Monthly Archives: December 2014

A Family-Filled Thanksgiving (or 4 Generations In One Place)

Posted on December 3, 2014 | 1 comment

Thanksgiving Day was a family day pretty much from start to finish. The day began with my dad, brother, aunt, and I going to Orangetheory for our workout. It turns out that while we were working out, my mom took Tucker for a walk to Orangetheory and watched us sweat our butts off. None of us saw her or the dog because we were so focused on the workout, but we did see them walking back up the hill as we were coming home (Tucker was tired of the hill so he jumped in the car to catch a ride up).

My mom did a lot of prep work for Thanksgiving in the days and weeks leading up to it, so on the day it wasn’t as much prep time needed as cooking time. The turkey got into the oven quickly and then Tucker discovered the best place to take a nap in the entire house.

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While the turkey and various sides were cooking in the oven, a bunch of us decided to take advantage of the gorgeous day we were having in San Diego.

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I enjoyed lots of reading time in the shade with my dad while my cousin’s kids hung out in the pool.

After some time in the sunshine, we headed inside for appetizers. We had a couple of different things out, included the feta dip I made. My mom thinks that I did a better job that she does, and while I don’t agree with that I’m happy that everyone enjoyed the dip!

We enjoyed eating some chips and dips and spending time catching up with one another while dinner was finishing up.

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I love this photo of my grandma and my cousin’s daughter Annabelle.

We had another incredible sunset that evening and I got a nice family photo of my parents, my brother, and I in the backyard of the rental house.

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Before we knew it, the turkey was done and it looked amazing!

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My cousin Adam was in charge of carving it because he always does a great job. And while he was carving it, Tucker realized that being next to the turkey was the place to be. And while he was hoping for some scraps to fall, I realized that Dante did the exact same thing at the last Thanksgiving I got to spend with him.

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I think the turkey looked like something out of a magazine after Adam carved it.

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All the food was set out in the kitchen for us to take and we got started on making our plates.

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The rental house had a large enough dining room that we could all sit in the same room together. We pushed 2 tables together to create one long table and it was perfect.

The food was delicious and getting to spend time like that with my family was perfect.

After dinner, we all went into the living room to take a family photo. We were missing my cousin John and my sister-in-law, but to have this many members of my family together in one place is rare and we had to get a picture.

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That’s 4 generations of the Fry family in that photo. I love how even Tucker is smiling!

After the family photo, my cousin Stephie, her husband Clay, and I went out to go see the new Hunger Games movie. This has become a tradition for the 3 of us to do and it’s something that I look forward to a lot. When we got to the theater, we had a while to wait before the movie. But there was some Christmas stuff up already so Stephie and I decided to do a little photo shoot.

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When we got into the theater, the set up was similar to the theater I saw “The Theory Of Everything” in. They didn’t have waiters to bring you food or drinks, but we all got recliners!

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The recliners might have been a bad thing for my cousin, though. She kept falling asleep in the beginning of the movie. But she went out and got some popcorn and that perked her up right away!

We all loved the movie and we have next year’s movie to look forward to.

Overall, this might have been the best Thanksgiving ever. There was no craziness and all the food was amazing. And I got to pretty much spend the entire day with my whole family. We all agreed that this year was pretty perfect. And we are looking at getting the same rental house for next year since it fit our family so well.

I know that I’m so lucky that I get the chance like this to be with my extended family and that we are all so close to one another. We don’t get to see each other too often so we try to take advantage of the time we have together each year at Thanksgiving.

I hope that all of you got to spend your Thanksgiving exactly the way you wanted to.

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Default ThumbnailFirst Half Of Thanksgiving (or Hanukkah Gifts And Birthdays) Default ThumbnailSan Diego Day (or Hanging Out With Family On My Day Off) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Trip (or Being With My Family In San Diego) Default ThumbnailFamily Thanksgiving (or Relaxing In San Diego) Default ThumbnailThe Rest Of Thanksgiving (or Getting In Lots Of Family Time) Default ThumbnailFull Thanksgiving Week (or Lots Of Family Time)

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First Half Of Thanksgiving (or Hanukkah Gifts And Birthdays)

Posted on December 2, 2014 | Comments Off on First Half Of Thanksgiving (or Hanukkah Gifts And Birthdays)

Thanksgiving this year was held in San Diego. That’s where my grandparents live, and it’s easier for the rest of us to travel to them than for them to travel to another location. I only had Thanksgiving Day off from my box office job, but I had shortened hours the day before and after. So I figured I could work from the house that my mom rented for us and spend a couple of days with my family.

I started my drive right after my work shift ended on Tuesday. It should have been just before rush hour started, but the traffic was horrible the second I got onto the freeway.

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What should have been a 2 hour drive ended up being over 4 hours (I have a history of that drive taking a long time). But I was better for me to be stuck in traffic but making progress than to be sitting at home waiting for the traffic to die down.

When I got to the rental house, my parents were there along with my grandparents and my aunt and uncle (my aunt, uncle, and cousin were also staying at the rental house with us). My brother arrived shortly after (he flew in to San Diego but my sister-in-law had to stay in San Francisco and work). We spent some time catching up as a family and then my aunt and uncle drove my grandparents back to their place.

While it was just my parents and my brother, I decided that it was the perfect time to give them the Hanukkah presents I brought with me. My brother got a gift that was from me, my parents, and my sister-in-law and my dad got a gift that was from me, my mom, my brother, and my sister-in-law. They both got awesome (and pricey) gifts so they were group gifts.

For my dad, we all chipped in and got him a custom chair and foot rest that is made from old skis. It’s being made right now and hopefully my dad will get it sometime this month. It’s going to be for Tahoe, and my mom had to do some spy work and measuring to make sure it would fit there. But it will and I can’t wait until it’s delivered so my dad can enjoy it!

