La Jolla

Well, I did it. I swore I wouldn't, but I did! I ran the La Jolla Half Marathon this past weekend. It wasn't as terrible as last year. I mean, it was, but I knew what to expect, so it wasn't. The hill up into Torrey Pines State Park was still there, and so were the smaller inclines, but I had better expectations for them this year. I knew that I'd try my best for as much of the hill, but I wouldn't beat myself up to get up the hill running.

My time was better this year by 4.5 minutes, which is about 20 seconds/mile! I didn't get to do many long runs, and for the 2 weeks that we were doing family stuff before Lane left I only ran a few times. I'd say I definitely came out on top this year! I felt stronger and more confident when I was running. I also feel better after my run this year. I'm not limping up and down the stairs because of sore muscles. I am limping everywhere I take a step, though. Check this beauty out!

She started out as a hot spot right around mile 5 or 6 and progressively got less and less comfortable. I found her when I took my shoes off in the beer garden after the race. Because of the blister {and since BOTH of my kids napped today} I took advantage and pampered myself a bit.

I found a foot soak recipe on pinterest and figured I'd give it a go after I took a shower. It was nice to just sit in silence and taking care of myself. After my soak I took a sweet nap! It was a blissful afternoon, which was great after a hard morning!

Motherhood Is...{14}

Monkey See, Monkey Do. That is the story of their friendship right now! If she does something - even if she gets in trouble for doing it - he does it too! I have a love/hate relationship with this new finding. I mean, I knew it was only a matter of time, but I sound like a broken record! I usually sound like one anyways, but now that I say the same thing to each kid within 60 seconds. But how can I complain? Look how cute they are when it isn't monkey see, monkey do in a bad way. They're almost too cute!

Motherhood Is...{13}

I love that my kids want to help! They help switch laundry over, unload the dishwasher and do some other chores around the house. I love when they want to help! Occasionally...ok, quite often...they put up a fight about helping, so when they both wanted to help at the same time I knew I needed to document it!

21 Day Fix Conclusion

So check this out...I lost 6 pounds and 7.75 inches! Not to mention the strength that I gained!!! I couldn't be happier with the results from this program. I've enjoyed the nutrition portion of it and it's helped me start thinking outside the box, but kept us healthy. My kids love brussel sprouts! Who would have known!!! And I enjoy a cup of black coffee. Who would have known!!! My favorite realization was that when I go to grab a snack, there's nothing in the pantry for me. Most everything I eat now needs to come from the refrigerator - fresh!

And I haven't given up! I'm still going strong and working out every day. I've had to alter the meal plan this week because I have a half marathon tomorrow, so I've eaten more "good" carbs than the plan allows for at the end of the week. I've also not pushed myself as much when it's come to the lower body workouts because I didn't want to burn out my legs. I'm happy with how far I came within the 21 days and I'm excited to be able to keep it up.

I love how I'm feeling stronger because of the workouts! I truly feel better about myself simply because I feel stronger. I don't get as tired when I'm carrying my kids around. This was us leaving a Padres game one night. We move faster when they aren't walking, so I carried both kids out. {Hunter is in a carrier, but I was bearing his weight along with Eden's AND the backpack that we had too.}

I can, on a whim, swoop up Hunter and carry him for decent amounts of time. Eden is a bit more difficult to just swoop up, but I can still lift and carry her! I'll be buff before this is all said and done!

Motherhood Is...{12}

I can't get over how much fun these 2 can be! They've started playing more and more games together. This one is fun for me to watch them because Eden can help teach colors to Hunter. He's really interested in colors, but it still seems like he guesses most of the time. The point of the game is to dress the raccoons based on the color dice. I like the game for Eden because she doesn't always win. At this point in their lives I think it's a great game to teach lessons that they need to be learning. And they love to play the game together!

Motherhood Is...{11}

One of the local wineries around here hosts Hullaballoo concerts once a month. We hadn't ever been before and the kids really liked it. They got to sing and dance as well as shake some maracas! After the concert we went to a big field at the winery and let the kids run wild.

Camping

My favorite family event that we did before Lane left for deployment was our camping trip. We told the kids that it was going to be time without technology {except phones for pictures} and that we were just going to enjoy our time together. We were able to take the dogs with us so it was a true whole family event. 

 We went hiking with the dogs and kids. We let the kids climb on things. Everyone was just able to be creative and relaxed.

 The kids were more than excited to make hot dogs over the open fire before making s'mores.

 The next morning was quite cold, and because we hadn't really had much time to plan the trip {we decided to go camping and made it out the door within an hour!} we were very ill-prepared for the morning. Just before getting into the campsite we noticed the general store and a small restaurant. We opted for breakfast inside to help warm us up. The kids loved their hot chocolate!

21 Day Fix

One of my big goals is to tone up and get stronger. All of my clothes fit comfortably, so if I drop inches and/or pounds that's just a bonus for me. I'm also at the point with my running that the only way to get better is going to be to cross train and to be stronger. I ran across an at-home program to help with portion control with meals, and also includes a variety of workouts. The whole thing is only 21 days.

I'm 1 week in and I've yet to find myself hungry! When I got the box with my canisters for my food, I'm not going to lie, I thought I was going to starve my way through these 21 days. I was excited about the workouts, but I was thinking that I was going to be hungry all the time and I was scared about it. There's a book describing what, and how much, of what you can eat. There's even a section with recipes and tricks about how you can get some treats, along with some recipes. At the end of the book there's a chart to help you make sure you eat your meals in the best way possible.

 To start the week, I made sure to get my green canister out and sort some veggies. Each baggie that I filled only contains one canister-worth of veggies so it's easy to grab and go.

