{ 9 Year Wedding Anniversary }

Today is our 9 Year Wedding Anniversary. Hubby planned a day and night in Toronto for us on Saturday. We have an overnight babysitter so we are going to relax and enjoy our evening in the city and sleep in the next morning (is it sad that's the part I'm most looking forward to?!?!)

I saw this idea for gifts on the hour as birthday or anniversary gifts from Thirtyhandmadedays.com and thought I would do that for Josh.

I decided to put together 9 gifts - one for each year of our marriage and put a little recap note with each gift of that year of marriage. It was really fun - and actually challenging - to look back at the last 9 years. I thought I would easily remember everything that happened during each year, but I need to pull out scrapbooks and look through the date stamps on my iPhoto to get it all organized. If I can keep this up it would be a great way to look back on 15, 25, 30+ years of marriage together.

My Notes on what happened each year

Since today is a work day I centered most of my gifts around what he might be doing at that time of the day: breakfast, post workout food, coffee, afternoon snack, etc. But then I threw in a few things that were more of Anniversary type gifts: funky socks he's been asking for, wallet, movie tickets, Toronto Soccer tickets.

Here's a glimpse at the notes from our years of marriage and the gifts I sent with him.

Pre-workout Banana Muffin

                                    

Post workout smoothie & granola bar

I gave the funky socks with year three, but I forgot to take a picture

Just a nice note!

Movie Date Night!

Toronto Soccer Tickets!

New Wallet with picture already inside!

Afternoon Snack!

Afternoon Coffee Pick Up!

I packaged them all up and wrote the times of when (or approximately when) he should open them throughout the day. Before I went to bed I left them with a note in a bag by his workout stuff for him to see in the morning. 

This was the text I received this morning. I would say he was excited about the bag of gifts and I was glad I got him excited for every hour to see what the next "year" brought! Isn't that what marriage should be about? Being excited about al the years together?!?!

Happy 9th Anniversary Honey! 

Training while Traveling

Taking a 2 + week trip away from home right in the middle of marathon training can either be a much needed slow down/break/recovery or be a big set back. When people have asked me how our "vacation" was I say it was more of a visit than a "vacation". To me the word "vacation" means that I don't cook, plan activities for the twins, worry about babysitters, and run and workout on my own schedule. Traveling with two 3 year olds isn't really a "vacation". While I don't consider our visit back to Minnesota a vacation it was the perfect place to visit and still keep up with my training for Chicago Marathon for the most part.

One helpful piece is that my Mom is training for Chicago as well. She completely understood my need to get out and get miles in during our stay. She of course was more than happy to hang out with the boys while I did that - she love her Nana time with them.

Her husband is a great help as well when she and I wanted to do our runs together. She said she was getting tired of her same route by her house (in a suburb of Minneapolis) and wanted something different. I miss (in an aching kind of way) the lakes that are blocks from our Minneapolis house so headed into the city for our first long run together of our visit.

10 mile (16k) run around the Lakes

The suburb of Toronto that we currently live in has an amazing trail system. The problem I have with it however is that 1) I don't know it all that well so it take quite a bit of planning ahead of time to route a run in the 16k+ range. and 2) It's a bit choppy, to get a long route in you need to add city streets into the  mix, which is fine but it makes me miss my easy to navigate lake runs.

Minneapolis has an amazing "chain of lakes" path that I could spend all 22 weeks of Marathon training on. What's even more fantastic about this is that I can access this path system by running about 8 blocks from our home in Minneapolis - no getting in my car and driving to a place to then start a run. 

Our Mpls home to 2 nearby lakes great for running!

Each of the three nearest lakes to our home are about 3k around with short connecting path in between. It makes for a perfect 16k run. On the last day of my visit in Minnesota my Mom and I decided to run Lake Harriet and then the Minnehaha Parkway for something a little different and because the parkway is better shaded. The Parkway connects to Lake Nokomis (which incidentally was 4 blocks from our first home together when we got married - can you see a trend with us and loving to live by Mpls Lakes?!?) from Lake Harriet with a 5.8 mile path - perfect for getting the long 20+ mile distances needed for Marathon training!

