My Trip Home to Chicago July 2015

One quick side note before today’s post, my friend, Molly from Colors of Life is featuring me today on her blog about Why I love hiking and you can too! Be sure to check it out here! Thanks again so much for asking me to be a part of your series girl!

Thursday the 16th of July, Dave and I took off for a few days back home in Chicago. Here’s a little recap of our time there.

The fact that we are able to fly thousands of miles in a few hours among the clouds is never lost on me. I’ve always loved flying.

Thursday- I got off work early Thursday and we finished packing and headed to LAX (the LA airport), grabbed a quick bite to eat at Boa Steakhouse which was really good. We split a burger and had some key lime pie. (Isn’t that what everyone eats before a half marathon?!)

I usually eat pretty healthy, but a girl has got to indulge every once in a while, am I right? And as you can see I’m currently in the middle of that Katie Couric book.

We flew in late to O’hare Airport at 9pm and came home to some rain. Living in California where there’s a drought, it’s so fun to see rain again! I miss the smell and freshness of it. My parents came to pick us up, we dropped off Dave at his parent’s house and I was hungry so my parents fed me. Nothing like a home cooked meal, no matter how old you are! 😉

Every time I’m at O’hare and walk through this hallway I think of Home Alone, what a great movie, definitely one of my favorites!

Friday-I ran errands with my dad all morning. He is currently in process of selling my childhood home that I grew up in and lived in for 20+ years, and it’s such a big production. There is so much work to get a house ready to sell. I don’t know how people do it all the time! Between the cleaning, packing, donating, and throwing stuff out, it’s exhausting! I’ll be really sad to see the house go, but it is getting to be too much work and upkeep for my dad and step mom. We checked out a storage unit, talked to the village about getting a house inspection, and met with our realtor.

We got home, ate lunch, and cleaned the rest of the afternoon until dinner time. Our basement has so many memories and stuff we need to pack up and that took a while. It’s fun to go through stuff, but it’s also crazy to think about the stuff we hold on to, but never use!

After an afternoon of cleaning, my dad and I ate dinner and then Dave and I headed downtown to the McCormick Place (a convention center) to pick up my race day bib.

For those of you who haven’t been to an expo, it’s a fun place to check out new running gear, try some samples, and grab any last min items you may need before the race.

My favorite thing that they offer at the expo is this little wristband that gives you an outline for how you should pace to stay on track for your goal finishing time. Because along the race path they have clocks to let you know your time and it’s awesome to see if you’re pacing correctly and to remind yourself to speed it up, or take your time.

From the expo, we went to a friend’s house who let us borrow a camera for the weekend, which is how we were able to have such awesome pics from the race! (Thanks Chris!) Then we met up with two of our best friends Ryan and Vi (the other half of Say Yes to Happy!) and her boyfriend Jacob. We walked to dinner from her place then went to Dairy Queen after.

It was a very full first day back and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Linking up today with Sweet Little Ones for: