Bowron Lakes Provincial Park, British Columbia

This was no relaxing vacation, a lot of hard work and a lot of paddling was involved. My husband and his family, along with a few friends (10 of us in all) and I travelled up to beautiful British Columbia for our 8-day canoeing and camping trip at Bowron Lakes Provincial

Park. The drive there was nothing short of a hike itself, with a total of about 15 hours to get there. Once we arrived at the park, we had our orientation, got our gear weighed and set out to get our canoe out on the water.

The first day on the water was amazing! The scenery all around the lakes is just breathtaking and pictures do not do it justice. Perfect weather topped off the perfect day, sunny and warm we (or at least I) thought to myself, "I can do this, this isn't so bad". Ha ha. Little did I know. We wouldn’t have another beautiful sunny day for awhile and the canoeing just got harder. One morning we actually canoed in a complete downpour and also experienced a little bit of lightening which literally made my hair stand on end. No pictures of that, though they were attempted.

We saw lots of wildlife including moose, eagles, and Drew and I even saw a black bear!

Mr. Moose
We were only about 25 feet away

One of a few eagles we saw,
it was so majestic



Loons were one animal we
heard often



The Black Bear we spotted in the trees,
we were about 30 feet off shore

Momma duck with her
ducklings

When we returned to civilization, I was never so excited to sit on a real toilet, you know one that actually flushed and didn’t have thousands of flies buzzing around your rear while you were on it. I know I am weird, but I bet you would have been excited to sit on a real toilet after a week in the wilderness. A hot shower felt perfectly heavenly too, though it took me almost a whole week's worth to get the campfire smell out of my hair. Overall, the trip was amazing, exhausting and exhilarating.



We've Moved In!

Finally!

We’ve moved into our new house and are getting settled in. Sunday was our Open House and it was so much fun to have family and friends get to come and see our new place! There has been a month worth of weeks we have been working on getting stuff done and many months to come with projects on the house. I haven’t been taking as many before and after pictures as I have wanted to, but I am planning on taking more in the future. I will post some updated pics soon!

12 Days of Christmas

I've been slacking some on writing, so here is a quickie update. We are still in the market for a house but are holding off looking any more until after Christmas. There were some hidden things we found out about a house we were going to put an offer on, so we decided not to go for that particular house. All is well with the family, just counting down the days to Christmas...

Speaking of Christmas, here is a workout I created for my Strength Training Class. It only takes about 30 minutes, so its great for those a little short on time. Or do the workout twice through to really burn some calories!

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS WORKOUT

1) Plyometric Squat (Jump squat)

2) Side Lunges (each leg)

         

3) Traveling Pushups

4) V-Ups

5) Mountain Climbers

6) Walking Lunges (per leg)

7) Bicep Curls to Shoulder Press (alternating arms, 7 reps for each arm)

8) Plank Bend to Leg Raise (while holding plank, bend one knee into chest then extend leg out and up, alternate between legs count each leg 8 times)

9) Jumping Jacks

10) Tricep Dips

11) Single Arm Rows (11 rows for each arm)

12) 1 Minute Plank

                                       

Do the workout just like you would sing the song, except substitute exercises. 

Here's an example:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree (do one jump squat).

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree (do 2 side lunges and 1 jump squat).

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree (do 3 traveling pushups, 2 side lunges and 1 jump squat)

Continue this through all 12 rounds of the workout.

Enjoy!

House Hunting

Drew and I have been living in an apartment for about a year and a half and we've decided, it's time to move out!  We started browsing through real estate superficially about two months ago and now we are getting pretty serious about finding a home. Yesterday we spent almost the entire day looking at houses with our realtor and found one that may just be "the one". We are planning another trip out tomorrow to visit the ones we didn't have time for (we spent about 6 hours looking yesterday) and then we'll sit on the few we really like. I'm getting super excited to have a house, but am also nervous about making the right choice. We'll see how it all works out, but hopefully we'll have a new place to call home soon!

Family Pictures 2011

Last weekend the family went over to the Finch Arboretum and got our annual family pics taken. Here are some of them:



Sisters

Sisters and Adopted Sisters :)

Pumpkins, Mittens & Hats

These last few weeks of my life have been a blur. With so much going on, I hardly know where to start.

Halloween came on a Monday and although I don't really celebrate Halloween, I decided to do a pumpkin inspired workout for my small group at the Y. To get them excited for the workout, I told them I would dress up, if they would too. :) Here is what I looked like.

