Life Lately+Big Decisions

Hey guys! I’m back a little sooner than I expected…mostly because I just found out the other day that school actually starts a week later than I thought it did. Best surprise ever, right? Apparently I had a bit of a blonde moment thinking school started this coming Monday but luckily I checked my university’s website and confirmed that I actually start on the 26th. Yay to having an extra week of summer break though!

Anyways, my vacation went well and I want to share a few recap photos but I mostly want to talk about some big decisions I’ve been making lately–some about the blog.

So I’m starting my senior year–make that senior semester–on the 26th and I’m taking 17 credits, which is more than I’ve taken in my entire time in college. I’m basically taking on a full course load, along with returning to my position as weather anchor at the campus TV station. Add to that some job hunting and you’ve got one stressed chica. Don’t get me wrong, I’m super excited for this upcoming semester and even more so for graduation and getting my first job out of college, but I also have a lot on my plate. I need to buckle down and really focus on making my last semester the best ever, which also includes being more social/spontaneous, so blogging will definitely be taking a backseat.

Not only that, but I feel like I need to move on from this blog. I’ve been keeping it up for 2+ years and while it’s been great, I want to take a different focus for my blog. That being said, I’ve started blogging over at a new blog, Real.Food.Girl. and while I’ll generally be talking about similar topics, I’d like to focus more on healthy recipes, and the quirky parts of my life as a twenty-something starting my adult life on my own. I want this new blog to be more fun, more honest but less about the hangups I still have about food, fitness and my body. I’m moving further and further away from my struggles with those things so I think starting a new blog will be kind of a clean slate for me in that aspect. I hope you continue to follow me over at my new blog and I will definitely be keeping up with reading all of your posts because I love that part of blogging! I may not post as often (I’ll be trying for once or twice per week) but I hope the posts will be more meaningful.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get to the fun part–the vacation recap. I don’t want to bore y’all with the details of the 8 day trip but I do want to share some photos with you guys. This vacation was unexpectedly amazing, yet sad at the same time. I visited extended family out in Wisconsin, and though in some ways it was similar to previous visits, it was quite different as well. For one thing, it was the first time we went back in 4 years, and a lot has changed since then. Mostly that my grandpa on my dad’s side is not doing well at all, and had just moved into assisted living before we got there. It was really hard to see him so frail and unable to walk on his own. Even though staying at his cottage wasn’t the same without him there, he really enjoyed our daily visits and hopefully they improved his spirits. Other than that, the trip was fun and it was great to catch up with extended family we hadn’t seen in a few years. We spent half the time with one set of grandparents at their house and camper and the other half at my grandpa’s lake cottage in the Northwoods. I’ve always enjoyed the time I’ve spent on the lake and I hope I can return again next summer because I really missed it.

Gotta love Sky Mall’s silly products.

On the ‘ducks’ on the Wisconsin River.

The fun lake at the campground.

Qdoba salad on the road.

Heading up north!

Snacks in the car.

Lake Pokegama at sunset.

The pontoon boat.

Lake view.

Sissy on the pier.

Looking off the pier.

I love the lake!

Stairs of doom…just kidding! Super steep though.

Me on the paddle boat. My workout of choice while at the lake.

Me and my sissy.

Flying back home on Southwest Airlines.

I came back with TONS of pictures (80+!), more mosquito bites than I’d like and lots of memories. I really miss being there, but I’m glad to be back so I could get back into my normal routine–I didn’t get in any formal workouts while in WI other than paddleboating and walking around, my acne really flared up in the humidity and I missed having a Whole Foods 10 minutes away (though my parents were great and stopped at the WF in Milwaukee after landing to stock up on groceries for the week). I don’t always love where I live, but this trip made me thankful for some things I take for granted being here, and it made it a little easier to get back to my normal life. But nothing beats vacation time! I especially liked that we flew out instead of driving–I love airports and flying, and I haven’t flown in 3 years so I really missed it. Call me weird, but I just love to fly.

