This post will cover bits of life from the time I last posted until I started working. Enjoy!
Wednesday, July 1:
This was an extremely lazy day. I'm pretty sure I didn't even get out of my pajamas until I went to circuit class at 5:30. Syd was pretty happy this day because wifey went ahead and made some banana bread.
I saw there were several brown bananas on top of our fridge, and usually I freeze those for smoothies, but since I knew we would be heading up to camp for the weekend, I had a different idea for how they could be enjoyed.
"Syd, do you want me to make banana bread?"
"Ummm if you make banana bread I WILL DEFINITELY eat it."
"Oh good. I was thinking maybe we could take it to camp."
"If I don't eat it all before then! And if not, then it will not leave our trailer (meaning no sharing with anyone else lol).
I used my usual recipe, which is from my Grandma Esther:
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
3 mashed bananas
Optional chocolate chips or walnuts. (Syd prefers no nuts and plenty of chocolate chips)
Cream sugar, oil, and eggs. Add dry ingredients. Put bananas and optional ingredients in last. Bake at 300 degrees for about an hour.
It turned out great! The last time I baked it in this oven I remember it was a little too brown on the edges so I cut baking time a bit, which was a great decision.
Check out that face so excited to devour the banana bread.
Thursday, July 2:
I spent this morning hanging out with Q. We took Franklin to the dog park, which they BOTH love, and Q taught me how to make a daisy chain necklace. This kid is hilarious and really smart, and spending time with him is always great. Plus, he is Franklin's human BFF. Seriously, those two can just run around with each other for hours. It's the cutest.
Later in the afternoon, I went to Syd's office and spent a few hours helping him plan activities for teen camp, which would begin the following week, and then we went shopping for supplies. I love looking at people's random purchases on the cashier belt, and ours was definitely one of those.
In the evening, Franklin and I went for a run at Headwaters Forest. It's a trail out past Elk River Road and is paved for the first mile. http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/prog/nlcs/Headwaters_ForestReserve.html We like to take Franklin here sometimes on walks because he doesn't have to be leashed. This was my first time running the trail, as well as Franklin's first time running with me unleashed, and he did awesome. It was pretty warm out for Eureka standards, and I didn't have water to give him on the trail so he was a trooper. He was never too far out of my sight, and stayed within 10 or 15 feet behind me.
How could you not enjoy a run on this trail?
Franklin and I stopped for a bridge selfie on the way back.
5.5 trail miles with Franklin
Friday, July 3-Monday, July 6:
Today was the day we would be heading up to Blue Slide for Family Camp 4th of July weekend! Syd and I really love going to Family Camp. We have missed it the past couple years, so it was great to be back up there with everyone and have our own trailer this year for it. Before we left, though, I got in a fast paced run for the weekend.
6 miles. 51:20:4 8:33/mi pace
On our way out to camp, Syd and I saw a mama deer with two BRAND NEW baby fawns. Syd thinks they were probably only a week old.
They were right in the middle of the road and went we went further forward, the mama went up the hill on the side of the road with her babies trailing her. One made it up, but the other one just couldn't quite make it up the hill on his own. We stopped to watch and see if the mama would come back down to help her baby, but she didn't.
The poor baby deer was shaking all over because it was so scared of us so we drove up further away. I parked off to the side and we decided Syd should get out and see if the deer needed any help getting up the hill, plus he really wanted to pet it. By the time he went back, baby had made it up the hill-yay!
This is one of my favorite views on the drive up to Maple Creek.
There were lots of church family members at Family Camp this year, which made it even more fun. It was a relaxing weekend spent with some wonderful people. Festivities included chapel and worship through singing and dancing (which I helped the kids lead the hand motions the first night as they were all RCS chapel songs), an intense kickball game, a watermelon eating contest, s'mores, river time, too much awesome food made by my in-laws, great conversations at the campfire, holding little ones' hands, and a fireworks show announced by Pastor Syd himself! Blue Slide Camp is such a tremendous blessing to our church, and we are so grateful for that gorgeous space and for the people who continue to help the camp run smoothly. I foresee many weekends spent in the sun there this summer (except for Sundays when people should head back in town for church, which is the whole reason why the campground is there!)
