Wait...there was a wagon?!?!?

 

 

Wow...its been almost a full month since my last post, and I have to admit some of my time away was WONDERFUL, some not so wonderful, and some hard but worthwhile.  With all that being said I have SO much too catch you up on. 

 

First was vacation.  We  have never taken a vacation that wasn't fraught with stress and running around.  We do trips like Disney, Busch Gardens, Washington DC...places  that are  amazing and fun but require a lot of planning and walking and doing.  Now my mini me is a beach junkie.  Not sure where she got it from, but thank God she did.  It's as if she knew in her  little heart and soul what mommy and daddy needed all these years.  She asked us if we could do a beach vacation this year, and after our  one day of ocean time last summer, we  were ready to give it a  try.  Oh. Em. Gee.  The  hubs and I have always, I mean ALWAYS, said we  aren't beach people.  We aren't  interested in a beach vacation, what do  you do  when it rains, how do you not get bored...?!?!  Let me say, I am more than happy to say I was dead wrong about that! 

 

even the big girl smiled

We decided  to  go to Charleston, SC.  My hubby grew up spending lots of time there as he had family that  lived there for a long time.  We hadn't been in almost 12 years, so  it was time.  It gave us the best of both sides (just in case).   We had a selection of beaches to  choose from, plus it has the historical and beautiful city of Charleston to enjoy.  For the first time ever on vacation, I relaxed.  I mean, sleep through the night into the morning, roll out of bed  for a coffee and get  dressed  in my bathing suit to go straight to  the beach and lay back down relaxed.  It was amazing, no that's not even a strong enough word, it  was magical.  How had we been so against this for so many years.  We played in the sand,  swam in the ocean, laid on the beach and got  tan.  Mini me was SO happy.  My big girl, sat with kindle in hand enjoying time in her beach  chair under the sun umbrella, and the hubs and I  smiled  and breathed in the sweet salty air.

 



serenity

loving the beach with my girls

my sweetie and me

the beach junkie :)

 

We drove up to Ocean Isle, NC on our last day to see friends at the house they rented for the week.  It was nice to see another beach, but it's just not "our  beach" (which is now the only way my hubby refers to Isle of  Palm).  :)  I just can not even truly put into words how restful, needed, and just perfect it all was.

 

At the end of an awesome week, my hubby got a message though that his father had lost his battle to cancer.  It  was NOT the news we were expecting or obviously wanted to hear, and my hubby didn't want to take away from the  girls fun so we didn't really discuss it until after we were home.  There is still a lot to process from that,  but all in due time.

 

We came out of all of that into the start of a new school year.  My big girl started 8th grade, old hat at this whole school situation. 

lil sis  had to get in on the 1st day fun

 

And then yesterday was the day I had been dreading, excited for, sad, happy...all sorts of  emotions.  My mini me started kindergarten.  I am excited for  her, I really am, but I can't believe she is already at that age.  It goes SO fast.

hambone

this face <3

my baby and me

 

 

Forgive me for being so absent, but as you can see the past few weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster for  us.  With all this, I can honestly say I have not only fallen off the wagon with my eating and exercising, but I basically forgot there even was a wagon. 

 

To be fair, our rule is when on vacation,  we vacation!  We don't worry about what we are  eating, we don't worry about working out.  It's one week a year to  just kick it with the kiddos and that is EXACTLY what we did this year.  It's just with everything else that has happened and we  have had to prepare for, it got put on a back burner.  But have no fear, I sent out a search party...found the wagon, and am climbing back on one leg at a  time. 

 

Do you through the rules away on vacation?

Blog of the Week

Red Delicious Life

 

 

I have said it before and I will say it again, there are some things about social media that I just LOVE...and one of them is being able to reconnect with old friends.  This weeks blog of the week is no exception.  In my former life, I worked in the theatre (yes you are supposed ton read it with a haughty British accent).  Over the years I worked with many different people and personality types, but this weeks Blog of the Week blogger was by far one of my favs!  A consummate professional who was easy going and fun to work with and for, as well as someone who I could call a friend at the end of the day...not just a co-worker. 

 

While most of the blogs I follow are along the lines of wellness and fitness and health (oh my!), there are a few that I follow just because I enjoy them and they are a break from that part of my life...as well as to keep up with friends and see their accomplishments and dream of being able to do some of them myself. 

