I posted earlier this month about some of my own goals for the year but we have some goals for us as a family as well.

One of my big goals for us is to spend more time outside. After hearing about The Danish Way of Parenting and There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather I became determined to spend more time outside with the kids.

You Have To See This + 1000 Hours + This is the Year!

Our loose goal is to make the 1000 hours outside for a year. That breaks down to 2.75 hours a day. Some days that will be easy, others will be hard, especially when Cannon goes to school full time in the fall (not ready to talk about that yet). But I figure if we are outside for basically full days camping in the summer we just might make it.

Another big goal for this year is to go on more adventures and travel more. I am not sure how much traveling we will be able to do in 2021, but I would love to travel internationally again. It was amazing taking the kids to Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 2019.

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While international travel may have to wait until 2022 we still plan to travel locally while we can safely. We set ourselves up with a fun little travel trailer last fall and we just bought a camping/towing vehicle so we can take our trailer interesting places.

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Along with traveling more I would like to capture our adventures on video. I have really been enjoying watching old videos from when the kids were babies. They are all short videos taken on my iPhone. I would love to have more family videos of our travels so I want to figure out how to take and edit more videos so that we can remember this time and our travels together.

I have other goals for us like enjoying this time together while we have it. I am sure some day we will look back on this quarantine time with fondness. I also want to be more creative with what we do during the day to keep the kiddos entertained and developing.

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Do you have goals for your family this year?

Anyone know good resources about learning how to make and edit videos? We aren’t going to become the next Bucket List Family but I would love to have the memories recorded. I love this blog so much because it takes me back and helps me remember moments in time, videos are even better!

It’s been such a crazy week, we are attempting to return to something like normal here. I had an early morning run on the treadmill then early morning hang with my favorite humans.

Cannon had his first day back to remote pre-school.

It was a bit of a rough re-entry, he wasn’t feeling it. It’s sad to see when Cannon isn’t happy about online class, he loves school and I know he is missing so much. Emmy at least is loving more time with Cannon.

The rest of the day was spent doing normal errands etc. We dropped books off at the library then found a new to us playground.

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Then Costco for some staples.

Emmy’s naps are getting shorter and shorter so please pray for me…

While I will miss her nap, and I expect cranky evenings while she gets used to not napping, it will be nice, especially in the summer to not be tied to nap time.

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What does your new normal look like?

Today has been the craziest of days, normally this space is about running, family, adventure and travel. But today was such a moments day that it feels wrong to speak of such things. Also much of my day was spent glued to the news and texting with friends and family.

I spent most of last night checking for news on the Georgia run-off elections. Then it was our normal morning of errands and meeting friends at a playground. I was getting the kids lunch when a friend texted to see if I had heard what was happening in the Capital. I didn’t turn on the news because I don’t like the kids to be exposed to anything scary. But I did start checking online and was horrified with what I saw. I can’t describe what happened today as anything but terrorism. SHAME on those who incited and condone this violence.

https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/06/954164654/congress-reconvenes-after-violent-rioters-breach-u-s-capitol

Honestly I can’t believe this is happening in my country, this doesn’t feel like America, THIS doesn’t feel like home.

For me there are some silver linings from the day, the vote in Georgia gives me hope for our politics going forward. Also seeing Congress return to count the electoral votes. I am afraid of what might happen but want these next couple weeks to pass by so we as a country can move forward, hopefully peacefully with new leadership.

I will admit that winter is my least favorite season (excluding Christmas, but since that is done for the year here we are). It’s easy for me to pine for spring and summer and not appreciate what winter has to offer so it’s best to create a winter bucket list of things to do so that I have activities to look forward to.

We had lists for summer and fall and it was fun to work on checking things off and focusing on the fun. For clarity I will define “winter” as January through early March.

• Go Snowshoeing
• Enjoy a Hot Chocolate

• Go sledding
• Visit the Ice Castles if we can get tickets

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• Make heart shaped sugar cookies for Valentines day
• Go hiking
• Put together valentines baskets for the kids

• Get a butterscotch latte from Starbucks (If they bring it back, fingers crossed)
• Make bird feeders
• Go for a run in the snow

• Build a snowman/snow fort
• Deliver valentines to friends
• Run a virtual half marathon

Maybe list (a few things that would be awesome but not sure we will get to):

• Winter camping in Kermit (camper)
• Rent a cabin in the mountains – not sure with covid if it’s worth renting a place if we can’t go many places.

