

Since December, I've been running the bridge every Sunday. If you park on one end and run over and back it's just over 5 miles. The tough part is definitely the first leg, which is a pretty tough incline. Running hills took some getting used to! Luckily, the weather in Charleston is nice enough year-round that training outside hasn't been a problem for me. I'm proud to say I've never had to run on the treadmill! Thank goodness! I hate that thing.

I usually run two or three other days of the week, too, keeping up a distance of 5 or 6 miles. If you're coming to Charleston, here's a list of my favorite places to run outside. There are lots of options! I'll also share some of the songs on the pretty awesome run playlist I've been jamming to.

Where to Run in Charleston:

Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge--- As mentioned before, it's about 5 miles

James Island County Park--- If you loop all three trails, it's about 3 miles. Do 2 loops to make it 6.

Folly Beach--- Beach running is my new favorite! You just can't beat the scenery! At Folly, I can easily start at one end of the beach, run down and back to get 6 miles. 

West Ashely Greenway-- this trail is 10.5 miles total and runs through town where an old railroad track used to be. It's nice because it's long and flat, but it runs through what I consider to be some shadier parts of town, so bring a run buddy!

Downtown---Running on the peninsula is beautiful also! I like to run through the historic neighborhoods South of Broad, loop around the Battery, Waterfront Park and Colonial Lake. Here's the route I take for a 4 mile run. It does cross over some roads and intersections so watch for traffic!

Some of My Favorite Run Songs:

(some are explicit, but you can download the clean version)

"Move (If You Wanna)" by MMS

"Riot" by Tedashi

"Dum Dum" by Tedashi----- this guy's a Christian rapper and pretty awesome!

"T.H.E" by Will.i.am

"Git It" by Ying Yang Twins

"Diva" by Beyonce

"Wobble" by V.I.C

"Lose Control" by Missy Elliot

"Run The World" by Beyonce

"Work Out" by J.Cole

"Imma Be" by The Black Eyed Peas

"Go Girl" by Baby Bash

"Gimme That" by Ciara

"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" by Kelly Clarkson

"Starships" by Nicki Minaj

"Good Feeling" by Flo Rida

"Lose Yourself" by Eminem----this has to be my favorite running song ever. Just turn this one on when you want to quit!

What songs are on your workout playlist?

Our First Baby...Shower

This weekend we celebrated the upcoming arrival of a new little bundle of joy in the MUSC resident family! John and I hosted a resident baby shower at our house for our good friends Connie and Daniel, who will be having a baby girl in the end of March.

I started planning this shower pretty much when Connie first told me she was pregnant last summer. I'd never thrown a shower before and was excited to put it together! Especially when they found out they were having a girl and I knew I could do everything in pink!

The dining room set up before the food was put out. 

Connie and Daniel are keeping the baby's name a secret until she arrives, so for now we just call her baby Cornett.

Since Daniel is the actual MUSC resident, Connie is a pharmacy groupie like myself, we decided to make it a co-ed shower, inviting all the residents and their significant others. The girls in the group helped me provide all the yummy food and while we opened presents and played baby shower games, the guys played in a diaper poker tournament. To buy in, they had to bring two packs of diapers and $5. Daniel got to take home all the diapers, and the cash went to the winner of the tournament. 

The guys enjoying the food. Thanks ladies for all the yummy dishes you shared!

While the girls chatted and opened gifts in the living room...

John hosted a poker tournament for the guys in the spare room/ man cave.

Daddy and Mommy to be laughing during one of the baby shower games

Me and the baby mama!

All the girls at the shower

Gettin' Wild

This weekend we had our first experience with one of Charleston's biggest annual events, the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition ( or as the locals call it, SEWE.) It's been a little hard for me to explain this event to my Oklahoman friends, so here's the best I've got: Imagine a large city-wide outdoor festival with a wildlife/nature/conservation theme. That pretty much sums it up!

The event lasted all weekend and included things like art shows (nature themed,) wild game cooking classes, animal exhibits and demonstrations, etc. etc. Mainly I think everyone likes it so much because of all the beer!

We checked it all out on Saturday with my friend Ali and her boyfriend Ryan. Ali was an Alpha Chi with me at OU (love the lyre!) and just moved to Charleston last week! I'm so glad to have an Oklahoma friend in Charleston and I'm excited to explore even more of the city with her. 

Me and Ali enjoying the festivities of SEWE

                                          

Ali and Ryan. Glad to have a new couple friend we can double date with!

Seeing the animals was definitely my favorite part of SEWE. John and I caught the Jack Hanna animal show where we saw a live cheetah, lynx, bobcat and lots of other fun animals. The wildlife art was pretty impressive too, but by far my favorite part of the day was hanging out with this guy....

Don't worry Mom, he's harmless.

My new friend

Unfortunately, it rained almost all day Sunday, so we missed out on the SEWE animal demonstrations planned for that day, including the dogs' dock diving competition. Maybe next year!

Sweet Valentines

We had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day in the Hurst household this year. After the awesome concert, of course, John took me out for our Valentine's date Sunday night since he gets too busy at work during the week. He came home from work Sunday afternoon with a dozen yellow roses (my favorite!) and a bottle of wine. 

Roses: perfect way to start the evening. 

Then he took me to High Cotton steakhouse for dinner, a very nice restaurant in town we've been dying to try. He went all out on this one! I mean it's one classy joint, they scrape the crumbs off your white tablecloth between courses. Fancy! Even better, the steaks we ordered were delicious!

This is a picture from their website. I wasn't going to bust out my camera during dinner after all. 

When we got home from dinner, we had the red velvet whoopie pies I made earlier in the day for dessert. I got the recipe off Pinterest (you can find it here) and they were heavenly. Mine weren't quite as red because I ran out of food coloring. Oh well!

Red velvet whoopie pies with cream cheese icing

And to add to the Valentine's Day sugar fix, my sweet Momma ordered cookies from the Charleston Cookie Company and had them delivered to our house on Valentine's Day. Believe me, they are just as delicious as they are cute! Mom sure knows the way to my heart!

Thanks Mom and Larry! We love you!

 I hope your celebrations were just as sweet!

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Wanna Be Your Crystal Baller...

For Valentine's Day this year, I got John tickets to see Third Eye Blind in concert as an early present. When I saw they were coming to Charleston the week before Valentine's Day, I just couldn't resist surprising him. 

The concert was Wednesday night at the Music Farm, which is right off the main strip of Upper King Street. For you Okies out there, the Music Farm is to Charleston what Cain's Ballroom is to Tulsa. So we were excited to see our first show there since we had heard so many good things! And by we, I mean me, because John hadn't heard of it until that night :) 

But he was really excited when I gave him the tickets! He's been a huge 3EB fan since he was a kid and has never seen them live. So I knew this one was on his concert bucket list. 

And the concert was amazing! They played lots of their old songs and I was glad since I didn't know any of their new stuff. I was glad to hear "Motocycle Driveby," "Crystal Baller" and of course "Semi-Charmed Kind of Life," which they saved for the encore. 

Overall it was just a great date night going out on Wednesday night (I know, crazy!) and dancing and singing together and having a good time. 

Love my Valentine!