Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Our Valentine’s Day 2020

When I was a kid I loved Valentine’s Day, I loved getting cards and exchanging them with friends. As I got older I didn’t NOT like it but it just wasn’t a big deal. When it was just Cory and I we would usually do something little or go on a getaway and it was fun but I didn’t like a day that ever felt forced. I much preferred getting flowers and a card on meaningful days from Cory.

A sweet card from Cory the morning before my first ultra

Now that we have our kids to shower with love as well it’s twice as much fun to celebrate.

Both kids had parties earlier in the week, Emmy with her neighborhood friends and Cannon with his preschool class.

We gave the kids their Valentine’s baskets and they loved them. It’s always so fun to see them excited about little things.

They were also very excited about the cinnamon rolls they had with breakfast.

Cannon had the day off of school so we hung out, made cards for our friends and family and we to a indoor playground.

For the evening it wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary except we did have some brownies. But other than that it was dinner together (very important to us), bedtime hustle, lots of books and extra snuggles because we love them so much.

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What did you do for Valentine’s Day?

Celebrating the Little Things

Lately it seems that there is too much to be sad about. My heart stings thinking of Kobe Bryant and can only hope he was able to comfort his daughter in their last moments. I have had to witness mothers losing babies and it’s all so heartbreaking.

It would be easy to wallow in this sadness but I think it’s best to hold our loved ones tighter and be reminded that we are never guaranteed anything. I want to celebrate every little thing and show my gratitude as much as possible.

I love to celebrate even the “little” holidays with the kids to keep the fun alive. Last year we started our celebration of Valentine’s Day when we were in Disneyland (recaps HERE and HERE )

It was so much fun seeing the park decorated for Valentines Day!

The kids really love exchanging valentines with their friends, so we will go to a Valentines Party with friends again this year.

It’s also fun seeing them dressed up in cute themed clothing

  • Emmy’s First Valentines
  • Cannon’s First Valenties

It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, for Cannon’s first Valentines we just got him a red heart balloon. We took pictures of him with it and he enjoyed playing with it for a couple weeks.

He also made paintings for his dad and grandparent’s that year.

This year I am giving them little Valentines baskets with little treats like stickers and small wooden toys. I will share the baskets when I have them together. We will also have fun food like pink pancakes or heart shaped pizza to celebrate.

We will have little celebrations for St. Patricks Day and Easter as well coming up. Having these to plan and look forward to also makes winter a little more fun for me.

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Do you try to celebrate the little things?

A Very Merry Christmas | 2019

It was a lovely Christmas season here for us in Colorado. I honestly can’t believe it’s over already! We had the best time trying to squeeze all the holiday cheer in a few short weeks.

We met Santa with no tears, and Cannon actually told him a gift that he wanted (Paw Patrol toy).

We eventually made it up to Georgetown to ride the Georgetown Loop Railroad. You may recall that we missed our chance to ride it on Black Friday like we normally d we were able to reschedule. We love going to the mountains anytime, but it was extra magical this time of year.

My parents joined us and made it extra fun!

  • Big brother “helping”

We built the kids a playground in our basement that has been a BIG hit.

Elf on the shelf took over the house and the kids loved playing with filters.

Cannon had his first ever school concert and did so well! Emmy loved visiting his school and loves his teacher so much!

Cannon also had a PJ day for his last day of school before winter break, and helped me put together gifts for his teachers.

On break there was lots of fun with friends, a cookie exchange and cuddling with The Grinch on repeat.

We attended Grandma and Grandpa’s Christmas party and had fun playing games, seeing Santa and taking a carriage ride.

There was lots of baking and enjoying yummy food.

On Christmas Eve we took a morning hike then hosted family dinner and let the kids open their big gift from us.

After the kids were asleep waiting for Santa, Cory and I stayed up late being sure that everything was wrapped and breakfast was ready for the morning. I use this recipe for sticky buns that is so easy and good.

Christmas morning was so fun opening gifts just the four of us.

Christmas Chaos

We then went to my parents house for gifts and a delicious dinner.

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. Cannon is pretty sad that it’s over and for him next year feels forever away.

I hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday and you are looking forward to the new year.

Thanksgiving 2019 – A Series of Unfortunate Events

First I want to say I don’t post this to complain or get sympathy, we are all well now and there is SO much to be thankful for! But, most of all this blog has always provided me a way to look back on our life, mostly with a smile.