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What is something you love to do in the winter?

After about a week and a half of holiday “break” things are starting to go back to normal. I got a short run in on the treadmill and some strength training while the kids played in their play room.

We are already going a little stir crazy, Cannon saw a video on my computer from when he was very little at one of our favorite indoor playgrounds.

He got really excited and asked if we could go play there. It was so sad to have to tell him no, we still had a wonderful day and even got to see some friends at a playground in beautiful weather.

Cory was able to get our backsplash installed, we still need to grout and then it’s painting the cabinets. I can’t wait for this project to be done! The cabinets will be light grey with gold hardware.

This was the counters and backsplash “before”.

While it’s always sad when the holidays and vacation are over I am looking forward to getting back into a routine, focusing on running more and marching forward into a more hopeful 2021.

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Have you ever had a home improvement project that felt like it would never end?

I looked back to January 2020 to see that I had written about my hopes for the year.

Project 366

The year turned out nothing like I had planned or wanted so basically I didn’t hit any of my objectives. I was very ill January/February then Corona virus and quarantine hit in March.

My goal was to increase my consistency in areas that I wanted have personal growth. I fell way short of my project 366 goals as well as my big goals for the year.

My project 366 consists of doing the following things every day for all of 2020:

• Run – can be as short as 20 minutes but the idea is to move everyday #runstreak
• Core work – After two back-to-back pregnancies, my core can use all the help it can get
• 100 oz of water – because hydration is everything
• Write – this little blog has been the definition of inconsistent over the years. I would love to be able to look back and see what changes happen over these 366 days.

My focus shifted from self improvement to trying to find a new normal and support my family through unprecedented times. I let my own interests take a back seat, and I think given the year we had that was what needed to happen. We had no childcare, uncertain safety and still had a job to show up for, so I am going to give myself grace, take a pass on 2020 and celebrate that we made it through.

I posted 206 times in 2020 which is way more than I ever have so while that is far short of the 366 I had hoped for it was still an improvement. Sometime in August I wanted to try again to post everyday for the rest of the year and I was able to keep it up. I love having this blog to look back on, it helps me remember all the little things as well as the big ones.

All this to say I am going to try for a do-over for 2021, I am going to try for another Project 365 (not a leap year this time).

My project 365 consists of doing the following things every day for all of 2021:

• Run – can be as short as 20 minutes but the idea is to move everyday #runstreak
• Core work – After two back-to-back pregnancies, my core can use all the help it can get
• 100 oz of water – because hydration is everything
• Write – this little blog has been the definition of inconsistent over the years. I would love to be able to look back and see what changes happen over these 365 days.

My BHAG for 2021 is to complete a 50 mile trail race. This is a big stretch goal for me and will take lots of time and energy dedicated to it. Let’s hope 2021 is a little more gentle to me. As of now I have an entry into the Mt. Hood 50 in July.

I am not sure what Covid will look like by then so fingers crossed things will be safe, if not hopefully I can find something in Colorado later in the year. The key will be persistence and flexibility.

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What are some of your goals for 2021?

It’s been a quiet little end to our holiday here at home. Cory had the week off but we stayed close to home, worked on projects and just spent time doing the things we love.

I ran a few miles on the treadmill and decided to do a “fast finish”

I ended up with a fastest mile record……which isn’t that exciting since I got a new watch for Christmas and it reset all of my records. I upgraded my Fenix 3 to a Fenix 5S and I am IN LOVE! It is so much more comfortable and has so many features. I stayed in the Fenix family because I loved my 3 so much, but it was big and heavy and I wore it everyday for four and a half years, time for a new one! Thanks mom and dad!!!

In the afternoon we headed out for a little hike.

The kids have been loving hiking so much lately and it makes my heart so happy. Cory and I have enjoyed hiking together our entire relationship (going on 18 years this winter, our relationship can almost vote!) and now more and more we can share that love as a family.

