Just a quick note to let you know I’m off on a summer trip with my kiddos this week! I’ll be back to blogging (and answering e-mail in complete sentences, i.e. not on my phone) next Monday, August 12! But here’s a preview of things to come:
That’s right, baby! Me and Shaun T! (Yes, it’s grammatically incorrect but rhyming absolves all sins.) I just got my copy of Shaun T’s (he of Insanity fame) newest workout series, T25. It’s 5 days a week, just 25 minutes each day. Plus I got (cajoled?) a group of my girls here to help me test it out! Since we’re new acquaintances I figured the best way to get know each other was do something where I can demonstrate my talent of sweating like a dude.
This will be a fun change because ever since we’ve moved to Colorado, my workouts have been a little helter skelter. I’m still working out 6 days a week but what I do changes frequently. The only hard and fast constant is my new fave Zumba class. (Yep, the one with the mean ladies. I went back! And I went back again! I’d be lying if I said what happened didn’t effect me – I’ve toned it down and I don’t hang around after class any more – but I’m still going. And I still love it. And even if those ladies still give me a wicked side-eye, other women talk to me. It’s not perfect but it’s better. Yay, progress!) I do a couple of days of running, usually a day of FitnessBlender. (Go check it out if you haven’t yet! It’s awesome!!) And lots of this:
At the top of the mesa, I said to my kids, “Hey guys, look at the gorgeous view!!” To which son #3 replied, “I can’t see any views – there are too many mountains in the way!” There’s a life lesson here somewhere…
We also got to do some volunteering.
Today we went with a bunch of other people from our church and helped repair a hiking trail. Which meant we shoveled dirt for two hours under a blazing sun. A killer workout yes but good for the heart in more ways than just aerobically!
Also? This happened:
IN MY BACKYARD. Although they all have glowing skin now. I’m sure it’s from the mud. Or because they’re kids and kids have perfect skin. None of which has anything to do with fitness but I want sympathy. Feel bad for me and my washing machine?
Wish me luck on my Quixotic vacay! (My husband is staying home since he has to work. That whole job thing. You know.) Any suggestions for travelling with young kids are welcome! Or getting stains out of clothing!
See you next week:)
Have a great trip, Charlotte!!! I’m sure you know more about traveling with kids than I do! I guess the only thing I can’t think of is don’t forget to BREATHE! 🙂
It’s not grammatically incorrect, or if it is it’s only by virtue of being a sentence fragment. “This picture shows me and Shaun T” would be perfectly correct and “This picture shows Shaun T and I” would, in fact, be wrong. So there and enjoy your holiday!
Good luck on your trip! I don’t know that I’d be brave enough to take my kids alone and I only have two!
Excited to hear about your new fitness experiment and hopefully gym buddy recruitment session!
Have a great trip!! I’ve taken more long car trips alone with my boys than I can count – at least 1 a year for 14 years now!!! Each one is different – all I know is they are easier now than when the boys were really young!
Good luck!!
I would suggest Calvin and Hobbes books. Also, lots of paper and pens/ pencils. (No crayons! They get left on the seat and mellllltttttt.) ‘I Spy’ also works for quite awhile, and even jellybean can get in on that action. We also always make a plan to stop at a Dairy Queen about an hour before we get to our destination. The sugar rush of an ice cream cone gets everyone through the last hour of drudgery! I make many, many (like once a month) long 4-5 hour trips with just my 2 (soon to be three) boys when we go to visit my parents in Duluth. I am a mom-on-her-own road trip veteran. My hubby works, so he only comes about once a year. I’m not a huge fast food person, either, but I gotta say, stopping at a fastfood joint with a playland can be a life saver, too. That and music they like and you can stand.
OH I WISH WE COULD JOIN YOU.
the child and I would rock the trip.
maybe?
at least we’d be there…
Glad to see you are enjoying the mountains of CO, the thinner air is worth the “view” isn’t it?
as for traveling w/ kiddos we made a yearly trek back home 12 hours every year and it was before the DVD’s were invented so we listened to books or told stories. My aunt taught me ages ago about her trips across Montana in the 40’s with her 5 kids. She had them look for faces in the rocks or clouds, so that they were paying attention to the scenery. I used her idea in the 50 years later and it is fun.
