Hola, Mexico and Other Adventures

The holidays have come to an end, the decadence is done and I think I ate myself into a semi crazed chocolate induced coma. It was all a bit of a blur, in a good way. Pre-Christmas, we had visitors from Blog Land and enjoyed meeting Jonathon and Kristen from South Carolina. We enjoyed some great company: the lovely Lara of Ottawa visiting for a few days and my mom for The Big Day. Mom arrived on Christmas Eve Day and we relaxed our way through Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It was awesome! I snuck out for a few runs, but mostly we just turned off the computer and relaxed. We flew off to Mexico shortly afterwards. Phew.

The week in Mexico was great: quality time spent relaxing with the rest of my family doing the All-Inclusive resort thing. My Dad and step-mom celebrated their 25th Anniversary and we rang in the New Year in style. Thank-you, thank-you and thank-you for a special holiday! Keith and I embarked on a gluttonous journey of the Mexican Dessert Table and Other Eating Adventures. It was a fat and sassy week! In fact, we were so relaxed, we didn't even take a single photo of the buffet, the beautiful resort, the beach or me in my bikini. :)

Needless to say, the beach was great, the holidays were fabulous, but after weeks of socializing, eating and decadence I felt the overwhelming need for a return to normalcy.

I needed me some of this:






A winter fix of one of my favorite places, the totally amazing Skoki Lodge. As you can see, it was a perfect day for a running adventure into the lodge for a visit, and a return trip back out. At the lodge we got to visit Allison and got tea, treats and soup! Now that is backcountry bliss!

Keith and I had a great day, it's always such an enjoyable (but always challenging....) winter run. There's a lot of days in winter that the trail conditions are less than ideal for a runner. With soft snow, wind and drifts, you need to wait for an ideal day and be prepared to turn around if things get sketchy. This was not one of those days! It was pretty much a perfect day. Keith is overjoyed to be back running some longer distances and seems to be well on the road to recovery and running stronger than ever.

We also had the pleasure of a quick visit with Leo, who was driving some supplies in on his sled. Not everyone gets a hug on Deception Pass!

To top of a rather social day in the middle of nowhere, we ran into Dave and Brenda who were skiing in to the lodge for the weekend. We got in 29km and a bunch of hours on our feet and it was a most excellent day....

I *love* Dave and Brenda!!

We followed it up the next day, with a ski tour up to the Sunshine backcountry. Keith decided to challenge himself with something new:

Oh yeah! Keith had fun on his snowboard and I got in 3 hours of ski touring and a great visit with friends Michelle and Christine. We got some exercise and made some pretty powder turns. Thanks, ladies!

To finish up a great weekend, today, Mike and I got a lift to Johnston Canyon for a sweet long run. We had a warm up run up the pretty canyon and then ran the 25km back to town, for 30km total. Yiiiihaw! A fine way to wind up the weekend...

Jumping for Joy!