My Kids & Me

Today was the second Thorpe Park Half Marathon  and my second time running it. Last year's course, which was promoted as flat and fast, wasn't. So this year we ran a new course, which, while not as scenic, was significantly flatter. Last year's race was also the first time that I met my Instagram friend Rachel  and we've been good buddies ever since. We catch up for a run whenever we can including at today's race to celebrate our runversary, marking the fourth race we've run together. The shorts and grey weather of last year were replaced by sun and sub-freezing temps today. Cold temps meant leggings, two layers, a buff, a hat and two layers of gloves The race village at RunThrough  events always has inspiring since that apply to running and to life. The race organizers are fantastic. I saw Matt, who started RunThrough, and introduced myself and then found Lucy, who works for Matt and is an Instagram friend as well. I love how running brings

The kids are on break this week for February half term (basically a one week break in the middle of each trimester) so we headed out on our next family adventure to Bruges, Belgium. This time we decided to take the Eurostar which made for a comfortable, quick journey. By quick, I mean the Eurostar bit. From home to St. Pancras to Brussels to Bruges took 6 hours all in, but there was minimal complaining from the kids so I'll count that as a win. Per usual, Beth had pretty much everything planned out. We tend to plan too many activities so this time Beth let the kids vote on what they wanted to do and she built the itinerary around that. They got to do what they enjoyed and Beth and I got to do some things on our own without them. TUESDAY When we arrived in Bruges, I made everyone walk to the Airbnb so that we could see the city a bit and get our bearings. Along the way we got a good feel for what the city was known for: canals and beautiful cobbled streets.

Back in August when we signed up for the London Winter Run 10K, it was sunny and warm. Perhaps the race organizers do this intentionally so that people don't think about how freaking cold it can get in the depths of winter in London. Between the winds and the temps, it was a pretty brutal morning for a race with temps around 37ºF / 3ºC and winds at a gusty 12mph. However, in central London anywhere near River Thames, the winds are often much higher and race day was no exception. The route through central London is likely what attracted 16,449 runners. The race begins at Trafalgar Square, famous for often being the center of political demonstrations and anti-war protests. The route heads east past the Savoy Hotel and London School of Economics, out to the Bank of England before circling back past St. Paul's Cathedral. Photo by Beth From there, the route heads back west to the finish, passing the London Stock Exchange and Somerset House. In the last, downh

My friend Eva got into town yesterday and I happened to mention a few weeks ago about the amazing gelato tour that Beth and I did back in September 2016. Now, if you know Eva, she's a massive fan of gelato, and she's vegan, and each of the stops on the gelato tour had vegan flavors. And she can eat...A LOT! Since I didn't have a whole lot to do at work yesterday, we decided to make our own little gelato tour, hitting my three favorite stops from the five stop tour Beth and I did. We took the bus from St. Paul's to Savoy and began to walk to our first stop. Wait, what's that in bright orange up on the right? OMG! It's a big groups of Reese's employees giving out free peanut butter eggs! I so wanted one of their jackets and hats, but settled for a silly picture. One we went to our first stop, Gelatorino in Covent Garden. This was the last stop on the tour Beth and it's authentically Italian. It remind me so much of all of the gelatorias we we