It was an amazing day from start to finish even with a little failure.

We started the day enjoying a beautiful sunrise.

While I love the summer, the snow capped mountains are magical.

Emmy and Cory shared some story time while I got ready to go for a run.

I did get up at 4 AM but I did some PT exercises and other tasks until the sun came up so I could run outside in the snow.

Best decision ever.

It’s been too long since I have seen this view.

Once I was done running we got ready a headed to the mountains in search of a little adventure.

We went to Lily Lake in Estes Park, we know that there is a flat trail there. We didn’t want to tackle any steep trails when there was ice and snow.

Unfortunately with high winds and blowing snow it was not a pleasant experience.

None of us were having fun.

So we cut our adventure short and headed into town for coffee and treats. We explained to the kids that it is still worth it to try for an adventure even if it doesn’t turn out the way you expected. (Emmy was there too but she was so miserable that she hid with Cory).

On the way home we stopped at the Colorado Cherry Company. This is such a cute little road side restaurant with amazing baked goods.

We picked up this beautiful cherry pie. Happily we had enough to share with my parents as well, it’s so nice having them so close.

Then it was a Costco trip to pick up the essentials.

And some new non-essential toys.

We played outside in the snow until we were too cold.

Then came in for dinner and pie!

After a quick shower Emmy tried to convince us that our bed was hers.

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Do you have adventures that fail?

Do you love Costco? We are big fans and end up going every week.

Quick check in to say happy weekend! I was pretty tired this week so I am very happy that the weekend is here.

This is what happens when you forget to set out your clothes the night before. I had to grab my things in a dark room at 4 AM so honestly it could have been worse. Three easy miles on the treadmill while starting Bridgerton.

Cannon was happy to get to go back to school after being home for a snow day. He was also happy to be off for a snow day with us. He is just so sweet and happy most of the time. I often wonder how I got so dang lucky with this awesome kid.

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He also had a great day at school, he has never once complained about having to wear a mask or any of the other changes.

While Cannon was at school Emmy and I hit up Target to get some creamer (they were out and so was the grocery store) but ended up buying a bunch of Easter candy and things for their Easter baskets. We will be out of town for most of the end of March so I need to get a jump on this stuff. The store was full of spring decor and swimsuits, and I am ready for it!

I changed my Garmin watch face to a spring theme, it’s a bit wishful thinking since it’s still February.

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Our walk to get Cannon on Tuesday vs. our walk to get Cannon on Friday.

While I am pining for spring I will gladly take the snow so we are less likely to have a draught over the summer.

After we picked up Cannon we enjoyed lunch together (I am going to miss that the most when Cory goes back to the office and Cannon goes to Kindergarten). I tried to get Emmy to take a nap but she refused so we played games instead.

We had salmon, broccoli and rice for dinner. I am always happily surprised that the kids do really well eating this dinner and enjoy eating the veggies. After dinner we had a dance party before bed time, they are cute but they always have so much energy right before bed.

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Are you looking forward to spring?

One more 4 AM checked off, 3 progression miles to start off the day.

It was a snow day for us, meaning Cannon didn’t have school and we got about 8 inches of snow overnight.

I love having more time with Cannon home and Emmy does too.

The kids helped us shovel the driveway and sidewalk.

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We spent most of the day indoors playing, doing crafts and cuddling.

I know it won’t be long before she won’t fall asleep in my lap anymore. Trying to soak it all in while I can.

It was a teaching night for me so Cory took over kid duties while I took over the office. When Cory goes back to the office in person I think I will clean out and redecorate our home office to be mine again.

Given that it’s been awhile I thought I would share some things I am currently loving.

Currently Loving –Theses Birkenstocks, even if the make me an aging hippie. I prefer them to any slippers. So good after a workout or cold mornings.

Currently Going –  To playgrounds and Hiking whenever possible!

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Currently Eating –  Homemade coffee creamer. It’s good and it’s fairly often that I can’t find my favorite creamer in stores.

Currently Researching – Our trip to Utah! We were hoping to go to all 5 National Parks but Zion is starting their shuttle service back up and we aren’t loving that idea. We might decide to go somewhere else in South-west Utah.

We will be using the GyPSy Guide App to inform our visit. The narration is grate, we loved using it in The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

Currently Shopping For – Easter Baskets! We will be gone most of the end of March so I wanted to get most of our shopping done before our trip. Our stores seem to run out of seasonal items a few weeks before the holiday so now is probably the time to start anyway.

Currently Reading –  I just started Bravey by Alexi Pappas so I can’t give a full report but I have heard great things!

Currently Dreaming About- Summer camping!

Currently Watching – Lots of travel vloggers on YouTube and dreaming of going overseas. I have been gathering ideas for our trip to France (hopeful that we will actually go in 2022).

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The real test starts now for the 4AM wakeup, the weekend is definitely going to be the hardest. starting to really question myself taking on this challenge.

