Week in the OBX

Over the last week I took a break from blogging to enjoy our family vacation in the Outerbanks. A lot of eating, drinking, and soaking up the sun ensued.

Favorites from the last week:

• Our house was amazing and the views from it were awesome:

"Pier Pleasure"

View of Ocean from our top left balcony

View from back right of balcony

Our backyard

• My nephews and niece are on the shy side, so I have to say that my favorite part was through them seeing me everyday, they warmed up to me :) 

Codyn (2.5 years) and Gweny (4mos) 

Joseph (will be 3 late Aug) and I 

• Building things in the sand with my brothers and nephews

• And although it was brutally hot and humid, I did manage to get in 21 miles of running while away. 6 miler, 7 miler, 8 miler... not as much as I wanted, but I've been resting my calf since its been super tight. Despite my nagging attempts, my brother never once joined me. Each run felt HARD, my pace was always in the 9:30s even though it was flat as a pancake. I did have some cool sights:

•  Because I had blogged prior to my vacation that I was going to OBX, Abbie from Higher Miles reached out to me to see if I wanted to meet up for a run. For those that don't know, OBX is HUGE and it would easily take over an hour to go from one point to the next... Abbie's house was just over 2 miles from mine, insanely close. We met halfway at the DQ and toured some neighborhoods and got to know one another (we had never met). She's such a sweet heart and I am still wrapping my head around how she considers herself shy, yet she reached out to me, basically a stranger to meet up. I must have that "friendly look" :)

• Even though I only ran 3x, each run finished by me stripping off shoes, socks, and shorts (by the time I got home I was only in a sportsbra) and jumping in the pool to cool down and finished with an ice cold coke... it was seriously bliss. I ran yesterday morning here in Nashville and it was strange to not have that routine down... afraid to say the kona kola nuun didn't do the trick and I had to go to store and get a coke. 
• Last but not least it was just nice to spend time with my parents and brothers and their ladies

Never got the memo for white and khaki, so I'm the rebel wearing blue.

As great as it was to get away, not having a routine and being lazy was actually driving me crazy. I was getting anxious having a whole week off work and had to spend 2.5 hours yesterday responding to emails so I could be somewhat caught up for work today. I guess I have some work to do in just RELAXING- I have one month to figure it out because I have a week off for ALASKA in July :)