Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 7/12 - 7/25)

I decided to put these two weeks together since they were the two weeks of our family vacation this year. I was going to do a few blog posts about our road trip out west, but as time is going by I honestly don't know that I will do that. I wrote recaps of each day and shared pictures on Facebook so I think for my own memories that will be enough, at least for now. Here is just a brief list of what we did each of the 14 days we were on the road:

- Day 1 - left OH and drove to St. Louis. Did the City Museum and the Gateway Arch

- Day 2 - Drove across Missouri and most of Kansas (most boring day - NO stops!!)

- Day 3 - Drove across Kansas and Colorado. Detoured to an awesome waterfall that we hiked to

- Day 4 - Toured Mesa Verde National Park, went to Four Corners & drove to Williams Arizona (thru a wind storm!) 

- Day 5 - Grand Canyon!!

- Day 6 - Grand Canyon!!

- Day 7 - Winslow Arizona, Toured Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

- Day 8 - Hiked Petroglyph Park, visited with my Aunt and drove thru Santa Fe

- Day 9 - Toured Roswell then drove across Texas

- Day 10 - Arrived at cabin in Broken Bow, OK to visit my brother

- Day 11 - Broken Bow, OK - boating, mini golf, wine tasting

- Day 12 - Broken Bow, OK - giant maze, beer tasting, relaxing!

- Day 13 - Drove to Memphis, toured Hot Springs Arkansas

- Day 14 - Toured Metropolis Illinois and drove HOME!

If you more information on anything we did, feel free to reach out. We had a great time, but it was also an exhausting trip. There was a lot we didn't get to see and are considering doing another trip like this again next summer. We learned some good lessons and will do the next one differently for sure (no more than 6 hours of driving each day!) We created a ton of memories and saw amazing sights. I'm thankful we were able to do this trip and pray the boys will remember it as one of their favorites.

Now with all of that fun, there was very little focus on my goals for these 2 weeks, and I am 100% fine with that. Here's how I did:

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 20 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year hitting 10,000 steps everyday -  I was all over the place with steps these two weeks! Most days averaged 8,000 steps, with some higher ones (Grand Canyon Day 1 I hit almost 18,000!) and some lower ones (the big driving days were low steps). I'm happy to report I felt good most of the time and was able to do more than I thought I would be able to do. I'm ready to refocus on this goal in August for sure!
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I finished "The Outsiders" over vacation for my 13th book of the year. It was as good as I remember the movie being! We'll be watching the movie soon since we were waiting for me to finish the book. I started my next book too "Babyville" but only read about 5% since I was too busy looking at the beautiful scenery and helping to drive.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I missed a few days over vacation but caught up when we got home and have done this all 206 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For July I picked a plan focused on peace since we have 2 weeks in the car together and I feel like I might need some peace, ha!
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August when I'm back to teaching.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We didn't play any games while on vacation but when we got home, we played 2, Loot and Monopoly Deal. Neither one was a favorite for us, we're hoping for better luck next week! We have played 97 games so far this year and are hoping to pick up the pace this fall. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We didn't do anything on this goal these two weeks, too busy having fun!
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We didn't incur anything over this vacation since we've been saving for it for almost 2 years. We will pay off our credit cards when they come in and then reevaluate where we are financially and pay off my surgery next.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We didn't watch any movies or TV shows over vacation. It was nice to have a break from TV for most of the time!
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - We still celebrated every day while on vacation, although for a lot of them I picked very easy holidays! Over the two weeks we celebrated: New Conversations Day, Go West Day, National French Fry Day, National Mac & Cheese Day, National Gummy Worm Day, National Fresh Spinach Day, World Emoji Day, National Ice Cream Day, National Daquiri Day, Stick out your Tongue Day, National Chess Day, National Lollipop Day, National Hot Dog Day, National Junk Food Day, Summer Leisure Day, National Peanut Butter & Chocolate Day, National Tequila Day, National Drive Thru Day, and National Wine & Cheese Day. Below are a few picture highlights of our holidays. I'm also chronicling them on Facebook so if we aren't friends there, feel free to add me or follow along at #CelebrateEveryDay