Keeping Up With...Workouts (Recap of 6/22 - 6/28)

So I talked about going to Silver Sneakers training back in March.  And I told you how much I love teaching the class.  Well Monday night I got a call from someone from the company who runs the Silver Sneakers program that she was going to come out and observe my class.  I had a mild panic attack and then thanks to some kind words from my boss at the Y, a good friend & my husband, I came down from the ledge and realized I would be OK.

And they were right, I was OK.  The woman merely came in and observed my class and gave me some feedback on it.  I got a slightly above average score (4.7 on a scale of 1-7) so I was very happy.  She said I am a fantastic instructor with a great personality, I was just missing some of the key components of the program, which I knew going into the class.  I don't use the band for my class for a few reasons & that was a pretty big ding to my score (so when she comes back next year I will for sure be higher!)  And I do a few exercises that aren't "preferred" by them, but they are preferred by the students in the class and they have been doing them for months with the instructor before me.  A few of the suggestions I will definitely be adding to my class in the next few weeks.  All in all, I'm glad she came out to observe me and gave me so much feedback.

Other than that, the week was a pretty standard one.  I'm still really struggling to get to any classes that aren't my own.  I'm very close to giving up on that for the summer, between not wanting the boys in childcare too long & being VERY busy & active with them all day everyday it's a very hard goal for me right now.  I'm also struggling a little with the "summer slide" of people not coming to classes.  I've had a few classes cancel the past week since no one showed up.  I know it's a season but it still bums me out.

Here's how the week looked:
Wednesday - Went raspberry picking with the boys for an hour and did the elliptical for 10 minutes when no one showed up for my afternoon Zumba class
Thursday - Taught a one hour Silver Sneakers class, taught a one hour cardio dance class & rode the bike for 15 minutes when no one showed up for my morning Zumba class
Friday - Taught 2 one hour Zumba classes (one morning & one evening)
Saturday - Taught 1 one hour Zumba Toning class
Sunday - Practiced my new salsa for Zumba for about 20 minutes
Monday - Taught 2 one hour Zumba Toning classes (one morning & one evening) - I am still sore from this!
Tuesday - Taught a one hour Silver Sneakers class (for the observation), swam with the boys for about an hour and played at the park with them for about an hour

I weighed in this morning and I lost 4 pounds!!  That's almost all of the weight I gained on vacation.  This weekend is going to be rough since it's a holiday, but we have some activity planned so hopefully it will balance out and I'll maintain this week.  I was very excited to take the vacation weight off so quick!!

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/10 - 6/16 - Part 2)

Since we were so busy this week on vacation I broke it into two parts.  You can read part 1 here.  Let's jump back in with the rest of the week!

Tuesday (6/14) we head to the beach!!  We picked up my grandfather from his house and we all headed to Island Beach State Park.  It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed spending time with him, playing on the sand and in the water.  Zak wanted to bring home the whole beach & kept filling his crocs with sand for us to take home.  He did manage to get a little home in the bucket Great Pop gave us.  We dropped an exhausted Pop off at his house and headed to Shop Rite to restock some of our essentials and then got ready for dinner with friends.

Tuesday night we met up with some of you oldest and dearest friends for dinner.  Gabrielle and Mike hosted my family & Wendy's family for a BBQ.  We had a great time catching up, watching our kids play together and drinking moonshine.  It was so relaxing and so fun!  It's nice to have friends that you don't see often but can pick up right where we left off.  We also had some fun reminiscing over old photos from back in the day and unearthed this beauty of the three of us together our senior year of high school.  We forgot to do a recreation photo so that's on the agenda for next year!

Wendy, Gabrielle and me (that hair, OMG!)

Wednesday (6/15) we met another one of my friends at Six Flags.  Kim, Tom & their kids met us for the day to ride rides and catch up.  It was a lot of fun to see them and see our kids hanging out together.  We got to ride some of the rides we missed on Monday including riding El Toro as a family (Zak isn't tall enough so Adrian had never ridden it, but it's my favorite ride).  AJ and I also rode The Joker again.  We had another perfect weather day and had a great day together in the park.

