Last day of vacation :(

It's amazing how fast the time went. I don't want to go back to work AT ALL. I'm sad to leave the Pacific Northwest - especially since I don't have a set time when I know I'll be coming back. I'm sad that I won't be able to see my parents for an unknown period of time. Probably not until the summer at best. :-( It's hard living so far away.

I am looking forward to seeing Andy (he flew back yesterday) and all of my friends, yay! I'm glad I'll get to have a car again. And also happy to return to the club - working out at LA Fitness in Washington is actually pretty decent, but there really is no comparisson to the club - especially their Zumba classes!

Here's a review of my last few days in WA:

- More exercise: A couple DVDs (thank you SO much Sarah for letting me borrow those!) and a spinning class with Andy

- More shopping: I've made it to Ikea, Lululemon, Costco, and Nordstrom - and we're planning to go to REI later this afternoon. Life can continue.

- More puzzle: We FINALLY finished it!

1,000 pieces from Hell

- Bingo Party! My parents, Andy, Nicole, Matt, and Matt's friend Josh. We didn't win, but we had a lot of fun!

This girl can play a lot of cards!!

B-I-N-G... O crap someone got it already

- The Bingo Party morphed into a Casino/Roulette Party! My Mom and I both hit it big by betting on Andy's lucky number 20!!

It's all about the Benjamins baby - woot woot!

- Last minute rush job to finish my 2011 running scrapbook. Thanks for helping me Mom!

- Weight Watchers meeting

Another 5 pounds gone! Finally under 160!

Plans for the last half of day I have here are: renew my driver's license, eat lunch at Taco Time (it's a must), trip to REI, and then pack pack pack. I did get new luggage from Costco, so hopefully I'll be able to cram everything in!

It's been a good trip. I'm sad it's almost over. :-(

Vacation Day 8

The day started off with a trip to LA Fitness with my mom and Andy. I think there are special running super powers in my new ring because I did run/sprint intervals on the treadmill for 30 minutes and felt totally fine (I felt pretty tired later in the day though!). Then we got cleaned up, had some lunch, and headed off to Seattle!

Our mission was two-fold: See the King Tut exhibit at the Science Center and hit up the Nordstrom Half Yearly Men's sale. Why couldn't it be the women's sale?!?! Oh well. We parked by the Space Needle, and then since the King Tut exhibit was sold out until later in the day, we hopped on the monorail (sort of like a "sky subway") to go shopping!

Space Needle during the day

Riding the monorail

Heaven

Both my dad and Andy had success at the Men's Sale. Then it was time for an early dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant. Yay for Phad Prik King!!

After dinner we took the monorail back to the Space Needle.

Space Needle at night!

The King Tut exhibit was actually very cool. It took us about 90 minutes to make it through the entire thing - we saw a lot of statues that sort of told the story of ancient Egypt, but then it got to the good stuff when we got to see actual statues/furniture/gold/jewelry/etc that was all found in King Tut's tomb... including an exact replica of his mummified body! Cooool. It was visually interesting and I also learned a bit too. Good exhibit!

That pretty much ended the night. We just hung out watching tv for a bit before heading to bed. All in all, a good day!!

Vacation Day WHO FREAKING CARES - I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!

I give it a thumbs up!

Andy got into Seattle on Christmas Eve, right around lunchtime. At some point during the afternoon he asked if I wanted to go for a walk after dinner. Ok... sort of weird because it's raining, it would be dark, and he doesn't typically ask to "go for walks" but sure, I'm game. Well after dinner we drove to my favorite running trail - it was pitch black and there was fog which upped the creepiness big time. No walk. Not there at least. We headed back to my parent's neighborhood and ended up going for a walk around the neighborhood looking at the Christmas lights on all of the houses. It was pretty cold, the lights were ok, the end. He suggested instead we go for a run in the morning. Sure sounds good.

So Christmas morning arrives. He wakes me up a little before 7 asking if I still wanted to go, but that I didn't have to if I wanted to sleep in. Knowing we'd be eating a ton of baddies all day I figured I should probably go out and do it, so I got up and got dressed (thank goodness I didn't sleep in!!!). We waited a bit because it was still dark, but once there was enough light to not seem dangerous we drove back to the trail. I didn't want to be gone for long because, hello... there were presents waiting back at home, haha... so we decided to just do two miles. We ran out together for a mile, turned around, and then with about half a mile left he said he was going to push it and go faster. See you at the end!! I kept my nice pace, he was out of sight pretty quickly - and then when I finished we high-fived/hugged. I've actually never been on that trail in the winter - the weather was crisp and cool but not too cold, the sun was coming up, there were birds and ducks starting their day... it was a really nice run.

Of course, what do I say once the run is over? "Take my picture for my blog!" Haha. So this happened...

My favorite trail :-)

And then this happened...

Didn't notice his eyes were closed... wonder if he is nervous here!