80's Workout Queen

I've also been seeing a lot of the fingerless gloves around lately, and one of my best pals told me she wanted me to make her a pair. So with her birthday being right around the corner, I gave it a shot. Here is how they turned out:

You can't really see from the picture, but these have cute little flowers on the front.

And last but not least, an old music teacher and friend of mine recently had a baby boy! I love baby stuff so I attempted to make her little Hunter a cute little duck hat I saw on Ravelry.com. Here is a pic of the finished project.

Ducky Hat
Don't ask me why it's sideways, I don't know

Hunter Modeling Hat

That's all for now!

Happy Birthday Mom!

October 27th was my fabulous mother's birthday. If there is one thing my mother loves, it's a great game of Scrabble. You offer to play a game with her and it just about makes her day. I found the idea for the cake on Pinterest and my husband helped me plan and strategize about how big to make the cake and how to fit each family member's name on there. He was such a big help, I couldn't have done it without him. Love you Mom!

Scrabble Birthday Cake for Mom

Lazy Fall Weekend

I'm starting to feel a little crafty now that I've been seeing so many fun DIY things on Pinterest.  Recently, I starting getting out my Fall decorations, but as I was doing so I quickly remembered I didn't have a Autumn wreath. So, I decided to make one. I made a quick run to the Dollar Store and got a bunch of materials. Here is my wreath made from Dollar Store items:





Close Up Pic

Then on Saturday, Drew and I had a lazy morning and headed out to Greenbluff. We were both looking forward to pumpkin donuts with cinnamon and sugar on top. After waiting in line for a little while we finally got our hot-off-the-press donuts and enjoyed them with fresh apple cider. Yummy!

Help, I've Got an Addiction!

So I finally decided to check out what this Pinterest business is all about. I requested my invitation and waited patiently for it to come to my inbox, I didn't even get anxious. Okay, so I might have checked my inbox like three times that day looking for it, but believe me I wasn't anxious. Then, the hook. I created my account and after that, the addiction started. I can see what the hype is all about, it totally lives up to it's reputation. Thanks Heather, I hope you know you helped create a monster. ;)

Come check it out: Pinterest

One Last Summer Fling

I’ve always loved going camping and this past weekend was no exception! My family and I traveled over to Heyford State Park just outside of Plummer, Idaho for our three day excursion. Perfect weather, yummy food (it's not exactly what you'd call "camping food") and spending time with family made a delightful mini vacay.

Hiking trail

Monday was Drew's birthday and I was able to surprise him by taking him over for dinner and birthday cake with my family. I am pleased to say he had no idea what was going on. :) Afterwards, (when he thought we were going home) I took him over to Baskin Robbins for his free scoop of birthday icecream. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed himself.

Sisters!

This was such a special moment at my sister's wedding. I love my sisters! :)

One Year!

 

Two weekends ago Drew and I celebrated our one-year anniversary (and now I finally internet so I can upload pictures). Its so hard to believe that we've already made it past a year! Wednesday, four days before our anniversary, we left Spokane for a family reunion in Tamarack, Idaho. Tamarack was so scenic and the weather was perfect. We were able to go horseback riding and relax in our beautiful room complete with a fireplace, jet tub and sauna. It was amazing!  I was surprised by Drew on Saturday when he told me we were going to Caldwell, Idaho for the last two days of our vacation. I had such a great time.


Our suite complete with fireplace, balcony, sauna & jet tub



View from our balcony

Riding "Lucky"



Family Picture Time

Fun Pic



Silly Pic







Wedding Weekend

My sister Kate got married this last weekend, and what a day it turned out to be! Friday was beautiful and sunny, the only day out of the whole weekend with sunshine which made it possible to have pictures outside at the park. Rebecca Hollis took the pics and they turned out amazing! But we knew they would, she took the photos at my wedding and my brother's wedding and we can't help but love her stuff, she is practically in our family.  I put a few of the pics up, but there are more at her website Rebecca Hollis Blogspot, check her out she is fantastic!



Me and the bride-to-be...

Sisters...

Cutest little ring bearer carrying the homemade pillow...

Congrats Kate & Jon!



The 3 C's

What a busy weekend!

Friday started everything off with a bang. With my sister Kate's wedding coming up in June, there have been lots of things to do. I had offered to make a ring bearer pillow for Kate, much like the one I had made for my own wedding back in July '10. So with less than a month away, I figured I better get to work on it. 

Here is the  pillow I made for my wedding last year...



...and now the pillow for my sister's wedding coming up

I don't know, but I'm thinking I already like hers better than mine. Oh well.