El Toro selfie

Most of the kids in a balloon ride

Wednesday night we headed over to another friend's house for dinner.  We visited with Barbara and Ed and enjoyed a BBQ in their back yard.  AJ fell in love with their dog, Roscoe.  Daniel was hesitant to be around the dog at first, but he warmed up.  He even agreed to "think about" getting a dog of our own one day (this is huge progress!)  AJ was so upset when we were ready to leave and he started crying that he would miss Roscoe.  We took this picture so he could hang it in his room and remember him. 

Thursday (6/16) was the only day we woke up to showers.  I have to say we could not have been happier with the weather we got the whole trip.  Two years ago we visited and it rained the whole week.  We were miserable.  This time was just the opposite.  We had a lazy morning at the camp ground and when the rain stopped we headed to Seaside for the afternoon to spend some more time on the beach.  We ate pizza for lunch (YUM!), played in the sand & water again, played a few boardwalk games, rode the carousel and ate Kohr's ice cream.  All of my favorites in one day.  We had a great time!  And once again since everyone was still in school, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

Family picture - Love it!!

Zak's giant piece of pizza - and this was only half, he split it with Daniel

Enjoying some ice cream & our prize from the games

Thursday night we headed over the my Godmother's house for dinner with her, her family and my grandfather.  We enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner with them, ate way too much food and had a great time catching up.  It was another relaxing night with family and we enjoyed every second of the nice weather out on their deck.  AJ and Daniel were also thrilled to find "Teen Titans" on demand on their cable service and spent most of their night watching episodes of that.  I was glad that no one seemed to mind that they were being a little anti-social, the week was a lot for them and I think they started to hit the wall on Thursday.

That brings this weekly wrap to a close.  I'll finish up the last few days in NJ in next week's weekly wrap later this week!

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/10 - 6/16 - Part 1)

It's been two weeks since I did a recap since we went on vacation and then had vacation hangover.  I will be doing the recap of those two weeks as quickly as I can so I don't get further behind.  I may have to split vacation into (at least) two posts because we were busy.  In short I will tell you that our trip to NJ was amazing!!  We had a fantastic time visiting with family & friends, going to the beach, riding rides at Six Flags and camping.  It was an amazing week and it was very hard to leave and come back to reality last weekend.  Keep reading for all of the details.

Friday (6/10) started a little rough with Daniel having a horrible stomach ache.  He had to miss the last day of sports and art camp and was very upset about that.  Thankfully he rested most of the morning and was back up and running by the afternoon.  AJ finished up video game design camp and we were able to go in and see what he had created in the week.  His video game wasn't working right but it was very cool to see the whole world he had created on his own.  We left from there to take the boys to get their hair cut and then got home and spent the night packing up to hit the road bright and early Saturday morning.

Saturday (6/11) we hit the road a little before 9am and headed east.  The boys were champs again on the road and we only needed to stop twice in the 8 hour drive.  We made it to our campground in around 9 hours, got checked in and started to set up camp.  The boys ran around on the play ground and played mini golf while I helped Adrian set up camp.  We finished up, grabbed some dinner and hung out listening to the DJ the campground had that night.

 

Sunday (6/12) we had planned to meet my Uncle Tom and cousins at Six Flags Great Adventure for the day.  We got a little later than planned start and ended up sitting in a ton of traffic - and our campground was less than 5 miles from the park!  We finally got in, parked and walked up to see an hour long wait to get thru bag check.  I called my cousin (who was sitting in horrible traffic as well) and we made an alternate plan.  We decided to go out to lunch at Friendly's (one of my favorites!) and then head over to visit my grandfather for the bulk of the day.  Even though it wasn't what we had planned, it ended up being a nice day of spending time with family.

Monday (6/13) we finally made it inside Six Flags and there was hardly anyone there!  The NJ schools were still in session most of this week so we had very few people in the park while we were there.  We were pretty much on and off every ride we wanted to ride.  Zak continues to not be interested in the big rides, even though he's tall enough to ride them.  He spent most of his time in Safari Kids and Bugs Bunny Land.  Daniel rode The Dark Knight coaster twice, once with me and once with Adrian.  And AJ was the most brave and dragged me on rode the new Joker coaster.  We only had to wait about 30 minutes, which was great for a brand new ride.  We had a super fun day riding just about everything we wanted to ride and headed out of the park around 5:00 so we could head on to our next destination for the day.

