California!!!

Alright, so at the beginning of January I went to L.A. with Heather to visit Amanda. I was a little apprehensive because I've never left the girls (except for Martin's Cove a year and a half ago, but that doesn't count). But I knew they were in good hands so I tried to relax. It was an amazing vacation and very therapeutic. Everything was perfect. It was the perfect amount of time, the perfect place (California in January, love it!), with great company and amazing food.

We got there Thursday night. Amanda picked us up from the airport and we quickly went to her apartment to get in our church clothes. We raced to the LA Temple to make it for the last session. It was awesome. It is such a beautiful temple and soooo ginormous! Then we went to Yogurtland. Who's going to open one in Idaho Falls? We need one for sure. The next day I woke up to banana pancakes compliments of Amanda and Heather. Yes, I slept in A LOT! You'd think I'd been waking up 4 times a night for the last year or something. Then we went to the Museum of Tolerance. It was incredible, especially for a history major. I wished we could stay longer but by the time we got through the Holocaust part of of the museum it was way past lunch time and we were starving. We drove all around and saw Beverly Hills (and what happened to be on the radio...Beverly Hills by Weezer!) and Doctor Suess's house shown above. Doesn't it look like it came straight out of onen of his books?

We ate at an authentic Mexican restaurant and then we walked down to the Santa Monica Pier.

Heather, Amanda, and me.

Amanda and I being cheesy friends.

Pretending we don't like each other.

Amanda introduced us to this amazing Italian restaurant. I love Italian and we thought we better load up on some carbs for the race the next morning.

I can't believe I finished the half marathon!!!! I can't explain the feeling, but it was definitely an amazing high to run and to accomplish a goal that I didn't think I could accomplish. I'm addicted. Honestly my goal is to run a full marathon but that sounds so crazy and hard right now. If anyone is interested let me know!

Here we are post race. It was so nice because there were healthy snack after the race and I even got a massage. I was just so happy to have run the entire race; that was my only goal.

Definitely had to get a picture of my sweet tape. Stacey you are my hero! She taped my legs with this awesome stuff and instantly my shin splints were gone. After the tape came off the pain was back but I'm letting my legs really heal now that I'm home.

So I did almost all of my training on the treadmill since it's frigid in Idaho. I didn't take into account how nice the treadmill has been on my knees. Let's just say that we were all hobbling like little old ladies for a while. It was quite funny looking back at it. We hobbled across the street in LA to get to the salon to have a pedicure and people were laughing at us, really!

While we were driving around we saw this awesome tree house!

We left Sunday evening, but before we left I wanted to go back to the LA Temple to take pictures.

Heather and me.

Well, it was a great vacation. Heather, thanks for being a great travel buddy and Amanda, thank you so much for being an awesome hostess. We all know each other a little better...I think y'all know what I mean!