{Ali}

{Balboa Island}

Have you ever been to Balboa Island? We hadn't.

Each time we visit California, we always try and do something, or visit something new. On previous trips we have visited Huntington Beach, Manhattan Beach, Venice Beach and Santa Monica. We've also visited the Hollywood Bowl, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood Walk of Fame, and multiple trips to the Happiest Place on Earth. We've attend an Angel's game and even eaten at The Oinkster that was featured on Diners Drive-ins and Dives, and poolside at the Cabana Club Cafe at the Beverly Hills Hilton. We've had a great time on our visits to California.

This trip, we knew most of our time would be spent attending all of the graduation festivities. It was also a holiday weekend, so we figured the beaches would be packed on our free days of Sunday and Monday. After discussing it with the fam, we realized we just couldn't leave California without some type of visit to the beach. Plus, Uncle Kevin made Madison promise she would dip her feet in the ocean for him! T's girlfriend Stephanie is from Irvine, which is incredibly close to Balboa Island. She has spent quite a bit of time at the beach (her Dad also grew up on Balboa Island!), and suggested we spend the day there.

We did.

And we are so happy, we did.

Can you say gorgeous?

Check out these houses that are right up against the beach:

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Could you imagine living here?

The flowers alone were FABULOUS!

Check out this pier/dock:

Stephanie and her parents met us at the beach with kayaks, paddle boards and the popular Cornhole game!

Madison and I, going out on the paddle board:

Madi and George coming in from a jaunt in the kayaks:

Stephanie's dad also loves to build sand castles, and he is really good at it!

He whipped that bad boy out, in no time!

Stephanie and Tyson got schooled a few times in cornhole! By their dads, and by Madi and George! They were not happy about it!

All in all, we had such an amazing time!

We loved spending time with Stephanie and her family, and appreciate all they did to make our day on Balboa Island, such a huge success!

If you've never been to Balboa Island….

GO!

NOW!

You will love it!

Happy Friday Y'all!

{I’m back!}

I'm back! From a crazy, fun trip to California to see Tyson graduate from the University of Redlands!

 

We had such a FABULOUS time!

Some highlights:

Lounging by the pool at The Palms in Las Vegas on our way to California

The CRAZY photo shoot we did of the boys for some framed pics to have on hand at the grad party

The Baccalaureate Ceremony on Friday night – watching the grads walk across the quad, to the sound of bagpipes

Hanging with great friends at the Senior Night Dinner after Baccalaureate

Watching Tyson walk across the stage as the only Chemistry Major on Saturday morning

Seeing the top of Tyson's cap decorated (the "Yellow House" is where he lives, his football #, and a shout out to Mom & Dad)

Party for the four friends, back at the Yellow House after the Graduation ceremony – a photo of the Grads and Moms

Singing and dancing the night away with family and friends!

 

Watching endless games of corn hole being played, line dancing and some karaoke too!

Going to Hangar 24 Craft Brewery on Sunday with Tyson

Endless laughs and jokes (and singing conversations) in the car (and everywhere else) with these two crazies!

Balboa Island – GORGEOUS!

A fun day spent with Stephanie and her parents, kayaking, paddle boarding, playing corn hole, and building sandcastles!

All in all, a FABULOUS trip, spent with my most favorite people ever!

CONGRATS to Tyson!

You did it!

And we are so very proud!

Can't wait to see what the next chapter in your life brings!

{Law Day 5K recap and lack of posts}

Happy Monday, friends!

I hope you had a great weekend! I had fabulous one! More about that in a minute.

I just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts this past week. My laptop crashed (for the 2^nd time!) and I'm not a big fan of our desktop computer. It's slow and is a pain in the ass to blog from. Right now it's making crazy with this post! Oh well.

That's life, right?

My posting the next week or so, will also be sparse, due to the college graduation of this boy from The University of Redlands!

I can't believe it's been 4 years already! I will have a lot to post about as soon as we return from California!

Now, on to the 5k recap!

On Saturday, I ran the 30^th Annual Law Day 5k

I work for a law firm, and the firm paid for employees to run in the race. I'm not a HUGE runner, but lately I have been trying to run more and more.

I have a secret goal of running a marathon, ½ marathon and the Ragnar Wasatch Back some day, so I am trying to run some 5ks this summer!

On Friday night I "carb loaded", with the BEST PIZZA EVAH and it did not disappoint! Soooo good!

It was a beautiful day on Saturday. Perfect for getting outside and running/walking/whatever!

The race was held on the campus of the University of Utah, which is really beautiful, with view overlooking the city.

I was a bit nervous about this 5k, since the first mile of the race is mostly all uphill. I've been battling a quad pull, and was worried how it would hold up.

The starting line:

*warning, crappy cell phone pics ahead!