Daniel, Zak & Dad on the swings

Ready for "The Dark Knight"

Zak loved these planes!

The Joker!!

Monday night we headed to my Uncle Tony and Aunt Joan's house for dinner.  We enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs and sides, then ice cream for dessert.  They live right on the water and it's always so nice to sit in their yard and relax.  The boys enjoyed playing with the rocks in their yard since there is no grass.  They thought those and the shells were great fun.  It was a nice time to just catch up with my Aunt and Uncle before calling it a night.

I think I'll call this post done since it's getting pretty long and the rest of the week is just as busy.  I'll pick up the vacation recap tomorrow!!

Keeping Up With...Food (Menu Plan 6/27 - 7/3)

After taking a month off, I'm back to menu planning.  This month started with a lot of quick meals (salads, sandwiches, pasta & tacos) and then eating whatever we had to clean out our fridge before vacation.  There was some meal planning on my part but nothing really exciting to share.  We did a great job of cleaning out our fridges before we left but then came home to nothing to eat so this past week was a lot of scrambling to figure out what we were eating.

But now we are restocked and got a CSA bag on Thursday.  I'm planning our meals around the veggies we got in that bag and some of the meat I have in the freezer to try to keep our grocery bill down.  I'm also keeping the meals quick and easy because we are having a fantastic & busy summer and I don't want to have to spend all day in the kitchen.

Our vegetables from the CSA bag this week were really fun!  We got strawberries, beets, turnips (both red and white), snowpeas, kale, swiss chard and lettuce.  I can't wait to experiment with some of these new to me veggies!  We also went and picked raspberries at a local farm this past week so I froze most of those for smoothies this winter.  I will probably freeze some of the strawberries too, I prefer to do that than buy frozen fruits for our smoothies.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Sausage & Chard Soup and Salad
Tuesday - Meatloaf and Turnip Salad - this salad sounds delicious, can't wait to try it!
Wednesday - Veggie Stir Fry (using the snow peas & some turnip greens) with Shrimp and Egg Rolls
Thursday - Roasted Chicken with Turnip Casserole - we have turnips from before vacation as well so I'm trying to use them all before they go bad
Friday - Chicken & Bean Bake with Kale Chips
Saturday - Having friends over for dinner, will probably just order pizza
Sunday - Pasta and Salad

Water Flavor - Mango

Food Prep - I made the grocery list on Saturday (very early for me) and will start my shopping today.  I already hard boiled eggs for lunches and cut up fruit for snacks.  Later today I hope to make the turnip salad for Tuesday.  I also plan to make beet hummus with a recipe from the farm that does my CSA either later today or tomorrow.  I will snack on that with peppers & cucumbers throughout the week.

As always, I'm linking up with Laura at Mommy, Run Fast.  Go check out the other blogs on the link up for some more yummy recipes!  It feels so good to have a plan for the week and be ready to go!  Have a great week!!

Keeping Up With...Workouts (Recap of 6/8 - 6/21)

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I was on vacation last week.  While we actually had very good WiFi at the campground I chose to leave my laptop at home so I could unplug a little.  So I didn't have access to this blog to update last week.

We had a very active vacation since we were camping.  There were always camp chores to do.  And you have to walk to the bathroom.  Plus we did a lot of activities with they boys.  It was way easier to stay active on this vacation than our trip to Dallas. 

Our home away from home - fun but a lot of work!

My eating however was pretty horrible far from healthy.  I ate like it was my job this past week and I was hungry all the time.  I think part of it was dehydration, part was being outside all the time & part was not eating very healthy food.  I'm OK with the decisions, everything was delicious!  I ate all of my favorites including Wawa hoagies, pork roll, pizza, Friendly's and Kohr's ice cream.

