2015 in Review

I always like to write a post at the end of the year to sum up a year of racing. This year was certainly not about racing, PRs or hardcore training, but it was a very eventful year on its own as we welcomed Siena into the world. I literally spent the entire year pregnant or taking care of a newborn and while at times it felt like time moved slow and I couldn’t wait for the next pregnancy or baby milestone, in a lot of ways it moved too fast! I’ve been trying to focus on enjoying every stage with Siena because she will literally NEVER be the same baby she is today. I will never be pregnant for the first time again and we’ll never be new parents again. Time to soak it in, including those very early morning nursing sessions!

January

Asia and I started the year with 31 runs (of at least 3.1 miles) and 31 planks in 31 days to celebrate turning 31! We did a lot of our runs in the morning or at night in the dark so it was great to have Asia there to motivate me. I’m glad we did it before we both moved away from Moonlight Beach. I remember thinking 3.1 miles was such a short distance back then and now it’s pretty much my go-to distance for a run. We also went to the Carlsbad 5000 kickoff event which was a ton of fun!

I found out I was pregnant in January which was pretty freaking exciting and scary!

February 

Mike, 6 week old Baby Doby (as she was called before we knew she was a she) and I ran the Surf City Half Marathon. My Dad and Step Mom also ran and we told them about my pregnancy at the start line! We also saw our baby for the first time on the ultrasound at our 8 week appointment. Morning sickness also started at the very beginning of February and I spent 8 weeks feeling pretty miserable and non-stop eating every carb known to man to help ease it.

March 

We went to Zion for a long weekend to run the Zion Half Marathon with Mike’s sister Claire, her husband Josh and our friend Brooke. Morning sickness finally started to wane after this trip and a couple weeks later we made our big baby announcement after taking a photo at the top of the scariest hike I’ve ever done, Angel’s Landing in Zion. I also ran the Carlsbad 5000 with Asia.

I became an ambassador for Wildfire (sadly, they aren’t in business anymore) and started going to Xtend Barre and yoga classes on the regular. I started coaching Girls on the Run. I was featured in the San Diego Union Tribune’s Active San Diego section!

April 

I ran two 5ks and continued coaching Girls on the Run. I visited my friend Shahara in San Francisco and we found out that we were having a girl!

May

Asia and I went to the Wanderlust yoga, running and meditation “triathlon” and Mike and I traveled to Yosemite to visit my parents and hike over Memorial Day weekend. I ran the Girls on the Run 5k with one of the girls from the group I coached. I ran 10 miles of trail on my last Mother’s Day as only a daughter. I had my first DNS at Rock n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon after coming down with a 24 hour stomach bug. Mike was a groomsman in his friend Mike’s wedding.

June

I went to Newport Beach for a weekend girls trip with college friends. Mike and I went to Catalina for our Babymoon, just as I entered the 3rd trimester and went on a fun food tour and accidentally hiked 10 miles. Mike and I started our Bradley Method natural birth classes. I completed my first month of the Squat Challenge.

July 

We completed our Bradley Method natural birth classes and continued our tradition of going to the Fish Shop for fish tacos after every class.  I wore a bikini at the beach pregnant on 4th of July and did another 30 days of the Squat Challenge, this time adding 100 squats a day! I started hiking with my friend Brooke at Torrey Pines more regularly.

August

I had both of my  baby showers – a friends shower hosted by my friend Allison and my mom’s side of the family shower hosted by my aunt and mom. I discovered CAP Wellness and their amazing prenatal yoga classes and started going regularly.Mike was best man in his friend Stephen’s wedding and we spent a weekend in LA celebrating. Asia and I went to the Taylor Swift concert at Petco Park.

September 

We patiently and impatiently waited for our baby to arrive. I stopped working on September 18th, one week before my September 25th due date. I enjoyed my pre-baby maternity leave to the fullest and exercised and met up with friends daily and checked off the final things on our baby to-do list. We celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary and willed the full moon to bring our baby out.

October

Our first daughter, Siena Jade, was born on October 3rd after 45 hours of labor. We spent the first two weeks of her life in a sleep deprived daze, not realizing she wasn’t getting enough to eat due to a lip and tongue tie. Luckily we solved her eating problems shortly after and she became a much happier (and bigger!) baby. Mike took four weeks of paternity leave, most of which we spent at home but we did go for a lot of walks and had a lot of visitors! I discovered that everyone isn’t lying to you when they say that all the sacrifices of having children are worth it.

November

Siena smiled and slept longer at night which made everyone even happier. I made a lot more social plans once Mike was back at work and Siena and I had an outing or two per day. I got cleared to exercise and started running again!  I bought a package to Yoga 6 and started doing Hot Yoga (I only managed to get there once a week, but so worth it). My dad and step mom stayed with us for a weekend and my mom came and stayed for 4 days. We hosted a Friendsgiving party at our house and Mike refinished a dining room table. Siena had her first Thanksgiving. I decided to take 3 more months of maternity leave.

December 

We started P90X on December 1 and Siena met Santa. I started weekly runs with my friend Allison and continued to meet up with my friend Amber and her daughter Kairi, born just 17 days after Siena, for walks, lunches and Dailey Baby classes.  Mike and I bought a Christmas tree, went to the Encinitas holiday parade, and listened to a lot of Michael Buble’s Christmas album. Siena’s personality really started to shine and she had her first Christmas! I celebrated my 32nd birthday on Christmas Day.

This year was like no other and I’m pretty sure 2016 is going to be an even wilder ride.

How was your year? What was the highlight?