#Thankful

I am so sad the long Thanksgiving weekend is over! It was full of family, food, drinks, games, running and fun! Here is a snapshot of some of the events...

After a leisurely morning/afternoon on Wednesday (I love how we get the day off work), I picked up my new kitten! And ,no, she still does not have a name. I am simply calling her "baby cat."

Still no name!!! She got so much love from her family over Thanksgiving!

Then on Thanksgiving morning, my siblings and I ran our annual Turkey Trot 10k! It was hilly, but I did a course PR and the course is beautiful. However, every year I do this race I am always surprised at how hilly it actually is...I need to remember this better.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, eating and playing cards/doing tequila shots:)

Friday was gorgeous, so we did a walk along the river and into Belle Isle. We also went to Triple Crossing Brewery and an awesome dinner place called Family Meal before going home and playing more cards and taking more tequila shots...

Saturday was full of football and small business Saturday, and we even got started on our 2nd puzzle of the week. I think we are obsessed.

On Sunday I introduced my kitten to her big brother, Tony Romo, with limited luck and got to see my friend Emily's new baby!

High school friends!

As least Romo is staying in the room instead of running away...

The next few days will sure be an adventure in new kitten adjustment at my place (any tips?)! And the next few weeks are full of fun holiday events, and I am excited about being done with classes for the semester in a short 9 days (December 8th!) :) Hopefully work will go quickly this week, and I am entering it feeling very thankful for the wonderful people in my life! Too bad I did not sleep as much as I intended to...why does that always happen?

How was your Thanksgiving?

VB and RIC

I finally have something to post:) I went to Virginia Beach this weekend to visit a friend and then the UCI Road Championship was in full swing when I came back, so lots of fun events!

We'll go in reverse order to the scene on Monument Avenue for the men's time trials!

Back up to Saturday with this cutie and some sunshine:)!

So thankful to live so close to the beach:)!!! Feeling very proud of my city today.

I'm Alive! And I did more traveling...

Hey there! How has August been going for you? I, once again, after a week and a half of actually working and doing normal life things, went away again for ten days! I just can't sit still in the summer:)

I went on an impromptu trip to NYC the first weekend of August to visit my friend Jessica, who is getting married later this month, because I had to miss her Bachelorette due to being in Alaska!

I took the train from Richmond-> NYC, which is about 6 hours and includes a pit stop in Union Station (D.C.) where we have enough time to get off and walk around. I love D.C.!

Right when I got to NYC, I saw that Gotham was filming by my friend's apartment! No celeb sightings, but it was very cool to see the set and this cool car. She lives right by Wall Street.

Amongst other things, we went and visited the new World Trade Center building and memorial. It was very moving and a completely different site from when I first visited in April 2002.

We had an awesome dinner for restaurant week at Park Ave Summer and saw this nice sunset with our drinks afterwards:)

On Saturday, after a great morning run along lower Manhattan (I haven't been to the financial area in a while, so it was fun to stay down there and explore-> she just moved there), we explored Brooklyn for the first time! We walked around and went to a great pizza place.

I got home from NYC on a Sunday night and headed to Duck (Outer Banks) the next morning! It was my dad's birthday! He celebrated like a boss.

The weather all week was perfect- low humidity and sunny. Such a nice treat for August! AND I got in all my training runs, including a 16-miler!

My friend and her kiddos came to visit for a few days:) We loved on baby Everett!

Friends for over 10 years!

We also did puzzles! Took us 3 days with 5 people contributing...

These sunsets over the sound NEVER get old...

 SERIOUSLY. I can't even.

I am coming to grips with the fact that my big summer travels are over, but I am trying to be optimistic about some fun weekend getaways and school getting underway. Classes at VCU start this week and teachers come back to work soon, so things will be back in full swing, which I am excited about. To me summer is all about traveling, so working has been hard, but once fall rolls around, I tend to enjoy normal life stuff a little more. I am looking forward to cooler weather on the horizon, too, and not having to do long training runs on my own:) Doing a 12, 14 and 16 miler without a training team was not as fun!

What have you been up to?! 

Wedding # 2 of 2015

In the midst of my pretty lazy weekend that involved some pool time, front desk working, a long run, and hanging out on front porches with friends, I got to celebrate the wedding of my friend Dara!

I met Dara through my good friend Sarah in high school. Our first memories together were at Sarah's Confirmation and Bat Mitzvah and also our many trips to Cheeburger:) Dara was an awesome shopping and eating out buddy who also has a great love of sports! She was great at including me and my friends into her big friend group. We especially had many great memories during college when we were home for breaks and an entire summer of us and our friends all working at the same restaurant and hanging out every night:)

This is from May 2006 when we watched Sarah's little sis, Erin, go to her Senior Prom!

The ceremony and reception were at the Hotel John Marshall, which is not actually a hotel, but now is a residential building in downtown Richmond. It was built in the 1920's, though, so it is very elegant and when it was restored they kept a lot of the charm of the past century!

This is my second Sunday wedding, and I would have taken off most of Monday except I am leaving for two weeks on Wednesday and feel bad taking even more time. That being said, I definitely had fun-> I just wish I could have stayed a little longer and been able to sleep in more this morning!

Me with the bride and groom!

Not paying attention per usual.

Some of the girls!

Old friends!

Even though I didn't actually go to high school with her and a lot of my friends at the wedding, it felt like a mini-high school reunion! It will be sad when these weddings no longer happen because I won't get to see people as much or in a big group. I had some moments of realization about that last night- it is exciting and sad as life moves on.

But it was a fun night! Congrats to Dara and Tim!

Silent Sunday from St. Augustine, Florida

Awesome weather, awesome Air B&B house, awesome people, and an awesome wedding! Weekends with these friends show how as much as things change, so much stays the same. Congrats to Brandy and Dustin!