Thanksgiving 2019 was not at all what I wanted it to be or how we planned it, every single one of our traditions went out the window. Everything started going down hill the day before Thanksgiving. I decided to take the kids to the store to pick up some supplies to make pies for our feast the next day. I was just about to pick up the last item I needed when I noticed the kids were acting a little funny (they were in a little car attached to the front of the cart). As soon as crouched down to check them out Cannon started throwing up……a lot. Poor little guy was feeling really sick and leaving it all over the floor of our King Soopers. There was a deli attendant that was an angel and helped me clean Cannon up, I was SO happy I had a change of clothing for him in my bag. Another family offered to buy us a clean outfit for him when I was first trying to get him cleaned up, people really are so kind!

We made it out to the car finally all together, Cannon wrapped in my scarf because his jacket was too soiled. I wanted to cry, feeling so bad for Cannon. We made it home and got him settled on the couch where he didn’t move for the rest of the day. Normally Cannon is full of energy so this was odd for him. I gave up on the idea of baking pies and just focused on taking care of Cannon.

The next morning I wasn’t feeling well and had no energy, we were also keeping a close eye on Emerald. We always run a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning but with it being very cold no one was feeling up for it. Instead of a 5k we were staying in for a movie marathon.

Cannon ready to trot in 2018

We were supposed to have a full traditional Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and brother but we weren’t sure what people would feel up to eating and mostly we didn’t want to get anyone else sick. My parents kindly sent over plates for anyone feeling up to eating but mostly we were on saltines and sprite.

Luckily the kids are so young that they were happy to watch Christmas movies and thought it was awesome to drink juice and eat crackers.

I feel SO lucky that this was a fast moving illness and we were all feeling better by Friday morning. We have a black Friday tradition of riding the train in Georgetown and seeing Santa to kick off the season.

Video from 2018

After 3 long detours we made it most of the way to Georgetown before being turned around because of a rock slide. We were so disappointed but made the best of it by stoping in Idaho Springs for hot chocolate and some playtime before heading home.

While nothing seemed to go our way we were happy to be together and we will get to ride the train this coming Sunday. I can just hope that we all stay well for Christmas!

Halloween 2019

I know everyone has already moved on to Christmas but I wanted to recap some Halloween fun from this year. Cannon is REALLY into Halloween this year and was excited to do all the fun activities.

We first visited Anderson Farms to find some pumpkins. We had freezing temps and snow so the pumpkins were a little sad. We had fun playing all in the corn maze and visiting the animals.

We were pretty excited to get our costumes delivered. Cannon was peter Pan and Emmy was Tinker Bell.

We went to our neighborhood’s fall festival.

Cory and I dressed up as Mr. Smee and Captain Hook, it was fun to see our friends all dressed up too.

The Shutter Bus was there and it was fun to get some family photos.

We also visited Rock Creek Farms for some trick or treating.

On Halloween I wanted to make the kids some fun meals so they had spider sandwiches for lunch.

For dinner I made them mummy dogs and pumpkin soup.

I would love to claim that I never thought I would be “that mom” that loves making themed food for their kids but I kinda always knew I would be like this. My parents were kind enough to join us for dinner then answer our door for us so we both could go out trick or treating with the kiddos.

Best quality photo I got from the night, it was cold but still really fun.

Already scheming about what our family costume will be next year.

Happy Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!!! It’s nice to reflect a little on the meaning of this mid-summer holiday. When we signed the declaration of Independence and claimed our freedom we also claimed  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

I hope we continue to strive to treat all men and women as equal and that we support everyone as the pursue their version of happiness.

We started the day with a hike in Boulder Canyon. After living here for over ten years we finally got to see Boulder Falls.

The falls were pretty incredible. Cannon loved seeing them.

Emmy, Cory and Humphry were there too, I just didn’t get a good photo of them. We then went to Betasso Preserve to hike a little further and enjoy some more time in nature.

Our friends and our neighborhood have big 3rd of July celebrations but I teach in the evening so we won’t be joining. We are planning on going to our city’s celebration and hopefully fireworks but sleep has not been going well for Emerald lately so I am not sure if we will be venturing out. The last couple years we have had parties and grilled out at our house.

Cannon loves having people over to our house and is always down for a party.

I hope you all have a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our country!