 

With thinking about the fact that I had a last leg to our vacation that I needed to write, I realized it would coincide perfectly (at least in my mind) with featuring Diana and Red Delicious Life as a BOTW.  You see the last leg of our trip was at Kennywood Amusement Park and Diana and her family are roller coaster enthusiasts so to me..it was a perfect match!  Diana blogs mostly about her sewing and quilting (which is absolutely BEAUTIFUL) and but has fun little family tidbits along the way (as do I).  I hope you stop by and check out her blog, it's a fun one!

 

my girls on one of the "little" coasters together :)

 

 



Vacation Recap: DC plus BOTW

Okay, so I have been promising to update about vacation for over a week now so I thought I'd give you a little taste of the fun today.  Sadly, the only pics I have access to right now are the ones from my phone...so I apologize now for "graininess". 

For our family vacation this year we decided to visit DC, Bethany Beach, DE and Kennywood Amusement Park (Pittsburgh, PA).  Washington DC because its a short drive and we love it.  It's great for kids with all of the (free) museums, landmarks and overall sense of wonder.  Bethany Beach, because we have never taken our girls to the ocean and with little bear loving the beach so much, it seemed like the right time to do it, and Kennywood because it was on the way home and seriously...who doesn't love a few good roller coasters?!?!

So we began our trip in DC.  I love going to DC.  We always stay in the same hotel which is a short walk to the mall so once we get there we can park our car and just hoof it through the capital.  LOVE that!  We arrived at dinnertime on Friday, so we ate then of course needed to walk off some dinner (awesome buffet at the hotel and bonus...kids eat free!!!)  So after dinner we headed over to the mall.  Took a few pictures (see above).  We were equidistant between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument.  The monument is still closed for repair due to the earthquake on 8/23/11, so it is lit up but completely surrounded with scaffolding.

 

We decided to head towards the monument because my hubby wanted to see the WWII Memorial at night with all the lights, and let me just say he was dead on with that idea.  The memorial itself is beautiful and impressive, but all lit up at night just made it breathtaking.

The girls LOVED it.  They danced around and we got pics under the Ohio wreath and sat and just enjoyed the beauty if it all for a few.  It's cool to be able to look off into the distance as well and see Mr. Lincoln sitting there in all his glory watching over DC.  We enjoyed the cool evening walk back to the hotel and all quickly crashed for the night.

The next morning we were up and at 'em early.  We had a list of things we wanted to do, which included seeing Mr. Lincoln.  My oldest was set on it.  So we started our trek and our first stop as at the Sculpture Garden, then off to one of our favs the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  Both my girls love the history museum at home, so this stop was a no brainer.  It's an amazing museum if you haven't been there...GO!

 

 

We then stopped and took pics by the castle which is an impressive site to behold from the outside, but tell a 3 year old little girl that she is about to go inside a castle and, well, if you have ever been you know what a let down it was for her. :)

Our next stop was at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.  This museum is amazing!  So beautiful.  So glad we decided to give it  look-see!  The whole thing is just gorgeous inside and out and they had a fabulous interactive kids area.

Our evening is a whole other post so I will leave you in suspense for that.  I want to make sure I get to this weeks Blog of the Week as well.

Coffee Cake and Cardio

 

There are a few things I look forward to each morning at my desk at work, my cup of coffee and reading the latest installment from Ashley over at Coffee Cake and Cardio. 

Ashley is amazing!  She is a fitness inspiration to me.  It seems she is always on the ball with making sure she gets in some sort of workout daily.  She is the center for the DC Divas, the professional women football team in DC, she is training for a 10K, and she has just revamped her view on food and what she eats.  She actually is one of the key people that got me thinking more about what foods I eat and how they furl my body rather then how many calories are in them. 

Ashley lives in the greater DC area, and while my pics are a bit too pixilated, she just had a great post today Weigh-In Wednesday: A Monumental Run, and she has some great pictures of places I just mentioned above.  Maybe next time I am in the DC area I will be able to meet up with her IRL.  We found a great little place to eat near the Capitol, but that is for another post.  All I can say is YUMMY!!!

Ashley is a blogger extraordinaire and if you haven't yet, you really MUST stop by her page!

Back to the Grindstone

Well my dears I am back from vacation.  Sad to be back, even more sad that I left all my lovelies at home asleep bright and early while I had to drag myself up and off to work.  Ahhh reality, back to the everyday grind.  I will share all about my trip soon, sorry there were no updates.  The wifi at our first hotel was pretty much non-existent it was so slow....then we were off to the beach so (no offense) but I didn't even think of the wifi, then it was an amusement park day with just no time for wifi...so I do apologize that you will have to wait just a bit longer to hear of all our adventures, but I do promise they are coming.

