August 11, 2022

Back to School Occasions Bins + A Slower Day

After a few days (weeks) of trying to cram in as much summer as possible I think we were all craving a slower day. We played at home for a long time, we even gave Bonita a makeover. This skeleton has been so much fun.

We spent the rest of the morning playing at the library and picking up books for the first week of school.

I still can’t believe that we start school next week.

lucky for us, these slow days will continue we just won’t have full freedom anymore.

We spent the afternoon at my parents house where I found this classic set.

It was actually a gift to my brother back in 1981 from our Aunt that we lost many years ago. I asked both my mom and my bother if I could take them to read to my kids and they were happy to share. I am so excited to have this family set as I have been meaning to buy it.

When we all got home we played outside all evening, had dinner on the deck (steak because it’s Cory’s birthday week). We were excited to see a humming bird visit our feeder.

I finally got out Back to School Occasions Bin put together and while it’s simple I really think I love it!

I think these little pencil cups are the cutest!

I also love these letter sprinkles.

We’re ready to celebrate back to school!

I’m a little sad I didn’t take pictures of my spring or 4th of July baskets!

When do your kids go back to school? Are you doing anything fun to celebrate the end of summer?

August 8, 2022

The Big Bold Decision to Go Our Own Way

There has been a lot of big decisions made in our house this summer. Ones that will shape what the future looks like for all of us. Some I will wait until a more appropriate time to share. We took months to decide to go the nontraditional route of homeschooling (hybrid schooling) our kids.

We did preschool for Emerald last year and we all loved it so much.

Cannon would join us when he was home from school and stated asking me to do the lessons while he was home because he loved it so much.

I mentioned hybrid school because we are sending both kids to school part time so they still have a classroom experience while maintaining much more flexibility and time together.

I am very excited to start this journey together and a bit nervous. It makes me a bit uncomfortable because the norm is to send kids to public school. And we are big fans of public school, the teachers are amazing and our neighborhood school is fantastic. I was a public school teacher and really do think it’s wonderful. For us it just came down to wanting more time together, more one-on-one learning and chasing a wild and free life. Also we plan to take this one year at a time, as soon as it stops being the best choice for us we can always return to a more traditional route.

The plan is to have the kids attend school part time and do lessons at home with me sometimes. Also we want to include a lot of road-schooling where we take school on the road to learn and flourish while traveling.

It’s no secret that our favorite thing is to travel and see the world as a family. I am excited to take our little school on the road with us.

Have you ever considered non-traditional school? I would have never considered home schooling before but Covid forced us to do some in the past couple years and we found that we loved it! But please wish me luck, I have no idea what I am doing.

This feels like a very magical season in life.

August 7, 2022

A Day in Frisco

We woke up to the sound of the river next to our campsite and fresh mountain air.

The kids were excited to just play in our campsite and ride their bikes. Cannon is enjoying his new bigger bike and Emmy is still loving her strider bike. Emmy has started riding around on a pedal bike with assistance.

Cannon has been loving having his own kayak this summer, sadly we forgot his paddle at home this trip. Luckily the Dillion Lake Marina had kids’ paddles you can rent. We picked up a paddle then found a beach we could launch from.

I have wanted to kayak on Lake Dillion forever and was really excited to get out on the lake. We have a stand up paddle board, adult kayak and Cannon’s child’s kayak. Emmy road along with Cory on the SUP, Cannon had his own kayak and our dog Humphry road with me. Humphry is not a fan of the water and isn’t a great swimmer so we made sure he could swim with a life jacket on.

We are lunch and spent most of the day down at the lake. We are trying to fit in as much time on these mountain lakes while we can. We will be out of town until mid September and then it will be too cold to enjoy the water. Camping will continue year-round.

When we were done we went back to camp for more playing, riding bikes, exploring the river and grilling dinner.

We were planning on going for a night hike after dinner before bed but there was a flash flood warning for part of the drive home and our neighborhood. The kids got nervous about it when they heard us talking about it. We decided it wasn’t worth making them feel nervous to stay another night. It only took about 30 minutes to pack up and head for home.

I love camping but I won’t lie, my bed and coffee are better at home.

Hoping we actually get some rain tomorrow, without the flooding.

August 3, 2022

Kids Hike – Gem Lake – Rocky Mountain National Park

We decided to join some friends today in checking off a bucket list item of hiking Gem Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.

We got up early piled all the kids in the car and got to the trailhead around 9 am.

The trail was not too crowded which was not surprising given it was a Tuesday. There was plenty of parking and toilets at the trailhead.

The trail is rated moderate and there is a lot of climbing on the way to the lake but the views make it worth it.

Gem Lake is gorgeous!

Unfortunately the chipmunks have been fed so much by people that they have lost all fear and are almost aggressive in begging for food. Remember to never feed wildlife, it’s not good for them no matter how cute they are!

On the way out we decided to add onto our hike to see the Twin Owl rocks.

It made for close to five miles of hiking. Cannon (at 6 years old) hiked this with no issues or complaints. Emmy (at 4) also did really really well but did get tired towards the end, I think this is the furthest she has ever hiked without having to be carried.

This hike gives me hope that Emmy will be able to hike 6 miles, mostly downhill, to see the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

Do your kids like to hike?

August 1, 2022

Hello August – 2022

August first means all things back to school for us! As usual it feels like it’s just the middle of summer and we shouldn’t be thinking about back to school until September. Colorado doesn’t agree with me and has set the first day of school in mid August.

