Christmas Vacation

Been way to busy but wanted to let everyone know that I had a great Christmas vacation in Seattle and then Michigan with Jeff's family. We got alot of wedding stuff done in Seattle but still had time to snowboard and cross-country ski and run and relax some. On Christmas Eve Jeff and I headed to Michigan. This was my first year spending Christmas with the Crawfords. It was nice to have several Christmas'- all the more fun!
Chace was dressed as a little Santa and liked to look at everything upside down : )
most of Jeff's girl cousins...

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Rudolf Ramble

It was a snowy and windy morning but that wasn’t going to stop me from doing the last race of the season- Rudolf Ramble 8k. I ran from my house to the start of the race. The wind was so strong that it hurt when the snow blew into your face. When I got to the start of the race the race volunteers were having trouble keeping the table with water from blowing over! There was Christmas music playing and lots of people dressed as Santa’s. I was kind of jealous of the Santa suits- they looked warm! I was talking to a friend when the race started- oops! So I had to start behind the Santa’s- it took awhile before I could get past. I love racing in bad conditions so I was loving the race! I contemplated my race strategy and decided that I needed to draft so I squiggled myself into a big pack of guys…ah nice and wind blocked. However, these guys were not keeping a good pace so I found myself tucking in and then surging to different packs. Anyway it was fun to be thinking on your feet the whole time and knowing that race times were going to be slow so it was all about competing. My friend Columba beat me at the end so I was second overall. Everyone went right to gear check and then home after the race- too cold to stick around!

Overbeck Family Christmas Party

Today Jeff and I took the train to Kalamazoo for my grandparents Christmas party. It was so fun to see everyone! I hadn't seen my nephew Eddie in a long time. He is so cute with his fluffy white-blond hair. We caught up with everyone, played games, had a gift exchange and had good food and drink. Doesn't get better than that!

Caving

We went caving. Most of the time we were in water waist deep and then at the end there are all these bones from ancient Mayan sacrifices...kind of creepy. On the way back our van got stuck on the side of the road! A local farmer helped us out.

Long run to the falls

The next morning, Jeff and I ran to the 1000 foot falls (that really is the name of the falls, but personally I think they could have done better as we found out they are actually 1,600 feet tall. It was a beautiful but grueling run (we were running for 1:45 minutes and ran 11 miles (usually I run 11 miles in 1:22 to give an idea of how hilly this was :)). We were constantly going up or down and the Caribbean sun started beat down. Not to worry though, we returned to the resort for a full course breakfast with freshly squeezed OJ (Jeff’s favorite!)

later we went biking to other beautiful waterfalls with my family.

snorkel and trivia

This morning Melissa and Stephen made us a yummy egg breakfast. Jeff and I went on a run- 4 miles and we had explored the whole island : ). We went swimming in the split, an area people swim between the two islands, we kayaked out to the reef with my parents, and we tried some of the local street food- meat pies, lemon pies, coconut bread, banana bread, and played cards on the roof. Melissa and Stephen took the family out for dinner tonight. We had dinner over the water and under a full moon.

to the mountains..

Today we left for the mountains in Belize. It was a long bumpy road but when we got there we were amazed! The place was amazing and had “anything you want we will do for our guests” type attitude. Jeff and I explored some trails by mountain bike and stopped to canoe in a small lake. From there we discovered the first of many waterfalls called Tiger Falls. Here we decided to take a dip in some fresh mountain water. Because of Jeff’s recent yoga experience he was compelled to bust a couple poses in such a scenic spot. We had a good swim but soon realized that our pool was right at the top of 800 foot falls….