GU Roctane Kona flavor

GU did a promotion during Kona.. I'm sure you remember.. where you could get a free box of GU Roctane in a special Kona flavor with the purchase of two boxes of GU. I went for it and got my box of Roctane w/ pretty hibicus flowers on it, but hadn't used it yet. I headed out for my run yesterday and was feeling a bit 'under nourished' and tired so I took two gels with me.. one chocolate and one Kona Roctane.

Three miles into this run I felt like CRAP and doubted I would make it the full hour. About 20 mins in I stopped to walk up a crazy CT Alps hill and decided to take the Roctane. I ripped the pouch open and squeezed some in... swished it around in my mouth to enjoy the nice KONA flavor. Hmm.. it tasted okay, but it had a kind of medicinal taste. It was a familiar taste.. WHAT WAS THAT!? AHA! I've had my fair share of dental work and if you haven't had that pleasure you may not be able to understand what I'm talking about. It tasted just like that gel stuff they put on your gums w/ a big huge Qtip. They flavor it (who knows why). It usually tastes a bit like bananas w/ a medicinal after taste. The KONA Roctane tasted exactly like that! EXACTLY! I've never used Roctane before (always just straight up GU) so I'm not sure if this medicinal taste is part of the Kona mix or the Roctane mix.

I chugged some water and kept on trucking. The medicinal flavor quickly subsided.

Would I recommend this product to a friend? Based on flavor... NO! Based on results... YES! I had started out on a lackluster run that I wasn't sure I would be able to complete and ended up completing my long run ... TWICE the time/distance as I had originally set out to do. I did have my other regular GU 45 mins after the Roctane, but I was really surprised at how much better I felt after taking the Roctane...

So if you are HUGE on the flavors skip this one, but if you are more about the results and can tolerate some 'not so awesome' flavor GO FOR IT!

hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving... save my 2 hour break for a nice long run I spent much of the day wiping noses, getting water and warm milk, taking temperatures and snuggling on the couch. All in all not a horrible thanksgiving. We needed some good snuggly down time.

Oh and I also whipped up this little gem of a bag. Well, finished it anyway. In the interest of cleaning out my house I found this wool shirt that my dad wore in Vietnam that I used to wear in my highschool days. I no long consider it part of my fashion repetoire, but I didn't want to part with it so I made it into a bag. Not too bad, eh?

More fun and a lot of photos...

I'm tired and lacking in words so I will write a bit, but post lots of photos. :)

It's finally starting to warm up here... though it was a balmy 50 degrees this a.m. when I left for my ride)... so we have been having some fun outside.

We hit the zoo on Friday....

Jason's favorite highlight was the water fountain and the park:


He charged right up this huge rope ladder:


Lily wasn't so sure:


We were quickly told that the park was actually closed so we had to leave. Jason wasn't too excited about that idea:


Next Lily wanted to climb on the big turtle:


And Jason, of course, had to have his turn:


We tried to take the touristy pictures, but Jason is still in his "no pictures" phase:


After going to pick up my packet for tomorrow's race and hitting Joanne's fabrics for some craft stuff we decided to hang at the house in the yard all afternoon b/c the kids have been drug all over the place lately.. on my schedule. :( oops. When we were at Joannes' Gma bought the kids some bubbles and they were so excited that they decided to skip the nap thing today. They chatted through their entire nap time ... mostly about bubbles.




After that whole thing ran it's course - READ: Jason and Lily used up all the soap ... mostly dripping it all over Mommy and Gma - we moved onto the kid's craft project. I frequently read - and am in awe of - Denise's blog Mom in Madison. She recently posted an adorable artsy project that she did with her boys and I just loved it. She is always exposing her kids to such wonderful things. I aspire to do half of what she does. :) We tried our hand (no pun intended) at her hand print canvases today. My kids obviously can't color in lines so I did the oil pastel part myself and had them paint the canvases w/ watercolors. I was able to stay relatively relaxed about the whole thing... even when they moved on to painting 'other' things - to include Papa.

My little Picasso's:




The closest shot of J's finished-ish:


L's finished-ish:


I'll post photos of them finished (I need to seal them) and hung proudly w/ Uncle Everett's (my Great Uncle) paintings.

And here are some photos of them painting some other things... they really loved it.






I'll be running a half marathon tomorrow ... then dropping dead! ha j/k. Maybe I'll actually nap when the kids nap though. We'll probably hang in the yard again. If it's nice maybe instead of "hanging" I'll just LAY in the yard w/ the dog! (Mom and dad's dog... we did not get another dog.)

PS... those wondering about my fruit. I had to buy more bananas and pears on Thursday (went to Sam's on Saturday) and we will need to hit it again tomorrow.. ONE week. That's how long ... NOT EVEN how long that fruit lasted... w/ three of us. One adult and 2 kids. :) Like any of you care! ha