Galveston Beach Trip!

 Already knocked one off the summer bucket list!

On Saturday we took a quick trip to Galveston before Barry left for Georgia. I can't quite take the boys to the beach by myself yet, so we decided that since Barry is going to be gone for most of the summer we would go ahead and take them to the beach while we had the chance. Galveston State Park is still getting renovated, so we went to Stewart Beach. It is so worth the little fee to be able to rinse off before getting back in your car!

We actually got a family photo! Thank goodness for this mom who came up to us while we were trying to take a selfie photo and offered to take a photo of us. There are so few photos of us all together, I'm so so thankful for this wonderful woman!

The boys absolutely love the beach! It is definitely a busy day for me and Barry but it is so worth it!

We only spent about two hours at the beach, and about two hours driving but it was worth getting to spend that special time with Barry.

 

Summer Bucket List - 2022

Wanna hear a funny story? This is the post I was going to post last year, and never did. 😂 My favorite is the second paragraph where I say I'll stick to a bucket list and post it. Bless my little 2021 heart. So I'm just gonna post it for this year and call it good. 

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Ok. I know I do this every year. But this is the year damnit. 

This is the year I make a bucket list and stick to it AND actually do posts! Because I want to preserve these memories. 

So here goes. We will start with the goals and school stuff and then move on to the actual bucket list. 

Goals:

Make a schedule and stick to it. Operation Summer Sanity is a go!

Continue schoolwork for the boys. General ideas like working on handwriting, cutting, reading 100 books in conjunction with 1000 minutes of reading for Bear and book reports (and writing in complete sentences), math for the twins along with vocab and speech. This will be a post on its own. We have a lot to accomplish, and I feel like I finally have the knowledge to move forward!

Date Nights with the boys one on one: mini golf, go to the movies, etc.

Stick with the idea of weekly themes  I don’t need to go all out, just use the weekly themes to come up with fun ideas for things to do

Try to do at least two instagramable things a week  not because I need the likes, but because I love looking back on my Instagram at all the fun things we do! Also, the boys’ family needs to get to know them better. We stay pretty isolated and that’s our choice but I’d love for the family to have some kind of bond with the boys  

Now for the actual bucket list!!! ( I so wish there was a way I could do multiple columns for this, its sooooooooo long!)

Outside Ideas:

Watch Fireworks

Draw with Chalk

Bubble Guns or rent a bubble machine

Go get sno-cones

Watch a sunrise

Watch a sunset

Catch Fireflies (GA idea)

Go on a picnic

Pick Fresh Fruit (Froberg Farm)

Read outside

Water Balloon Fight

Ride Bikes

Lay in a hammock

Stargaze

Wash the Car

Fly a kite

Play Frisbee

Plant a garden

Picture Scavenger Hunt

Water gun fight

Slip and Slide

Play Catch

Rent a bouncy house

Sidewalk Chalk & Hopscotch

Ice block with toys

Giant Bubbles

Sponge Ball War

Melt Ice Cubes

Walk the Plank/Ninja Warrior Course

Bury a Time Capsule

Fourth of July Family Field Day

Shaving Cream on Trampoline

Buy an Above Ground Pool and do all the swimming!

Inside Ideas:

Morning Invitationals a la Days with Grey

Make Play Doh plate things

Finger paint

Color Big Pages

Read Lots of Books

Singe Lots of Songs

Make a Paper Bag Puppet

Make Popsicles

Make a Fort

Make Ice Cream

Make Jam

Make Lemonade

Make cheerio necklaces

Play with Lego Blocks

Marshmallow Shooters

Make Ice Cream Sandwiches

Make Sno Cones

Make Paper Wind Sock

Make Jello Jigglers

Crafternoon

Make suckers

Home made Root Beer

Do a science project

Banana Splits

Nerf Sword Fights

Obstacle Course

Paint Rocks

Journaling

All the baking

Adventures:

San Antonio with Mom

Peach Creek!

