August 1 was a fantastic start to the month — I may have fulfilled my ‘fun quota’ already, ha! After a relaxing beach walk, my friends and I had a delicious brunch at Big Mike’s (Big Mike even greeted us at the end and was so nice), followed by a tour of the Japanese Gardens, shopping in Boca, and dinner at Takato where the service was meh but the food was fantastic.
I even met one of my Q3/summer goals: I bought some sandals!!
We hung out in one of the hotel rooms until ~10:45 pm or so, at which point 3 of us attempted to head back to our tower of the hotel — only to find THE POWER OUT!! We visited the front desk and were told we could get our stuff and be moved. Entering the entirely dark and eerily quiet building, we stuck together, braving the stairs and using our phones as flashlights to pack up one room at a time — and then the power flickered back on at around 11. HA!!
I guess the hotel was trying to make this trip extra memorable. In retrospect, it was almost fun.
I am not entirely sure which group shots I am allowed to share, so here’s a pic from the gardens!
I spent some time thinking about my August goals (we all chillaxed in our rooms for about an hour between the mall trip + dinner — I called the kids + then thought through the rest of my month planning).
August 2025 Goals
PERSONAL
- Attend 8 sessions of Club Pilates (I just took the plunge on the package, so I need to make the most of it!)
- Have month of zero double devicing. I hate when I do this so much (watch TV and have windows open).
- Aim for Friday Reddit sessions (30 min) only to enjoy the Hobonichi launch chatter
- Do 1-2 time tracking weeks
RELATIONSHIPS
- 2 date nights with Josh
- Set up + have approximately weekly Walk + Talks with friends or family
- TRAVEL: Finish booking Hawaii lodging for June 2026; decide on Yellowstone day trip and book if we’re going to do it (if anyone has ever done this driving from Big Sky and has tips/ can tell me if it’s worth it, let me know!)
WORK
- Create + stick to calendar for work projects — I plan on making said calendar on Monday. Since I only have 6 (!) creative days this month I need to really assign myself strategically and not get behind.
- Finish last round of book revisions
- Finish workbook edits for 2026
- Order BLP Live swag! (We always do a custom tote bag, and in prior years we’ve done borosilicate water bottles and then metal coffee mugs — working on an equally practical option for this year)
- Maintain a POSITIVE ATTITUDE on call!
BACK TO SCHOOL
- SOCK FEST 2025. NO ONE has enough socks. G has a million mismatched socks. A keeps stealing my socks when she runs out of her own. This is a problem we can fix and NOW is the time.
- Re-establish weekly Sunday “prep for the week” mini fam meeting. We definitely didn’t have as much to coordinate over the summer, and got out of the habit. But it is already clear that this year’s after school schedule will be as complicated as prior years, if not more so.
- Establish decent school morning routine
Off to hit the pool — then bringing my friends to my neighborhood and over for dinner tonight w the kids! (They got home yesterday and Josh has been in charge!).
13 Comments
Your time with friends some awesome except for the power outage although that will make it extra memorable! Way to get some friend time in to start the month. My husband has a pool get together with college friends this afternoon and I am going for a walk with friends tomorrow morning so we are getting some friend time in, too. I also have book club next week and another friend and her kids might come to an aquatic center with us today, too. So after rarely seeing friends this summer, I’m suddenly flush with plans which is GREAT.
I’ve been tempted to try a Pilates studio. Let us know how it goes. Is it on a reformer? I did private reformer sessions when I lived in CLT and had a stress fracture. They were so hard and effective!!
We did a day trip (more of a morning only trip) to Yellowstone and it was worth it. We were moving to Seattle from Florida and drove cross country. We made one of our overnight stops just outside of Yellowstone and spent the next morning exploring just the very north end of the park – Mammoth Hot Springs and a short hike. We left around lunch time to contine our drive. This was in May – not sure what it would be like in the winter when you’d be visiting. If just going for the day, pick a few things close to the enterence you are entering from and be satisfied with that. Don’t try to see all the major sites in the park. Still worth it and I’d love to go back for longer!
August snuck up on me! I like your goal framework–I need to make my own! I’ve been intrigued by Club Pilates too. There is one close to me, and it might be a good fit now that my little guy is going to be doing preschool 4x/week. If you love it let us know!
Sockfest – all I can say is I feel seen. Your description of your daughter stealing your socks was wayyyyyy too relatable. My mom fixed this problem for me by buying everyone a bunch of new socks at Costco. Hope you successfully fix it too 😂
Yellowstone is amazing. I suggest you visit Old Faithful and watch it erupt. There’s a lodge at Old Faithful there and it’s a good place to stop for lunch. The geysers throughout are amazing and there are many places to get out of the car to see them. I also suggest you drive around the park—it makes a circle—where you’ll see many herd of bison. It’s truly a sight. You’ll see more in the car, and there are many places to stop and see the many wonders.
We did a Yellowstone day tour in February of this year, in the middle of a ski trip in Big Sky. We used https://www.yellowstonevacations.com/tour/west-yellowstone-snowcoach-tours/. We were with another family, so did a private tour and split it. However, I think a group tour would also be great. I don’t recall if you usually get a rental car for your ski trips, but a potential downside is that you would likely need a rental car for this. It was a $ splurge for us, but a truly memorable day. I don’t know if we will over go to Yellowstone as a whole family (2 adults, 3 kids), in the summer, so I have no regrets spending the money to go together at a time when the park had so few people there. Everyone enjoyed it. For reference my kids were 13, 12, and 8 at the time. I’m happy to answer any questions you have.
That is exactly what I was looking at- the snow coach! Snowmobile I don’t think works with our ages and having more kids than adults!
One more comment about center Yellowstone tour. You need to be prepared that the snow coaches travel slower than a vehicle, so you’re not able to cover as much distance as you would during a single day in the summer.
Yellowstone is one of my favorite places on earth (I’ve been 2x, but both in summer). A winter trip there is on our bucket list! You may already know this, but you will not be able to drive your car around to places like Old Faithful in the winter as some commenters are suggesting. Only the north and northeast entrances are open in the winter, and most of the roads inside the park are completely shut down so you’ll have to go in a snowmobile. Which I think sounds super fun! In terms of doing it as a *daytrip* from Big Sky, I believe you would not be going to the North entrance anyway (the road from Big Sky goes to the West Entrance in West Yellowstone). But I imagine you can drive down to the West Entrance and the snowmobile tour would start there at the entrance. If so, I think that would only be about 1.5 hours of driving one way, so I think that’s doable. I would pick a snowmobile tour that goes to the main geysers (which is actually ideal because it’s close to the West Yellowstone entrance) and you will also see lots of buffalo and maybe a few other animals which should be super fun. Obviously you will not see certain wildlife like bears that you would see in the summer, but the buffalo are so fun and I’m sure your kids have never seen anything like that. The other thing people do besides snowmobiling is snowshoe hiking but that seems more hardcore haha. I don’t know that my kids would be into that.
I started Club Pilates in May and have been going 3-4 times a week – I feel like a completely different person. I highly recommend to everyone! Yes, it’s an investment but it is soooo worth it!! Enjoy!!
super interesting!! in what way? And what were you doing before? Feel free to ignore if too nosy, I’m just totally interested!
Ok, the fact that you are booking lodging for a June 2026 trip makes me realize that perhaps it is time to start thinking about my family’s summer 2026 trip to Europe that I am hoping to pull off. Thanks for planning inspo, as always!
We actually ended up losing out on a 3BR already at the place we wanted (which is okay because the 2BR we still fit and is cheaper . . . just the kids will be more annoying with bed sharing but they will deal!)