Here's how I stayed active and kept my exercise streak alive the past two weeks:
Wednesday, 6/8 - Taught a one hour long Zumba class
Thursday, 6/9 - Taught a one hour long Zumba class and went swimming for about an hour
Friday, 6/10 - Packed and cleaned to get ready to go.  Daniel woke up with a stomach bug so I had to cancel my Zumba class.  I planned to do something else to work out but decided if I hit 10,000 steps with just packing I would count that.  I went over 10,000 steps.
Saturday, 6/11 - Walked around the campground and set up camp which included lots of walking, squatting, carrying, etc.  Hit 10,000 steps for the day so I counted it.
Sunday, 6/12 -  Walked around the campground and played with the kids on the play ground for about 30 minutes
Monday, 6/13 - Walked around Six Flags for about five hours
Tuesday, 6/14 - Walked on the beach and played in the water there for about two hours
Wednesday, 6/15 - Walked around Six Flags for about five hours
Thursday, 6/16 - Walked on the beach and the boardwalk for about three hours
Friday, 6/17 - Walked around my aunt's campground for over an hour plus some swimming and some fun running around the water spray park there
Saturday, 6/18 - Went for a short walk around our camp ground.  I planned to go for a walk around the bay at my uncle's house too but I was really tired by this day.
Sunday, 6/19 - Broke camp which included a lot of walking, squatting, carrying, etc.  Hit 10,000 steps for the day so I counted it.
Monday, 6/20 - Taught a one hour Zumba class and unpacked about half of our stuff
Tuesday, 6/21 - Taught 2 one hour Silver Sneakers classic classes

Not surprising when I weighed in this morning I gained 5 pounds over the two weeks.  I was hoping that all of that activity cancelled out the bad eating (and I'm sure it did cancel out some!)  But it wasn't enough.  I'm committed to tracking calories, working out and eating healthy for the next five weeks before we get ready to head to Tennessee for trip number three of the year!!

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/3 - 6/9)

Dropping in quickly between packing, cleaning and shuttling everyone to and from camp with a quick recap of our past week.  We leave for vacation bright and early tomorrow morning and I'm not sure what WiFi (and my time) will look like so it may be quiet around here for a week so, but I'll be sure to catch you all up when I get back.  For now, here's how we've been keeping busy the past week.

Friday (6/3) I gave the boys a few choices for what to do that day.  They chose a trip to Easton and the splash pads there.  We started at the Y so I could teach my Zumba class, then headed to McDonald's for lunch.  After that we went to Easton where we pick up my wedding ring (it was getting a spruce up), played in the water, watched the train & got free cookies from Cheryl's for good report cards.  We finished up our day with a free Krispy Kreme donut since it was national donut day.

 

Saturday (6/4) was AJ's birthday party.  The forecast wasn't good but thankfully the storms held off and we were able to do what he wanted - play in the yard, play video games & have ice cream cake.  We had 12 kids over for the party and it was crazy and fun.  AJ had a great time, as did all the kids who came.  We were all pretty tired after the party, but we had baseball under the lights that night.  So we refueled with some Jets pizza and downtime then Adrian, AJ & Daniel headed out to the game.  Zak and I stayed home because he was having some stomach issues.  Daniel got his first hit for the season & was SO excited!!  The team lost (again) but AJ & Daniel were excited about how they played.

Sunday (6/5) was a very low key day.  We relaxed and worked on our to do list so we're ready to leave for NJ.  The kids enjoyed a lot of video games this day and also all slept in after a few very busy days.  It was a much needed active rest day for all of us.

Monday (6/6) kicked off a busy week of camps for the boys.  AJ started video game design camp, which he attended each afternoon this week.  And all three boys started VBS at our church.  While AJ was at camp, I took the other boys and got all of us signed up for the summer reading program at our local library.  We also stocked up on books and movies for the start of the summer.

Tuesday (6/7) was another day of camp for all of us.  Daniel started sports and arts camp with a few of his friends.  He played baseball and did art and loved every minute of it.  AJ had day 2 of video game design camp.  And Zak went to night 2 of VBS.  AJ and Daniel missed VBS because they had their last game of the season.  Both boys got hits again tonight and played really well.  They are excited to play fall baseball in a few months!

Daniel at Sports & Art camp

Wednesday (6/8) was more of the same, Daniel at Sports & Art camp, AJ at video game design camp and all three at VBS for the night.  But the fun difference was that Adrian and I got a fun date night while everyone was at VBS.  We went and did some shopping to use some coupons we had for stuff we need for our trip.  Then we tried a new to us restaurant for dinner - Piada.  It was really good!!  I got their seasonal Piada and I loved every bite.  We will be going back very soon!!

