Tuesday, January 23, 2018

He's Home (!) + Afternoon at Life Time Fitness Dublin

It's funny, when Todd & I were dating and first married, he'd tell me multiple times a year he was going to get to go to Japan for a business trip and of course, it never happened.  It's like the boy crying wolf and eventually, any time he told me he was going, I never believed him or took it seriously.  Well, that has definitely changed these past few years as he is now currently averaging 4 trips/year to Japan.  In fact, he just went in November and I believe his exact words when he came back were that he definitely wouldn't be going for 6 months or so.  Literally, like a week later, I get a text from him one night when he was working late (when he's not in Japan, he's on conference calls with them multiple times a week which means lots of late nights with the 14 hour time difference) that he needed to go back in less than 2 months.  Again, I've learned to never believe anything he says when it comes to his business trips.  Here we are less than 2 months after his last trip and he was gone again last week.  To be honest, I don't see him for more than 30 min from the time we go to bed on Sunday night to when he comes home from work on Wednesday evening since he works late on Monday & Tuesday nights so I'm used to being with the girls by myself a lot during the week but it's definitely nice to have him home on the weekends!  He left last Sunday morning and came home on Saturday afternoon (which was actually a pretty short trip for him) and we were all very happy to have him back! 

Once the girls were up on Saturday morning, we played, had breakfast, and made it to a class at barre3 Powell (love studios that offer child care!).  While we waited around for Todd to come home from the airport, the girls spent about an hour playing dress up.  Lucy even picked out an outfit for Cece.  Todd was pretty tired when he got home (an overnight flight and time change will do that to you!) so we just spent the afternoon at home before going to an early dinner at Mellow Mushroom in Dublin. 

Lucy & Cece feeding their dolls on Saturday morning...

followed by playing with barbies downstairs

Dress up time!

 Cece was more interested in playing peek-a-boo with the curtain

Concentrating hard at drawing while waiting for our pizza to come at Mellow Mushroom

She's such a sweet girl...look at that face!

On Sunday afternoon, I was invited to experience Life Time Fitness in Dublin with a few other Columbus bloggers at an event organized by Eryn at 614 Mom.  They were even offering free child care so I brought Lucy along so Todd could catch up on some sleep at home while Cece was napping.  After getting Lucy settled in at the child care, along with a few other blogger kids, we headed off to locker rooms (which looked like a spa) to get changed and ready for our Barre Life class.  We each had our own locker which they had nicely stocked with water, a tank top, tumbler, and some other goodies (like a spa discount which I will definitely be taking advantage of).  We made our way upstairs to one of the multiple group fitness studios and after a few pictures, we started class.  Sidenote--my former group fitness manager from my days of teaching at Lifestyle Family Fitness is the current group fitness manager at Life Time so it was a pleasant surprise to see her and catch up for a couple minutes.  I've taken different versions of barre and each studio/gym seems to have their own "take" on their style of barre.  I found that Barre Life incorporated more ballet-like moves into the class and since there was no actual ballet barre, we held onto a weighted bar for balance and also used it as resistance for part of class.  It was a good workout and I ended up sweating more than I anticipated!  After, we had some time to change or shower if we wanted to and then made our way to the cafe for a light meal and a short presentation on their detox system/kit.  The day ended with a tour of the facility and I was in awe over how much they have to offer.  While I definitely enjoyed the fitness class, I think my favorite part of the day was during the tour when we ended in the spa and were told that if you book a spa service (non-members can use the spa), free childcare is included!  Now you know why I'll be taking advantage of the spa discount we received!

Life Time Fitness in Dublin

We had a pre-workout drink before class and then a post-workout drink after class (not going to lie--I wasn't a fan of either one)

Studio was all set up for our Barre Life class

 Action shot during class

Group shot after class

Enjoying a light meal in the cafe

 I was in gym heaven on our tour---over 200 pieces of cardio equipment...

and this "Advanced Training" area had my name written all over it (TRXs, plyo boxes, etc.)

There's even an indoor climbing area as well as an indoor and outdoor pool

Lucy was thrilled to see Anna & Elsa outside the child care area and she raved about how much fun she had

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