Visit 10 different city parks

Moody Gardens

-Whole Family

-Bear Bear

-Palm Beach

Zoo

Observation Tower

Children’s Museum

Galveston Beach

-Dolphin Tour

-Build a sandcastle

-Feed the seagulls

-Ride the Ferry

-Visit the Board Walk

Surfside Beach

Baseball Game/Sporting Event

Visit 5 Splash Pads

George Ranch

Frobergs Farm

Alvin Animal Safari

Visit Farmer’s Markets

Arboretum

Visit a lake

Go to the Library

Free tour of the Ship Channel

Aquarium

Visit Dad at Work

Visit the police horses

Feed the ducks at a pond

Amusement Park

Visit a historical site

Tour a fire station

Tour a factory (Maybe Blue Bell?)

Splashtown

Pirates Bay Area Waterpark

Discovery Green Concert

Discovery Green Movie Night

Drive In Movie

Kemah Boardwalk

Go to a Festival

Demolition Derby

Go to a Carnival

San Jacinto State Park

Mom and Dad Date:

Summer nights fire pits

Go bowling

Ropes Date at Moody Gardens

Mini Golf

River Trip

Tour historic home

Habanero Hundred Training - Week 3

 

Yesterday's run was brought to you by wind and cloud cover. 

Its actually the only run I did this week although I did manage some strength training. 

Barry was working so I was on my own for crewing this run and instead of getting everything ready ahead of time I pulled a "It'll be fiiiiiiiine" approach and regretted it almost immediately. 

As of right now the boys are still in school so Fridays are my long run days and it works out really well except I'm a slow runner and sometimes I come right up against the deadline of needed to go pick them up. Which is almost what happened yesterday.

I have approached the last couple of runs that way I would Habanero, walk the first half and do running intervals during the second half. The reasoning for this is that HH starts at noon. It starts at noon so you are fresh when you hit the hottest part of the day and as you start getting tired, it starts moving into the evening and cooling down. This is a great plan except that my training long runs have to start at 8am so I can finish before I have to go pick up the boys. Meaning I start when its cool and it gets hotter as I get higher in my mileage.

I decided to do this run backwards and run intervals from miles 1-8 so I could bank time to be able to walk the hottest part of my run and it worked great! I was able to run my tiny little intervals and add a little length to the interval with each mile. I was able to maintain those intervals all the way until the last three miles where I ran out of ice and water. I still felt surprisingly good, not perfect, but really good considering this was my longest run in a really, really long time. 

I will say that miles 11-14 were incredibly difficult. It was hot. I knew that when I ran out of my current ice there was no more. I worried that if I pushed too hard and got woozy there was no one near (that I knew) that could come help me. I was worried that even if I could finish the distance I would be putting myself and my boys at risk when I went to go pick them up from school. If I pushed too hard because I felt good during the run would that hold up and allow me to get home safely?

And then I worried that I was worrying too much and making up ridiculous situations because other than being hot and tired I really was fine. 

Welcome to my brain. 

In the end everything worked out great! I was able to hit an awesome pace considering I included all of my potty breaks and time I spent refilling my pack. The potty breaks wont take as long during the race because I will just use the porta potties and not have to let myself back into the house, go to the bathroom, then lock everything back up again. And Barry/my crew will have my packs ready for me so that will save time during the race as well. So I'm REALLY happy with my pace for this run.

That being said, my run took so long that in the time it took me to finish it, two guys built a shed in their backyard.  

This was also an important run because my last two long runs I had to cut short because of time or because I was ill-equipped for the run and had to quit for safety reasons. I needed to finish this run or I wouldn't be able to gradually increase my mileage over the summer. As it is I'm up against the wire. This is my current plan (highlighted workouts are ones I've completed):

I have my long runs set up to increase two miles each long run and I alternate weeks between long runs and shorter recovery runs (those 8 milers). If I miss a long run or two the increase from week to week will be too much to do safely. But I am DETERMINED to get this race done. A 50K has been on my list for years now and its starting to give me an eye twitch that I haven't finished one. 

I really feel like this is my year to do it.  My mom can watch the boys for my long runs and I can run my shorter runs on the treadmill. I have almost finished my first 12 week Sweat program. I completed 30 days of 75 Hard. I'm starting to get my discipline back and realizing that I can do hard things. And that those hard things, aren't as hard as I thought they were. 

-Ri