Thursday (6/9) was very similar to the rest of the week.  It was the last night of VBS and the boys had a really good week there!  Also Daniel was invited to a pool party after Sports & Art camp so Zak and I went to join him for that.  The water was freezing, but we made the best of it.  I was also very happy to finish up all of my errands before leaving for the week next week.

The boys with their walking sticks from VBS

Pool Party!!  The water was freezing!

Another fun week in the books for us!!  I'm really hoping this keeps up all summer, we're off to a fantastic start!

Keeping Up With...Workouts (Recap of 6/1 - 6/7)

Last week I talked about going to Zumba Gold training.  This week I had the opportunity to sub a Zumba Gold class and it was fantastic!!  I wasn't ready to do a "real" Gold class, but I took my normal Zumba songs and modified them to fit into the Gold framework.  I was surprised how much of the training stuck in my head and was modifying things on the spot during class.  I had a blast teaching and it seemed like the students had a blast too.  I got a ton of great feedback from a lot of students after class which is always nice to hear.  My goal is to get an actual playlist together after vacation and hopefully add a Gold class to my schedule this fall.

Other than subbing the Gold class, this week has been pretty routine.  We are adjusting to our summer schedule and everything taking a little longer with three people getting ready all at the same time.  I didn't get to any other classes, other than my own because we just had too much going on.  Again, right after vacation I'm going to get back to doing at least one each week.

One other big thing for me this week was finally getting 20,000 steps in a day according to my FitBit.  I feel like I have done this other days but I don't think mine always tracks accurately.  I also have had the thing die on my busiest days, which is so annoying!  I am about 50/50 with the FitBit.  I do enjoy seeing the number of steps I take each day and week and I love the challenges with friends.  But it's not really telling me anything I don't know, I'm active and don't sleep enough.  :)

Here's what last week looked like:
Wednesday - Taught a one hour Zumba class
Thursday - Taught 3 one hour Zumba classes (that's why I hit the 20,000 steps)
Friday - Taught a one hour Zumba class
Saturday - Taught a one hour Zumba Toning class
Sunday - Practiced Zumba for about 30 minutes
Monday - Taught a one hour Zumba Toning class and a one hour Zumba class

Tuesday - Taught a one hour Zumba Gold class and a one hour Silver Sneakers class

Again, not an excited week, but an effective one.  I managed to maintain again so I think I am finally out-exercising my fork.  Well I'm also being helped by the fact that I have a ton of fruits and veggies to eat before we leave so I'm eating those for snacks and meals a lot this week.  I won't be weighing in next week since we'll be away and may not be able to update the blog since I'm not sure about internet access.  But I will be keeping my exercise streak going and will update you when I'm back!!

Keeping Up With...My Fab 40! - May review

May was another weird month around here.  I ended up being down and out for a week with a virus.  It started with a fever and became a stomach bug.  It was horrible!  I spent the better part of a week in bed, then another few days just to recover.  I pulled it together for the end of the month though and I think it ended up being a pretty good month.

Here's how I'm doing after 5 months.  I have broken them down into three categories (on-going, one time and finished) so it's easier for me to update.  The goals are in black and my current month comments are in red.

