https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/31/track-and-field-nails-hair/

I personally love athletes expressing themselves and bringing whatever makes them feel best to the games. Anyone have something they wear to race that makes them feel confident? I like to have a bracelet that I wear all through my training that reminds me of all the work I have done on race day.

As for us we are up to our summer time favorites:

Going to the carwash and hanging in the third row while I vacuum out their cracker encrusted car seats.

We then hit up the “barnyard park” not the true name, just what Cannon calls it.

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It’s a fun park and we are enjoying these last few weeks of summer as much as we can.

This swing reminds of playing in Munich.

2019 babies, making me miss international travel.

Where will you go first when it is safe to travel again?

Just in case no one has told you, tomorrow is Harry Potter’s Birthday.

It’s a perfect day for us to settle in for a movie marathon since we are under a flood warning.

I mean, the kids probably won’t let us get away with that, but we can dream.

Hope everyone is staying safe!

Here are some of my favorite untold stories from my phone:

I love this picture of Cannon with Humphry, telling me how it is…

Humphry waiting for the bus in Aspen.

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How expressive Emmy is!

Cannon doing great at this 5 year well check.

Feeling shocked that our grocery store already has Halloween items out.

The kids cheering for Cory after he finished his gravel bike race.

Finding all the rocks to climb on, I LOVE the mountains in the summer.

Celebrating Cory’s race.

Appreciating this cyclist’s superstition and pinning his 13 on upside down.

Finding new to us playgrounds.

Here’s to getting as many adventures in as possible in what we have left of summer!

I posted a fews days ago about our Occasion Bins and wanted to share our back to school bins since one of our favorite shops is having a great sale.

The bins are far from done but we are gathering items as they roll in.

These are bento boxes from Stuck on You that we love (they are having a 25% off sale now). We have had the smaller bento box snack size boxes for two years now and they look like new! They are perfect for little fingers to be able to open on their own and the kids love getting to pick the theme.

This year we got Cannon the large bento box for this year because he will be at school for a full day. We also bought him the cooler but it’s still on it’s way.

A few other small shops we love are Chalk Designs by ME that made the shelf sign and Pearl and Jane made the garland.

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We are adding their required supplies plus some fun extras like books and chalk boards.

It’s no secret that we LOVE to hike.

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One hike that we go back to many times is Lily Lake near Estes Park.

One of the reasons we love it is that it is super family friendly and very accessible. Cory even “hiked” around the lake right before he had his achilles repaired.

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The kids were just 1 month and 23 months old at the time. He did push the stroller all the way around the lake in a walking boot.

If you are feeling more adventurous you can hike up around the mountain and add on many more miles depending on what you are looking for. The kids love the upper route because you get to scramble on rocks and have amazing views from the top.

This trail is technically in Rocky Mountain National Park but outside the gates so you don’t need to pay an entry fee.

There are bathrooms at the trail head but unfortunately dogs are not allowed past the parking lot.

We loved our visit this past weekend and were discussing how this would be the perfect place to start snowshoeing with the kids.

What’s one of your favorite hikes?

Timothy Olson set the men’s FKT for the PCT….

Timothy Olson Sets the Men’s Supported Pacific Crest Trail FKT

Running for almost 52 days averaging over 50 every single day….can you imagine? I can’t, I can barely imagine running 50 miles on one day.

I loved this news from Pink, and really hope that this publicity causes the rules for women’s “uniform” in sport to be evaluated.

I have always loved the Olympics and held them in high esteem, some news lately has me questioning the ethics of the IOC but we are still enjoying routing for Team USA and hoping for the very best for all the athletes.

Are you watching the Olympics? If so what is your favorite sport to watch?

Just a quick check in to say that we finished out the weekend with a hike in the mountains.

Working hard to make these last few weeks count.

We spent a lot of the day in the car today driving up to and back from Winter Park. I listened to a few great podcasts while driving and especially loved the Pyllars podcast.

Dylan Bowman described his second place finish at the Hardrock 100. It was such a good listen about his mindset. I loved when he talked about suffering being a gift.

I had a mostly solo day with the kiddos since we got up later than Cory and made our way to Winter Park just the three of us.

Cory did amazing and rode much faster than we thought he would we were lucky to catch him at the finish line! I am hoping to get his thoughts down tomorrow on his first gravel race.

What are you up to this weekend?

We were meant to be camping tonight in Winter Park prepping for Cory’s first gravel bike race. I am pretty bummed that we are still home but there has been a lot of rain in the mountains and flash flood warnings for the area we were headed. So we decided to cancel the camping portion of the trip since hanging out inside our tiny trailer while it rained didn’t sound that fun. Now we will just go up for the day, luckily Winter Park is just an hour and a half from home.

We enjoyed the nice weather here at home with a visit to a splash pad/playground with friends.

And some play in the backyard.

Cannon was there too but just too busy to bother with being in photos.

I have been spending a lot of time prepping and plotting lately. We will be celebrating Halloween very early this year since we are going to the Oogie Boogie Bash in Disneyland in late September. We need to have our costumes all in order early. I also learned last year that if I don’t jump on things early they will sell out or be delivered late so I am getting things as early as I can. I have three boxes collecting items in our office, one for back to school, one for our Disneyland trip and one for Halloween. It probably won’t be long before I need to add a bin for Christmas too. We are going to be celebrating Christmas early this year (December 18th) before we take off on a southwestern tour.

I have been gathering the kids’ back to school supplies and getting excited about making their back to school bins.

I LOVE making the kids occasion bins. I will make bins of the things I would buy them anyway for back to school then give it to them in a basket so it’s more fun for them.

I love occasion bins, it’s very fun for me to make them.

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We make them bins for:

• Valentines Day 2021 Version
• St. Patricks Day
• Easter
• Welcome to Summer
• Back to School
• Boo Bins – These are things we want the kids to enjoy for the Halloween season so they get them around October 1st, things like Halloween PJs, themed plates/cups spooky shirts, things to decorate their rooms. etc.
• Arrival Baskets – These are similar to the Boo Baskets but for Christmas. We call them Arrival Baskets because they show up with the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf. Again these are things we want them to have the entire Christmas season.

This year I am also going to make them Disneyland bins with things like matching shirts, glow necklaces, bubbles wands, etc. I like to buy things and bring them into the park because it’s so much less expensive!

Do you ever make your kids gift baskets?

Anyone else prepping super early for holidays/events this year?

If you live on the Western side of the country then you are probably well aware of the wildfire problem. Here in Colorado we are often hit by catastrophic wildfires.

The air was so bad last year that ash piled up on our car, it was all very devastating. You could smell the smoke constantly and it

This year hasn’t been as bad….yet. But I thought this article from Runner’s World was a good resource for when it’s safe to run outside:

Is It Safe to Run With Wildfire Smoke In the Air?

Our air quality hasn’t been too bad lately but I don’t remember the last time I saw this dial in the green.

How is the air where you are?