Fit After Little Bits

Truthfully, I have toyed with the idea of shutting this down. With all of the hustle and bustle of the year, I have not really had time to sit down and share my thoughts and life…BUT I also realize that I miss the mental health aspect of journaling. I am not really good at sitting and writing things down in a book at night-mainly because I typically want to zone out and fall asleep! So, I am going to give it a whirl again and see how it goes.

First and foremost, this year has been a LOT of change. Like, A LOT.

It would take me pages to go over all of the details, so I am going to hit some of the big ones and go from there.

This year we said goodbye to our bestest friend, Jasper. On June 1st, he crossed the rainbow bridge. We are now 4 months removed from it and I still can’t say it without immediately getting tears in my eyes. He was the absolute best. He went quickly and in my arms and I am forever grateful for what he brought to our lives.

We also moved. After much deliberating (we loved our home in Steamboat) and good market timing, we sold our home and made the adventurous journey to McCall, Idaho. There was a lot that went into this decision and even more that went into making it a reality. We are really grateful for our family and their helping moving all of our small *cough cough* belongings hundreds of miles!

In mid-June, we arrived in Idaho and lived in the RV park for about a month and a half. Now that was an experience. 😉 I cannot say that I miss it, though there was a good amount of relaxing and many mid-day bike rides!

McCall is an adorable town of somewhere around 4-5 thousand people. It sits on a lake and really just has a magic about it. It definitely grows in the summer and winter as a travel destination, but it is currently mud season and we are loving it!

There is just something about fireworks over a lake!

We also purchased a boat (after selling our Steamboat house) and spend a solid amount of hours out there. Having never done much driving, it was a learning experience of a summer for me as Ken tried out his hand at wave surfing (and of course he is good at it).

We just pulled the boat out of the water as it is starting to shift into cooler fall temps.

The biking doesn’t suck here either 😉 We have been able to spend a good amount of time exploring the trails, gravel and roads. There is a little bit of everything and we cant wait to find it!

Brooke is basically living her best life. She has made a bunch of friends at church and through soccer. She is doing Basic 1 Ice Skating and trying out ballet for the month. Living closer to down has meant many more activities for her and she is not mad about that! We have purchased and moved into a wonderful home. It is beautiful, but needs a bit of updating to make it our own. I will definitely be sharing more on that and some of our “before and afters” on the rooms as we go along. We are blessed to be on 7 acres and very close to two of our ski areas. Bring on winter 😉

The hiking and trail running are basically unreal here also. We are continuously finding new trails and I have not ran on pavement since we moved here. The singletrack trail running has my heart. I look forward to sharing more as part of the actual “FIT” in the title of this blog. Somehow, through all of the craziness, I have managed to get back to a place where I would say I am pretty fit! (Though still nursing a chronically swollen ankle but you cant have everything, right? 😉 )

Ken and I have been blessed to also find some awesome friends here already! Ken has a few buddies that he gets to ride with and I have made some girlfriends-crazy, right?! 🙂

I actually went on my first ever “girls trip” just over a week ago. We traveled to Bend, OR. It was my first time there and it was gorgeous. We tent camped (it has been a hot minute-or decade since I had done that) and did a LOT of adventuring. From a 14 mile hike to No Name Lake and the Bend Glacier, followed by a 12 mile trail run along the McKenzie River to a solid 20 miles on the mountain bike, it was a jampacked 3 days!

I was happy to get back home to soak up a bit more of our fall weather. Brooke did a good amount of ball hitting this summer and it was fun to sneak one more in!

I am currently still teaching my online courses and getting ready for tire season to start up. Since it is our first season here, it will be interesting to see how it takes off.

For now, I will continue to get in my workouts and enjoy the 70 degrees and sunshine 😉

After an 8.5 mile trail run chasing Ken up 1000 feet, today is a bit low key. Maybe a trail run tonight, but maybe just some relaxing 🙂

Looking forward to writing and being much better at taking pictures of what we are up to in our new home!

You would think I would be better at this considering the circumstances-somehow I am totally exhausted by the end of the evening and choose crashing on the couch rather than writing. Weird 😉

Spring is a busy time at our house-the snow melts, the grass grows and all of the 1.2 million projects begin!

Here is a glance into what we have been up to…

We took an entire weekend and put together the greenhouse that I bought last Spring. It finally made its way up the list 😉

Maybe because he got to use heavy equipment?

Brooke has really been upping her bike game and spent the majority of the setup time riding around.

It got a bit windy. Should be able to salvage that one!

It is so cute!

The exciting part is what we get to put in it!! PS- Managed to dislocate my shoulder during the assembly. Put it back myself because NO ONE wants to go to the ER right now 😉

Suddenly she looks 12. How is she going to be 7 in a few weeks?!

Sunrise. So good.

Celebrated May the Fourth in style this year. Thanks, Alle!

Then celebrated Cinco de Mayo with equal enthusiasm.

We have had all sorts of weather in the last month.

Brooke and I were driving to town one day (which doesnt happen often) and just happened to come across this baby who had just been born!! It was incredible!!

Should I be worried?

Brooke started a school for the local dogs. It went well.

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She also drew this upside down. Not a chance I could do that.

We started a bunch of babies…luckily they have moved out to the greenhouse 😉

LOTS of LEGO time. (When your Dad brings home the Costco pack!)

Convinced her to hike with me again!

Cutest

We ended up cancelling our race for this year. It was a super hard decision, but bringing 4000-5000 people into our small community just didn’t seem right. I also made the decision to step back from some of the work (mainly the direct posting on social. I still do all of the engagement…and apparently some content creation-who doesn’t love a photo shoot for a cooler?!).

Mimi sent Brooke some cool 3D puzzles. The pre-assembly coloring was a good project 🙂

Finished!

One night Brooke noticed a tooth hurt and was a little loose. We looked and sure enough the big tooth had popped through behind and wasn’t pushing it out-so…..Mom yanked it out.

Dad is the fun one and has been building her a pump track. Mom pulls teeth, Dad plays bikes.

I got to get out for a Mother’s Day ride and it was a delight. Ken has been slammed with work, so neither of us has been riding. We miss our bikes.

Mother’s Day pizza picnic.

When your peonies start poking up!!

Playing is hard.

Cant have a rainbow without a little rain. I miss the sound of the rain hitting the roof during the winter. Happy to have it back!

New hobby-picking up freight deliveries with the skid steer. Grabbed a pallet of 16 tires off a truck. No big deal. Ha.

Brooke has been working hard on my safer-at-home jewelry game.

We have a mommy Robin about to lay eggs on our porch. It is just outside Brooke’s window so they are now best friends. Brooke made them an extra nest, just in case.

We have done some planting.

The Spring sky can be an incredible thing.

Brooke wanted to play in the sprinklers (under her trampoline). Her feet got cold, but she enjoyed those brief moments. Not quite time for water play here yet.

There have been days where I have managed to get out for a quick run….and in a tank top!

In this picture, our house is just to the left. Just to the right, down by the creek-I saw the most gorgeous cinnamon black bear. I ran home to get Brooke but he was gone when we got back.

On Monday night, we were part of a caravan/parade that drove through the neighborhoods of North Routt. We were celebrating all of the high school seniors. It was really cool!

Can you spot the airplane? Heart attack for me.

Brooke had Pickle Ball this week!!! Ahhhhh!!! It was so nice to be with friends. They were limited to 8 kids (3 in her age) and it was outside. It was glorious and happened to be on a hot day 😉

Ken happened to be working right next to us, so Brooke hung out in his truck while I ran to the grocery. When we got home, I opened the trunk and this guy went rolling down the driveway. He was pulverized. Guessing the neighbors enjoyed the show of me chasing it. Facepalm.

Brooke got to open a couple of her birthday gifts early. This dress. I die.

Most of the time, these two act like siblings and fight for attention, but sometimes they are just the most precious.

And to wrap things up-this was my workout today!

As far as workouts go, meh. My races have all been cancelled for the year and things have been busy with Ken working. This has led to a severe decrease in workouts. Still managing to get some in here or there, but they have fallen off of the priority list pretty hard.

That’s about it over here! Hope that you are staying safe and healthy. Any fun plans? Camping is opening up here soon so that is exciting. Hopefully people will take things seriously so that it can stay open. We sure want to be able to hit up the local lakes 🙂

Howdy! How’s it going?? Days continue to pass by over here-we are keeping busy and finding ways to have fun. The weather has finally started to feel like Spring, so we are taking advantage of being outside and beginning the never ending list of summertime chores and projects.

Rewind to about 2 weeks ago (and a nice little snow storm)-I was moving some firewood over to the house and ended up with company. These guys escaped from our neighbor’s house and decided to visit. They are so stinking cute, but I was a little nervous being so outnumbered. Luckily, I was able to herd them back up to the road and they meandered homeward.

Thinking (hoping?) that this was the last big snowstorm of the season. Not mad that it has all melted off at this point 😉

I wish I could just melt into the bed, too. Jasper knows how to do nap time!

Brooke has been enjoying some quality dress up time. Snow or no snow, it is always Moana time!

We were looking for a fun project, so we got started on some seed planting.

This is how Brooke asks to go in the hot tub. She has some art skills, that’s for sure.

Burrow

Full blown mood- headed out to search for dinosaur bones.

We got to attend my niece’s birthday party (she lives in California) on a Zoom call. It was a lot of fun. A little overwhelming, but they did a scavenger hunt and a couple of other games. Brooke thought it was great.

My buddy

Ken and I set out for a quick 3 mile jog after the party. It ended up pellet snowing on us-so painful! We were pretty much frozen when we got home!

I like where Brooke’s thoughts are….tropical sounds pretty good.

Pretty excited to see the daffodil bulbs in the kitchen popping up! SPRING!

Brooke has been spending time out in the shop with Ken in the evenings after he gets home from work. I am pretty sure it is the best part of her day.

Melting off!

Not sure who was driving at this point: Ken or Brooke.

Crafting together her birthday list. There are a lot of Legos on there.

This past weekend, we ventured out to a local trail. Brooke hiked 4 miles with us and absolutely crushed it. She did so good and had a great time. Hoping there is a lot more of this to come this year!

Jasper pretty much had the best time ever.

Post-hike cuddles

Baby plants starting ❤

Yesterday, I spent the day pulling down all of our snow fences. Ken has been working like crazy so we have been trying to get things done around the outside of the house. We are *hopefully* going to start the footing for my greenhouse this weekend. I cannot wait!

Workouts are going fine. Mainly easy miles of running outside and riding in the basement. I miss outside. Hopefully soon. I have been doing a Strava Challenge and working towards 100 run miles for the month of April-I have 2.2 miles left so I plan to knock those out today! Brooke has been LOVING her bike recently, so I sneak in miles with her when she rides.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I need to go to the grocery-we need some fresh fruit and veggies-but it is challenging trying not to take Brooke and Ken working-guess I will aim for the weekend!

Hope you are doing well and staying active!