Yesterday morning I was up early to get four miles in on the treadmill. Loving these Hoka Cliftons!

I have been sneaking Christmas in more and more as the days go by, but my house is looking a bit confused. Drinking coffee from a Christmas mug with fall/Thanksgiving decorations out.

I really wimped out and drove Cannon to school. It was about 24 degrees, gloomy and I just wasn’t feeling it. Last year I would walk the kids all the way down to about 15 degrees……I need to work on my cold hardiness this year!

Emmy and I then ran some errands to pick up a few things.

We picked up these pencil trees for the entry way, I am so excited to put them out.

We also got our first robot vacuum. We have been wanting one forever and finally grabbed one (thanks Black November deals).

The rest of the day was spent resting, playing and teaching.

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Anyone else have a Eufy, do you love it? Any tips for using a robot vacume?

Well, it was fun while it lasted…..

In August Cannon got to go back to preschool, just two days a week, but it was still nice for him to go and see his teachers and friends. Then in October he got to go back full time (three hours a day, four days a week) he had more friends to play with and loved it even more.

Unfortunately our Covid numbers here in Colorado have gotten really bad and the state has moved our county back into threat level orange.

So now ALL students will return home for distance learning until (AT LEAST) January. While I am not excited about this development, Cannon LOVES school, I understand why we need to and really hope we can get back to safer levels.

Cannon’s teachers are working hard to create distance learning oppertunities for their students. We are going to miss them so much.

Before the news of schools closing came I got up at 4:09 AM (why 4:09 not 4:00 or 4:10 I don’t know…..)

I got up, got some coffee in then ran just under seven progression miles on the treadmill. The silver lining about Cannon not going to school is getting more time with him as well as more relaxed mornings. Since we don’t have to rush to get out the door by 7:30 for school then maybe I will run outside more!

I decided to clear all the records out of my watch. I haven’t reset it since I got it in 2016 so I though it would be fun to set a bunch of new records (and celebrate them) as I come back from this injury.

I also got excited about putting the “candy cane”straw in my tumbler. It’s the little things that make me happy. Christmas is slowly starting to trickle into our house.

Cold weather has arrived here and honestly masks are not as bad in to winter, it actually keeps my face warm while walking the kids to school.

We spent the evening making soup and hanging out. Cory had a meeting with a consultant to possibly have solar panels placed on our house.

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Do you reset your records on your watch ever?

If you have kids are they learning from home or at school?

If you celebrate has Christmas started to show up at your house or do you wait until after Thanksgiving?

We had a crazy but wonderful weekend. It all started with our water heater breaking. It was about 14 years old so I guess it was time. Cory spent the weekend installing a tankless water heater, which wasn’t that much fun for him. The silver lining is that we now have a tankless heater which saves energy and water, just a little hug for mother Earth.

The kids and I kept it low key and played outside a lot. We visited local playgrounds.

This year I have been missing the places we used to go, the local children’s museum (we still have our membership to support them but aren’t going to indoor activities other than school for Cannon), friends houses, indoor pools. So getting outside no matter the weather has become the plan to keep the kids going this year. I have loaded up on outdoor gear and hope to be outside all winter long.

I stumbled across the hashtag #1000hoursoutside and had to look into it. I am so excited about this year and with Covid, it feels like the perfect year to jump in for 1000 hours outside.

From their site: The entire purpose of 1000 Hours Outside is to attempt to match nature time with screen time. If kids can consume media through screens 1200 hours a year on average then the time is there and at least some of it can and should be shifted towards a more productive and healthy outcome!

I am already thinking of all the mini hikes we can go on, forts to build in the back yard and all the playgrounds! We are very lucky that Colorado had sun all year round but as the book says:

** I haven’t read this book yet, but I am on the list to check it out from the library. Although it’s tempting to buy it so I can highlight as I wish!

Cannon by the way is all on board for this idea!1000 hours a year means almost three hours everyday so that is going to really be a challenge (sadly) compared to what we have been doing.

This is a great article!

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Will you be getting outside more this year?

Did you have a wonderful weekend?

Today was a momentous day, today the Associated Press called the American Presidential election for Biden/Harris. And I feel like I can breathe again.

But also I have broken down in tears many times today thinking about Kamala Harris. President Elect Joe Biden seems like a good man, with character and class but Vice President Elect Harris makes my heart sing.

She is a first in so many ways.

And while I think it’s sad that it took this long to have our firsts I believe and have hope that it is doors blown open.