And for my brother, we all chipped in and got him a GoPro. He loves to do videos while he is snowboarding and he usually makes my dad film him. But this way, he can do the videos himself. And from the look on his face when he opened the gift, I think he loves it.

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As for my mom, I got her a gift certificate for Shutterfly. She’s going to be getting a new iPhone soon and she likes to make custom photo cases. I would have loved to have made a case for her, but I don’t know what phone she is getting. So this way, when she upgrades her phone, she can make the case that she wants.

After presents, we sat around and relaxed. I was trying to hang out with Tucker, but clearly he was missing my brother more than me and I was getting ignored.

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I don’t mind too much. Ross gets to see Tucker pretty often where as I have only seen him a handful of times.

The next day was a relaxing family day. My cousin Adam arrived in San Diego and all of us spent most of the day hanging around the house and enjoying the view.

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I had to work in the morning, but I set up my laptop and phone in the kitchen so I could still be a part of the conversation. Fortunately, it was a very quiet day at work. We also made a quick trip to the dog park for Tucker to burn off some of his energy.

That evening had such a wonderful sunset and we were spoiled with an amazing view.

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And once the sun was down, it was time for us to head out to dinner. We celebrate my grandma’s birthday on the evening before Thanksgiving. We went to an Italian restaurant that we go to as a family often as they have a private room that is the perfect size for us.

At the restaurant, my other aunt and my cousin and her family were there. It was great to see my cousin, her husband, and her 3 kids again. I hadn’t seen them since last year and all of her kids are so much bigger! I got to sit next to her son, Dalton, at dinner. And he kept me pretty entertained with all of his stories and craziness.

And of course, there was cake for my grandma.

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After dinner, we headed back to the rental house so we could get some sleep to be ready for Thanksgiving the next day. I can’t wait to share with you tomorrow how Thanksgiving went. It really has become one of my favorite family memories ever.

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Working Out In A New Location (or Thanksgiving Calorie Burns)

Posted on December 1, 2014 | Comments Off on Working Out In A New Location (or Thanksgiving Calorie Burns)

This past week of workouts were dedicated to preparing for and recovering from Thanksgiving (recap of my holiday to come soon!).

Monday was a usual workout for me at Orangetheory. I was at my usual class, and while it was tough, it’s wasn’t too horrible. The Monday Challenge was how many burpees you can do in a minute. I am not a fan of burpees at all. But I really wanted to make it to the double digits for the challenge. Some how, even though I was exhausted from the workout, I was able to do 11. Not good enough to be on the leaderboard, but definitely good enough for me.

I didn’t have a workout on Wednesday because I left for my Thanksgiving adventure on Tuesday after work. But I did have a Thanksgiving morning workout.

My dad and I had previously talked about doing a 5K on Thanksgiving morning, but that seemed to be too early in the morning and not as fun to do. But when I found out that not only is my Orangetheory membership good for any location in the country but there was a Orangetheory less than a mile from the house we were renting in San Diego, we knew what our Thanksgiving morning would be.

My Aunt Cindy wanted to check out the workout as well. And somehow my dad and I convinced my brother that he had to come with us too (peer/family pressure at its best).

So on Thanksgiving morning, the 4 of us drove to the La Jolla Orangetheory (we would have walked, but the rental house was on the top of a giant hill and we didn’t want to have to walk up it after the workout).

The setup inside was a little different, but still somewhat familiar to me. My dad knew what he was in for since he has been to a class before. My aunt and brother seemed a little overwhelmed with it all.

Once the class before ours was done, we headed inside to claim our treadmills. My aunt and brother got a quick lesson on the different pieces of workout equipment and then we were ready to start.

This workout was a 3G one, which means that there were 3 groups of people working out instead of the usual 2. And we rotated around the room a lot. There were 9 rotations total, each rotation lasting about 6 minutes. I was able to follow along with it all pretty easily, but my aunt and brother were a little lost (our coach was tough to hear and it was a bit confusing which group he was instructing). But I was happy to help them know what was next in the workout.

My dad kicked butt (as expected) and so did my aunt. My brother did a great job, even though he did confess to me on the rowing machines that he threw up a little. But after the workout, the proof of everyone’s hard work was on the screens.

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My brother had a perfect pyramid for his workout, which is what the goal is for everyone. My chart wasn’t so good, but I realized once the workout had started that I had forgotten to share an important piece of information with the La Jolla location. I have a low heart rate and my heart rate monitor had to be recalibrated to show that. I forgot to share that with the La Jolla location so my heart rate monitor was set for the higher heart rate. So according to their screen, I never made it into the orange zone, but knowing what I usually have, I know I did.

And of course, we had to get a post-workout photo as a group with our coach.

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It felt great to burn some calories before indulging in all the yummy Thanksgiving foods. My dad and brother have agreed with me that this will be our new Thanksgiving tradition. I think my aunt will join us too, and maybe we can convince a few more family members to come next year.

My last workout of the week was back in LA on Saturday. It was a run/row workout (which are my favorites since I don’t love the treadmill) and my butt was totally kicked in class. My coach on Saturday was Brendon, who owns the LA location, and he really is great at pushing you to new limits. I was dripping with sweat when I was done, but it was worth it. This workout was the first one where I had a perfect pyramid on the graph, and Brendon even called me out for having a perfect workout!

So far in the challenge for new shoes, I’ve done most of the tasks. I still need to bring 3 guests in before the 17th (anyone down for a free workout?) and I’ve done 6 out of the 15 workouts needed. I’ll be doing 4 more this week so I’ll be close to the free shoes after this week!

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