Lake Harriet & Parkway 8 mile run

On our two runs around the lakes that my Mom and I did we ran past a few friends of ours - the same two girlfriends on both Saturday mornings without evening talking to them ahead of time about going out for a run! We are in sync for sure! 

There were a few runs I needed to get in during our visit that we were in the Minneapolis area to take advantage of these lake paths. 

The first was when Josh and I headed to Wisconsin for his 20 year class reunion. We didn't have the boys with us (they stay with my Dad and his wife for the weekend) so it made it easier to get out together. I had another 10 mile run (actually I think I was suppose to do more like 12, but hey I was on "vacation" right?!?) on the schedule. Josh was nice enough to keep me company and let me follow him around his home town so I didn't get lost. We did a combination run of Lake streets (no path around this lake) and trails. Just as it's fantastic to have a Mom who understands Marathon Training it's equally fantastic that my husband does as well. 

Pre 20 year Class Reunion Lake/Trail 10 mile run 

We spent the final days of our visit to Minnesota at my Mom's cabin on the Lake. I started and finished two 4.5 mile runs from this lovely beach. My Mom and I took the yoga mat out to the end of the dock to do stretches after our run and then I planted myself in a lounge chair to watch the boys play in the sand! Pure Bliss! 

Lakeside Cabin Run

Ok, I guess this part of our visit I would call "vacation"! 

Post Run Lounging!

Even though I got a fair amount of running in and two 10 mile long runs I still feel like I'm playing catch up on my return. My first long run on our return with the group was a 25k (15.5 mile) run. 5 days later and I'm still feeling a bit sluggish. Luckily I'm still 8 weeks away from the Marathon so I have time to get back into the groove!

How do you get your exercise and/or training in while on visits/vacations away from home? 

Thank You Notes

I have started a new trend after visitors have left us or we have left someplace. I send picture Thank You Notes using Shutterfly.com's mailing service. It's really slick to drop pictures from the visit into a card, write/type a personal message on the inside, input the recipients address and click send! After our visit to Minnesota I had 4 Thank You Notes to send. During nap time today I uploaded the pictures from my phone, created the cards, and for less than $15 they will be created, stamped, and mailed for me! Each time I do this it gets easier and easier since I have most addresses saved now in my account so I'm not spending time looking up or inputting them.

I really like the way pictures from the visit personalize the card and I know the Grandparents love seeing pictures of the grandkids! My parents are good about keeping things like this and so I imagine us all looking back on them one day as a great archival piece!

Here are a few of the cards I sent for this trip.

This cute card is for my nieces! I don't get much girly time being the Mom of only boys and being an only sister to brothers so I took advantage of some mani/pedi time when we went to Wisconsin for the Hubby's 20 year Class Reunion!

Our time with Nana & Papa included so many fun things: wild blueberry picking, Sea Life @ the Mall of America, hanging out at the cottage on the Lake, USA Hockey Hall of Fame, and a visit to the World's Largest Hockey Stick!

When spending time with Grandma & Grandpa it's all about BOYS! My Dad built the boys an amazing tree house in his back yard! They were able to ride in a big Caterpillar truck at his work and hang out with a professional fisherman a/k/a Uncle Bill and his boat! What more could two little boys ask for?!?!

Traveling with Toddlers. . .ALONE!

I didn't take my first plane trip until I was 12 years old. I actually flew by myself to California to stay with my Uncle and do DisneyLand and SeaWorld! The twins on the other hand are just over 3 years old and veteran air travelers. If I'm counting right they have already done 8 round trip air trips. This trip was going to be different, they were traveling with just me - no Daddy, no Nana or Grandpa to help! Hubby was driving us to the Buffalo airport (WAY less expensive to fly out of than Toronto), but we had to leave the house by 6 a.m. to make our 9:00 flight. I have never in all the boys 40 months of life purposefully woke them up at 5:30 in the morning! They were so excited to go to Minnesota they popped right out of bed!