When the race started, I felt okay. Each step was met with a slight pull of my quad, but I was determined. The first uphill stretch was not fun. It was crowded and I knew I started out a bit too fast, going with the other racers. I ended up walking just a bit of the hill, until the course leveled out for a minute. Literally, 1 minute! Then it was back to a huge climb, toward the sun, and it was HOT! I walked up most of the hill. I tried running, but it just wasn't happening.

Once we hit the top of the course, about 1.5 miles in, things went much smoother. The course was a little flat and we weren't running straight in to the sun. At about mile 2.3 the course was more downhill than anything. That part was nice, but you can really feel downhill running in your knees and my quad was really bothering me the last mile. Knowing that Carl and Madison would be waiting for me at the finish line was a huge motivator!
I told Carl I would probably cross the finish line somewhere around 40-45 minutes due the uphill parts of the course slowing me down. I checked my watch to try and gauge how I was doing on time, and it seems to me I was hitting the 40 minute mark with at least .5 miles to go.

I was annoyed.

But I kept on going.

Finally, the finish line was within in sight! All the people along the race route were cheering on the runners and that makes it sooo much easier to keep going! Right before the finish line I spotted Carl and Madison. Carl had my cell phone out ready to snap a picture! I gave him my cheesy smile:

And then I crossed the finish line:

My "official" time was: 36:04.25 I was 11/21 in my age group and finished 252/594

Not too bad.

I'll take it!

It really was fun, and I felt like I could have gone another couple of miles!

The rest of the weekend consisted of dinner out with Carl's family on Saturday night, which was fun!

Sunday was a day of addressing my brother's wedding invitations in calligraphy! I can't wait for his wedding in July!

Hope you had a great weekend!

I will spend the next few days getting ready for our trip to California and Tyson's graduation!

Have a FABULOUS day!

 

 

{Mother’s Day 2012}

Happy Monday y'all! I can't believe how fast May is flying by! I swear, we were just celebrating the New Year, right?

I had a FABULOUS Mother's Day yesterday. The whole weekend was just plain great!

The weather in Utah was just gorgeous! Loved it!

My brother and his finance hosted our family and her family for dinner and a Mother's Day Celebration yesterday.

We grilled Whole Foods burgers, which were so good. I'm going to have to pick some up soon!

I was in charge of bringing dessert. I'm on a cupcake kick right now, so I whipped up some Brownie Cupcakes

Quick, easy and delicious!

I was treated like a queen by Carl (and Chloe!) all day long, and I got a super nice text messages from Tyson and Madison as well!

Madison totally surprised me with these BEAUTIFUL tropical flowers and the sweetest card ever. Made my cry!

Sorry, for the crappy cell phone pics! Too lazy to break out the digital camera!

Carl and I finished off the night watching the Season Finale of Survivor. Do you watch? If so, what did you think?

All in all, it was a really a nice weekend!

Hope you had a FABULOUS weekend as well!

{Friday Phone Dump}

Happy Friday Friends!

It's been a long, long week, and I'm glad that the weekend will soon be upon us!

I haven't done a Friday Phone Dump post in a while!

Just random crappy phone photos from the past week:

Finishing up Day #5 of HELLth Week at my gym

My latest obsession! Chobani greek yogurt for breakfast or lunch, almost every day!

A very thoughtful gift my friend Traci gave me – in the midst of HELLth Week

Carl and I, at a wedding on Saturday night. So much fun!

A photo my daughter sent me via text. She and her boyfriend in Vegas. Love the devil eyes!

Didn't feel like doing my hair! Ponytail Friday?

Loving the weather and my new sandals from Tar-jay!

Chloe and Jax, just chillin'!

Any fun plans for the weekend?

A certain somebody in my family is graduating from college in a few weeks, and there is a party to get ready for!

TGIF!

 

{HELLth Week Recap}

Last week, I participated in HELLth Week

This is from the GPP website:

This week (like other HELLth weeks before) is uber ROUGH. The challenge this week is to complete every workout. ALL SIX.

Those who do will raise their health and fitness to a new level. Those who finish all of these workouts will have accomplished something special.

If you can get through HELLth week, you can get through a week of just about ANYTHING. Please be careful, but give this week your heart.

I'm not gonna lie. The week was HELL. But at the same time it was fabulous. I realized I can push myself further than I thought possible.

It was very empowering!

The week started with THIS workout: DAY #1 40:10's

Warm up:20 inchworms (make sure you get that hammy stretch)

then, 2 x per min for 20 minutes perform a 10 m sprint.

You are to accelerate to top speed, then come to a complete stop WITHIN 10 meters each time.

This was a favorite for sure! The inchworms were fairly easy for me, and the sprints were actually fun.

And it didn't seem hard. I thought to myself, this is the beginning of HELLth Week?

What's so bad about this?

And then I went to Zumba.

Funny thing happened. My legs stopped working.

Like they got all week and seemed to have a mind of their own. But I powered through.