What was your most recent vacation destination? Do you like to fly?

Estes Park Day 3

If you want to catch up on my previous vacation recaps, go here (day 1) and here (day 2). Thanks for reading!

Sorry for being so slow on these vacay recaps! I’ve just been pretty busy and it honestly has slipped my mind. I love all the comments I’ve been getting recently and all the new readers/commenters are great. I promise to be back with the last recap very soon. I can’t believe it’s already been exactly two weeks since this all happened. Summer sure flies by 😦

Monday was the Fourth of July (of course) so I knew it would be amazing. I even had a patriotic outfit all planned out! And I started the day out right by hitting up the pool first thing. I loved that we got it pretty much to ourselves (unlike Sunday) so there was a little swimming, a lot of splashing and some tanning involved. But, almost as soon as we got there, my sister and I realized that we completely forgot to paint our toenails (red, silver and blue for the holiday, obvs) so we sprinted walked back to the condo and painted them quick. You can’t go without patriotic toenails 😀

Pool time+me=the best

 

Patriotic toenails oh yeah!

After some swim and sun, we went back inside for lunch. I was originally going to have a red white and blue wrap (Ezekiel tortilla with organic strawberry jam, bloobs and banana slices) but I opted for a snack plate instead. Definitely a good lunch option for an indecisive girl like me.

Banana, carrots, Kashi crackers, multigrain chips, guac, salsa, dried berries and Whole Foods sandwich cookie

 

Insert a quick shower here, and then my mom, sis and I went for a little hike on the trail behind the condo. It was great…except that I was totally wearing the wrong shoes. Don’t blame me for only packing sandals on my trip 😛 Of course, the trail was slippery and steep. On the way back, we decided to go up an even steeper incline. Big mistake. Luckily, I made it up alive and without too many scrapes from close plant encounters! Definitely enough adventure for one day 😉

My shorts are red, white & blue!

 

Sis and mom hit the trail

We went into town to check out the make-your-own cereal bar that I mentioned in the last post. This time (luckily) it was open! I ended up getting some Kashi Go Lean mixed with Silk Dark Chocolate almond milk. I’d never had it before, and it was really good. A little too sweet, but if there’s an unsweetened version out there, I’ll def get it!

A restaurant with cereal? My kinda place 🙂

Surprisingly, the cereal really filled me up–so much that even after a quick walk around some stores and a detour at another winery, I still wasn’t in the mood for dinner. We ended up at a Tex-Mex place by the river and despite how busy it was, we got an outside table pretty quickly. None of us were really hungry (but we had to eat then because we were going to the fireworks later) so we tried to stall our waiter in taking our order 🙂 I got corn tortillas with mango salsa, and the salsa was actually muy bueno (notice my lame-o Spanish skills there). I would have normally not ordered that, but I wasn’t hungry and nothing else on the menu was really appealing at the time. But it was yummy, so I didn’t mind ordering something weird.

Afterwards, we went to this cool boutique place that we’ve walked by millions of times but never actually went in. The store had some blingy purses I liked (but didn’t buy, unfortch) and a lot of other random stuff. My personal favorite was the legit purses made from real license plates!

I. Want.

We hit up the condo briefly. I was finally starving, so I had another bowl of cereal (no dark chocolate almond milk this time, sadly) and then we headed back to town for the fireworks show. We staked out a place on a hill overlooking the lake (where the fireworks were set off) and even though we were surrounded by tons of people and a bright gas station below us, we were able to enjoy the show. It was funny because a smaller show nearby was trying to compete with the main event, but obvs they couldn’t. But we got twice the fireworks!

Just one of the many fireworks

The show ended around 10:30 and almost as soon as we got back, we all fell asleep. Guess being out and about all day really took it out of us!

What did you do for the 4th (if you’re from the U.S.)? Favorite cereal/milk combo?

Look for the last vacay recap post soon!

