I took a little break from posting while we were traveling — not entirely sure why! I had the time . . . but perhaps I didn’t have the energy.
Here is an incomplete photodump with a few highlights!
Other unpictured happenings:
- Heading to Palm Beach International airport (nicest and easiest airport near us of the 3 options, but ~1 hr away) at 4:30 AM on Thursday after Josh ended up operating/seeing consults until 2:30 AM the night before — for a minute there I thought we might not make it, at least not all together
- Recording session with Laura (we did a “secret episode” for our Patreon + a mailbag, as is our ‘live recording’ tradition)
- Dinner for 9 (my parents, our fam, my sister + M) at a Moroccan restaurant where we took over the entire upstairs.
- A was so good with M — she is good with kids in general and this was such a cute little pairing.
- C beat everyone in Nok Hockey. Repeatedly. As per usual.
- Family trip to Rita’s Water Ice!! I got lemon / vanilla / pie pieces — key lime pie vibes. I still think that Jeremiah’s might actually be better . . . but both are good!
- Fun dinner out with Laura + her husband while her kids/my kids hung out at her house — major milestone! Also, our kids get along very well. It is super cute!
- Homemade pizzas and the best ever lemon ricotta pancakes, courtesy of my mom
- M and G sleepover!! Both slept at my sister’s house and they were up way too late so next time I have promised that they can both stay with our fam — it’s definitely our turn!
- Super late and delicious lunch at Flanigan’s on the way back from the airport. Josh and I then both bemoaned the lack of buffer between our trip and the work week, but we got over it.
Workouts Last Week
It was a bit of a down week, with 45 miles total (5 runs rather than my usual 6, due to travel) and just one barre workout. There was one speed workout in there with 15 x 1 min that felt wayyyy harder than it sounded! The heat of summer is definitely making every run harder, but I’m hoping this will pay off come . . . well, realistically, around November (waahhh). I am also now Seriously Recommitting to strength training. Starting today.
Last week’s highlight run was 12 miles along the Schuylkill River watching people boating. Josh ran with me for most of it! It was 78-80F which was normal for us but admittedly a little bit disappointing (this is a rather high “low” temp for Philadelphia).
Oh!! And I want to try the ASICS Superblast 2. Any Superblast fans? I was thinking these could work for speedwork and more moderate efforts.
Reading Last Week
I finished two books on the trip: The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza and True To You by Kathleen Smith. The former was historical fiction and pretty enjoyable though I thought the second half dragged a little bit. The latter was all about relationships and Bowen theory and pretty apropos to be reading on a family trip!
I’m currently reading Sandwich and finding it absolutely delightful and I just stared The Anxious Generation, which is actually making ME anxious (perhaps that was the intent, to get the elder Millennials and young GenXs caught up with GenZ by reading this book).
TODAY
BLP record x 1 — fun guest interview! (Don’t worry, it will air Monday so the suspense won’t last long)
Bit of admin stuff (various things to be scheduled)
Complete “Special Marketing & Promotion Opportunities” section of book manuscript and mayyyybe do the “Author Bio” part too if I’m on a roll
Strength workout
19 Comments
It is nice seeing your posts again. I’m glad you guys had a good time. I’ve always wonder if you take your planner with you on vacation. My guess is yes.
I did take it but truly didn’t use it much other than on the airplane when I went into a planning frenzy (both ways!).
If my planner isn’t too bulky, I like to take it on vacation and use it as a way to briefly record what we did/ate/saw each day. (If you have a planner with loose leaf pages, that’s ideal because you can take only the pages applicable to your trip.) I also like to include step counts from my fitness tracker–it’s so fun to see how much we walk on our trip. This would fit in well with your “experience” word of the year!
I kept the cutest ever analog journal of our honeymoon in 2006, written in a Moleskine softcover cahier. I would LOVE to do this with other trips, but just haven’t in recent times!!
That’s nice to hear. I may opt to take a small Moleskine notebook next week when we are traveling to Mexico.
Looks like a fun family trip. I have a library hold on Sandwich and can’t wait to read it (hopefully it’ll come in to be timed for our end-of-summer trip to visit family on Cape Cod!). The Anxious Generation ALSO made me anxious. But it also inspired me to make some concrete changes in my parenting which is more than I feel most books do (not just the delaying first smartphone recommendation, but more around giving my 10 and 11 year old more opportunities to do things independently/teach more life skills).
