Hey happy Monday! For some of you lucky folks, you’re still enjoying your end of the year vacation. Sadly, mine ended on Sunday and I am back in Philly from a wonderful week in Nebraska. I hope you are enjoying the holiday season!
I had an amazing time in Nebraska with Bret and his family for Christmas. This was my second visit to Nebraska, so I knew to expect some pretty cold weather! It actually wasn’t that cold this time around, and sadly we didn’t have a white Christmas, but I really had a fantastic time the entire trip!
We started out with Bret’s sister and fiance outside of Omaha and went out for a late dinner. The following morning we were in Lincoln with complimentary massages from Bret’s (amazing) mom! You know my calves were happy about that!
Bret’s mom gave me a couple of cook books for Christmas, plus we got a waffle iron, so I’m excited to test all of them out! I think Bret was happy that I bought him some new running clothes–he likes his new jacket! While I was in Nebraska, I did get to call my family and wish them a merry Christmas. I still have to get together with them…better late than never!
So many more things happened during the trip that I can’t even remember it all! I had a lovely time chatting with Bret’s grandparents, and I learned how to play Ten Point Pitch, a really fun card game that can get a little too intense sometimes! Other highlights include watching Nebraska football in the Holiday Bowl in an exciting yet unsuccessful game against USC, hanging out at dive bars, and eating lots and lots of candy!
The day after Christmas we did some sight-seeing with the family. I got to see more of the land they own and meet the most amazing horse that I’m now in love with! Then we went to Rock Creek Park, which apparently was part of the Oregon Trail. We followed that up with a drive to the craziest dive bar I’ve ever seen…but I’ll save that story for my next post!
I also got to visit Bret’s future brother-in-law’s farm, which was awesome! Here are some pictures of the animals I was able to meet. The alpacas were amazing. They were definitely intimidated by me and kept close together but some of the younger ones seemed to like me. It’s just such a different way of life than what I know! There were a few barn cats that were absolutely adorable. Sadly some of the ducks I saw will eventually be on a dinner plate…oops!
I’ll be sharing my holiday eats in Wednesday’s post. Spoiler alert: I didn’t hold back!But even though I ate WHATEVER I WANTED during the holidays, I wasn’t completely reckless! Thank goodness for that Runner’s World Run Streak! Over the course of my time away, I ran over 10.5 miles. Three of those runs were on the dirt roads near my boyfriend’s parents’ home. It was so beautiful out there, especially on Christmas day when we finally got some sunshine. It was also windy as heck! Thank goodness I was much better prepared this time with my windbreaker jacket and Brooks zip-up layer to keep warm. On Saturday, we went to Omaha and ran along the Missouri river. Now that day it was COLD, but we were super speedy and got that mile done! Below are just a few of the many pictures taken during my runs. For the most part I felt good but it’s scaring me that I’m more consistently in the 9 minute range!
I was a bit late with meal planning this week since we just got back from Nebraska on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday we did our own thing for lunch, and then I prepared fish for dinner. I’ve actually really missed eating healthy so I’ll be getting back in the swing of things! I’m linking up with Jill Conyers and Laura of Mommy Run Fast for some support. We’re actually getting low on groceries so things will be very basic this week!
Monday 12/29:
Tuesday 12/30:
Wednesday 12/31:
Thursday 1/1:
Rest of the weekend: Up for grabs! Once we get more food I should have a better idea!
Tell me, how was your holiday? Did you maintain a healthy diet, or did you take some liberties for a few days?