And then it happened!!! He said he had a Christmas present for me, and sitting on the roof of the car was a tiny box! To be 100% completely honest I started telling myself in my head "they could be earrings, they could earrings, earrings could fit in that box" just because I didn't want to get my hopes up. Haha. They weren't earrings!!! He picked the ring out all by himself. :-)

I've been able to share a lot of my running experiences with you all through this blog, but I must say that a little ol' two mile run will probably be one of the most memorable runs of my life. I could not think of a better way to get engaged. And on my favorite trail (which is where I first started and learned to love running in the first place) to boot. Good job Brown Pants!!!

I'll just give a bullet list of what else has been going on since I haven't updated this blog in a few days:

- Lots of shopping
- More exercising
- A trip to the casino (I did not win)
- Christmas Eve Dinner

KFC - our Christmas Eve tradition!

- Lots of presents (new running shoes!!!)
- Christmas night hangout with Sheena!

We are both pretty bad at pool

How cool that Sheena is the first friend I see after my big news :-)

Sidenote on Sheena's behalf: Even though she looks just fine in this picture, she is pretty sick and typically looks much more radiant. ;-)

I'd say this has been one heck of a Christmas Vacation!!!

Ok, time for lunch - our fridge is STUFFED with leftovers so I will do my part to make a dent. But not too much of a dent, I mean, hello... I'm getting married! Let the diet begin!!! Just kidding. Sort of. Ok, not really at all but I'm just going to keep doing the Weight Watchers thing and maybe try to tone my arms a bit. ;-)

Vacation Day 3

Another sticker!!

The morning started off by going to a Weight Watchers meeting. Not only did I get a sticker for losing 5% of my body weight, I also got a free insulated lunch bag for bringing a friend! Thanks for coming mom!!

I love getting stickers :-)

The meeting wasn't very good to tell you the truth... probably because they figure with Christmas around the corner, there's not much of a chance people will be motivated to stay on track, haha. Mostly she just tried to remind us why we track what we eat - I guess in hopes that once Christmas is over we'll get back to it. I'm happy to say I've had a super healthy vacation so far, but I'll be putting that on pause for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. :-) But until then - healthy healthy healthy and right back to it on the 26th!

I still wish I had a more normal relationship with food, but Weight Watchers has been really good for me. I don't worry about how much or when I eat as much since I can have as many fruits and vegetables as I want. I also am no longer weighing my fruits/vegetables (yes, I used to) - at first that was really scary, but obviously the process is working so I feel a lot better about picking up a handful of grapes and not worrying if I'm eating 3.9oz or 4.0oz of grapes. Moving in the right direction!

After the meeting we hit the mall! In an attempt to find one item for my dad, I left with 5 new shirts and a pair of jeans, hahaha. The sales were so good! And my mom is also very good at picking out cute things that I like. I blame her for my success. And no... we did not find the thing we were looking for for my dad. Guess that means another shopping trip! ;-)

Later in the afternoon my mom and I went to LA Fitness again, but this time I did 15 minutes each on the rowing machine, elliptical, treadmill, and bike. I wasn't feeling the need to kill myself and it was a good chance to show my mom how to use all of the machines.

Dinner last night introduced a new food to the parental unit again - this time it was quinoa stuffed acorn squash! I invented this recently thanks to a delicious frozen quinoa blend that Andy and I like to get from Trader Joe's. Since we didn't go to the Trader Joe's in WA, I made a quinoa vegetable mix from scratch - it wasn't as good as the Trader Joe's one, but my parents still seemed to really like it. Yay!

The night ended laying on the couch watching tv/working on the puzzle/going to bed early. I'm still not quite used to the time change, although to be honest, I don't want to get toooo used to it because that will make getting back on East Coast time very hard.

Vacation Day 2

My second full day in WA looked very much like my first. I started the day off working out - my Mom recently joined LA Fitness, so she was able to get me a guest pass for a week. Yes! We went to a Zumba class together in the morning (it was good, but I'm pretty spoiled with my regular classes sooo.... haha), then once we were back home I popped in a Jillian Michaels DVD that Sarah let me bring with me (thank you!).

Later in the afternoon my mom and I were back out shopping for gifts. Somehow we happened to end up in a running store!

They used GU Packets as ornaments! Genius!!

Then I went tanning (I know I know, it's bad for you, blah blah). There's some new ridiculous body wrap thing you can do at tanning salons now that claims to burn tons of calories. This sign was hanging in my room...

Check out the second thing listed under activity...

I think the person that made this sign tanned so much that their brain got fried. 1) I am amazed you can run a marathon in an hour. 2) I'm also amazed that running 26.2 miles only burns 1,186 calories (rather specific for something totally untrue - this also means I probably need to return my Garmin because I'm pretty sure I burned a little over 3,000 calories when I ran my marathon). 3) But wait... how can walking for an hour at 3.5 mph - which would be walking 3.5 miles - burn 350 calories, when covering 26.2 miles in an hour only burns 45% of the calories/mile. I cannot count the ways at how mad this sign made me. Why run a marathon when you can just do one "Formostar" session?!? Maybe they don't hand out medals for that thought...

Back at home I made dinner for my parents. My dad is always "scared" when I take over the food in the house because he thinks he's going to starve. And I suppose I've gotten used to eating some things that aren't incredibly common, but I am excited to say my introduction to spaghetti squash in place of pasta went over well! :-) They are both good troopers.

