running by design: zoo

Well, vacation came and went and I don't feel like I had one. We had no big plans to go anywhere except the zoo. In fact, my big plans were to paint the trim on the house, refinish some furniture, "decrapify" the house by purging our closets and attic of stuff and get back to running routinely-- kind of a tall list. Of all of those items, I am in the process of refinishing the furniture and I am somewhat back to running routinely, though not how I had expected.

The good news has been the weather has been wonderful this past week. It almost felt like we were on vacation somewhere other than Indiana. The temperatures were mild and little to no humidity - just perfect really. Here's a recap of our week...

Monday I got out for a run. Nothing big, just three miles, but Lilli did go with me and did really well. Then I spent the morning on the computer working... oops, not at all vacation-like. Later on we headed down to the outlet mall in Edinburgh to do some shopping for Lilli - she needed clothes for the fall.

Tuesday was a bit of a disorganized day. We didn't get going early on and before we knew it it was the afternoon and we had to go pick up our nephews because they were staying the night and going to the zoo with us in the morning.

Wednesday was zoo day. The plan was to get to the zoo as close to the opening as possible (9 am). Yeah right. With 3 kids it is almost impossible to be on a schedule. But to be fair, we made a good breakfast for everyone before heading out. It was 11 by the time we got there. It was the most perfect weather we could have asked for. I was excited because I had never been to the zoo and was looking forward to the dolphin show and seeing the koalas. Unfortunately, one of our nephews did not feel like seeing everything and we ended up leaving by 2:30 - missing the dolphin show and never seeing the koalas... the good news: I bought a year membership, so we'll be going back quite a bit (it only takes two visits to have the membership pay for itself).

Thursday I got back out on a run in the morning. This time a 4 mile run. Lilli joined me once again and looked around the entire time. The rest of the day we got some errand run and not much else... not really sure what happened to Thursday, but hey, we were on vacation.

Friday another morning run. This time 5 miles. Wasn't sure how far I could go with Lilli, but this was a pretty good distance to go and once again did great. She actually fell asleep somewhere between mile 2 and 3. The rest of the day I got a few things done around the house, but nothing on my list....

Saturday Lilli and I went for yet another run. Unfortunately, not until noon, but we went to Fort Ben State Park and ran under the shade of the trees. It was still quite warm and humid though and our planned 6 mile run turned into 3. She was not a happy camper and was fussing the entire time, so I knew she was not into the run ans we went home (besides I was pretty much spent after 3 anyway).

I am hoping to finish getting the furniture stripped and primed today. I could really use a few more days off, but I already know I have a pile of work that stacked up while I was gone... ugh.

Here are a few photos from the week: