Road Trippin' to the Redwoods!!

This summer, we decided to head to the redwoods for our summer vacation ...

We stopped along the way in Eugene and stayed for two nights. We checked out the track at the University of Oregon since David and I are both into running these days. Unfortunately, the track was locked up, so we couldn't actually run on it. We did have the treadmill at our hotel to use though, so were able to keep running on our trip.

I had researched about the track before we went and also wanted to see Pre's rock and his trail. The kiddos were also excited to go. Sienna still wants to go to WWU, but Forest said he was going to go here and run!

In Eugene, we hit up a few parks for the kiddos to run around at, since they hate being "cooped up" in the car.

Later, we saw Pre's rock ... R.I.P. Steve Prefontaine.

We also walked on his trail with the kiddos and Sunshine. 

There were more parks to explore the next day ... 

I found my "tiny house cabin" that I will live in one day when I retire!

The next day, we drove to Arcata, California to stay at an Airbnb. 

We made it!!

After getting some authentic (San Diego style) Mexican food in Crescent City, we took the kiddos to the beach. We found some driftwood to bring home with us.

 

Then we headed to our home for the next two days, which really did feel like home (minus the chickens, roosters, ducks & geese). We stayed at a little farm cottage in the farm fields, which came complete with fresh eggs from the chickens each morning.

A beautiful garden ... just like home.

Bird feeders in our windows ... just like home. 

We took the kiddos up to Humboldt State University to show them where David went to college and at the Founder's Hall we saw two little foxes that had a den there. 

Then we headed over to guess where ... another park. Redwood Park playground is nestled inside of the trees. 

The next day, we woke up early and headed out for a hike (after stopping at Los Bagels, of course). David wanted to take us to the bridges he built while he worked on the trail crew at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. After about 1.5 miles we made it!

We stopped for a break and had some yummy banana slugs from Los Bagels!! Then we headed back since both kiddos were tired and Sunshine was waiting for us in the car. Next time, we'll hike all the way to Fern Canyon though.

After our hike, we headed over to Seascape in Trinidad for brunch. Mama's new car, nicknamed, Luna loved the view!

Later, we found another park for the kiddos! This one was in a neighborhood, but it had this really cool climbing toy that Sienna loved climbing. 

She made it all the way to the top!! 

This was our last night in Arcata and the following day, we made our way back to Eugene. On the way we stopped at Trees of Mystery.

On the way back to Eugene, we took a short detour down to Medford for a burger. The kiddos had never tried a beef burger before. Forest hated it and Sienna loved it. Mama even ate one!! The last time I had a beef burger was in 2005. 

We fed the ducks some stale bread at the pond next to our hotel.

The next day, we headed home ...

Summer of Well-Being Recap

It's almost been two months since I started running again and I feel so much stronger and healthier already. I am down 13 lbs. and today I ran 4 miles for the first time in almost 7 years. I am still a lot slower than before, but I am confident that the speed will return in time. Plus, I find it amazing that in less than an hour I can burn 660+ calories! 

A few weeks ago on my birthday weekend, we ran our first run together as a family. (All except for Forest, who was part of our fan club.) Sienna ran her first run, which was a Kid's Dash 1k. The course was a little confusing for the younger kids in the back, but she did fantastic! She ran the entire time and was so excited to get her finisher's medal at the end. 

Then, David and I ran the 5k together. The run was a mixture of grass, paved trail, sidewalks and gravel trail. This was my first time running outside and not on a treadmill. It was a lot harder to pace myself outside, but I surprised myself and did better than I thought I was going to do. Part of the way through the run, I told David to go ahead, because I felt like I was holding him back and plus, I like running by myself. I really value this time to just "go in my head" and think about all sorts of different things. 

 

 

Some things I am doing differently than before are doing a full 0.25 warm up and 0.25 cool down walk each time I run to try and avoid an injury. Also, I am drinking way more water than ever before. With two bouts of kidney stones in the past, I know that this is essential.

The things I am doing the same are following the Cool Running 5k Program. I used the Cool Running Half-Marathon Program when I trained before and was really happy with the results. I really want to work on my speed before I train for a half marathon again. We have our next family 1k and 5k planned at the end of October!

I am also eating vegetarian again and a lot of our veggies our coming from our own garden. I try to do one green smoothie a day for a meal (my version is: kale, 1 apple & blueberries).

Last night for dinner, I made homemade hamburger buns and David made salsa with all different varieties of tomatoes from our garden. Next, we must plant onions and garlic, since they are definitely staples in most of our recipes. 

I also made "Midsummer Veggie Burgers" from a vegetarian cookbook I've had for awhile called How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. (Thanks, Casey) They are a great way to use up zucchini, which we have a lot of right now. This picture was from before they were cooked. I will have to take another one next time after I cook them. Basically they are just zucchini, onion, garlic, corn, jalapeno and a little flour. I thought they were quite tasty and will definitely make them again.    

So, that's the recap of my summer of well-being so far. I think it's going really well so far. This week, I'm going to try and start running at 4:00 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays to prepare for when my mom returns to work in September. She has been a huge help with watching the wee ones, so I can go run. 

Slow Summer Days

This summer the little ones have been enjoying lots of popsicles and ice cream, which = a big sticky mess, so lots of baths, too. Some days, Forest has to have two!

After a bath!

All dressed and ready to go!

Sienna has also been taking lots of silly pictures of things ...

and selfies.

 

Can you guess where she took the next picture? P.S. Forest's hair is getting so long!

And, then there was our annual trip to go blueberry picking at Cascadian Farm. We picked 20 lbs. of organic goodness this year and may go back for more, since our freezer doesn't feel quite full enough to last us through the year.

Sienna chose a blueberry ice cream and Forest's favorite ice cream is chocolate.

This is what 40 lbs. of blueberries looks like. Half of it is Nana's. 

Yesterday, when we went to Target, Sienna insisted on getting a new journal. She's been watching me fill out my exercise/food journal and she wanted to do the same. We are going to be doing our first run together in August! Can't wait.

This weekend, we have big plans to paint the outside of our house. Grandma and Grandpa have been helping David do the prepping for the last few weeks. So, hopefully we will have a blue house with white trim next week!