One Lovely Blog Award

I received an award today!! It is from Carrie over at Mom Wife Triathlete - she use to be Newlywed Girl. I just love her blog and little Charley is so cute. We were pregnant about the same time too! Check out her blog - I can't wait for the day when I finally get to meet her in person - who knows when but someday I will have to make it happen.

I am passing this award onto Metropolitian Mama, Fitness For Mommies, Green Style Mom, and Views From the Passenger Seat. I love reading all of these blogs and even though I don't comment all the time I am busy reading them.

Backing Packing

Were have I been??? I just realized that I have not posted in 2 weeks. It is summer and I am busy with the girls, working, cleaning, doing bookeeping on the side and working out.

I have still been running and I am training for a triathlon in October. I need to get more time in the pool but for each individual distance I am ready.

This past weekend, some friends and I went backpacking. The most exciting part of this trip is that Mikayla went. I went with my roommate, Emily, (yes we got a roommate and love her!), and my friend Sheri went with her 7 year old.

We went over to Salida which is about 1 1/2 hours from Gunnison. We choose Salida because it was a little bit cooler here the weekend before and I did not want to be too cold while I was sleeping at night. I should not have worried since I was hot. We hiked a part of the Rainbow Trail. Mikayla and her 4 year old little legs hiked 3.5 miles each way!! It was no easy, flat hike either. We climbed up and then back down both ways. She was a little tropper and I could not have asked for a better kid. We had a blast and I really enjoyed being able to spend so much time with her.

This picture is actually at the end of the hike.

Relaxing at the campsite.

We camped next to a creek because we needed water. This was a very remote location. On the way to the campsite and back we ran into a few dirt bikers but no hikers.


Mikayla and Lydia



This hike was awesome with great views. We were around 9500 to 9900 feet and there were 13ers all around us. The views and weather was wonderful.

Mikayla, Lydia and I on the trail.

My friend Sheri with her daughter Lydia and Mikayla and me.


We had so much fun and I cannot wait to take her again. I see an annual girls trip starting. I can't wait for a few years and Lily can join us.

Running

I have been running this week with no pain in my foot. I did a total of 3 runs, 1 - 4 miles, 1 - 3 miles with a 1 mile walk at the end and 1 - 5 mile. My 5 mile run was the best and I felt great. I have been missing my Sunday get away from the girls for some mommy time while I run at a slower pace than normal where my only goal is the mileage and nothing else. If no pain shows up in the next few days I will cancel the surgery scheduled on my foot. If it comes back I can always reschedule it.

This week I would like to do a total of 4 runs. One run will focus on keeping my pace a little faster than normal (10 minutes to 10 minutes and 15 seconds per mile), one run with 10 minute of sprint intervals, one trail run with lots of hills, and one 6 mile run.

I have really enjoyed running last week and I hope to keep it up.

New Jersey

We had a great time visiting family in Jersey. I am having trouble moving the pictures around tonight but I wanted to get them posted, so here you go.

Lily and Daddy

Mikayla and Lily LOVED the beach. Lily just wanted to keep wanting to run into the water. Mikayla loved "jumping" the waves. At one point she started to head out with a wave but we grabbed her in time.

Our friend, BJ relaxing on the beach.

The moms relaxing!

Mikayla loved playing in the sand.

The reason we went to New Jersey in the first place is that Joe's family is Catholic and our niece and nephew were baptised. Joe is Alexa's godfather.

The parents, god parents and babies.

The babies slept through the ceremony until they got their heads dunked in the water.

Mikayla always wants her picture taken when the cameras come out.

Lily having fun.

Grandma with Alexa.

Mikayla with Alexa.

Kyle, Alexa, Lily and Me

Uncle Chris with Kyle.

Lily let Aunt Sue hold her.

We had a wonderful busy time. We went to Chucky Cheese. This was a first for Mikayla. This one only had pizza and games and Mikayla loved the games. She kept going back to a computer where she could color a picture. The had a slide that was perfect for Lily and she kept going back.

We went to Sesame Place and as I mentioned in this post it was too much money. They wanted $51.00 per person for everyone over age 2! For what they had it was not worth the money. I did notice on their website that after 2pm it was half price. I mentioned waiting until 2pm but I was out voted. We left at 10:30 in the morning on a Saturday and everyone else was headed to the beach. It took us 3.5 hours to drive 73 miles!! By the time we got there it was 2:15, perfect for half price. They also wanted to charge us $15.00 for parking but since every lot was full we ended up parking less than a 1/2 mile away at a mall. It was perfect, free parking and the walk was much more pleasant than walking through an asphalt parking lot. Once we got to the front gate their information had the half price or twilight pricing starting at 3pm instead of 2pm. So we waited for 30 minutes and we saved $100. My overall impression of Sesame Place was ok. If we had paid $51 I would have been upset that they did not have more and it was WAY too crowded. There were people EVERYWHERE. Since we paid half price (which should have been the regular price) I was not too upset. Mikayla and Lily had a blast playing in the pools, sand, everywhere. We stayed about 2 hours, which for a 4 year old and a 1 1/2 year old was perfect.

The next day we headed to the beach and you can tell from the pictures above how much fun we head. The girls loved the water.

Overall we had a fantastic trip with lots of fun memories.

Sesame Place

We are in New Jersey and having fun. I will blog more about our trip when I get back. One thing I do want to complain about is Sesame Place.

We had planned on taking Mikayla to Sesame Place but for some reason no one bothered to see how much it was. We found out last night that it is $51.00 for everyone but Lily. $51.00!! I really don't think it is worth $51.00. Mikayla is excite so I have a feeling we will end up going but you can be sure that I will blog about it afterwards and let you know if it is was worth $51.00 or not. Now I am going to search the internet for a discount.