Since we've done this so many times before I have packing, passports, tickets, etc. all figured out. The other thing different about this trip is that the boys are potty trained. They do really good with letting me know when they have to pee, but they have only been out of diapers since January so they still don't give a lot of lead time before the pee just comes - and we all know how small the airplane bathrooms are!

Waiting to board the plane!

I packed the usual books, iPad, DVD player, blankies and snacks. This time I wanted to pack a couple of games that may be able to pass the time on take off and landing when the iPad and movies aren't allowed. Then there's the teacher in me that had to make them educational as well!

My good little travelers!

Pinterest is again a wonderful place for getting ideas for educational toddler games. I came across this idea of Busy Bags. I put together three different activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler and specifically from her free printables for preschoolers. Really fantastic stuff!

I made 3 of everything for the boys' friend down the block who just became a big brother. I thought his Mommy would appreciate something to grab to keep him busy when she's taking care of a newborn.

The first one I put together was a number matching wheel. I had a bit of fun with my new laminator! I printed out the wheels, cut them out and laminated them. I got the clothes pins from the dollar store so it was a pretty inexpensive project. This will be a good activity to grow with the boys. This time around they matched the colors. Since we were playing it on the plane during landing I didn't push it too much. It will be a good one to have around for future learning!

Clothes Pin Number Match by Confessions of a Homeschooler

The next one I did was a letter match up. We already had the magnet, plastic letters so all I had to do was print out and laminate. This one was a little trickier on the plane because I didn't have anything magnetic for the letters to stick to, but it was a good one to have on our trip to pull out when I needed the boys to be occupied with something.

Alphabet/Number Review Cards 

I did similar letter match up, but this one was meant to focus more on letter sounds.

A-Z Beginning Sounds

The last one was their favorite. Pictures of things they love (Superman, Batman, Hockey, Footballs, etc.) and a glue stick = lots of fun (and a bit of education as well)! 

My First Color Book

All of these activities came back home with us and I plan to pull them out again during this last month of summer vacation!

Where have I been?

I have been gone from the blogging world for a while for pretty much one single reason. . .find a new preschool for the twins! It has consumed my thoughts, laptop, free time & conversations with most people. 3 weeks ago I was handed a letter at pick up stating that the preschool the boys attended this year (one that we love for so many reasons) was closing it's doors after 28 years! 2 weeks left of school and I had to scramble to find the boys a new place to in the Fall. There are so many things to consider when picking a preschool for your children and it's time consuming to check out the different options. 

This last Tuesday I finally made my decision on a school for the boys. It was really sad to say goodbye to the school they were at this year and to their teachers, but kids are resilient and it hardly phased the boys that they were leaving even with their Mommy & teachers wiping tears away. 

I hadn't planned to have their teachers do this project quite so soon, but I wanted these current teachers that they loved so much to be a part of this gift for them.

This is not my own idea, there are many references to this gift floating around Pinterest and other blogs. I just only hope I can remember to keep it for their next 14 years of school! 

I purchased a copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss for each boy. The plan is to have each of their teachers sign a message to them at the end of the school year and then present it to them at their high school graduation. 

It's very likely that we will be moving 2-3 more times before they graduate from high school so I really hope I can find a safe place for these books to not get lost (I have a tendency to loose things unfortunately). 

I have been keeping up with my training for the Chicago Marathon. It's been a great stress relief for me to get out and run and create mental pro and con lists on the preschool choices. 

I promise to get back into blogging again! 

National Running Day

I know I'm a day late, National Running Day was yesterday June 5th. But in my defense I didn't run until last evening, I'm a single Mommy this week, and does "national" mean the U.S.? because I'm currently living in Canada! :-)

I always chuckle when I see "Today is National _____ Day" posts on Facebook. They are usually silly ones like National Peanut Day or National Wash your Dog Day. I've never participated in a National ____ Day. But I am all for a National Running Day. I have a babysitter planned for every Wednesday so I can run and the hubby can golf. I was really looking forward to the sitter coming so I could get out and run since I missed the group run and workout on Monday night due to the hubby being out of town.