On a really long trip to New Mexico I recall being very creative with the ABC’s (might be over JellyBeans head, but just think of it as prep for pre-school). Someone would come up with a theme, something we saw out the window, animal, food, name, ect and we’d go around the car in order and have something with the correct letter, It was never boring and the kids loved it. In fact that Christmas we ended up doing our Christmas letter in A-Z of the highlights of our family’s year….
.When the morale is low, “She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes” works along with lots of old songs that they may have never heard of…..have fun making memories!
Have a GREAT trip! This’ll be one of the thongs the kids will remember when they’re older. 🙂
That sounds like quality family time to me, including the mountains in the way and the mud all over! 🙂
Have a blast on your trip!
I’m really looking forward to your thoughts on T25, since I’ve been hearing a lot about it and have been contemplating purchasing it!
I just did 14 hours with 3 kids. Although they were well behaved, I might leave it for a while before the next one! Have fun. Great post.
Ugh. I was sort of secretly hoping to end up a Gym Buddy (how that was supposed to happen, I’m not sure), but I’m realizing that I probably couldn’t cut it anyway. *sigh*
I look forward to hearing your results, anyhow!
I would suggest going to the library and getting some books on tape, or downloading them from iTunes or audible.com. There are many options for kids and they buy SILENCE for hours. I don’t know your kids age span, but mine are 3 and 6 and they both LOVE the Magic Treehouse. I just did a long road trip with them on my own and it was fine thanks to those books! I also have 2 tablets that they can watch movies on (with headphones!) when things start getting rough, but seriously I only resort to movies until the last couple hours. Be prepared , have tons of snacks and water, have entertainment ready, and the part where you are driving will probably be the easiest part of the trip!
I would suggest going to the library and getting some books on tape, or downloading them from iTunes or audible.com. There are many options for kids and they buy SILENCE for hours. I don’t know your kids age span, but mine are 3 and 6 and they both LOVE the Magic Treehouse. I just did a long road trip with them on my own and it was fine thanks to those books!
Have a great trip! Glad to hear you went back to class!
The more time you spend with them out of the car, the easier the time in the car will go. Bring things for them to do outside the car as well as inside, baseball, frisbee, anything active. Tired kids travel better. Also give them the map and have them work out the route and check off the towns as you pass.
As far as the mud goes, that is why they invented play clothes. I don’t think kids do that now, but we always had to change from good clothes to play clothes when we got home. And play clothes were expected to be dirty. Also, when the kids are real dirty, don’t be afraid to break out the hose and wash them off outside. It gets them a bit cleaner and leaves some of the mess outside the house. And yes, I occasionally made my kids strip down to their skivvies and hosed them off outside before I let them come in. There is nothing wrong with them paying a small penalty for getting THAT dirty.
Have fun on the trip.
Have a blast! Love that your son said he could see any view, because there were mountains in the way! Hilarious!!!! Your kids are so cute! And I sort of want to play in the mud. Looks like a blast. ALthough washing their clothes after doesn’t look like fun at all. I would probably hose them off and be tempted to garbage bag the clothes… sounds so wasteful though right.
Enjoy your trip! Looking forward to your post about the fun you had. 😉
Love this post. Whatever happens, it’s going to be sooo much fun. Awesome 🙂
I hope your road trip’s going well! I think road trips have changed so much now that kids all have their electronic devices. But back in the day we got a lot of mileage out of the license plate game, trying to find a plate from each state and filling it in on a map. Hawaii is the hardest, but it can be found!
Wish you had moved to Austin and become my workout buddy. Isn’t there anyone in Denver who thought, “Squeee!” when she found out you were moving there? No one who reads this blog and comments on every post from Denver? They are missing OUT!
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