Get-a-way

A mini get-a-way for the day was just what I needed! Once I found out I would have Labor Day off with Frank I jumped at the chance to get out of our area and explore more of Japan. The peninsula it was.

We packed the dogs up and headed south to the Izu Peninsula. We were heading towards the Jogasaki-Kaigan Coast not really knowing what we were going to do exactly. I had been told there were nice trails to walk on with the girls that had amazing views, but I wasn't sure if that was along a beach, cliffs or whatnot. Initially I just dropped a pin in my maps for that area...

And this is where the pin to us ha. We ended up in the tiny little village of homes with the tiny crazy Japanese roads ha. All we could do was laugh about where I had us end up. We thankfully were just a few miles, if that, away from where we wanted to be.

It ended up being a Nature Preserve type park. We didn't realize that there were three parking lots so we ended up parking in the second on half way down the trail.

And off we go headed south...

 

If you can't tell these were all taken on my phone an edited with camera+. Now for some from the actual camera!

 

 

It was so beautiful! The heat and humidity were too much for Ellie and she was starting to go far too slow for our us so we didn't get to do the whole trail. I would love to go back in the fall once it cools off so we can do the whole thing.



December/January goals

Well December was not a great month for the ole' goals!

::December goals::

MOVE TO JAPAN!!
WOOHOO!!! Loving it :]

Run a 5k (there is one!)
Boo to this one! We were still in our ICR class so we couldn't participate. We did find out that they have a 5k almost every month here!

Swim at least 5 miles
Didn't even get close to getting back in the pool :/

Walk dogs everyday (excluding travel days and Christmas[unless the kennel is open])
oy...

Track food everyday
I think you are seeing the pattern. I did get back to tracking my food at the end of the month.

Get back to church!
We are really liking the chapel here and I really like the command chaplain.

Enjoy our new home/surroundings : )
Haven't done too much yet, but we are just happy to be here!


::JANUARY GOALS::

Run the MLK 5K

Take part in the 1K swim challenge

Walk dogs everyday

Photo a day on instagram {I will post the week of pictures every Sunday}

Continue to track food

Get a job!

Explore 2 new places

Take the conversational Japanese classes

Start crossfit!

Read at least 2 of the books I have sitting unopened


I should point out that I plan to officially start this months goals tomorrow since I am a little behind on even coming up with goals for this month.

8.7 miles

I got to check off one of the things I wanted to do before leaving San Diego. The girls and I walked up to Mt. Soledad! The walk itself was easy, I made the dogs pace themselves since I knew if we went at Ellie's pace we would have been tired by the second mile and it is 4 to the top. From where we started. If you don't know the area, this is not a hike.. no trail. It's a main road, residential area. So we were walking on the sidewalk.

It took us 2 hours to get to the top with an average pace of 2.2 miles. We stopped around 1 1/2-2 miles so the dogs could get water and rest for a bit.

Once we got to the top we hung out for a half hour enjoying the view and people watching. Even better it was tourist watching! ha

Pacific Ocean behind us, San Diego in front (for those who don't know). Its fun to look out and see where I live... you can't actually see cause it's on the other side of the hill, but it's in that direction :]

This was our elevation change...

Apparently the graph didn't go as high as we did ha.

iPhone pic//instagram dump

That picture of Molly at the dog park is my all time favorite of her... For now : ]

If you haven't seen the huge piece of chocolate at Trader Joes then you are missing out! I so badly want to buy it just because. Not sure what I'd do with it though.

Back to reality

Vacation is over, Frank's family left this morning. We loved hosting them but I know after 2 weeks we all were a bit ready to get back to our daily schedules.. and their own beds for them!

Today we started a new series at church called "Exposed" LOVED it! So true and everyone can relate to it in one way or another. Have I mentioned lately how much I love The Rock? Well I do :] So happy for being able to watch live online or on my iPhone app when I'm away.

I just realized this post has turned into a random bullet point type post... hmm.

Frank and I are very proud of ourselves with how well we did with money while his family was here. We of course budgeted, but we didn't "plan" anything. We just had the money there to use and if we used it up, we used it up. Well we managed to not use it all. We have come such a long way since we were first together and stupid with our money and spending/budgeting.
We still have about $2800 (I think) left on our debt. So close yet so far away! We have been sitting around that amount for a few months now. Life came up so we haven't been able to put everything towards paying it off. All we can say is "Oh well!". We are still very happy with all we have done. I keep telling myself that because we have a few things we have to fix on the explorer this next pay check so we won't have much to put toward said debt... oh well... ha.

