Vacation highlights and the return of running!

After a week filled with mouse ears and churros I am happy to be back home! I was super sad to say good-bye to my sister and my niece, but I was missing my husband and kitty very much by the end of the trip. I actually got home on Thursday, but spent the weekend getting back on EST and catching up on my sleep. I don't want to bore you with the day to day details of our vacation (we ate a lot and rode rides!) so here are just some of the highlights.

Cutest little runner ever!

Saturday was the kid's 200m dash. Stella wanted to run with both Mommy and Auntie Heather, so this turned into a mini racecation for me too! The race was so much fun and so much adorable. I love being an aunt so much!

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Griffith Observatory. This was almost as much fun as the race. Gorgeous views of LA and the surrounding area (even the Hollywood sign) and a planetarium/science museum type thing. Stella is really into space right now so it was a good fit. There was also a large area for running around, which Stella definitely needed. We rounded out the day with a trip to Porto's Bakery and finally headed back to the hotel.

On her way to a 3 minute PR! Congratulations Colleen!

On Sunday I woke up extra early to wish my sister well before she headed to her corral and then grabbed a few more hours of sleep before heading towards the finish line with Stella to cheer for her. This was my first time just spectating a race as opposed to running it. I loved cheering on the runner's and seeing my sister set a new PR was amazing.

My favorite picture from the trip

Also on Sunday we rode the carousel in Disneyland. Specifically Stella rode on Jingles which was Walt Disney's favorite horse on the carousel.

Hugging after they compared their Sheriff badges.

The day we went to California Adventure a cast member gave Stella a sheriff's badge and "The Deed to the Toy Box." As sheriff, Stella was able to get front of the line access to Toy Story Midway Mania all day and have get front of the line access to the Toy Story character meet and greets. We ended up riding Midway Mania 3 times that day, and Colleen beat me every.single.time (but I finally beat her on our fourth and final ride of trip!).

I think the overall highlight of the trip was meeting Peter Pan. For whatever reason, there were literally no other kids around when Peter Pan was out. Which meant instead of standing in line, taking our photo, and moving on with our day, Stella ended up running around and playing with Pan for about 10-15 minutes. It was adorable.

Now that vacation is over and I am finally over the never-ending cold from Christmas, it is time to start training! After almost three weeks without running (excluding a 200m dash and one wild game of tag) I headed out for an easy 5 mile run on Friday. On the plus side, it felt easy while I was running, but the next day I was really feeling it. I took Saturday off and ran another 5 on Sunday. My plan is to keep all of my miles easy for the next week and start introducing some harder workouts in February.