A few things that I do want to share now though:

1) I love my family and am SO glad we were able to sneak away for a few days and spend lots of quality time together

2) I am ready to make some changes...bring on the goal setting

3) I need your help...keep me accountable!

What is all this you ask?  Well, without getting into it too much I am ready to make some changes.  I have been lazy and that needs to stop.  I need to get back on track with my workouts and my eating habits.  While on vacation my 3 year old asked (more then once I must proudly say) for salad as her meal.  Thinking about it now I am proud and happy that she knows how to make good, healthy choices when it comes to what she eats...I am also sad and ashamed that I enjoyed WAY too many "bad" foods while she chomped on her leafy greens; ah and that student becomes the teacher :)

You are all over the place today Shannon, what gives??!!  I know, my head is swirling with everything I want to write about but OMG it's Wednesday already and I want to make sure I get my Blog of the Week in, especially since this week's blog is my "blogspiration."  This week's Blog of the Week is...

 

No Thanks to Cake



As a kid in 5th grade I had someone that was one of my BFF's.  When she told me her family was moving to Tennessee I was so upset.  I remember sleeping over her house and her mom making us oven fried chicken (yummo) and just always smiling with her!  Again as with last week's blog, the beauty of social media brought us back together.  Reconnecting with Kelly has been awesome, what is even better is she has this amazing blog that has helped inspire me with mine.  Kelly's journey has been a fierce one (just like her).  She still makes me laugh, makes me feel inspired and challenges me to be better.  She may never know how truly grateful I am that we reconnected and how much she has helped me.  Make sure you check out her blog.  It's just fabulous!

VACATION

One of the things I love most about blogging is that other people reach out to you and when they think there is a topic that you may find interesting.  This is the 2nd time I have been lucky enough to have someone do this.  Today's post is about exercise and travel and is brought to you by Mike, stop by and check out HIS blog too when you get a chance.  As we have been busy planning our family vacation...this came at JUST the right time for me...a friendly reminder if you will! :)  Enjoy!

Going on Vacation Doesn't Mean You Get to Stop Taking Care of Your Body

Standing in long lines at the airport, sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, and/or spending hours sitting at a conference table in various meetings all day long takes its toll on travelers. Both business and pleasure travelers feel the stress of travel, yet many still make the decision to take a vacation from exercise while away from home.

Combining Exploration and Exercise

One of the best ways to exercise in a new and exciting city is to combine it with sightseeing. Many travelers take advantage of new bike trails, jogging trails, and walking paths in their destination cities. You can skip the treadmill in your hotel in favor of a jog around the city park or along the beach or waterline. Taking in the sights, smells, and local area can make exercise feel a little less like work and a little more like enjoyment. Forgoing your rental car in favor of a walk through the local neighborhoods can benefit your body and your mind. You might find an interesting new restaurant to try, a coffee shop with a great breakfast selection, or even a few little-known places to come back to later in the day.

Stress Relief in the Hotel
One of the most important reasons travelers should continue to exercise while out of town is to relieve stress. Your knees suffer from tension when you sit for long periods of time, which is easy to do on long flights or car rides. Exercise can ease that tension and help you feel that much better. You don’t have to sweat it out for hours at the gym while you’re enjoying a family vacation or a few days at a work conference, but you should spend a few minutes every day working out. Try taking a walk around your hotel; the neighborhood in which your hotel is located, using the hotel’s fitness facility, or swimming laps in the pool.

Doing Your Research
Before you commit to a particular hotel in your destination city, do your homework. Most hotels offer a fitness center to registered guests. Others even offer exercise classes, such as yoga or Pilate's. You might find it easier to workout in your hotel if you have a class to look forward to. If you’re traveling with your family, knowing you can sneak down to the 24-hour fitness center while the rest of the family is asleep can make you feel less guilty about missing family time. On a recent trip to Maui I was able to book a hotel with a 24-hour gym by researching on a site called Gogobot beforehand. Here I could get a list of all the Maui hotels and discern which hotels had the best fitness centers. This way I could enjoy the rest of my day after my early morning workout.

Vacation is a time for relaxation and enjoyment. If you are stressed, tense, or your body is suffering from the wear and tear of travel, you shouldn’t skip a workout. Doing so will only detract from the enjoyment your trip is supposed to bring you.