We are focusing on getting everything organized and ready to go. Also after a very free range summer I need to help the kids get organized and ready to get back to some structure and work. We also want to enjoy our last two weeks of summer the best we can, this includes:

More time outside
More time at the pool
visiting as many playgrounds as possible
Two last camping trips (we will still camp during the school year but we will have to go for shorter trips around the kids’ school and soccer schedule)
Enjoy the slow mornings while we can!

I have lots to do to get us ready for school. My Pinterest page is full of fun ideas.

My goals for August are to:

Create a list of things we want to do and create a schedule
Get in a routine of getting up early to exercise
Help the kids transition to school as best I can
Plan fun meals and activities for their first days of school

July was amazing with lot’s of travel, camping and time with friends.

Tell me something amazing you did in July.

When do your kids go back to school?

July 18, 2022

Trails + Monarch Pass

Before packing up to go home I wanted to get some miles in on the trails.

Hartman Rocks has amazing trails for mountain bikers and runners. Some were a technical above my comfort level (double black diamond).

I figure this is good training for a half marathon in the San Juans, I don’t think that terrain will be easy either.

The kids joined me for the last bit of my run, they love to trail run!

When I got back we needed to pack up to head home.

I love going on gondola rides up in the mountains and since the weather was nice we decided that today would be the day that we would ride to the top of Monarch Mountain.

The kids and I were getting ready to go up the gondola when we saw that the trails were open. Instead of riding up with us Cory decided to ride his mountain bike to the top. What a great mid drive way to get some movement!

At over 12,000 ft I was impressed with his climbing skills.

The rest of the day was spent driving home, stoping for playgrounds and iced coffees along the way.

July 17, 2022

Wildflower Festival – Crested Butte Colorado

We woke up excited to visit Crested Butte during it’s peak wildflower season, I had seen online that Crested Butte was hosting a wildflower festival this weekend.

We started our day by driving from Gunnison to Crested Butte then up to the Peanut Lake area for a hike to see the wildflowers.

We did the Uper/lower Loop hike and loved it so much!

There were meadows full of flowers and stands of Aspen Trees.

The views were amazing.

After our hike we went into historic Crested Butte for some time at a playground.

Then on to find ice cream.

Humphry enjoyed lots of attention.

We decided to go check out the camping nearby to scout out spots for next summer.

We stumbled upon Lake Irwin and spent some time playing in the water.

We are hoping to get a \spot next July here but you need to reserve it six months in advance.

Then we drove back to Gunnison for pizza before a little climbing in our campsite.

This is one of Cannon’s favorite campsites!

Have you been in Colorado for Wildflower season? Where is your favorite place to see the flowers?

July 16, 2022

Kid Hike – Lost Lake

I woke up excited to get a run in because the unpaved road into our campsite had four tunnels.

It’s always fun to run somewhere new.

The weather was cool and perfect but running in the mountains is always humbling.

Since it’s Friday Cory had to work so we picked him up a coffee from our favorite coffee shop in Buena Vista then set off for adventure.

Humphry was with us as well and we were in search of wildflowers.

We decided on the Lost Lake trail near the top of Cottonwood Pass.

The hike was enchanting and reminded me of Austria.

There was some stream crossings, a mud bog and lots of mosquitos but it was worth it for the views.

We had lunch and enjoyed the views from Cottonwood Pass before a rainstorm blew in.

When we got down off the pass it was time to pack up Kermit and drive to Gunnison to our next campsite.

We love camping at Heartman Rocks. After a quick dinner we did a pre-bedtime hike. Summer bedtimes are an easily forgotten suggestion.

July 15, 2022

Camping Season + Too Hot

We had a busy day getting ready for a weekend camping trip in the mountains. Cannon started with a bike lesson from Cory and Emmy went for a scooter ride while I went for a run.

I LOVE summer mornings that are bright and only require shorts and a t-shirt. Although fall is my favorite running season.

We rounded out the morning with packing up our clothes and electronics. Then we spent a little time at a playground to get some more time outside and energy out.

We have a three hour drive to our campsite so it’s important to get some exercise. It was a bit hot so we didn’t

Then we stopped by the library to return a bunch of books and pick up some new movies for our trip.

Emmy picked out this Littlest Pet Shop movie, I made her trade it for a non Halloween one so we could save this for spooky season. It did make me smile because I used to love the Littlest pet shop toys when I was little. I will have to look online and see if they still sell them.

Our drive was uneventful and we arrived at our campsite in Buena Vista.

July 14, 2022

A super Full Moon + Finally a Race!

We spent the morning playing at home while I got some PT and chores done.

Please excuse my sandal tan lines!

We had an early lunch then hit the pool for most of the afternoon.

Cannon is finally big enough to go down the waterslides at the pool! He loved it so much, he has been waiting (literally) his entire life to go down these slides. You have to be 48″ tall and we just realized that Cannon is 49″

After the pool we watched the Movie “The Bad Guys” which was cute.

I saw online that today was going to be a super full moon. I was excited to do a full moon festival for the kids (not exactly sure what that mean, just that they get to stay up to see it and have some snacks maybe). But we had cloud cover so we sent them to bed at their normal time.

I finally signed up for a race!

I don’t think I have raced since 2019 when I did a half marathon in Moab. Thanks to injuries and Covid I have missed racing so much. I found a trail race in Telluride that looks amazing and my knee seems to be healing well. I am hopeful that I can finally return to the trails for a nice (slow) half marathon.

I mean……how cold I not?!?

Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman