Intentional Outdoor Hours: 461+ hours (of 1000)
Up 18 hours on vacation with plenty of time outside riding, swimming, and exploring while on vacation. I also snagged some of that time thanks to my half marathon training (see below).
Reading and finishing Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King (loved it!) and then starting Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick your Ass! by Meg Medina which is one of the books for my class from my classroom fairy godmother Ashley from The Big White Farmhouse. I've been hoping to expand my classroom library with English books written by Latinx authors and this one is so good (thank you Ashley!)
Half Marathon Training during vacation: 10 miles
I tried to take Bullet for my 4 mile run on Saturday morning before we left, but he was not having it after about a half mile; literally would not budge. I ended up tying him to a tree in the woods (LOL) and running on without him before circling back. He was just patiently chilling out waiting for me, all like 'momma you cray.' After a 22,000+ step day on Saturday, I didn't have any heart for my 3 mile run on Sunday morning at the hotel. So I walked about half of it, but I got the miles in, even if it was half-assed. Monday was a rest day and then I ran my 3 miles on Tuesday after B got home from football at the CT track and finished just as the stadium lights auto-shut off at 10pm! Count 'em!
Road-tripping to the Eastern side of the state for our mini family vacation. Brandon had a school leader conference at Kalahari convention center, and so we decided to stretch it into a mini vacation for our whole crew. His conference was from Sunday night-Tuesday morning; so I did some research and found a family fun spot to visit on the way there and the way home!
Joyfully screaming while riding all the rides at Knoebels amusement park which was our first stop on our mini vacation. Knoebels is a free admission amusement park where you buy ticket books to ride. The big kids were tall enough to ride everything and they were even brave enough to ride the Impulse with me - their first upside down rollercoaster! I loved the Phoenix which was an olde-time wooden rollercoaster that had us all lifting up out of our seats and banging around giggling the whole ride. The food was reasonably priced, the park is mostly wooded and expansive - so even though there were tons of people, it doesn't feel overly crowded. We got some funnel cake to end the night before driving back to a nearby Hampton Inn to sleep.
Swimming and sliding at Kalahari Waterpark in the Poconos for the second leg of our mini vacay. The indoor water park is huge and has tons of different areas for all ages and interests. The little kids loved the smaller areas and the slides were the perfect size that matched their bravery. There is even a section for teeny tiny kids and everything is wheelchair accessible. All the kids love the wave pool and the girls loved challenging all of us (and our coworkers) to the Cheetah Races. Grey was obsessed with the Screaming Hyena - this crazy waterslide that the floor drops out and sends you flying down, he must have ridden it 100 times in two days! There were slides with single and double tubes and even a few with four person rafts. The big kids, B and I went down the Wild Wildebeest (4person raft)! There is also an outdoor section that includes a big pool and more kid-friendly waterslides that we spent a lot of time at because the weather was beautiful. We got to stay for two days and two nights while B attended a school leadership conference in their convention center. It seemed like the perfect amount of time to spend there; by the end of day 2 the kids were pretty waterslided out.
I have to be honest though, I felt a little funny about the overwhelming tribal/wild "Africa" theme at the resort. Africa is made up of many countries and is incredibly diverse as a continent as a whole (just like every continent), but only the tribal/wild version of "Africa" was the one that was pushed throughout all the thematic parts of the resort. It all screamed cultural appropriation to me and I had to do some research because it was bothering me so much (The Nelson family who created and owns the Kalahari parks got the theme idea from a vacation to South Africa in 1999). And I was also like, there's no way I'm the only one that thinks this (I'm not, at all). I will say that Kalahari is making an effort to offset their monetary gain off of all the parts of Africa that they think will sell best by trying to be more socially responsible, but it all still felt a little icky to me.
Getting pampered bigtime as Brandon and the kids secretly scheduled me an afternoon at the spa for my upcoming birthday. I had a pedicure and a Himalyan Sea Salt 50minute massage. They were both amazing. My masseuse said, 'welcome back' when I finally came out of the room at the end and I laughed and said, "no seriously, I think I was in outer space."
Feeding the animals at the Lake Tobias Wildlife Zoo which was our final stop on our mini vacay. On our way towards home, we made a stop (on the long way home) at this incredible zoo. The zoo is beautiful and the animals are so clearly well taken care of and the admission prices were so affordable ($8 for a walk around ticket, and $15 to include a 'safari tour'). The safari tour was awesome- we had a great tour guide who cracked jokes and could answer any question that we threw at him about the animals. The kids got to feed many animals (elk! fallow deer!) and got to see bison and regal watusi up close! There is a petting zoo that we all about fainted with joy over the goats because we love them so much. There were lizards, alligators, and snakes in the reptile building and we got to hear the hilarious call of the gibbon monkeys. It was honestly my favorite part of our whole trip! I highly recommend a visit here if you are ever in the area; all the staff was kind, knowledgeable and helpful, the whole park is wheelchair accessible, the animal exhibits are all clean and respectful, and the real care and concern for wildlife and educating about each animal is so clear.
Feeling so grateful for Miss Hannah who is our regular Mary Poppins for babysitting the kids, but who this week took on the task as house/dog/chicken -sitter while we were away. She so graciously came to our house twice beforehand to meet & greet with Bullet (he has a lot of new people special needs). We took them both on a walk together (to help him calm down and associate her with one of his joys in life) and then I made sure he was good and tired before we left. She reported to us that they all did great and it was such a huge relief to know that they were all good and in great hands. Thank you Miss Hannah - we love you!!
Fall Sporting with Grey's football practice and weigh-in on Saturday morning before we headed out on the road. Brandon and Grey had football practice when we got home on Tuesday night too. Gem and I were supposed to have cheer practice but on the drive home, Rust started throwing up and so I figured it was best to cancel and just get home and take it easy (baths, resting, and cleaning up)
Frugal Living (vacation edition!) using our excess of credit card points to book our first hotel, so it was 'free.' Packing a cooler of drinks (gatorades, waters, and juice bags for the kids - some adult beverages too for us!) Enjoying complimentary hotel breakfast when available! Eating off site while staying at our nice hotel; we ordered in pizza from a local place one night and then drove about 12 mins the second night to have dinner at a local mom&pop place. The kids and I traveled off-site for breakfast while Brandon was at his conference and then we ate snacks (bought at a grocery store) or leftovers for lunches.
Keto'ing almost not at all! We did a lot of 'cheating' and kept saying "it's vacation!" haha. As I wrote in my Keto update, it's so much about the intentional eating now, so that even though we were 'cheating' we were still doing it in a mindful and aware way.
Love all these pictures of your precious family! It looks like you all had SO much fun!
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