What’s current with you?

Woke up early again for a progression run on the treadmill. The early mornings are starting to catch up with me, I need to get to bed earlier!

We were pretty excited that to wake up to a wonderful Wednesday! Cannon doesn’t have school and I don’t have to work so we try to have some kind of adventure.

I went to the website Slides and Sunshine if you live or visit the Denver metro area this is an awesome website. They have reviews and pictures of tons of playgrounds. I was looking for somewhere new for us to visit when Cannon came to join me. He noticed a picture of Paco Sanches Playground in Denver.

He got so excited and asked to visit and I was happy to oblige. I am willing to drive further for a Wednesday adventure.

It was definitely worth the 25 minute drive.

Inside the “microphone” is the best climbing structure I have ever seen.

Cannon was having the BEST time.

Emmy was a little scared of the height.

So while Cannon climbed Emmy and I played closer to the ground.

There is so much to do at this playground!

Cannon’s pants didn’t have holes in them when we arrived.

A sign of a good day.

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What’s the best playground you have ever visited?

2 hours outside.

Another 4 A.M. wake up call to get on the treadmill.

I am enjoying my morning routine of stretching, rolling and drinking coffee before running. So far so good with the 4 AM challenge but I think the weekend will be the real test. Also those Birks are my all time favorite!

The morning remained ideal when both kids wanted to walk to school with me!

It was a beautiful morning!

Emmy really thinks she is ready to go to school!

But I am NOT ready for her to go so we walked down and met some friends at a playground insted.

I have been talking a lot about our goal to spend more time outside and the idea of 1000 hours outside.

I love to track everything for running and many other things so it just made sense to me that we would start tracking our time outside. I made a quick spreadsheet so now we have a quantitative measure of how we are doing on our goal. I am not obsessively tracking every minute just rounding time spent outside.

In general we want to hit about 84 hours outside each month to meet our goal. In January we only got to 42 hours (I probably missed some time because I was just estimating by memory, and this blog). We are behind on our goal so far but I am hopeful that we will make up for that in the spring, summer and fall when it’s much easier to be outside. There will be long hours outside when we are camping.

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Do you like to track things?

What is your ideal morning? It’s supposed to snow this week and I am hopeful that I can get out and run in it in the dark.

I wrote yesterday about starting a month long challenge to wake up every day at 4:00 AM to run. I am not new to getting up early to run and am familiar with a 4 AM alarm. But whenever I could sleep in I did so this will be the first time doing it every day.

For now this is am morning routine:

At 4 AM my alarm goes off and a slink out of my bedroom as quietly as I can. I immediately start the coffee maker then put my running clothes on. A critical part of the routine is laying out my clothes the night before. If I had to dig around in my room looking for socks or a sports bra things would fall apart.

Once my coffee is prepared I sit down to stretch, roll and do some activation exercises.

For now most runs will be done on the treadmill given that it’s so dark, but I can’t wait for them to look like this:

Most days I try to be running by 4:45 and complete my run by 5:45 so I can cool down and stretch a little. Cannon starts waking up around 6 AM and I like to be there when he gets up on school days. If I want to run longer Cory is happy to get the kids up on weekends.

That is the gist of my early morning routine, the key is having most things ready the night before. Also I used to hit snooze a lot but now I get up with the first alarm. I once heard it makes you more tired to snooze because it disrupts your sleep patterns plus I try not to disrupt Cory and sometimes Cannon who are asleep next to me.

after that the day moves quickly with breakfast, getting dressed, school prep etc.

I was so excited that it was warm enough to walk the kids to school, so much nicer than driving.

After dropping Cannon off at school Emmy and I met some friends at a playground for a little while. The cold kept us away for way too long and we missed our friends.

Emmy and I got a few things done before it was time to go back and get Cannon from school. I love how much he loves school. Then we went to our second playground of the day to play some more with some friends.

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Later we had the BEST time riding scooters and cooking dinner together.

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We are still striving for our 1000 hours outside so I thought this might be a good place to keep track of our progress towards our goal. The time will be highly estimated: 45 minutes will be rounded to an hour, 80 minutes will be rounded to an hour….trying to keep it simple while also be inspired to spend more time outside. Now I need to go back and estimate our time from the begining of the year and start a spread sheet.

Outside Time: 4 hours

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Are you enjoying more time outside lately?

Today was a good day but also a bit of a comedy of errors.

We woke up wanting to get outside for some movement. We are trying to get the kids out walking more to get them ready for our big Utah trip in March (more details coming soon!). The weather last week kept us inside but this week is supposed to be must better.

We went to a local trail to get some miles in.

It was pretty muddy and icy.

Unfortunately Emmy slipped on some ice and dunked her foot in cold water. We cut it short because she was pretty sad, I am very ready for spring!