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The light and the sky were amazing.

What is your favorite thing to do with you spouse or family?

Cannon turned four and a half years old and I can’t believe how grown up he seems. It’s amazing to me that he is living and thriving in the midst of a historic pandemic.

Cannon has taken all the changes and uncertainty with a smile on his face. I sometimes worry about how this all might impact the kids’ development but underneath it all I know he is happy and thriving.

Cannon was happy to spend the summer playing in our backyard.

He LOVED going camping a bunch.

And hung out with his sister a lot. He wore his mask in public without complaint and was just a joy to be with.

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In August Cannon got to go back to school part-time for his second year of pre-school. He loved returning to his same classroom and seeing his friends twice a week.

Cannon also started to do really well with his on-line learning. He didn’t like participating in Zoom calls with his class in the spring when we first started our quarantine, but now he is a pro. Our dining room has become his home classroom.

Cannon loves to be outside, experiencing new places and having family adventures.

Cannon also got to play his first season of soccer, he loved the practice portion but didn’t love when they played games against other teams. He did not like other kids taking the ball from him. I think he will get the concept more as he gets older.

We bought a camper and Cannon fell in love, it was like a playhouse to him and Emerald.

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We took the camper to the Grand Tetons and enjoyed family time in late September. Cannon loved seeing the sights, running on the trails and living in the camper.

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We then moved on to Yellowstone and Cannon had a blast seeing all the wildlife but his favorite was the boiling mud pots.

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Cannon’s favorite holiday is Halloween, he loves it so much and I was a little worried he would be sad about missing out on some traditions. But he rolled with the changes and had a great time with a socially distant Halloween. Cannon REALLY wanted to be a pumpkin this year and loved this costume.

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In November Cannon’s school was shut down due to soaring Covid cases. Cannon did well with his online lessons but missed school in person. We did have a Covid scare when Cannon was exposed at school. He was pretty traumatized by the Covid test but we were relieved when the results came back negative.

We had Thanksgiving at home just the four of us, Cannon enjoyed the traditional meal, especially the pie!

We didn’t want to skip seeing our family completely so we also did a socially distant hike. We are learning to adapt and enjoy what we can.

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One little silver lining to dealing with this pandemic is that our normal indoor play spaces are not available so we have been playing outside much more no matter what the weather. Cannon has been loving it, and has discovered a love for sledding and rock climbing.

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Cannon also enjoyed the begining of the Christmas season. He really got into our Elf on the Shelf this year, he loved the advent calendar, decorating the tree and watching all the Christmas movies.

Looking back he has grown so much and I am so impressed with how he has weathered this storm. Let’s just hope the next check in when Cannon turns five we are looking at the end of this weird time.

Cannon – sweet boy, I have never met anyone with a bigger heart, please never change.

Past Updates

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months 

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months

2.5 years

3 Years

3.5 Years

4 Years

We snuck in one last family adventure 2020 by visiting Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. This amazing place is just a little over a hour from our home and well worth the trip.

If you ever visit Colorado it’s deffinitly worth a visit.

We have been here before but not since I was pregnant with Emmy, so we were long overdue for another visit.

It’s incredibly beautiful here.

There are great hiking trails around the rock formations. We hiked about two miles through the middle section but there are many more trails if you wanted a longer adventure.

It was a little icy and Emmy fell a couple times because she has only two speeds, carry me or run as fast as she can.

We made it home in time for a movie night. We are loving our new couch that basically turns into a bed.

We made some yummy food, popped some champagne and got ready to ring in the new year.

Thank goodness for Netflix and their kids countdowns. We celebrated the new year at 7PM and then put the kiddos to bed, they didn’t think they were missing out on anything.

Next year I hope we are off somewhere other than home celebrating the new year!

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Cheers to the new year, what did you do to celebrate?

Here’s to hoping that 2021 is a lot brighter than 2020. I still have hope for you 2021!

We had a hot party with just the four of us, complete with “midnight” countdown at 7pm.

There WAS champagne, yummy food and lots of love.

I hope your new year was safe, happy and hopeful!

More on 2021 goals, what content will be here and BIG 2021 planning.