Woke up Tuesday and EVERYTHING hurt! Oh my!

My hips, my feet, my ankles, my legs and my hammies were screaming!

 

DAY #2 STANDARDS REVENGE HERE

Complete 10 sets of the following:

In 3 minutes you are to sprint 200m plus do as many rounds as possible of the following exercises:

5 deadlifts 95/135
5 pullups
5 pushups (strict)

Rest precisely 1 minute before repeating.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. It sucked. The 200 meter sprint killed me. Then I did Zumba and about died!

DAY #3 OLIVER HERE

7 rounds for time:

21 DB thrusters 15/20 ea.
21 ski squats
21 situps
21 superman back ext
21 tic tock R 25/35
21 tic tock L 25/35

The pain and fatigue were starting to set in. This workout was hard. My legs were toast and my back was hurting.

Zumba after 3 days of hell, made it even more HELL!

DAY #4 LIKE FIGHT – CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH HERE

5 rounds of:

1 min row (count calories)
1 min clean and jerk 65/95 (count reps)
1 min box jumps (count reps)
1 min KB swings 35/53 (count reps)
1 min DB press jacks 15/20 ea. (count reps)

Rest 1 min between each round. The clock does NOT stop between exercises. Count total reps - add to total calories (from rowers)

I was mentally and physically exhausted by this workout. Someone remind me NOT to try and do Zumba during HELLth Week!

The Dumbbell Press Jacks and Clean and Jerks, were HARD. I cried during this workout. Cried.

And I have nice bruises on my shoulder from dropping the weights before the press.

But I did it.

DAY #5 BUST-O-RAMA HERE

Every minute on the minute for 20 minutes complete:

6 busters 15/20 ea.

"Busters" are a combination between burpees and thrusters – with 15 lb weights in your hands.

Um, yeah. Once again I cried during this workout. I was so exhausted by this point.

I switched the weights out to 12.5, which I could barely lift. By the 10^th round I wanted to switch to 10's.

There were no weights left. I sucked it up and finished. By this point, I wasn't sure I could finish HELLth Week.

DAY #6 5k RUN HERE

For time:

5k (3.2 mi.) run

There are only 3 class options on Saturday morning. 6:30, 7:15 & 8:45.

I decided to suck it up and hit the 7:15 class – Just Do It and all that!

And I did it.

I ran the 5k in 36:35.

Not too bad, for not being a runner. And not have run a 5k in a few years.

It was hard. But I felt FABULOUS when I was done.

I did it!

I didn't realize what a huge impact HELLth Week was going to have on me.

It changed so much of my thought process. I realized I could do it.

Even though I am 47 years old, I can still be an athlete!

THANK YOU SO MUCH NEIL, MEG, LIZZ and GPP FITNESS!!!

Bring on HELLth Week!

{Bountiful Baskets}

Have you heard of Bountiful Baskets?

I know a lot of places they are called CSA baskets, or Co-op Baskets.

Whatever the name, they are fabulous!

We order our basket every Monday, and then pick it up on Saturday mornings.

For the low cost of $16.50, we received the following:

It's different every week, but so far I have NOT been disappointed!

I've been roasting vegetables frequently and eating them for dinner, and then packing them for lunch the next day.

I love having fresh fruit and veggies on hand!

I can't wait to see what tomorrow's basket brings!

Do you participate in your local community's CSA/Co-op Basket?

Have any good recipes?

Would love to have them!

J

{Not Your Average Dish Towel}

Good Morning!

Today I am happy to spotlight one of the last items (that I took photos of!) that I sold at our Spring Boutique!

Not your average dish towel, right?

I took regular white dish towels from Walmart, and embellished them with cute fabric!

This one happens to be perfect for a UTE FAN!

I had quite a few other options, but didn't take photos before the boutique, duh!

What was I thinking?

This is one I made for myself!

Hanging proudly on my oven!

GO UTES!

{HELLth Week}

HELLth Week is here.

It began yesterday.

I DO NOT know if I can make it.

But I'm gonna try.

Day 1 = Survived.

BOOM.

Bring on Day 2!

By the way, do you GPP?

You should.

Life changing, I tell ya!

Happy Tuesday!

{NOTES}

Happy Monday to you!

I hope you had a great weekend!

The weather was nice, but a bit chilly here in Utah, but I'll take it over rain and snow!

I've got a few more projects that I included in my Spring Boutique that I want to spotlight.

I got the idea for a "Notes" plate from the uber talented Shelley @ The House of Smiths .

You can see Shelley's plate HERE

This was a huge seller at the boutique, and I've since put together quite a few more for friends wanting extras for gifts!

You can write on the plates with just plain old dry erase markers.

Erase with a paper towel, or soft cloth.

I love how they turned out!

What do you think?

Let me know if you are interested in purchasing a plate with vinyl, or just the vinyl alone!

Have a great day!