Of course one of the twins had to have an epic meltdown when the babysitter arrived and used every heart wrenching plea in the book to get me to stay: "Mommy I NEED you!", "Mommy I will miss you!" "Mommy please don't leave me!", etc. Ugh! 

I finally left the house and a short while later got this nice note from the babysitter! She may have been lying just to make me feel better (although she assured me when I got home she wasn't - he really did settle down) but I don't care - it made me feel better and helped me have a good run! I swear 3 is the new terrible 2!

My National Running Day/Night run was a short one of 4.2k (2.5 miles) of hill repeats followed by an upper arm and core workout. I'm pretty sure that I did close to 200 push ups last night! I feel ok today, but tomorrow I may need a straw to get my coffee up to my mouth! 

The slogan of the gym we strength train at is "I Train my Body for Function not Fashion"! I love it! Of course I'm not going to complain if I start getting the look of toner muscles and my clothes fit a bit better, but I do all this running and strength training to feel healthy physically and mentally!

Did you get out for a run for National Running Day? What other National ______ Days do you celebrate? 

Summary Saturday

Training

Sunday - off

Monday - run: 6.5 easy trail run. It was a humid morning with some storms coming in - the first one of the season - it's going to be a long summer of marathon training in the heat. 

strength training:  the gym was closed today due to the Canadian holiday Victoria Day

Tuesday - off day. Manicure & Pedicure with my Mom before taking her to the airport. 

Wednesday -  run: it was raining so I went to the gym to run on the treadmill. Click here to read about my love/hate relationship with the treadmill

Thursday - off

Friday - off 

Saturday -  14.3k long run, we are starting to get up there in distance. Nothing compared to later on in the training season, but I feel like anything longer than 10k for consistent weekends is a big deal

Web Find

I'm finding that my web finds have a trend - they are all about food recipes! This week I was searching for a rhubarb recipe after getting some from a friend of ours. I'm going to give this Orange Rhubarb Bread recipe a try from the Taste of Home magazine website. 

Orange Rhubarb Bread from Taste of Home

Goals for the Week

* Get the twins signed up for swimming & ice skating lessons. Patrick is obsessed with hockey and we really need to get him on skates. Luckily here in Canada there are plenty of places year round to take lessons. Swimming will be a good activity to keep us busy this summer and I would like the boys to have some basic lessons. 

* We were at a church fundraiser Saturday night and I bid on and won a gait analysis from a local chiropractor. I'm not sure how good it will be but I don't think it will hurt for me to see what they have to say. It only cost me $25 and it went to a good cause! 

At what age did you start swimming, skating or other kind of lessons for your children? What distance do you feel moves from more than just a nice easy weekend run to a serious training long run?

Summary Saturday

Training
Sunday - watched hubby run his first marathon! See my recap here 

Monday - run: 15 min warm up (WU), 3 minute fast/2 min recovery x 3, 15 min cool down (CD). This run took 35 minutes and was 5.6k in distance. The WU and CD are meant to be just that, run them slow. I ran my WU and CD around 6:10/km. Then pick up the pace  for 3 minutes, not an all out sprint just a bit faster than the WU and CD. I ran my 3 minutes around 5:20/km. The 2 min recovery should be back to the WU pace. Repeat the 3 min fast/2 min recovery 3 times. The idea is to keep the 3 min fast all at the same pace. So not to go too fast the first round that you can't keep up that pace for the third round. 
strength training: Monday nights are legs at the cross fit gym I go to. Click here for a post on strength training. Our leg workouts typically include A LOT of squats and lunges. Last night was no exception. I'm going to feel this workout on Wednesday! It's always two days later when the soreness really kicks in! 

Tuesday - 60 min bike ride pulling the twins in the buggy - that's nearly 70 pounds of extra weight! They sure have grown from last summer!