Saturday morning I got up and went for a short run, came home and almost immediately left for Farragut State Park for an overnight camp trip with Berean Bible's highschool and college aged kids. As soon as we got our tents pitched the rain started to come down... and down...and down...

Only Greta (and a very few others) were brave enough to stay out in the rain

The whole day it rained and didn't really give up until we left the next day. Go figure. Fortunately for us, we had reserved a space that had a covered patio area, so we were able to stay dry for most of it.

Sunday, we packed up and left. Came home, showered, took a nap and I left for a bridal shower. Phew, I need a weekend from my weekend!

Graduation Weekend

My brother-in-law’s graduation from the University of Idaho was this weekend and we drove over to celebrate with him. It started out to what might prove a dreary day, with the skies full of clouds and raindrops that threatened to fall.  What was forecasted to be a gloomy, drizzly day turned out to be a bright, warm, slightly windy, afternoon. Our morning started out in the early hours of the day, setting off for Moscow at 7:15am. The drive was a pleasant one, with decent weather and not a lot of traffic on the road. Soon we arrived at the U of I and found our seats to watch commencement. The sun soon became very warm, but we were refreshed with the light, cool breeze around us. The ceremony proved to be long, as is the normal custom for graduations, but we all endured and were soon off to enjoy lunch at Mc D’s. After sitting down in the restaurant and noticing our sunburns, we all started to realize what a mistake it was to assume the weather was going to be cool. Most of us wished we had thought to bring sunscreen. With most of the day still in front of us, we started our trip back home and enjoyed the rest of the day at the Przybylski house.



Drew and I before the sunburns



The Cold That Keeps on Giving

As some of you may know, my husband Drew and I are signed up to run in Bloomsday this year and though our training started just a few short weeks ago, we are definitely making some progress. Due to past knee injuries, Drew hasn't run more than a couple miles for a very long time. So we started out slow. I knew that we had given ourselves plenty of time to build up the miles. What I hadn't counted on was getting massive cramping in my calf in week three. "It's okay", I tried to encourage myself, "I built time into the training for this sort of thing and it will be fine". (If you haven't already noticed, I'm a planner and I don't like getting off schedule!) That was last week and after missing a good two days of running, the painful spasming went away. Saturday morning rolls around and I'm feeling alright. Three miles later I'm feeling great, okay I can do this! Then Saturday afternoon hit me, literally. I started getting a mild sore throat, but didn't think it was that big of a deal. After all, I had just attended a very emotional memorial service and thought it was probably all the crying I did. "It'll go away" I told myself, "it's nothing to worry about". Saturday night comes around and my sore throat is still there, along with some congestion in my head and a runny nose. That night only got worse. I hardly slept, I probably blew my nose 50 times, drank gallons of water, popped some vitamin c and my symptoms would not go away, they didn't even seem to lessen! I didn't go to church on Sunday, which is not something I usually skip unless I have a really good reason. Sunday afternoon seemed to get better and then Monday rolled around. I was feeling better so I went to work (I hate missing work). No sooner than I got to work that I realized that it was a mistake. I stuck it out for a few hours and left early. Came home and went directly to bed, which is where I stayed for the rest of the day and all of the next. I was supposed to run yesterday, didn't. I thought about going today, again I didn't. Tomorrow is a possibility, but we'll see. I've been getting really frustrated that I can seem to stay on schedule with my runs. <Insert disappointed sigh>

What is the point to all my rambling you may ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Like I said before, I'm a big planner. I like things to be organized. I come up with something that I think is a pretty good plan and then I (sometimes) remember God has a better one. Over the last few months I have been doing a Bible study on "Breaking Free". I am finding that I get caught up in what Beth Moore calls "captivity of activity", I'm constantly needing to be busy. I often forget to just be quiet before Him and listen to His Word. I've yet to see what His plan was in all of this, but I have a feeling God is trying to tell me to rest in Him, something I am not very good at doing. I've had several hours over the last few days to "rest" and think about slowing down and saving more time to spend with my Savior, I would encourage you to do the same.

Seven Months in Heaven

So I just figured out today that Drew and I have been married for a total of 7 months! I can't believe that time has gone by so quickly. It just seems like the other day I was planning for my big day, now I'm helping my big sister Kate plan for hers. We are enjoying life as a married couple, learning new things about each other everyday. Of course we have our ups and downs, but who doesn't? Drew is working hard, putting in extra hours at his job as Production Supervisor at Sterling International. He comes home tired most days of the week, but still finds energy to spend time with me. Just the other day he cleaned the apartment, brought me flowers and made dinner for me. I am so blessed! Here is a recent picture of us at the Davenport.