On-Going
1.  Lose 40 pounds - one for each year - Lost 11 of the 40 lbs.  Yay!!  I finally hit double digits lost!  However, we now have another vacation in June so that usually means gaining 5 pounds.  We'll see how this month plays out.
2.  Read 12 books - I was so close last year! - Read 6 of the 12.  I finished 1 book this month, "Disconnected" by Jennifer Weiner.  It was actually a short story but I still really enjoyed it.  I love anything by her though, she's an amazing author!
3.  Go on 12 dates with Adrian - Went on 9 of the 12.  We had two date nights in May.  We went out to test drive new cars one night and then went out for dinner and some shopping for our anniversary.
4.  Get rid of 12 bags of stuff - I didn't get rid of a bag this month, but I did donate my pack & play so I'm counting that.  This goal is really about getting stuff out of my house and it's working!!  6 of the 12 are gone.
5.  Take 1 picture every day for the year - Up to date on this 157 of 366
6.  Go on 2 special dates with AJ - Went on 1 out of 2.  I took AJ & Daniel to see Snoopy: The Musical at the local children's theater in April.  We had so much fun!  We stopped at Krispy Kreme for donuts on our way home too.  I'm counting this for both boys & may aim for 3 dates each, another together & one alone.
7.  Go on 2 special dates with Daniel - Went on 1 out of 2.  See above
8.  Go on 2 special dates with Zak - Went on 0 out of 2, I'll be saving these for the 2nd half of the year when he's in preschool everyday.
 9.  Do a 365 day exercise streak - 112 days of 365, every day from Jan 11-April 30!!  I talked about ending this streak at 112 days in this blog post.  Unfortunately I got so sick I wasn't able to exercise.  I did jump back in on May 10th and have been going for 22 days so far.  I plan to do as many days in a row as I can.  My first goal is to beat 112 days.  I started doing a recap each week so check in on Weds for more info on this.
10.  Finish the 30 Day Shred - Did 0 days of 30 - I need to get started on this one!
11.  Attend one class each week that isn't mine - Did this 12 weeks out of 52.  I did this twice in May.  I'm really hoping to pick this up the second half of the year.  There are 3 different days that I can do this consistently over the summer without disturbing the boys' schedule so I'm hoping to take advantage of those.
12.  Teach an average of 5 classes each week - Did this 17 weeks out of 52.  I missed my first week for this goal (other than vacation) when I was sick the first week in May.
13.  Menu plan and prep our dinners each week - Did this 17 weeks out of 52.  Again, I missed a week when I was sick and we had some veggies go to waste since I wasn't cooking or eating them.  But I jumped back in and we are in the process of finishing up our fruit and veggies before vacation.
14.  Go to church every Sunday - Did this 15 weeks out of 52.  I missed 2 weeks in May because I was sick and then another one because Zak was sick.  I did start volunteering in childcare at the church this month and am excited about serving.
15.  Do one blog post each week - I did 10 posts in May, easily one per week.  I started a weekly recap of what we're doing as a family.  I'll be publishing that every Friday (I hope!) 16.  See 2 movies that aren't animated - Saw 1 out of 2 - Star Wars:  The Force Awakens & it was awesome!
17.  Pay off our Best Buy card and not incur any new debt - The Best Buy card is payed off!!  We pulled the trigger and bought a new car, but we have a plan to make this payment and still continue paying off our credit card debt.
18.  Have a family board game night once per month - Did this 5 out of 12 months
19.  Have a family movie night once per month - Did this 5 out of 12 months (Inside Out, Charlie Brown Valentine's special, Justice League Frost Fight, Big Hero 6, Star Wars)
20.  Have a family video game night once per month - Did this 5 out of 12 months
21.  Go to 4 Zumba jams this year - Went to my 2 out of 4 and I loved every minute of it! 
22.  Make one homemade breakfast for us each month - I did not do this again in May.  I'm slacking on this goal, probably because we're so rarely home for breakfast.

One Time
23.  Go on a family trip to NJ - Booked for June!!
24.  Go on a family trip to Tennessee - Planned for July
25.  Go zip lining
26.  Go on a family hike in Hocking Hills
27.  Go on family camping trip
28.  Host an alcohol exchange with my girl friends
29.  Power wash and stain our play set
30.  Renovate our downstairs bathroom
31.  Conquer the Lynd's corn maze in the fall
32.  Go to Dollywood - Planned for Aug
33.  Go to Six Flags Great Adventure - Planned for June
34.  Renew our Zoombeezi Bay passes and go at least once every other week over the summer - I renewed our passes this summer and we went one time so far this summer.

