Hello, again!

It's been a while...again.

I mentioned last time that I'd lost my motivation to keep moving. Still struggling with that, but things are on the upswing. Turns out that I had been battling some reasonably minor health problems that were sapping my energy. Those peaked in July, and have since been resolved, but at the same time, my gym went out of business very unexpectedly. I started searching for a new one but found myself really enjoying the extra free time that came from not working out. Kept meaning to take up running again, but then the summer heat & humidity hit, vacation time interrupted my routines...and wow, is that ever a long list of excuses for not exercising, eh?

The good news is that back in June, I stopped driving to work and taking transit, which has given me about 2 kms each day of extra walking. So, there's that. 

Here's what I've been up to: 

Color Me Rad 5K with Lynda - a brutally hot day. It was 38C with the humidity at 10am!

Tree planting day with our local park group. We shovelled mulch onto 100 new trees!

Archery lesson with my husband at our local castle. Turns out that we're both pretty good at this :-)

Got the kids to the beach a few times -

Rented a cabin up north for a week in July. Lots and lots of relaxing, but I got out in a kayak almost every day:

Our dog loved loved loved the cabin!

 My cousin & I got our kids up north in August for our annual Two Moms, Six Kids camping trip.

This beach was about 2 minutes from our tents

And hiking led to some spectacular views. 

 Got the dog out for lots and lots of walks of course -

And today, a bunch of us got up early and caught the ferry over to the Island for our annual Island Girl Run! Orange medals = half marathon relay (10.5KM each); blue medals = half marathon!

Back: Cassie, Sarah, Karen, Me, Lynda, Laura.
Front: Melissa, Alex, Emma

I have to say - doing 10.5K on no training didn't make for the best morning, but my nutrition was solid and I power walked my way into a finish that was only 6 minutes slower than last year's run WITH training. 

What's up next? I'm not signed up for anything, but we are talking about the Around the Bay race in March again, and I'm thinking of doing an 8K in October. I suppose I'd better stop talking about training and actually get out there. 

I'll keep you posted. 

August Vacation!

I've been on vacation with the kids for the past two weeks! My husband had to work, so we made plans to clear out and give him plenty of peace and quiet :-)

But first, we watched the final hours of the Olympics - couldn't miss the men's marathon!



Now, that's what I call finishing with a smile.
Loved how Kiprotich was smiling non-stop for the last 1.5K when he knew he had the gold.

Speaking of smiling - my other favourite London 2012 moment was Tom Daley's team jumping in the pool with him after he won the bronze for diving. And how ecstatic he was to have won a medal.



Anyway - the Olympics was followed by family walk around High Park...

Willow trees are her favourite.

...and finally a run. Stella and I ran/walked 6.28K (my longest to date) in 5s and 1s/2s.

The next day, we packed our bags and hit the road. A few highlights -

We spent a relaxing day at the wonderful Bowmanville Zoo -



 

Catching a ride from the lovely Limba.
She gets to swim in the creek every morning before the zoo opens, one of the reasons why I love this place.

Back home for a serious workout enlarging and joining two corner gardens -

 

The butterfly garden we planted last year grew bigger than we expected and needed more space!

An IRL meetup at an amusement park with Deb, Spud and Sweetpea - on vacation following her stellar half-Ironman!

Kids begged us to be horses for a covered wagon



An impressive web climber

What a nice son I have - he's so pleased with how absolutely terrified I am.
The ride operator laughed at me when I got off.

An overnight trip to my mom's -

STELLA WHAT ARE YOU ROLLING IN NOW??

Sewing lesson

And our annual camping week with my cousin and her kids -

It's been a very busy and fun two weeks, but I'm feeling the effects of too much food and too little focused exercise. Better head out for a run...but first I need to tackle a mountain of laundry...

Cabin Camping

We spent last week on vacation!

We were fortunate to get a fantastic deal on a lakeside cabin a couple of hours north of the city, and had an absolutely wonderful time.

The cabin was rustic (no running water or electricity), tiny (maybe 350-square feet including a screened in porch), but came with a propane fridge and stove...it was a major step up from the tent camping that we usually do for our summer vacations!

We spent the week completely unplugged. Lots of swimming and canoing, cards, board games. Stayed at the cabin aside from a trip to the dump to look for bears. Oh, and one run into town for supplies and ice cream, then straight back to the lake.

Which we shared with a lot of wildlife - chipmunks, raccoons, frogs, mink, heron, blue jays, finches, beaver, loons. Countless dragonflies and butterflies.

Have a look -

There's our dock in the right corner. Cabin is hiding behind the birch trees left of centre.

There's the cabin!

View from the cabin - looking north

From the same spot, looking east

We swam to the sandy beach across the way a couple of times every day - 1.3K round trip.
Great open water swim practice!

Whittlin'

More OWS practice. My husband took this from the canoe.

My sister came up for a day. We were unable to convince Stella to jump in.



Canoing with my sister.
We had to flip a coin when my husband suggested that the more responsible one sit in the back.

Five black bears that day. We watched for a minute or two then booked it out of there.

It was really, really hard to leave and come back to the city.

Reservations for 2013 open up in early December. I've marked my calendar.

How are you spending your summer vacation?