The rest of the night was spent pulling our hair out over the world's hardest puzzle.

It kind of looks like my mom is praying that she will find a piece, haha

We made some good progress, although I'm not sure it really looks like it!

Vacation Day 1

First day of vacation was a good mix of relaxing, exercise, shopping - success!

I started off noticing something was different about our Christmas tree this year... For a long time we've had this ladder that leans against the tree with three little elves (one for mom, dad, me) climbing to the top.

My elf is the one on the bottom

Well... all I can say is... Andy joined the ladder this year.

Damn he's hot! lol

Well played parents, well played.

My parents have a treadmill in their garage, so I hopped on that after my elf discovery. Holy cow that garage was cold. It took me two miles to finally feel "warm" (and by that I mean to finally feel my toes). I knew if I got off I'd never get back on, so I just stayed... for a long time.

Apparently our treadmill shuts down once you reach 100 minutes

I did a mixture of running and walking (mostly running). Once I got to 100 minutes and the treadmill automatically stopped, I decided to just restart it and finish off that last mile. Day one of vacation = 10 miles! Woohoo!!

I spent the afternoon showering/doing laundry (I brought home some dirty clothes)/wrapping presents/working on the world's hardest Christmas puzzle ever... then my mom came home from work, so it was time for shopping!!! We got some things for my dad, and then headed to Mongolian Grill for dinner. I love that place. Why don't they have Mongolian Grills in Western NY?!?

The night ended with a much needed trip to the grocery store. You've always been able to buy wine in the grocery stores in WA, but now... you can buy liquor there too! Liquor in grocery stores... legalized marijuana... this state's going to hell!!! ;)

Let the Vacation Begin!!!

Greetings from the W(B)est Coast!!!

Since I've only been awake for two hours there's really not much to say about being in Washington other than the water tastes good and my egg whites turned out perfectly this morning because my parent's have an awesome pan. It's the little things...

So backing up - here's how the rest of my day went down yesterday. I managed to get everything packed over lunch, took Katie and Scott to the airport, then made it back to the office for the "Secret Snowflake" party. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but miniature fruit kabobs and eight different vegetables on an assorted veggie tray. Ok, maybe there weren't eight different vegetables but I was trying to stay true to the original line... But friends! Of course there were lots of baddies but for once there were actually goodies at an office party!!!

Our festive conference room

I scored in the secret gift exchange - we had filled out surveys about our likes/interests and my Secret Santa did a good job... I got a healthy cookbook and a jar of peanut butter! Score!! Thank you Secret Santa whoever you are... I'm sorry I doubted your taste (as I basically doubt everyone's taste that I work with haha). Then we played a "reindeer game" where we had to find 9 reindeer that were hidden throughout the office. No one had a chance against me. I took off RUNNING and found 5 - so I won a gift card to a restaurant!! I also was suuuper sweaty for the rest of the party haha.

Rebecca and I also exchanged gifts since we actually like each other. ;-) Ever since my marathon she's mentioned that there was something she wanted to get me but had only seen at the store once, didn't get it, and then could never find it again. Well thanks to the internet, she found it...

RUNNER BARBIE!!!

How cool!!! My first thought was to attach her to the hood of our van for the Seneca 7 Relay, haha. Or maybe I will just proudly display her next to my 1st place trophey I got for a 5k in Texas (it was Texas... it was a small race... and my time was over 30 minutes haha... but I still got a trophey!!). Decisions decisions... I don't want to make you guys jealous, but... she came in a Downton Abbey tote bag. ;-) JEALOUS?!?!?

Anna and Lisa also got me awesome gifts - Anna ordered a Washington State necklace for me that is sooo neat and actually hilarious because I saw it online and ALMOST ordered Illinois ones for them both. Great minds think alike! And Lisa got me an amazing gift from Sephora... all different shades of Stila lip glosses (that is my favorite lip product... pretty much the only one I ever wear besides chapstick!).

I feel so freaking spoiled and so lucky. I have amazing friends that all know me very well. ;-) Thank you friends!!!

Then it was off to the airport - pat on the back to me for eating healthy during my travels. My layover was in Minneapolis and I was very impressed with the terminal I was in... instead of rows of chairs at the gates there were booths (sort of like at a diner) and on each table were two iPads. There had to have been hundreds of iPads. It was really cool. So I played on one of those until it was time to board and then - miracle of miracles - I had the aisle seat in an exit row, and NO one was in the middle seat. *angels sing* I managed to sleep the entire flight!

Side note: I'd like to give a shout out to my Lululemon Vinyasa Scarf. If you don't own one, you should. It is the best travel accessory you could have... use it as a blanket, ball it up for a pillow... the possibilities are endless. Go buy one.

All in all my traveling was pain free until the conveyor belt at baggage claim shut down and I had to wait an eternity to get my suitcase. By the time I finally got in bed it was 1:00am pacific time (so it felt like 4:00am). The beauty of the time change is that it felt like I got to "sleep in" this morning and I was still up suuuper early. :-)

K - I'm off to enjoy my first day of doing nothing!!