 

Estes Park Day 2

Hey everyone! If you missed my last post on the first day of my vacation, click here to catch up!

Sunday I woke up bright and early around 9, ready to start the day with some breakfast. I don’t think I’ve ever missed eating breakfast since I first started eating–it’s definitely my favorite meal ever and an amazing way to welcome a new day. Unfortch, I wasn’t able to have my beloved overnighters (my new nickname for overnight oats…cute, huh 😉 ) but don’t worry, they made a reappearance once I got back home. However, I was able to try a new-to-me cereal, Puffins Multigrain puffs. I loved that these were lightly sweet, full of fiber and were tri-colored! Puffins are one of my favorite cereal brands, but I’ve yet to try the Peanut Butter & Chocolate variety. Tori, I’m jealous of you right now 😀 I also had some mini pancakes (yay for little kid food!) and my usual sausage.

After the fun times that is breakfast, we headed straight over to the Lake Estes marina. Nope, no boating/fishing was involved (though it has been in past years. I haven’t gone kayaking since my mom and I got stranded two years ago near the barriers that separate the lake from the dam. Scary stuff, I tell ya!) but we did rent some pedal carts and biked pedaled around the lake. It was a nice little ride, but not really that strenuous. If you asked me sister, though, she would have said it “was the hardest thing she’s ever done”. Not quite sure if that was sarcasm, but it does run in the family…

 

Me and the sister pedal-carting it

 

Lake Estes

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch condo, we hit up the pool! Probably the main reason we go to Estes (haha, JK!), but really, I love me some pool time. The place we used to stay at had a great outdoor pool…however, it was always crowded and FREEZING. No joke, it was probably 70 degrees, which sounds warm, but isn’t if you’re talking about pool water. This new place has an even better outdoor pool, namely because there are fewer people and it feels like bath water, but also because it’s more scenic. You can look up while swimming laps to see towering mountains and blue skies. Amazing. Well, unfortch, Sunday wasn’t the best day to go to the pool, because it was inhabited by little kids (nothing against them, but boy can they splash!) and also the storm clouds rolled in early. Basically, I spent 10 minutes in the pool before we had to go inside. No bueno, but at least I got some tanning time in!

 

The pool!

 

By the pool with my sis (yes, I do have hair!)

 

Later that afternoon, my parents dragged me and my sis to one of the wineries in town. They’re not actual wineries with grapes and stuff growing outside, but small buildings where you can sample local wines and where they steep (?) the wine. Trust me, I know nada about wines and such. Basically, the sister and I sat outside in the blazing sun and had some fun with the ‘Fail’ app on her iPod. We’re mature, I know 😉

Then it was off to dinner, at one of my favorite EP restaurants–Grubsteak. They have a lot of vegetarian options and even exotic stuff, like yak and elk meat. I stayed away from the weirder things and ordered the Jalapeno and Jack burger, minus the Jack because I don’t do cheese and I got it with an original Sunshine burger. I’ve never tried a Sunshine burger before, and the verdict is: delicious! I never realized they were so thick and hearty, which is so different from other veggie burgers I’ve had. The jalapenos on my burger seemed fresh, which was great because I hate pickled jalapenos. If we go there again, I will definitely be ordering the same thing, it’s just too good to pass up.

 

Yummy vegan burger

 

We returned to the condo briefly, and then headed back into town to get dessert. I’d heard of this place that had baked goods as well as a cereal buffet, and I couldn’t pass that up! But…it was closed since it was late so we wandered further down the street into a place that served ice cream and cupcakes. I didn’t end up getting anything, because they had no gelato/froyo/sorbet but my fam seemed to enjoy their flavors. My sister got peppermint s’mores, which sounds like an awesome combo. I’ve gotta come up with an overnighters recipe for that…

What do you eat for breakfast when you’re on vacation? Ever had a Sunshine burger (if so, what flavor do you recommend)?

More to come!