Sunday night, after mostly everyone had left from Family Camp, Syd and the teen camp band made up of a group of Point Loma students showed up along with Cadence Please, the band that we had for teen camp last year. We had pizza and talked about all our connections within the university (Nazarene-dom is CRAZY small, I'm telling ya). A couple of the guys in the band were actually good friends with Syd's brother, Carl! One of the guys said that I reminded him of Carl's girlfriend Carly, which is a major compliment for sure :)
I was bummed to not be able to stay for the whole week of helping at teen camp because I had to start working, but Syd did a great job with everything and the kids were really fed physically and spiritually during the week there. Weeks like that make me so excited for the future of our youth!
My favorite color- the one God uses for the special sunsets. Those were at the gate and then on the camp road on the way out.
Tuesday, July 7:
Speed training.
This is how I feel about it:
3 mile warmup and 5 4x400s with a jogging lap in between
1:36:41
1:38:92
1:38:16
1:40:01
1:40:44
Wednesday, July 8-Friday, July 10:
Work. Circuit class. Reading. Treadmill run. Softball game sans Sydney :( Franklin was uber bored these few days with Mommy working and Daddy up at camp. Because we were missing Sydney, I decided to Google his doppelganger-Ben H. from this season's The Bachelorette. As much as I don't like Kaitlyn as the Bachelorette, I really like this bachelor she has...mostly because I think he is cute and the sweetest of the others. Syd pointed out that I think so because he looks like Syd. He was SPOT ON. Especially when he smiles. Young Ben H. totally looks like Syd in his younger days..check it out.
4 treadmill miles and 1.5 misty street miles to Kennedy Fields with Franklin
Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12:
I had asked Trevor (uncle/coach/runner extraordinaire) if he wanted to run around 10 miles at Headwaters this weekend and he was in. I picked him up at 8:30 and we were off. He taught me how to use the KT tape I got before we started, which I hope will really help with my knees. Trevor asked if I had ever run this trail in its entirety, to which I replied negative. I had probably only gone about 3 miles in. He said it is about 5 miles out, and then there is a short half mile loop at the top in the old growth section. I figured we should go the whole way out as I wanted to get 10 miles in that day. Well, let me tell you now that the first 3 miles I had run were cake compared to the last couple miles. It is hill after hill after steady increasing HILL. My quads were screaming. Trevor informed me at one point we were running up a 14% grade incline. I was pretty lame having to stop a ton in that fourth mile especially. Trevor is uber fast and in the best running shape of anyone ever so I felt badly keeping him slowed down, but I am so not used to doing hills. Trevor kept reassuring me that hills would make me stronger and would help with my knee pain and speed over time. When I was feeling really weak and slowing down, Trevor said, "Just keep moving forward with purpose." I laughed at that last part, "with purpose." My purpose at that time was to be done with all those hills, but I think what he said is a great motivator for running all the time and life in general. Trevor is so awesome like that.
I wish I would have thought to bring my phone to take pictures during the loop and old growth Redwood section because it was gorgeous. After one half mile loop, we began our descent back down the trail. I enjoyed going down much more because it was less painful in the legs, but was still not fully confident with my footing, so we kept it at an easy pace. We tried to sync our watches at the very beginning of our run, but my Garmin lost signal for about a mile at mile 6 so I didn't save our time. I think Trevor had about 10 or 10.5 miles on his watch and I honestly can't remember our time. I think it was around 14:30 min/mile. Trevor said that effort-wise with all the hills it was equivalent to a road half-marathon so that made me feel much more satisfied about our run for the day.
Around 10.5 trail miles
My legs were pretty achy the rest of the day, but I did still go with Syd and his dad to help clean up camp after Teen Camp. We got there around 3 and cleaned for over 3 hours, sweeping and mopping cabins and bathrooms and cleaning windows. Syd is lucky I love him.
Sunday, July 12:
I have officially lost the ability to sleep in past 8 now that I am working 8-5. Bummer. At least I got good reading and Bible study time in before church. Church was very powerful this morning, with our passionate guest speaker of Cutting Edge Ministries. Next summer, our youth will take part in a mission trip with them. I am so incredibly excited for the future of our church and will continue to pray for God to lead the right pastor into it.
Syd and I finally made it to a Crabs game this summer! We barely made it for the 1st inning of the 12:30 game. The Humboldt Crabs beat the California Storm 7-2 :) We didn't win the 50/50 raffle, but afterwards we went to Arcata Pizza and Deli for some much needed grub and raspberry lambic for me.
I can't wait for Tuesday, when Go Set a Watchman is released! I pre-ordered it on Amazon so I will get it sent to me the day it is released.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! Let me know if I can pray for you in any way or if you just want to chat/hang out :)
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