Family Vacay Pt. 2

I have wanted to visit Washington DC for years and I finally felt the boys were old enough to understand what we were seeing. I didn't know how they would do with 3 days of museums and visiting monuments, but they enjoyed it and only complained when they were really tired. That's understandable, we walked a lot.  Mom came with us too because having an extra adult on vacation is never a bad thing!

The first day we visited the National Mall and we bee lined for the Lincoln Memorial. From there we explored the mall all the way to the white house. The next day we went to a couple of Smithsonian museums and Arlington National Cemetery. On our last day in DC we dodged the rain showers at the National Zoo. I had three things I wanted to see in DC; The Lincoln memorial, The Hope Diamond and a Panda bear. Check, check and check! 

We left DC and spent a day at Gettysburg then rounded out our trip with a day of play for the boys. We went to Hershey, PA and visited the Hershey Amusement Park. It was a memorable trip with something for everyone. I am happy to be home though, Purl missed us! 

PANDA!!

We were lucky enough to see a changing of the guard
at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

DIAMOND!!

Thanks for the help Mom!

Family vacation 2022 pt.1

 Blogging from my phone because I didn't want to forget a funny thing that happened on our trip. Wrapping up or family vacation to our nation's capital, yesterday we road tripped to Gettysburg National Military park. 

I'm not kidding you that we spent 7 hours there. We took a walking tour, bus tour of the entire battlefield and explored on our own. It was an amazing thing to experience and I now understand what happened there and the importance of it. 

Most striking to me is how a country that was so divided that cousin battled cousin, could came back together. They told the history of the dedication of the park and how soldiers from both sides were there to remember. It's a testimate to what people can hope for. (A complete opinion on my part, that type of unity will take statesmen not power hungry politicians.🤷🏽‍♀️)

But, the funny story! So leaving the parking lot 7 hours after we arrived; hot, tired and hungry. Alex playing with his spy glass he got at the gift shop pipes up from the back seat, "wait a minute, was that about the civil war?!" What a goof! Happy memorial day weekend everyone! 

After I told them not to stand
On the rocks at little round top.

Last Day of School

 Today it is a wrap for 7th and 4th grade for the Meerpohl boys. Daryl ended the year with a middle school dance last week and yesterday, Alex had a silly string fight during his after school program. They both had a good year with Daryl experiencing football and basketball and Alex winning the grade school spelling bee! 

Surprisingly, neither of them are signed up to play sports this summer, so hopefully we get a lot more weekends at the pool. That would make mom happy! I'm sure Daryl will want to do lots of fishing and Alex is enrolled in a day camp to keep him busy. 

It was a whirlwind school year but more than anything I was glad that it was normalish for them. Yes, they had to wear masks for the first part of the year, but that wasn't that big of an ask. Still have one more year of Middle School for Daryl and grade school for Alex. We will try to make the most of it! 

Couldn't take our last day of school picture
by the tree, it was raining. 

Last day of 7th grade

Graduation Weekend!

 Was able to go across the state to watch my nephew graduate from High School this past weekend. It is hard to believe that my sister's kids are old enough to be doing things like that, but here we are! 

With only 30ish kids in the graduating class the ceremony was under an hour, just the way I prefer! It was fun to come together for this accomplishment for Cedar and seeing some of my SW Kansas family at his reception was icing on the cake. I really do need to get back to that side of the state more often. 

My sister is about the busiest person you know, and she pulled together a great party for Cedar. Way to go Sofia, this was a special triumph for you too! Two down and one to go! I wish I had got a picture of all three of the kids, Darn. 

Look how tall I am! 

The boys survived the car ride to see their cousin graduate! 

You got the paper Cedar, now run! 

 

April Goal Update!

April was a solid month for my goals. I kept on track with my daily goals and everything else kind of falls into place when my days go to plan. I have taken the last couple of days off from focusing on my daily goals, so I want to start next month off strong and have a good week right off the bat. 

May will be hectic with the end of school and graduations but I'm looking forward to it! 

Read 21 Books: 7/21

I finished two books this month and am actually close to finishing two more! I had some good reading time in April and the two books I finished are actually non fiction. That is not my normal style and I really enjoyed them both. 

The first book I read was Mindset by Carol Dweck. I had read excerpts of this book in my graduate program and I enjoyed going back to it and reading it cover to cover. Dweck is a brilliant psychologist but she writes this book in a very conversational way. She talked about how mindset affects our parenting, our work, our relationships and how we can coach kids in mindset. She also talked about how no one has a closed or open mindset. We all operate in both worlds everyday. That was reassuring. Overall, I recommend. 

The second book I read was Too Much of a Good Thing by Lee Goldman. This book was interesting and connected some dots for me about human health. It talked about the origin of humans and how we are genetically different from those humans today. It talks about how the things that let us survive as a species are killing us now. It talks about obesity, blood clotting, anxiety and fear and blood pressure. I understood 85% of this book, people with more science background would probably understand all of it. LOL 

Run 720 Miles: 272/720

I logged 72 miles this month! I also ran a very windy half this month. I hope to get three in this year and to better my time each half. My time for the TopCity half was 2:12, my  next half isn't till August. Hopefully I can get some 5K or 10K races in before that. 

Money Goals: Didn't get really anything done towards this goal this month because....I had some termites decide they wanted to much on my house! Ugh! I called a service immediately and got the whole house treated within a week. Darn buggers took up all the extra funds for April. So an unexpected house improvement....closing the buffet for good! 

Add 2K to Savings, Done Feb 2022 

Pay Mortg. principle down 5K

New Living Room Furniture (Home), Done Feb 2022

Replace Some Windows (Home) 

Replace Window Blinds (Home) 

Create Backyard Oasis (Home) 

Trips: 1/3

Mom and I knocked out trip number 1 going to Las Vegas and Zion earlier this month. It was so much fun! I love traveling with my #1 fan. :-) If you want the deets there is a blog post about that here.

Days I hit all of my Daily Habits: 17, This was my best month so far on my daily goals. And eating at the table every night with no phones was fun! The boys were a little put out at first, but now they just get their plates and sit down at the table. That habit changes so quickly, it lets me know they like it too. We have also had some very fun conversations!  

I don't like mowing, thankfully I have help!

Not a bad month on the habit tracker! 

Daryl finished his 5th book for the year
tonight. He was sad we don't have the third book
so he could have started it right away. 
He does not appreciate a cliff hanger! 

TopCity Half Marathon 2022

 On Saturday I ran my first half marathon for 2022. The temperature was great but the 30 mph winds was not so great. I still love this race for many reasons. The biggest is because it is in my home town and I love not having to travel to a race. Another reason is I see a lot of my running friends who I mostly just connect with via Facebook. So it is a real life meet up for us. 

My official stats are as follows: 

Chip Time: 2:12:21

averaged 10:06/mile 

My fastest mile was 9:29 and my slowest was 12:07. 

I was the 79th overall finisher

21st female finisher 

8th of 32 in my age category

I don't think I was any more prepared last year than this year so I only blame the wind for my time. In 2021 I ran the same course in 2:06. My next race isn't until August in South Dakota and I would like to be under 2:10 again. 

Other than running I also got to see Alex play another Flag Football game and on Sunday I got to watch a soccer game. It was a sports weekend! I should have mowed the yard but that will have to get done some time after work this week. I just ran out of steam on Sunday. 

The before picture of some of my running friends, 
should have grabbed Kate from across the street!

Runners get a celebratory Bloody Mary
spectators get a celebratory beer!

Alex doing his Flag Football thing again!