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?

On Thursday evening I logged on to Facebook and a advertisement for a Travel Trailer caught my eye. It was the exact one that we have been wanting (R-Pod) for a really great price. It was in Utah so it would be a big trip but we knew this deal would go fast if we didn’t jump on it. After discussing it with the sellers, they were very kind and agreed to hold it for us until 4pm on Friday. Our biggest fear was that they would sell it to someone else when we were half way there.

We frantically threw some things into bags and went to sleep ready to get up early and drive the six and a half hour trip (really closer to eight hours with stops, eating, playing etc.)

We woke up at 4:30 AM put the kids in the car (still in PJs) and hit the road.

We stopped for lunch near Grand Junction Colorado and hit up a fantastic park to get some energy out.

I think it’s one of my goals to find all the cool parks in little towns and visit them all. I always notice playgrounds while I am driving around.

It occurred to me that this playground stage of life will be over before I know it and I will miss it. I am reminded often this these really are the days of the kids being so little and being together as a family so much. I know I will miss this stage and I am trying to soak it all in.

We got to Price Utah around 2 pm to take a look at the camper.

Luckily everything looked great so we purchased the camper while dreaming of all the adventures we will take in it!

We drove a bit back towards Colorado but first stopped at a playground I saw on google maps since the kids had been so good and patient while we were looking at the camper.

The playground had a castle theme and was so cute and fun!

After playing we grabbed dinner and drove back towards Colorado.

We saw the most beautiful moon rise I have seen in my life. The pictures can’t do it justice, the moon was huge.

We knew we didn’t want to drive all the home on Friday so we found a place to camp near Fruita Colorado called Rabbit Valley. It was fun to spend the night in our new camper!

It was so beautiful! If we ended up not buying the camper for some reason our plan was to just get a hotel room in Fruita for the night.

On Saturady morning, we drove the rest of the way home, I really wanted to be home to celebrate Halloween. We didn’t have big plans because of Covid but we did want the kids to get to wear their costumes and make the most of it.

We went trick-or-treating at Grandpa and Grandma’s house. They had some fun treats for the kids.

We watched Nightmare before Christmas.

We made mummy-dogs for dinner, we were going to make pumpkin soup as well but Cory and I weren’t feeling up to it so we had fruit salad instead and it hit the spot.

Then we set out a table with candy for trick-or-treaters. We decided to let the kids trick-or-treat as long as it was socially distanced.

Our neighborhood did an amazing job creating fun opportunities for the kids to still enjoy Halloween, while staying safe. I am so so thankful for our neighbors, they were so fun and creative and it was nice to see everyone even at a distance.

It was a wild whirlwind of a weekend but so worth it. Now the big decision of wether we head over to Moab before the winter weather keeps us at home!

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Are you a camping person?

Any adventure planned this fall?

Just a quick drop in to say Happy Halloween. We were on the road this morning but made it home in time to celebrate Halloween.

Cannon really wanted to be a pumpkin this year and Emmy wanted to be Cinderella.

We enjoyed some Covid safe trick-or-treating and seeing our neighbors from a safe distance.

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Did you dress up for halloween?

It was another early morning treadmill run. I left my new shoes in our bedroom so I ran in my old treadmill shoes. I really would like to get another pair of shoes for the treadmill, studies have shown the using different running shoes can lower your chance of injury. ​

Four progression miles before it was time to get Cannon ready for school. Progression runs work well for me for early morning runs. I start out slow while still sleeping and speed up as I wake up.

it was a beautiful morning, Emmy didn’t want to join us so Cannon and I got some fun one on one time.

Emmy and I hung out then made some returns. We can drop Amazon returns at Kohl’s which is kind of brilliant because I bought Emmy a couple Christmas gifts that I wouldn’t have had we not been there.

We picked up Cannon from school and Emmy was very excited to have him home.

It it was a beautiful afternoon so we enjoyed some time at the playground. It felt so good to be out in the sun and fresh air.

In the evening we decided last minute to go on a little adventure. We threw some things in bags and set an early alarm for the morning.

Now we are off on our adventure…..more on that later.

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Have you started Christmas shopping?

Ever go on last minute unplanned trips?

Today was a no school day for Cannon and those are always my favorite days. I love the slower pace of the morning and getting to spend all day with Cannon. I can’t imagine what it will be like when we need to get both kids ready and out the door to school.

It was a beautiful sunshiny day so the kids and I decided we needed to go sledding.

We met a friend and felt so renewed to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

Both kids loved sledding where last year Emmy wasn’t sure.

They also played on the playground and it made me think about how we are going to tackle this crazy winter season.

I really want to read this book, but I have heard that one of the main themes is that kids need to be outside every day no matter what the weather. So I think we are going to be getting more cold weather gear and getting out!

I also really want to read this book:

Oh and I wish I had more time to sit and read.

After playing I had to run Cannon to the pediatrician’s office. He needed to get a flu shot. He was so brave and did so well, I was very proud of him.

Then we had lunch and quiet time, we got some good cuddles in.

Later we went to Target because Cannon earned a toy.

We use a reward system for Cannon where when we catch him being good he gets a coin. When he collects enough he gets to go pick out a toy.

He picked out a Hot wheels toy with a shark, he is very excited about it. We are now literally jumping the shark.

We didn’t feel like making dinner so we grabbed a pizza and ate it while we watched part of Finding Dory.

When it was bed time Cannon picked out the book “Mother Bruce”

It’s a very cute book, I love reading to him.

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What’s your favorite children’s book?

Will you be spending more time outside this winter?

Another day another treadmill run…..

Four easy miles, my knee that I injured in July has been acting up so I am trying to be smart and baby it while also not spiraling into injury freak out.

While Cannon was at school Emmy had her two and a half year well check. She loved going to see her doctor and the fish.

She is in the 90th percentile for height, I really wonder if she will continue to be this tall. She is looking and acting so grown up! She was so brave and didn’t even flinch for her flu shot.

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When Cannon got home from school I found this little card. I am not sure what the story is behind it but it made me so happy. Seeing Cannon and Emmy be best friends is one of my favorite things in life.

For the rest of the day we watched Frozen 2 (Emmy’s choice), played and ate Cesar Salads for dinner, the kids had homemade pizzas for dinner.

I had a class to teach in the evening so Cory took over kid duty and I set up my “classroom” in our home office.

Thank goodness for technology.

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Do you like running on the treadmill?

Have you taken any online classes before? I have taken many but I definitely prefer in person classes.

For the last couple days my runs have been indoors because we had big snow storm on Sunday and very cold temperatures today.

On Sunday we visited my parents in the morning then stayed home and watched the snow pile up the rest of the day.

We made homemade chowder, snuggled and tried on costumes. Emmy is very happy about her Cinderella accessories.

Today Cannon’s school was cancelled so I got to hang out with him all day!

We shoveled the driveway and played in the snow for a bit before we got too cold and came in to watch Spookly.

We played inside and tried not to get too bored.

We made a fun lunch of Jack-o-lantern quesadillas, guacamole and ghouls.

Emmy is now trying to convince us that she needs a big girl bed.

She pretended to sleep in Cannon’s bed to show us how good she would do. I am dreading the day we have to move her out of hew crib. Parents, when do kids start sleeping? Crib life for as long as possible!

I will be heading to bed early tonight, my alarm is set for very early so I can get up and run on the treadmill (again)

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