HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Friday:

Workout: 5.5 mile run (in the rain)

Two nights ago, the family ventured over to Nordstrom… no, not for shopping, to grab a yummy dinner! Their Café Bistro has great menu items, ranging from their salads to pizzas (my sister’s favorite) and sandwiches. I’ve never had their desserts, but I’m sure they’re equally as well-made. 

Nordstrom Cafe Bistro's "Chicken Artichoke and Goat Cheese Salad"

I got the grilled chicken and roasted artichoke with warm goat cheese salad, drizzled with light oil and vinegar dressing. Following dinner, we all went and saw MI4 – INCREDIBLE! Highly recommend it as Tom Cruise does an awesome job.

Saturday:

Workout: Attempted a work-out before dinner, but only managed to do some interval training (thank you Shaun for the circuit exercise ideas!) and was too tired to do my planned cardio on the elliptical. Oh well, days of rest are sometimes necessary.

Yesterday, I saw the most beautiful rainbow – had to take a picture, but it was by far one of the clearest rainbows I’ve ever seen – and in December? So strange!

Caught a beautiful rainbow

Lucy and I met with my Dad for brunch at a local café called “Grand Day Café.” I found it on Yelp, as it had many positive reviews, and was pleasantly surprised with the kindness of the servers and bottomless coffee. I only got a fruit bowl because I had already eaten my staple yogurt-blueberries-cereal breakfast, but my sister opted for chocolate chip pancakes, which were HUGE (she almost finished them!), and my dad got the breakfast burrito, which he said was great.

Fruit bowl out to brunch with my Dad

 Rang in 2012 with my mom and sister – celebrating alcohol free, but enjoying ourselves nonetheless! We rent out “Our Idiot Brother,” got into our pj’s, and ate a delicious stir fry dinner followed by a sweet cereal dessert J

Mom's stir fry: my favorite

Dressed up as if we were going out, my sister and I had a mini-photoshoot to bring in some spirit for the end of 2011, and the beginning to a new, happy, and healthy year.

Me and Lucy!

While I don’t exactly have a resolution, my goals for 2012 include saving money, paying off a good portion of my student loans, and continuing to be happy and healthy. Do you have any resolutions?? J Now I’m off to run my first race of 2012: “runcbus 5k New Year’s Day run” – I’m hoping that people are too hungover from last night’s festivities to get out of bed and run outside, but I guess we’ll find out. I’ll report back how it goes!