Joe Biden gave a great speech tonight about how he plans to rebuild this country. I believe we can lift ourselves out of this mess we are in. Mr. Biden also mentioned his wife, Dr. Biden as teacher, her said “For America’s educators this is a great day for you, you have one of your own in the White House”. This statement also made me so happy, as an educator I can’t say how happy it makes me to have the right people on our team.

It’s a beautiful day.

And let me say if you voted for Trump, I feel your pain, I was broken in 2016 and couldn’t fathom moving forward in a Trump ran America. So I hope you heal and that we can move together in Unity.

Five years ago we drove to Longmont Colorado met, fell in love and adopted Humphry.

We had lost two of our dogs in two years, our pug Winston was used to having puppy siblings and we didn’t want him to be alone. I was newly pregnant with Cannon and excited to add a little one to the family.

Humphry came home with us and immediately bonded with Winston.

His likes includes:

Cuddling, eating and laying in the sunshine.

His dislikes include:

Being cold, left out of adventures and getting wet.

When we brought Cannon home from the hospital Humphry immediately fell in love.

He is a very good puppy big brother.

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Emmy also won Humphry’s heart.

Unfortunatly we lost Winston (our Pug) in 2018 and Humphry became an only dog. We decided to not add another dog to our family at that moment given that we had a toddler and a newborn to keep him company.

This year we have had some very dramatic health scares with Humphry. He has been in the hospital a couple times and he even had his heart stop during a procedure. It was very scary and traumatic, we are so glad he is home and well now.

Today we celebrate five years of having Humphry in our lives and maybe just maybe start to consider if we are ready to add another puppy to the family so he can have another best friends.

Another day another 4 miles on the treadmill…..I don’t have much to say about it. I was tired and just ran easy. I will say that I I feel SOOOOO much better when I get up before the kids and run. Until the afternoon when I hit the wall and want a nap so bad =)

Our day went as it normally does, walk Cannon to school, meet friends at the playground and come home for lunch.

It Friday, which is probably my favorite day! Here are some of my other favorites this week:

Old Navy is having a 50% off for card holders!

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I grabbed a few staples that we needed but also matching PJs for the entire family (love matching) and some holiday masks for the kiddos. I like these because they have adjustable ears and fit the kids well.

I have been loving this Cranberry Raspberry sparking water from Spindrift. We got a case from Costco, but you can find it elsewhere as well.

Starbucks came out with their holiday drinks and cups today so that was a fun treat, I got the caramel brulee latte.

And because I love matching so much, I got Emmy a pair of TOMS so that we could “kinda” match. They have really cute holiday designs right now but I can’t justify buying a pair that I will only wear one month a year so I stick to the classics.

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Have any favorites this week?

Do you buy seasonal clothing? YES for the kids, not so much for myself.

We woke up feeling a bit “hungover” from staying up too late nervous about the election. Luckily Cannon doesn’t have school on Wednesdays so we got to have a lazy slow morning. Lazy slow mornings for us still means getting up before 6am but at least we don’t have to rush around trying to get out of the door for school. Next year we won’t have this nice mid-week break =(

I have gotten into the bad habit of staying up too late and not getting up early to run. Leaving me trying to squeeze in a run some other time during the day. I always feel so much better when I get up before my family and get my run in early so the rest of the day I can focus on the other things I need to do (work, take care of kids, etc). I need to break this habit ASAP, I find for me the best way to do this is to be very consistent for a week or two no matter how hard it is then it just because part of the routine. So for at least the next week my alarm will be set for 4 am not matter what. When I stay up too late then I really pay for it the next day so it helps me make better choices.

I also signed up for the Colorado Brewery Holiday Distance Challenge. The idea is that you earn more swag the more miles you run. I like that some proceeds go to Grand County Foundation’s Grand County Wildfire Emergency Fund, which supports the needs of Grand County (CO) residents who have been evacuated, displaced, or have lost their homes during the recent devastating Grand Country wildfires.

My BIG goal is to run 250 miles over the two months. I plan to include all walking and running miles. We will see about biking, if my injury acts up I might include some cycling (3 miles biking adjusts to 1 mile for the challenge) but I would like it to be all running miles if possible.

Yesterday I got my miles in taking the kids, with the double stroller, to the park. It’s been pretty hot here in Colorado for November so I was sweating by the time we got home!

The kids joined me running for a bit which was so nice because the stroller is so much easier to push without them in it!

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Have you ever done a distance challenge? This should keep me moving during the holiday season!

Do you love when your kids have the day off of school?

It was a very long night and now we wait to hear the final results of the election. It feels like so much rides on this outcome and I am trying and failing to be patient.

