Hanging with the Niece

I don't even know where to start so I am jumping in basically chronologically.  Our niece spent the night Friday night.  Our weekend started with watching her softball game.  We took Millie...she was mostly good. She just gets so excited when people come over to talk to her. 

When we got home we grilled a few hotdogs and veggies. My in-laws came over.  We had a nice visit hanging out on the deck eating our dinner. I had an idea that I think I need to do more - especially for potluck type get-togethers.  If you don't record your food immediately it is easy to forget some of the little things you had. I was hungry and didn't want to record my food before I ate so I took a picture.  Made it very convenient to record later.  I do like my hotdogs hotdogs in something, but 2 buns at 90 calories each is significant. I found I can have them in a yummy corn tortilla for about half the calories. 

Dinner was good - sometimes a grilled hotdog just really hits the spot. My mother-in-law brought brownies and I couldn't resist having one. She also brought me a very small piece of the blueberry-apricot pie she had made..and I ate that too. So for the first time, according to MyFitnessPal, I went over my daily calories. 83 calories over - oops!

It wouldn't have been a big deal if I had not skipped my morning walk too. I stayed home and cleaned house like a madwoman because we were having company. So that didn't work out for me so well dietwise, but at least the house wasn't a pit :) There is quite a bit of give and take in this process. 

Saturday morning we all got up early and headed out to the levee.  My husband ran his usual 5 miles while my niece and I rode our bikes. We ended up going a little more than 6 miles - by no means a blistering pace but we had tons of fun while getting decent exercise. 

We park by the base of the bridge. I am not sure what is going on with the steep hill sign. Maybe it is to warn people to slow down because the path crosses a road at this point.

As always I love the scenery along the river. This barge is moving over to head into the lock. The last time I saw one going through the lock it was being pushed through this time the barge was going the opposite direction and was being tugged.  

We saw 6 or 7 herons along the river today, including a couple Great Blue Herons. I love watching them.  The one on the right below was fishing - darting his head in and out of the water. 

The river is quite a bit higher than normal right now. Below you can see where it has come over the bike path - thankfully it had receded before our ride. 

However, it has not completely receded yet. Not sure what a water main is doing out here in the middle of nowhere, but it certainly isn't useful at the moment. 

We made it to the turn around spot and headed back to the start. 

My 12 year old niece would like to point out that her shoes are bigger than mine.  She is on the verge of being taller than me too. I am destined to be the family shorty!

After our workout we went to breakfast. That was our planned splurge for the weekend. We planned for it to be within our calories. The calories were higher than we expected - at least as we guesstimated since you can't know for sure at local eateries. I think it might have gotten us off on the wrong foot for eating today. We have been struggling ever since. 

After breakfast my niece and I did a little exploring we found this cool grill.  Yes it is a bull made of metal with a grill in it's back. How cool is that?

The smoke comes out his nose.  The fact we already have a grill kept me from buying it. Well mostly it was the $650 price tag that kept me from buying it. 

When we got back home this happened.

My poor pizza loving husband has been seriously craving pizza, so since we had someone to help us eat it we got one. It probably wasn't the best day to do it after eating out for breakfast. It has been a tough weekend in the food department. I am still in my calorie range...if I have water for dinner. Just kidding. I am actually not very hungry so I think I am going to have a little banana/blueberry smoothie and call it for the day. I can do that and still be in calories. 

So far the weekend has had some ups and downs. Tomorrow is a new day and I know we will be fine. I will be burning up the pavement in the morning and making healthy home cooked yumminess : 

Whew - Busy Weekend!

We live in a great neighborhood and walking/running/biking around it is nice, but the way it is set up we end up doing several loops and it can get a bit boring. On the weekends we have been trying to make our workouts a little more interesting.

Saturday morning we chose the levee.  My husband planned to run 5 miles and I thought it would be fun to take my bike and ride with him while he ran. I made games of riding ahead and then back to him or letting him get ahead and racing to catch up.

I ended up getting very sidetracked by a barge going through the lock. I had never seen that before. It is incredible they can steer that massive barge through the lock. Of course, I was too far away to tell for sure, but it looked like there was only a few feet clearance on both sides of the barge.

Is he going to make it??

No problem!

I had to really move to catch him after I had dillydallied around watching the barge go into the lock.  He was probably a mile ahead of me. I don't think it was possible for my feet to pedal any faster.

Sometimes when you are taking pictures while riding a bike this happens. A couple of times I thought I might go over the edge of the levee down to the road..yikes!  Maybe as dangerous as texting and driving.

I caught him!!  This is actually one of my favorite pictures so far.  Love the lock and barge. Love how strong my husband looks.  Love how I felt riding along with him.