Wednesday - run: 15 min WU, 6 hill repeats, 15 min CD
strength training: upper body, this was a high intensity, quick upper body work out! 

Thursday - off
Friday - off

Saturday - 11k run, it was a cool overcast morning Perfect running weather!

Web Find
You will see a trend in my blogging that includes me partaking in "adult beverages" as my husband would call them. I really like most adult beverages but I would say my favorites are margaritas, beer, red wine and gin & tonics (like I said I pretty much like them all)!

This week's find from around the web caught my attention because of the name Margarita Tarts. Yum! I'm saving this recipe to try soon. I was thinking of serving it for a dinner I will be hosting for my cousin who is visiting from Portland, but it looks like a put-together-right-before-you-serve-it kind of desert so I'm off on the search for something I can prepare ahead of time instead! Click here for the recipe from A Couple Cooks.

Margarita Tart from www.acouplecooks.com

Tuesday I scheduled with a friend of mine who has twin boys the same age as ours to go Mini Putt Golfing. We were the only ones there and the boys had a blast! It was a beautiful day! And only in Canada would the 18th hole be a hockey rink and goalie! 

Goals for the week:

I feel a cold coming on. . .ugh! My goal for this week will be to stay healthy!

My Mom is coming to visit this week. I'm excited to have her help us plant our vegetable garden.  

I did really well this last week getting up before the boys did and have some quiet time with my coffee. I'm hoping to continue that this week, but whether this feeling I have amounts into a cold will probably determine that. 

What is your favorite "adult beverage"? Do you get up before your children in the morning or are they your wake up call?

Have a great week!

Geocaching

Today was an absolutely beautiful day! The sun was shining & it was 70 degrees! I have a helper on Tuesday & Thursday mornings so I thought today would be a good day for an adventure. I have been wanting to try out Geocaching with the boys for.ev.er! Today was the day and I'm so glad we did it. 

What is Geocaching you ask? According to Geocaching 101: 
"Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location."

I downloaded this official Geocache app ages ago. You don't need the app to participate in Geocaching - there is a website as well.

I did a search for Geocaches near us and found one that was highlighted as a "beginner" cache. That's us! 

We drove to the park near where the cache should be. It said it was a half mile from our house, but that's a lot for little 3 year old feet so I decided to drive. Which I'm glad we did because we had a nice little walk to the cache from the park.

The app guided us along in the right direction and gave a description of what we should be looking for. 

Then we found it! The boys were excited to look at what people had left inside (I forgot to take a picture of that) and they felt proud that they found the "treasure". 

I'm really excited to do more of these with the boys. There are several just around our house, but they are all over the world so I see this becoming a life long activity for us! Just another way we are teaching our children that living an active lifestyle is not only good for you, but can be fun too!

Have you ever gone Geocaching? What "adventures" in nature or fitness have you done with your family?

Mommy's Time Away

I always get excited about a weekend away for myself when I'm planning it. Once I'm faced with saying goodbye to the boys I have that mommy guilt twinge in my stomach. I fight that twinge with baking. I figure if I bake some items that at least the hubby & twins will have something to eat while I'm gone. My husband is more than capable of taking care of the twins for a weekend. He has done it several times before and really enjoys his "boy time". 

This morning before my flight I made some banana chocolate chip muffins. One of the twins asked me what I was making and when I told him he said "I love those Mommy!" Which made that mommy guilt twinge in me go away a bit! 

Here is the recipe I used for the muffins. You can omit the chocolate chips to make them healthier (I dare you to try to omit chocolate!)

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

3 large ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or melted butter if you don't have applesauce)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup flour
Chocolate Chips (to taste)

Directions

Mix sugar and egg with mashed bananas. Add applesauce (or butter). In a seperate bowl mix together the soda, powder, salt and flour. Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 18-20 mins. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

I of course used Chipits from Hersheys - it's good to know someone in the industry! 

Do you do anything special before you leave your family?