I woke up early and ran on the treadmill before getting the kiddos ready for school. Our treadmill is in our unfinished basement.

In the morning Cannon wanted to walk with my instead of riding in the stroller.

Emmy wanted to walk on the way home.

She can’t wait until it’s her turn to go to school.

To distract from the stress of the day my mom decided to run a virtual half marathon around our neighborhood. They live about two miles from us so she set up aid stations at her house and at ours.

She did a few loops to get all 13.1 miles in. Emmy and I cheered her on each time she passed our house.

Emmy had to get some of her own running in. When do we lose that joy of running? I swear all kids look so happy running!

In between cheering Emmy pretended to be tired.

We were able to pick up Cannon from school and get to my parents house before my Mom finished her race. We made signs and held up a finishing tape for her to break because obviously she won!

It was fun to cheer her on and be distracted from some of the heaviness of the day.

We went home to dinner early because I had a class to teach.

After class I spent time following the election and went to bed much too late after realizing we weren’t going to hear an outcome anytime soon.

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Did you follow the election?

Ever done a virtual race?

Runner’s World recently published an article about the Best Jogging strollers. I am deep in the stroller years so I was interested in what they listed as the best ones.

I have never tried the pull behind option, which seems awesome for running form but difficult to make sure your kid isn’t freaking out or throwing things from the stroller (happens a lot).

We own two running strollers and love them both! We got a single BOB Revolution stroller before Cannon was born and have used it a ton. While Cannon was very tiny (less than six months old) we used it with an attachment and his car seat because he needed the extra support.

I love with the Revolution you can allow the front wheel to swivel, best for walking. Or you can fix the front wheel for safer running.

This thing rolls like a dream and I would suggest it to anyone. It has seen many many miles with us.

Emmy loves riding in the Bob now at two years old!

We also own a Thule Chariot Cross 2 (double). This thing is like a rolling hotel room and we have used it so much over the last two years. Some of it’s best features is that it is convertible from walking, running and even a bike trailer. But it also is great in all weather conditions. The cover creates a warm little bubble on cold days. The kids have stayed warm and dry in rain and snow storms while Cory and I have frozen.

Also Humphry had used it to roll around in while recovering.

This stroller gets used most days to commute to school, go on runs and even flown to Disneyland and act as a rolling crib for naps for the kiddos.

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For infants you can get an insert sling that keeps baby safe until they can hold their head up well.

The kids still fit well at two and four years old.

I haven’t tried all other running strollers so I can’t say these two are the best, but I can say after years of use, we love them.

Today started as normal taking the kids to school drop off in the double and enjoyed a beautiful fall day.

We met a friend at a local park to enjoy the weather and get some energy out.

We also spent some time outside cleaning up the yard and trying to get it ready for winter. That ended dramatically when Cannon was stung by a yellow jacket. He is so sweet we was trying to save the yellow jacket from being stuck in his water table but he didn’t really know he would get stung if he picked it up. Poor kiddo was very offended to be stung while he was trying to save it.

I switched the watch face on my Garmin Fenix to a holiday theme, sure it might be early but who doesn’t need a little more joy right now.

Today is a big day, it is election day and no matter who you are voting for a lot is on the line. I can just hope we can have a clear answer and move forward together somehow.

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Have you voted early or will you go to the polls today?

Do you have a running stroller you love?

The time change was not my friend today. Some people talk about getting “an extra hour of sleep” but because we have little kids it just means that they get up at 5:30 instead of 6:30 and we feel confused about time for an entire day. It usually takes a week for us to adjust to the time change. Does anyone benefit from from time change? Please tell me so I feel less grumpy about it.

After traveling and Halloween we spent the day trying to get things back to normal. I had planned on making the kiddos “spider” cinnamon rolls for Halloween morning. We were camping so I couldn’t make it for them so Sunday morning I was able to make them plus some eggs.

We had all the basic life things to get done like grocery shopping and cleaning out the car. On our way to Costco we spotted a hot air balloon landing, this is one of my favorite things about where we live. We drove right by where they were landing.

It was very bright (Colorado sun) but it was really fun to see.

We cooked and cleaned and worked on moving our things into our new trailer. The kids also colored the sheets that my mom made them.

I wish I was artistic like her!

I also spent time taking down all of our Halloween decorations and it made me a little sad. The kids love Halloween so much and they are sad to see it come down but we are already planning our family costumes for next year. We decided not to dress up as a family this year and just let the kids dress up because there wasn’t as much to do and it kind of seemed like a waste. Looking back now I think we should have because I think the kids would have loved it so next year we will go all in.

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Do you do family costumes?

How do you feel about the time change?