After our workout we came home had breakfast and headed out to the farmer's market. Going to the farmer's market has become one of our favorite activities. We take the dogs and just wander around checking out the new in-season produce. It seems they are just a little ahead of my garden. We bought some of our favorite tomatoes - yellow cherry (Sun Gold).  We grow them in our garden, but they won't be ready a week or two. Seriously, they are like eating candy (without the guilt!)  The farmer's market has more than produce - lots of plants and other crafts.

Daylilies 

I am loving this rings - especially the blue stone in the center and the orange one above it. I am thinking of a goal...one (or two) of these rings will be my reward.

My in-laws live out in the country.  The dogs LOVE to go out there to run and play with their dogs.  Well, Millie loves to run and play.  Zommie more likes to follow my mother-in-law around waiting for treats to "fall."

Millie had a great time chasing sticks in the creek.

Zommie is more of a sit on the beach kind of gal.

Before we left the farm my mother-in-law walked down the road about a 1/4 mile to take some pictures of a beautiful sunflower field.  And of course, I founds some other flowers I couldn't resist taking a few shots of too.

Queen Anne's lace.

In the evening, I went with my sister, mom, nieces and a friend to see Tarzan (musical).  It was a good production.  Before the show we had a picnic in the park.  We call it our French picnic - bread, cheese, fruit, pastry, sparkling grape juice.  It was so good.  I stayed in calories but it was hard...love, love, love, bread and cheese!! In unrestricted eating I can only imagine how many calories I would have eaten!

Sunday morning I lazed in bed while my husband went running. He left about 6 a.m. I should have gone, but I was so tired after not getting to bed until midnight. I am trying to find balance. If I am working out everyday I think it is okay to take a day off. I just fear falling off the wagon...first one day, then another, etc.

When my husband came back from his run he made breakfast and brought it to me in bed...awww!  He made me an over easy egg on toast and some apple slices. One of the best breakfasts ever!  He has definitely paying attention to how many calories I like to use for breakfast and hit it perfectly.

By the time I'd had breakfast it was almost 9 a.m. and I realized I wanted to do something.  I just didn't want to lay around like a slug :)  I suggested taking the bikes to one of the many bike trails. We chose another part of the trail that goes on the levee. This particular part actually had limited river view. We rode south a couple miles then back to the start...then north for a couple miles and back to the start. Let me just say the final two miles was ridiculous - a head wind came up.  I couldn't believe the difference it made going into the wind. I could not wait to be finished. We ended up having ridden 9 miles...and my hiney survived!

This part of the bike path needs a little work.I didn't really like riding under all those power lines...you could hear them sizzle.

We are not going downhill - just the crazy angles of a biking photographer.

I would have liked to show you a picture of me on the bike.  I had my husband take a couple.  But oh my, I did NOT like the way I looked on that bike. I will keep those pictures for the dramatic before/after post. I did have him take this picture of me standing by the canal. You get the idea of my shape without my feeling mortified at the thought of it being on the internet forever.

And a lovely rear view :)  After the bike ride I was debating going into this fountain.  I chickened out.  I didn't realize I was being photographed so this is authentic as it gets.

It was a wonderful weekend filled with fun activities and good food...and no guilt :)

On the Levee

View up-river.

There is something awesome about the Mighty Mississippi running through my world! We decided to do our morning workout on the levee overlooking the river and the lock and dam.  We loved the view, but that path stretching out before you is actually a bit daunting. This particular stretch is about a mile and a half.

Lock and dam.  We saw a few barges waiting and one going through.  I wonder how long it takes to complete the process.

Millie ran with my husband I had her during the cool down walk at the end. She is loving our adventures!

In the final stretch.  

Ready to head home.

This morning I walked two miles then my cool down. My miles were around 16 minutes each.  I think I was distracted by the scenery.  And of course I stopped to take a few pictures :) I didn't want to end up any slower than that. Now that I know I can do 15 minute miles I do feel obligated to be sure I am pushing myself to do my best and get better. Tomorrow we are doing a 6 mile walk to gauge our readiness for next Saturday's 10K race. I thought I better save a little something for that.

I feel very good about my pace for the 2-3 miles that we normally walk in a session.  I am eager to see how maintaining my pace works out.  If I can tough out at least half the race at a 15 minute pace I think I will be pretty happy overall.  Unless I have to crawl the other three miles!!

We had a really nice birthday dinner for my mother-in-law last night.  I have been looking forward to eating out for two weeks. We went to an Italian place that we have been to a couple of times before. They have the most delicious toasted ravioli and fettuccine alfredo combo. My husband and I made plans in advance to split the meal and enjoy something decadent. It worked out well. I felt like I had plenty of something I really enjoyed. And the best part I stayed within my calories for the day...the very high end using some extra earned by exercise, but within my calories. I was proud of us :)