Christmas 2010

I'm hoping to soon get to more current posts that contain more than a crazy amount of pictures, but I also want to have these pictures saved somewhere in the internet universe to keep them safe in the event of a computer malfunction, so here they are, in all their glory. 

First, a shot of out beautiful holiday home, which feels like it was so very long ago. Ed promised that this was the last year of having a little tree, as I've been feeling eager to graduate up to an "adult" sized tree. Still, as Ed pointed out, it makes the pile of presents look that much bigger, and it really is a very cute tree. 

Ed hoped this picture might trick onlookers into thinking the tree was bigger than it actually was (and that we apparently have huge presents!)

 
Since, of course, we celebrate the holidays in Cambria and Orange County, all the presents around the tree have to get packed up.

Once we arrived in Cambria, we were greeted with stormy, but beautiful weather. After getting settled, we headed down to the coast to say hi to the churning water.

Luckily, the rain fizzled out and it turned into a nice, cool walk.

After the walk, we headed down to visit the always fun Elephant Seals.

At late December, the very first of the baby seals were starting to be born.

The two pictures below somehow fit together :).

The next day, Ed's mom, Ed and I took a hike in the beautiful hills by San Luis Obispo. It was great to be outside, once the storm broke and treated us with beautiful lush hills and a bright blue sky.

The fog hung out on the hills in the distance, sending a brisk breeze our way, but keeping the skies clear.

Finally, we reached out destination - Eagle Peak! We rested at a bench for a few minutes, and then down we went.

 That evening, we were treated to an amazing meal cooked by Sabine - her delicious crab Cioppino

 After dinner, we opened stockings - Ed holds up the traditional marzipan, as well as some other goodies.

And I got some lovely things as well (if it's any indication, most of those things have since been consumed)

Ed showing off our new sleeping back - Thanks Tom!

The brothers showing off their new tops.

Argyle became the theme with presents.

Finally, Christmas was finished up at my parent's home. We started with stockings here, too.

Breakfast we delicious. I joked with my mom that our Christmas mornings taught me delayed gratification. Ever since I was little, we always did stockings and then had a long leisurely breakfast. We couldn't start on the real presents until breakfast was finished and the dishes were cleared. It was so hard to wait when I was younger, but now I sort of like that it takes until 2pm to finish opening presents.

All in all, a great holiday!

Thanksgiving Turkey Trot in Orange County

It was a beautiful trip down to Orange County for Thanksgiving this year. Like always,  we headed out to the Turkey Trot to do our traditional calorie burn the morning of the big day. 

We all decided to walk this year, with my sister being 7 months pregnant and me still dealing with bad leg pain. Ed, unfortunately, caught a stomach bug and waited by the car for us while we were completing the 5k. 

The race was crowded like always, with fun costumes and serious runners mixed together, ready to enjoy the gorgeous course. 

There was a pretty large group of marines (?) were running along and chanting, which was and inspiring sight. 

The harbor matched the color of the sky. 

And the view out into the pacific was wonderful scenery during the course. 

 (and one last picture with my sister's oh so cute puppies)

Our First Visit to Point Reyes

Our first order after arriving in Point Reyes was finding something to eat. We were directed to the downtown, a short few blocks of stores and restaurants. 

We found a great place to eat, and sat outside in the beautiful sunshine, enjoying our continued luck with the weather. 

After lunch, we enjoyed walking up and down the street.

Finally, it was time to check in, so we headed back to the inn. It had a beautiful backyard; the perfect place to laze away the afternoon. 

We had brought a bottle of wine, expressly for the purpose of outside relaxing, and enjoyed reading. 

That evening, we went out to a delicious dinner at an Osteria. 

The next day, we had to take advantage of the beautiful area and go on a hike. We choose a nice loop that would take us to the ocean and back. 

Once we got to the beach, we walked along the surf for about a mile. It was such a wide, long beach, and we had the company of some fellow walkers. 

Finally, we turned up another trail and back into the hills. 

However, on the way up, we stumbled on a tree swing!

While the trail back to the car was, unfortunately, quite uphill, but still beautiful. 

Our trip to Point Reyes finished with a trip to Cowgirl Creamery for a delicious last meal of our trip. 

All in all, it was a lovely celebration of Ed's 30th birthday!

Playing Games

One of the best uses of our vacation time was game playing. We were gifted with the very wonderful game, Seven Wonders, 

that had been introduced to us by our friends, Bill and Jenny, and had a great time sharing this game with out families. 

After eating a delicious lunch out on the patio (in sunny 70 degree weather - loving Cambria winter weather), we spent another hour outside enjoying our new game. 

Ed's mom was especially up for playing this with us, and resoundingly beat us on her first attempt at the game. 

That evening, we got to try out Sabine's new game, Super Scrabble. This one ended up being a little less light-hearted, as the Geaneys/Olivers/Lyons are apparently a little competitive when it comes to word-play. 

Still, we certainly had some fun times playing. 

Games are certainly great presents!

2011 Running

As I mentioned, this year was my "return to running". Again, you say? Yes, I did return to running back in 2010 too, but totally fell off the wagon after our wedding and lost all my fitness.

This year, I finished strong! I can't even remember the last time I ran 100 miles in a month, and I'm hoping to only see these numbers climb.

You can see that October and November were a bit sub par with running, but hopefully I won't see months like that again. 

After March's Marathon, I am entertaining very small dreams of a summer 50k, but I can't really look farther than March right now, and hope all my training goes well. 

I'm still not entirely sure how 10 miler midweek runs will work, and how I'll balance running with everything else, but I'm just going to be optimistic. 

Happy Running!