Done
35.  Do something special to celebrate mine & Adrian's 10 year wedding anniversary - We bought a new car.  :)  We also had a very nice date night where we bought new dishes and went back to Carrabba's, the restaurant we went to for our first date.  We were hoping to do something a little bigger, but 3 vacations & a new car in the same year seems like enough.
36.  Go on a family trip to Dallas - Done!  You can read about it here, here, here and here.
37.  Get 1 fitness certification - Done!!  Got Silver Sneakers Classic & Silver Sneakers Circuit in March.  Also got Zumba Gold in May.  Going above & beyond on this goal.
38.  Go to the doctor for routine check up and tests - Done!  Did my physical, pap, blood work & mammogram in March.  Everything looks great, I'm supposed to keep doing what I'm doing! 
39.  Tour Dallas Cowboys stadium - Done, sort of.  It was actually closed for the guided tours while we were there.  But we drove around it, took some pictures & went in the Pro Shop.  I'm considering it done.
40.  Go to Six Flags Over Texas - Done!  Also hit Six Flags St Louis, loved that park

May was another good month.  It flew by in a flash of fever and also fun.  I'm looking forward to having no schedule for a bit this summer, although we have a lot planned so we will have some scheduled days.  And I will continue to work on these goals!

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 5/27 - 6/2 - Part 2)

This week was jam packed so I split it into two parts.  You can read about Fri, Sat and Sun here.

Monday (5/30) was Memorial Day so Adrian was off from work.  We decided to take our first trip as a family to Zoombeezi Bay.  It was crowded but not as bad as we've seen it in the past.  We were able to ride the few things we wanted to do (minus the new slide because that line was insane), have a quick lunch and be home at a reasonable hour.  We had a few things to do around the house & also were heading back to regular life on Tuesday so we didn't want to be at the Bay all day.  The only thing we didn't do was process Zak's season pass.  For some reason they mailed us everyone else's but Zak has to go in to get his.  The line was over an hour long so we got a day pass for him and decided to come back another day.

Tuesday (5/31) Adrian headed back to work and the boys and I started our summer vacation.  When I asked them what they wanted to do this summer, one of the main things was play dates with their friends.  So I dropped AJ off at his friend Brooks' house for the afternoon & Daniel's friend Landan came over to our house for the afternoon.  The boys had a blast with their friends (and I was super productive because everyone was occupied!)  Then Tuesday night AJ and Daniel had a baseball game.  They lost (again) but played really well.  And the field they played at had a pretty fun park so we hung out there for a while after the game.

Wednesday (6/1) was a fairly laid back day for us.  We had a very lazy morning, then had Daniel's friend Keaton over for a play date in the afternoon.  All 4 boys had fun playing outside, playing video games and playing with all of our toys.  The rest of the day the boys just hung out while I taught a Zumba class and ran a few errands once Adrian was home for the day.

Thursday (6/2) was AJ's 9th birthday!!  He wanted to have a video game day for his birthday so we did the best we could to do that.  I had to teach in the morning, then we headed to Krispy Kreme to get our dozen free donuts for good grades.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at home playing video games.  That night the boys had another baseball game (against Daniel's buddies) and then we had cake and opened presents with Grandma, Grandpa & Aunt Jackie.  I think AJ had a really great birthday!!

And that wraps up our first awesome week of summer!!  We had so much fun and hope this continues for the rest of the summer (and the rest of the year!)

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 5/27 - 6/2 - Part 1)

This week has been amazing!!  I've been so tired every night, but in the best possible way.  Let's dive right into the recap with the caveat that I may break this down into two parts because we did a lot!

Friday (5/27) was a jam packed day.  It started with AJ and Daniel heading out for their last day of school for the year.  It was bittersweet for AJ because due to our school district reconfiguring for next year, he will be switching schools (again) next year.  He's a little bummed but excited some of his friends will be with him.  Then I head to the YMCA for a Zumba Gold master class with 70 of my closest friends.  After the class, I ran home & picked up Adrian and Zak and we headed to the park for his end of the year preschool picnic.  We had a blast playing at the park, eating and visiting with our preschool friends.  Again, this was bittersweet because Zak will be switching to a different school next year.  He's excited but I'm a little sad that we won't be seeing the same faces as this year.

Last Day of 3rd Grade

Last Day of 1st Grade

Zak's Preschool Class

Picnic Selfie

 After the fun picnic, we headed to Daniel's school and picked him up for the last time as a first grader.  He has had a great year and really come out of his shell.  He's super excited for 2nd grade.  Then we headed over the pick up AJ from his school.  He also had a great year and I am super proud of him for all he accomplished this year.  He was upset to say goodbye to his teacher but is looking forward to "not riding the bus" to 4th grade. (I'll be driving him again next year)

We took everyone to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt to celebrate the end of a fantastic school year.  Then we finished out the day with some Jets pizza for dinner and a little bit of relaxing at home as a family.  This was also mine & Adrian's 10 year wedding anniversary so we had a stay home date night after we put the kids to bed.  Fantastic Friday!!