 I also went through the pantry and marked things that I was allowed to have and what they're worth. One of my favorite snacks this week has been peanut butter an banana slices.

My meals haven't been too shabby either. I've been full after eating and I've yet to wake up hungry. 

This is my taco salad - 2 green canisters {of 3/day}: 1 of tomatoes, 1 of  lettuce; 1 red canister {of 4/day}: seasoned lean ground turkey; 1 blue canister {of 1/day}: shredded cheese; 1 orange canister {of 1/day}: dressing/fresh salsa

Here's some of the wraps I had for dinner one night - 1 green canister: lettuce, 2 red canisters: grilled chicken breast, 2 yellow canisters: tortillas. I added balsamic vinegar to them and that's a "free" item.

This is an afternoon snack one day - 1 green canister: tomatoes. I added balsamic vinegar and basil to them: both are free items.

Dinner - 2 red containers {of 2/day}: talapia with garlic powder and italian seasonings; 1 green container {of 3/day}: baked zucchini chips; 1 yellow container {I sacrificed my carbs at this meal and used a yellow container for a 4 oz glass of wine}

Breakfast: 1 yellow container {of 2/day}: steel cut oatmeal {made with almond milk and cinnamon} and coffee

1 yellow {of 2/day}, 1 green {of 3/day}, 1 red {of 4/day} and 1 orange {of 1/day}: quinoa salad - pre made from costco - with grilled chicken - left over from dinner a previous night

Dinner: 1 green container {of 3/day}: spinach and tomatoes; 2 red {of 4/day} chicken - made with balsamic vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. 

I'm excited to see where I am at the end of my 21 days since I'm already down 3 inches and 4 pounds in just one week! 

Oh, and did I mention that I've also had a few glasses of wine here and there?! Best part about it! Wine and chocolate {in moderation} are allowed. With that kind of allowances, I don't feel so restricted, so I feel like I'm still allowed to eat and drink what I want. Makes things a lot easier.

San Diego Zoo

One of our fun stay-cation adventures was a day trip to the zoo. We were actually there up until the announcement was made that the zoo was closing. It was a great day with everyone. The kids were well behaved and they were excited to show Daddy around. I still can't believe that he hasn't been to the zoo before! Eden really wanted to see the pandas. We got lucky that they were out and active. She was excited to see them.

Sea World

One of our Family Fun Days before Lane left for his "long trip" was a day at Sea World. Lane had work stuff to take care of at Camp Pendleton, but it didn't take too long, and Sea World didn't open until 11 anyways. I packed snacks up and had things mostly ready when he got home when we headed out to see Shamu.

When we got to the park we made sure to see as much as we could while seeing all the shows we could. We opted out of the Shamu show, but the kids loved watching the whales swimming around.

 We had to make a visit to Sesame Street land. They have kid rides and we saw some of the characters while we were over there. Hunter loved waving, but had very little interest in actually talking to them.

 My favorite is always the rides. The giggles that come out of the kids when we do rides of any sort are amazing! They're pure joy and totally genuine.

Air Show

As soon as we found out that Lane was going to be flying the plane out to the Yuma air show to be part of the static displays I wanted to go with the kids. Lane was reluctant because it was his first road trip as the aircraft commander - oh yes, that happened in the midst of our crazy lives. Lane upgraded to aircraft commander. Once he got to Yuma, he realized that it was something the kids would enjoy and he asked me to come on over. Yes, it was Friday late afternoon and we needed to get there Friday night. But it was worth it because the kids loved it and we got extra time with Lane. And who can beat waking up to the kids who are hugging like this?

We got Planes from Santa. I made sure to let the kids watch the movie on the way to Yuma and we were really excited to see a crop duster as part of the static displays. 

While we were watching the planes flying around doing their tricks the kids wanted to take pictures of each other. 

In the midst of all the fun the kids fell asleep in the stroller. Having a few minutes of peace and quiet was a great part of the day. It was nice to have a break from telling the kids to stop climbing on things they weren't supposed to be climbing on. They get to see the plane so much that they think it's their own personal playground. 

And of course since we were right down the street from a Cracker Barrel {and there aren't ANY in the state of California} we had to make sure to have dinner before hitting the road home. 

So Much Going On

There has been so much that has happened in our lives that I'm struggling to figure out where to begin this update. Oh wait...that's the easy part! Lane found out the week between the birthday parties that he would be leaving again - and he's already gone. Yup, just that quick. He's around the globe again for months at a time and the kids and I are holding down the fort.

Since it was such a quick thing we tried to throw as much family time in as we could. Some days we just did something close to where Lane was if he had to run errands for work, other days we had full 100% days off for him - not many. Some of the things that we were able to throw together were:
The Zoo - Lane had never been! Say whaaaaat?!
Camping
Sea World
Yuma Air Show

So...we've been figuring things out again. The kids and I are getting into our groove. We're sticking to our regular schedule and trying not to change things up too much. This time is a little bit harder because now I have 2 kids asking for Daddy. Hunter gets it and he's not been too happy about the goodbyes.

 The last time Lane left he gave the kids a recordable book. This time around he just gave the kids some new toys. It was helpful to give them something to look forward to once we got home.

 And then the hugs began and my tears started flowing. I don't like to see my kids sad - or Lane sad for that matter!

 

 To make up for our sad feelings we had donuts at the USO. The kids got to play in the family room when we were waiting on Mimi and Pop and so they were really excited to get to go back!

And eventually the early wake-up time for the kids got to Hunter. He fell asleep rather quickly in the car on the way home from Daddy-drop-off.