We made personal pizzas for lunch, Emmy has been very creative with how she has been eating.

How cute are these bunny plates?!? The kids love them, I picked them up at Target.

Cory napped with Emmy and Cannon hung out with me while I worked on some athlete schedules.

When Emmy was up we decided to all go out for a family run.

The kiddos have been loving getting out to run with us. It’s a fun fartlek run because they sprint ahead then stop to play with something.

We stopped at a playground for a bit but Cannon accidentally went down a slide into an icy deep puddle. Poor thing was completely soaked. We didn’t have a spare set of clothes for him but we did have the stroller and a big blanket. It was too cold for wet clothes so we stripped him and he hung in stroller in a blanket. He was sad that he didn’t get to run home but at least he wasn’t hurt.

We spent the rest of the night just goofing around.

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I was very excited to play an entire game of Candy Land, following all the rules. This was a first for us. Very excited for more family game nights.

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I decided to take on a new (to me) challenge. Last year back in May/June when people were wanting to break their quarantine funk there was the idea of getting up early every day to run or workout circulating. I didn’t do it then but I am going to attempt it now.

My goal is to get up every single morning at 4:00 AM and run at least 3 miles every day. The idea is that it will be easier if it becomes a habit doing it every day.

I started this on the 19th when we were exactly a month out from our trip to Utah. I won’t be getting up to run in the dark by myself in Utah but if it works out then I will resume when I get home. I am sure the first few mornings will be rough but I am hoping it gets easier with time. Wish me luck!

Tried any fun challenges lately?

We started the day the best way possible with hot chocolate and snuggles.

Then the kids helped make breakfast, Kodiak Cakes for the win!

Then Emmy and I got ready to go for a run together. Cannon went with Cory to get some supplies and work on our car.

Emmy loved hanging in the Bob and I LOVE pushing it. I talk a lot about how much I love our double Thule Chariot but my first love is the Bob Revolution, it is amazing.

Emmy loves the Bob too.

Emmy has been loving running lately and it makes me so happy.

I ran outside, pushing a stroller with no knee pain so it is a day to celebrate. I am so so happy that I seem to finally be on the mend!

After lunch and Emmy rejecting her nap we headed out to a playground.

It was pretty cold but worth it for some time playing outside.

Then we started hearing from friends that there was literally metal raining down on our city.

Cannon’s soccer club was holding practices for older kids, luckily Cannon doesn’t start soccer until March. During practice metal debris was falling from the sky forcing the coaches to scramble and get the kids to safety. These photos were posted by the soccer club.

An engine from a commercial airplane exploded over our city and there was a large debris field.

PHOTOS: Broomfield, Colorado, Rattled by Airplane Explosion, Dropping Parts

We were lucky that our house was north of where the debris landed and that there has been no reports of injury.

I feel so sorry for the people on the flight, it had to be a terrifying ordeal!

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Are you afraid to fly? I am not normally nervous at all but THAT would freak me out!

Happy Saturday, I hope you have something really fun planned. We don’t have anything planned yet, but I might try to talk Cory into going snow shoeing in the mountains.

The day started off with a run on the treadmill as usual:

It was nice to not have to get up early because Cory had the day off and took Cannon to school while I got my run in.

My knee has been feeling better lately so I might try a few miles outside to see if it can handle it without pain. Please send me good vibes I really really want to be running outside again!

We walked to pick Cannon up after he was done with school and I underestimated the snow. Should have put Emmy in boots!

Do you and your kids ski? I have been wanting to get the kids started since it seems like a crime not teaching the kiddos to ski while living in Colorado!

I didn’t grow up skiing, I went a couple times and it seems a bit overwhelming. We did want to start them at an indoor ski school then take them up to the actual ski resorts but with Covid we put that off this year. I think next year we will have to give it a try because I am really disliking winter and having a winter sport would likely help us all enjoy it more.

Source

We have lots of friends that ski with their kids and it seems that there are lots of family friendly resorts so we will have to get it figured out.

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Do you ski? Any suggestions for a newbie getting started?

I, like many, have been following Tommy Rivs as he fights for his life. If you aren’t I encourage you to. He is so inspirational and his wife’s words are beautiful.

In his latest post Tommy talks about how his life now is so different while fighting Cancer but that the steps are not much different. In his post he talks about how every heart beat is precious.

His dedication to his recovery and passion for life makes me also want to get after it.

So lets all go fight like hell for our dreams!

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Our day was a lot of wash. rinse. repeat.

Humphry is over the cold and snow.

Emmy went with me on some errands.

We were most excited to pick up Cannon after school.

Cannon and I got quality time together while Emmy napped. I don’t know how but this kid is just the sweetest, most helpful boy ever. He has such a good heart, we really won the lottery with this one!

Then we went outside to play in the snow.

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And the kids helped me clear the snow off the sidewalk and driveway.

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What are you going to fight like hell for?