Saturday (5/28) I spent most of my day at Zumba Gold training.  While I was there all day, Adrian took the boys to play mini golf and to the batting cages.  We have been working with Daniel to try to improve his hitting.  He has a great swing, but get nervous when the ball comes at him.  When I got home, Adrian headed out to buy our new car.  We are considering it an anniversary present to each other.

Sunday (5/29) started with us heading to church as a family and then me subbing in child care for the first time.  I'll be volunteering starting in July, but they needed a sub since it was a holiday weekend and since I was available I stepped in.  Then Adrian and I had our anniversary date.  His parents came down to stay with the boys and we headed out in the new car to do some shopping and get dinner.  We bought a new tent for our upcoming camping trip to NJ, new every dishes (Fiestaware - yay!), some new shorts for Adrian and AJ's birthday presents.  We finished up with dinner at Carrabba's, which is where we had our first date nearly 12 years ago.  The service and food were both excellent as was the sangria.  We had a very relaxing time eating and shopping without worrying about the boys!

OK, this is getting pretty long so I think I'll end here for this post and do the rest of the week in part two later today.  Check back soon!!

Keeping Up With...Workouts (Recap of 5/25 - 5/31)

I talked last week about how much I'm enjoying teaching Silver Sneakers.  It's a nice change of pace from all Zumba all the time.  This past weekend I took Zumba Gold training which basically combines both of them.  It's Zumba (dancing to world inspired rhythms) but it's low intensity and specifically designed for the elderly, injured or others who have limited mobility.  I loved every minute of this training and can't wait to (hopefully) start teaching this class.

The weekend started with an awesome master class on Friday morning taught by Helen Ansari, the Zumba Education Specialist (ZES) who was in town to do the training for us.  She led a group of about 70 of us in the Gahanna YMCA gym for almost 90 minutes.  It was a fun kick off to the weekend and a great way to get some idea of Helen and her style.  Then I spent over 9 hours with about 20 other Zumba instructors on Saturday learning how to teach Gold.  We went over each of the 6 rhythms until we were pros at them.  I was sore and tired when we were done...and so happy.  It was a great training, one that will benefit my regular Zumba, Zumba Toning & Silver Sneakers classes.  I also met and got to know some amazing instructors, which is always a fun time.

Feeling happy after Zumba Gold training!

Zumba Instructors who took the master class on Friday

Everyone who took the master class

Because of the holiday this past weekend it was a pretty light week for me.  But I managed to do something everyday to keep my streak going.  I feel like June is going to be a struggle for me, trying to find a balance between teaching, working out, being home with the kids (who are out of school) and going on vacation for a week.  But I will try my best and I'm sure I'll figure it out!

Here's what I did last week:
Wednesday - Taught my last 90 minute Zumba class until after the summer & also taught a one hour Zumba class
Thursday - Taught two one hour Zumba classes
Friday - Took a 90 minute Zumba Gold Master Class and Walked Daniel to school for his last day
Saturday - Did 9 hours of Zumba Gold training
Sunday - Practiced/recorded Zumba routines for about 15 minutes
Monday - Went to Zoombeezi Bay with the family for 4 hours so lots of swimming & walking
Tuesday - Taught a 1 hour Silver Sneakers class

I'm a day late publishing this because I completely forgot to weigh in yesterday.  I honestly forgot it was Wednesday!  I'm so confused between the holiday on Monday, no school for the kids and Adrian being off most of last week.  Anyway, I weighed in this morning and I maintained from last week!!  I am thrilled to see this.  We have been partying for the end of the school year, our 10 year wedding anniversary and AJ's birthday the past week.  I have not been eating that great.  And honestly I probably won't for most of the rest of this month.  We have another party this weekend, then leave for NJ next weekend.  I'm OK with whatever happens, but will be thrilled if I'm able to maintain for this month.