Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Easy Like Sunday Morning

It was a nice easy weekend, just trying to rest and get a few things done. Cannon started feeling sick last Monday, we quickly got a Covid test and luckily found out in about 24 hours that it was negative. While we are thrilled that we don’t have Covid, we all came down with this cold so we are trying to lay low, recover and not spread our germs. Here is our weekend in pictures:

Cannon looking cute, he needs a haircut before he goes back to school next week. When it’s long he touches it all day long meaning he is always touching his face.

Going on a hike and searching for Prairie Dogs, my kids are happiest out in nature.

Making homemade butterscotch coffee creamer.

It turned out so good, I used THIS recipe.

We went and picked up Kermit (our camper) from the storage lot, we are considering going winter camping….not sure if it will be amazing or an awful idea!

Sunday morning Cory took the kiddos for a bike ride and to play on some trails.

Give them sticks and dirt and they are happy.

I spent my morning running on the treadmill, doing PT and letting this new roller cause me pain.

I googled how many days until my race in July (fingers very crossed that we have vaccines and the world is safer by then) and it is 175 days…..doesn’t really seem like that many!

AND last but not least we met Stella, a 90 pound Bernedoodle. My brother has a Bernedoodle puppy and he is just the sweetest. I think Stella stole my heart.

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How was your weekend?

What is your favorite dog breed?

Bucket List – Just a Start

I was looking through my old pages and found a bucket list I had started a few years ago. I am happy to say some of the items have been checked off but it also inspired me to think about more things I wanted to add to our bucket list. The idea is that this will always be a living document, adding things as they come up and taking some things off if they no longer make sense.

Travel

Races/Endurance

Family + Etc.

I need to add more to the family list and some professional/education goals but I think right now I am just dreaming of all of the travel and adventures we haven’t been able to do in the last year.

What is on your bucket list? What am I missing? Would love to hear about yours!

More Good News + Looking Back

Cannon finished another week of distance learning, Emmy was there for moral support as well.

We got good news this week that our school district thinks it’s safe enough to go back to school in person. I am a little nervous about exposure to Covid but I know that Cannon thrives when he gets to go to school.

So next week will be our last week online. We have some work to do to get back to a routine that include school! We have been getting up later than usual (closer to 7am) and having lazy mornings. Cannon’s Zoom class doesn’t start until 9:30 AM and we have to leave for school at 7:35 AM. Next week I am going to try to ease us into 7:30 AM walks and getting ready earlier so we will be more prepared.

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I was looking through pictures from this time last year and missing how full life was then. Looking forward to hopefully life returning to look more like this:

Going Swimming, gymnastics, attending birthday parties, indoor play areas, seeing our friends most days and shopping inside stores….just to name a few.

Dillion Ice Castles – 2021

We were so happy to get to go to the Ice Castles in Dillion again this year. It was hard to get tickets this year so we were lucky to snag some.

Dillion is about an hour and half from home for us and it worked out that Emmy napped for most of the drive and Cannon was happy to hang out with us and then play on his tablet while Emmy slept.

They suggest that you wear full snow gear and require masks this year.

When we arrived, it was pretty cold (19 degrees) and windy, inside the castles it was a little more protected.

There are lots of fun things for kids of all ages but strollers do not work here. Cannon and Emmy are big enough to walk or be carried but some people with very little ones were pulling them in sleds and that was very cute.

The kids favorite was the multiple ice slides that are in the castles and the ice caves you can walk through.

The castles are beautiful and just fun to see. Emmy kept asking where Elsa was.

We spent a little over an hour at the castles before deciding we were cold enough and decided to head home.

We would have loved to have visited one of the many cool breweries or restaurants in the area but with Covid we haven’t been eating inside restaurants. So we grabbed take-out and ate in the car on the way home.

We had a wonderful time and suggest going to the Ice Castles to anyone, kids of all ages seemed to love it and young couples would enjoy this as a romantic outing.

We went last year with my parents when the kids were one and three and had the best time!

It Was a Good Day

After a string of meh days……today was a good day. We got good news, we went on a family adventure and kept the kids out past their bedtime. I think I was feeling pandemic fatigue and today really helped to lift my spirits. We got home late so I will share more tomorrow about our adventure.

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Are you feeling some pandemic fatigue?

When was your last really good day?

A Few Bright Spots

Things are not exactly bright in our world or country lately but there have been a few things that have been little bright lights for me lately and I thought I would share.

The Pistachio Latte from Starbucks is a nice change up from the usual.

Our trampoline that the kids use almost everyday to get some energy out.

A rocket launcher that our cousins got Cannon, he LOVES it!

Kara and Nate’s travel channel. We can’t travel much right now so watching someone else travel feels like a little bit of freedom. Plus it can help inspire future trips.

Lastly these clogs have been my favorite addition this winter. They are lined and keep my feet warm and happy. Easy to throw on when running out on an errand or just around the house.

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While these are just things I have been trying to look for the good as much as possible lately. I believe if you look for the good in life, you are sure to find it.

What is something that has made you smile lately?

Mostly Good News + Had to Share

I went to see my Physical Therapist today and it was mostly good news.

He didn’t feel anything too concerning in my knee and thinks that daily PT exercises should fix the issue.

My big concern is if I can repair the damage quickly enough to then also ramp up my training for a 50 in July. We will see I guess.

The rest of the day was spent doing the normal necessary tasks like distance learning, playing, naps, work etc. The days seem to fly by so quickly but also this week already feels so long.

Today I listened to Tina’s podcast with Alya Alghamdi.

If you need some motivation or reminder to be grateful, this was a great listen!

Also Billy Yang’s documentary about Zach Miller is amazing, definitely a must watch!

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Read, watched or listened to anything good lately?

Leaving it to the Professionals

The real training is supposed to start in two weeks and I am freaking out a little bit (a lot).

I injured my knee somehow way back in July and have not really been better since. At first my knee was in a lot of pain and resting it did improve the issue so I continued to try to rest and take things easy, but after a couple months it seemed to just stop improving. Running outside is almost always painful, and while I can run on the treadmill with much less pain, anything over a few miles also causes issues. Stairs and twisting movements are painful as well so it is beyond time to see a professional.

I was avoiding seeing my Physical Therapist because of Covid and just denial about the entire thing…hoping it would just go away. But I am finally accepting that I need some professional help around here. I really need my body healed so I can run more for my physical and mental health.

Here’s to trying not to be an Injured Piece of ****!

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Anyone else dealing with an injury?

Snowy Sunday + Spring Breaking

We had enough snow fall on Saturday evening to be able to spend the morning at the sledding hill.

We got to meet our good friends there and the kids had so much fun!

I was also able to get tickets to the ice castles and I am so excited to get to take the kids on a Covid safe adventure!

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out as a family….anyone else have kids that love SnapChat? They are the only reason I have this on my phone.

We also spent time working on plans for spring break!

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Anyone else making spring break plans? Anything fun?

Some Family Goals For 2021

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.

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.

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!