Because of the car issues (rather important when it is your only vehicle) we are unable to attend our churches marriage retreat. This was the year we FINALLY thought we were going to make it. Sadly it is not happening for us. I do hope to hear great things from our friends who do go.

Summer is almost here. LOVE <3

Frank and I are on a mission to hike as many new trails around us as possible by the end of summer.

Tomorrow (Monday) is our first day back to the gym in almost 2 months!! Craziness. We both have put on a few too many pounds and are ready to get our butts back in gear. We plan to start on the summer slam challenge that I did before he came home. It was so easy to follow and had great results, the only hard part for Frank is charting his eating. I'm excited to be back in training mode non the less though.

We found Better Buzz coffee shop and are hooked! Cheaper AND better than starbucks. I'm just sad that it took us almost 3 years to find them.

Listening to Pandora and snuggling with my girls is perfect :]

Berry-spice smoothie

Remember how I said since we are using the free wifi that our connection is slow? Well this post took me three days! I was only able to load one picture a day. I will be doing lots of collages of the pictures I load from Frank's families visit.

Sorry about this first picture, it wouldn't turn for me :[

As you can see I got this smoothie from Women's Health Magazine. The original smoothie is..

1 cup skim milk

1 cup blueberries

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup ice

I wanted to do a smoothie but didn't have blueberries. I did have strawberries and a banana though!

My adaption..

1 cup vanilla almond milk

1 cup chopped strawberries

1 banana

1/2 heaping tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup ice

Super yummy :]

Our "coffee table" readings.

Holy cow!

It's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted something.. bad bad me! Like always it's been super busy around here. Here in a few days I'll do an actual post since I need to upload pictures from my phone, but I thought I'd share a few things for now.

First thing. WE PAID OFF MY CAR!! I have never owned my vehicle before, I still can't believe we did it! We now only have Frank's car left to pay off. Then we will be debt free :]

Second, I swam 11 miles the month of November which brings me up to 23 miles. My goal was 12 miles but some blisters and a massive knot in my back sidelined me the last day of the month. I'm still happy with what I accomplished, on Monday I did a personal best and swam 2 miles at once. Go me :]

We are now in the last month of 2011 (CRAZY!) and it is only going to get busier. Hopefully I don't neglect the blog too much...

WOOHOO!!

Friday was the day... T-day. Or Turkey Trot 5k for those of us running it. I am so happy that I FINALLY have a 5k under my belt. And this time I didn't chicken out which is even better.

I ran the race with my workout buddy/friend Keri. This was a first for the both of us so we were nervous together. Here's an awesome shot of us with the bird before the race. Don't you just love the bald look we have going on because of the hats!? ;]

We took quite a few pictures so we could document how excited we were haha. You would think we were running a marathon!

Getting my first bib! Now that I think about it, I should have kept it. Oh well at least I can thank Vicki for getting a picture of me with it.

Ready to go!!! It was freezing (like in the 30's or low 40's!) so we were ready to get moving.

And we're off...

That would be our awesome gym staff all bundled up cheering us on.

While we were running I had told Keri that if I'm holding her back to not worry about me and just go. Once we got to the half way point she took off like a rocket! She was picking people off one by one. It was pretty awesome! Her husband and mom were there as our cheerleaders/photographers which made us both feel special :] They apparently weren't expecting her to finish as soon as she did because they never even noticed that she crossed the line!

Thankfully one of the marketing ladies from the MWR who we take spin with occasionally was taking pictures of the event and got one of Keri running in the homestretch.

3 minutes later I was able to say I ran and completed my first 5k! I don't remember my exact time but it was 36 minutes. I was excited :]

Yup. We were excited!

After the race they were raffling off turkeys. Keri and I both won one.. and neither of us eat meat ha. We did however donate them to the food bank in town so a few families will be eating a Thanksgiving turkey courtesy of the Everett MWR (morale welfare and recreation for those who have no idea. They do lots of awesome things for the military and their families.).