This is totally unrelated to your post but since I know you’re going to Olympic NP this summer I thought you might enjoy this blog post by a friend of mine who just did a four-day trip there with her kids (her younger kid is exactly G’s age and her older one is a little younger than C, so the activities they might like to do could match up pretty well): https://saynplaycolumbus.com/2024/07/07/road-trip-itinerary-4-days-in-olympic-national-park/
this post is GOLD!!! we already have our stay booked, but I hadn’t planned out anything else for that portion of the trip. This is AWESOME!
The Anxious Generation also made me super anxious! But I haven’t stopped thinking about it and it’s definitely impacted my parenting. It did make me feel so helpless like it is all out of my control if our schools won’t mandate a phone free school. I wish everyone would read this book.
I read Sandwich last week and really liked it! I think I would like it even more if I was 10-20 years older. I am still in the stage of parenting that the protagonist is nostalgic for. At one point she mentions missing having little feet on her or something to that effect. I get so touched out on the weekend so it’s hard to imagine missing this stage but we will see what I think in 10-20 years.
It’s so nice when the big cousins are sweet with their little cousins. My boys are much younger than most of their cousins and they get doted on quite a bit. My 6yo followed his 16yo cousin around like a puppy dog. His big cousins are very patient with hub and seem to enjoy the attention, though.
Yay for an adult night out without having to hire a babysitter!
What a fun trip with the family! I had to laugh at your description of PBI as the best of the nearby options. I had to fly to that part of FL a lot for a former job and I agree completely. (FLL was the worst, imho.)
Putting (with some trepidation) The Anxious Generation on my TBR.
Haha I firmly believe that MIA is the worst!! FLL is #2 for me. PBI is the farthest and most limited in options but the best!
I’m looking forward to your thoughts on The Anxious Generation. I haven’t read it yet. I’m glad you had a nice vacation and got some good runs in there.
Looks like a fun family vacation, love when kids play with other kids during trip, making parenting so much easier!
running in the US heat wave is not fun, hopefully it will get better soon. The sun somehow is stronger here.
I will read sandwich after I finish the current one as I really enjoyed the sample. The anxious parent, I read part of it and kind of get the gist. I am adamant of not giving kids devices, like for many years to come.
Enjoyed hearing what you’ve been up to you. Quick question…
Your mom is so lean and in such good shape for an older lady and I was wondering if she really has to work at that or if that is something that people in your family just physiologically lean (ha ha) towards.
I also wondered if you think your innate physiology has been helpful in getting back into more serious running post babies? And if you think that you find it may be a little easier (NOT EASY!) to get in shape than the average person from a physiological perspective…. as well as your awesome planning and self discipline to actually behaviorally implement training plans.
I am sure it plays a role. Genetics are powerful things!! Interestingly neither of my parents have any interest in anything athletic (well.. my dad WATCHES baseball…) whereas I have always wanted to do some kind of sport or more intense fitness pursuit. My parents both love walking though and have been very consistent with getting walking miles in over the years. Our family definitely gravitates towards healthier eating but nothing extreme. (Probably more so when I was growing up. Tofu and whole wheat bread before it was really mainstream … no white bread … etc)
Josh looks so tired! Glad you all had a good time! Solidarity to the post call vacation departure. For some reason I seem to catch the calls that keep me up til 7am before I leave for vacation. The looks I got from the fancy hotel staff when I arrived in PR this past winter after being awake for 40 were priceless! I must have looked like a ragamuffin!
Oh, that’s SO cute that your kids and Laura’s kids get along well and like each other! And, your mom looks great (she looks like she could be a runner!) Overall it sounds like an amazing trip.
I never fly out of PBI but I’ll consider it in the future. I always do FLL. I REFUSE to go to Miami!!!
I’ve been doing way more strength training than I ever wanted to, and it’s pissing me off. Can’t WAIT to be back to running.
She is definitely not a runner. But a very consistent and avid walker!!
PBI is so awesome! If I lived where you do
I would use it whenever possible. In full agreement MIA is terrible. Crowded, chaotic, and often baaaad traffic to get there. Sometimes I’d actually rather have a connection than fly direct and use MIA…