Free National Park Day

In order to promote our National Parks the Park Service is hosting one free weekend per month between now and the end of August. We live about 1 1/2 hours from the Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park and Joe decided that for Father's Day he wanted to go to the Black Canyon. We loaded up the car about 9:30 and had a nice car ride down. Lily was excellent (normally she is a handful in the car!). Because of Green Style Mom I learned about the Junior Ranger program. Mikayla picked up a packet of activities and they completely age appropriate. She was able to do some of them on her own and a few with my help, a couple of the activities were too old for her but the program is designed for ages 3 to 5 so it made sense, and she only had to complete 4 activities. She had tons of fun with the booklet and she earned her junior ranger badge. I do have to say though she was so tired at the end of the day she really did not want to talk to the ranger too much but that is ok because I knew she had learned a lot.

Joe is already talking about the next free weekend in July 18 and 19th about going down to Mesa Verde. I will have to remind his though how hot southern Colorado gets in July!

Overall we had a great Father's Day.

***Don't forget to check out my Learner's Bib Giveaway below***

Baggino Diaper Bag - Learner's Bib - GIVEAWAY

Root and Sprout is a parenting network/blog that I belong to. Grow Together is an off shoot of Root and Sprout. Both sites are excellent resources and the best part about both sites is that they are driven by the people who participate. You can participate as much or as little as you want. You can become a featured writer and make money, you can particiapte in giveaways, you can meet parents from all over the country. It is a wonderful site with tons of features. I have been involved with this site from the beginning and I really wish I was a more active member of it.

In March I signed up to review this diaper bag from Baggino:
This diaper bag is pretty cool because it takes the hassle out of finding what you need and the outside of the diaper bag turns into the changing pad. I can never find my changing pad in my diaper bag.

They also sent me this awesome bib (which every mom and dad in the world needs):

Giveaway - Win one Learner's Bib from Baggino.com. Please take a minute to check out my review, the Baggino Website and Root and Sprout. In order to enter this giveaway please leave a comment related to the product, my review or root and sprout. Also don't leave a comment like "Enter Me" Love the bib," please add some depth.

You will receive extra votes by 1 - blogging about this giveaway on your site with a link back to my and also leave me a comment that you did so and/or 2 - becoming a follower of Colorado Mama.

This contest closes on June 26th and I will draw a name that weekend.

Frustrated

A week ago I went for a two mile run and my foot felt pretty good. So two days later I did 3 miles and then two days later I a 4 mile run. I was feeling some pressure sometimes but not all of the time and I was not in pain. On Sunday I was feeling my foot a bit but I was really wanting a nice long run. I headed out to Hartman Rocks and did 5 miles. It was a slow 5 miles because I was not ready for all of those hills but it was great. I felt great all the way from my head down to my ankle. Yup, not my foot my ankle. After about a mile it started acting up again but since I really wanted that run I kept at it. Sunday and Monday it was super sore. I even wore my tennis shoes to work on Monday for extra support. I am so frustrated that after a month it is still not better. I called the doctor and she is out of town for 2 1/2 weeks. I made an appointment for when she gets back to talk but I have also decided until then I am going to keep running, since not running is not helping it get better. Today I did 3.2 miles and it felt great.

Why I Live in Gunnison, Colorado

Joe and I think about living this small town all of the time. Usually because we could make a lot more money if we were to move to Denver. I have done the math and I could easily be making $10,000 to $15,000 more than I am making currently and trust me that would help a TON financially. Even as I am writing this I am thinking about moving to Denver.

While we have thought about moving we always end up staying. We like the idea of living in a small town where everyone knows everyone. This will be helpful when the girls get older because that means that many more people who know what they are doing! We love living so close to hiking, mountain biking and skiing. Joe cannot wait for the day when Mikayla is in school and the teacher asks "So, Mikayla what did you do this weekend?" Her answer is suppose to be "Dad and I did some sick downhill."

While living here is financially a strain it is also hard to be away from family. I just have to remember this is one of the reasons we live here:

Sorry this is not in better focus but I took this picture from inside. I was scared that is I opened the door to get a better picture I would scare them away. Also, one of our creeks is right below the deer and our two ducks who we like to call Fred and Ethel were hanging out in the stream.

Colorado Mama's Food Blog

I have created a new blog in order to keep all of my recipes and restaurant reviews in one place. I will not posting my Sunday recipes on this site but I will be posting everything on my food blog. I will let you know whenever I post a new recipe on my food blog.

Please take a minute to check it out: http://colorado-mama-foodblog.blogspot.com/

National Donut Day

I really did not need to wake up, turn on the computer to find out that it is National Donut Day. Maybe they are trying to compete with National Running Day that was on June 3rd. Did you go for a run? I did 3 miles and my foot felt great the whole time!

Back to Running - Neuroma still there??

It has been a month since my last run so it is now time to test it out. Yesterday, I went for an easy 2 mile run. It felt great. I really do love running. I am not confident that once I am back to running a normal week with normal mileage that my foot will be pain free. This is because after my two mile run I had pressure, no pain just pressure. That pressure was still there this morning.

I did decided not to run today and I went swimming at our new rec center. The pool is brand new and I had fun swimming laps. I am going to try another 2 miles tomorrow and see how it goes.