What I Did On My Summer Vacation.

I'm back.

This was the first time that I've taken an extended blogging break.  I guess I had to figure out which direction I wanted to take my blog, until I realized I was happy with what I've been doing for the past four years, so why change it!

I unplugged from various social media during the Olympics (I hate spoilers) and we've been truly busy this summer with travel, work, and the kids activities so my blogging took a back seat.

We've gone up to Mike's Mom and Dad's camp in the Adirondacks a few times, for Mike's birthday we went for 6 days, swimming, fishing, going to the water park:

Our yearly lakeside photo:

We made a visit to Long Island and Westchester to see my family, Mike and I are our niece Mia's Godparents, so we went down for the Baptism.

My hair is much blonder this summer, and Mike is still pretty much bald.

We've had a gorgeous summer and I've been running and swimming, I'm a huge fan of the "adult swim" time at the pool, where the kids have to sit out for 15 minutes.  I take over the lap lane, and Eliza walks along the side, acting as my "coach."

Speaking of Eliza, she caught the Olympic bug and pretends that she's a competitive swimmer, launching herself off the pool edge, going into a pretty decent backstroke. She's a little diva in many ways, she refuses to wear shorts, every day she's in a skort or dress.  I'm taking her for her first manicure on Thursday, her Sixth Birthday.

Luke has spent the summer with his Lego's, on his scooter, playing Skylanders and reading the Magic Tree House series of books, I have to limit the number of books he takes out of the library, telling him that he needs to save some for the other kids.  He bought a new football with money from his piggy bank when I took him and Eliza to SUNY Cortland (my alma matter!) to watch the JETS training camp.

Lots of autographs!

I came thisclose to meeting Tim Tebow.

And no, we didn't see him Tebow.

My last race was the Boilermaker 15k in July, but I'm 95% sure I'm doing the Empire State Half Marathon here in Syracuse in October.

Since I turned 40 in January, my general practitioner told me I had to come in for a check up, or else he was ditching me as a patient. The last time I went to see him was a check up I had in 2008!  I mentioned before about how my dentist and OB both said my blood pressure was high, and it was high when I went for my check up.  My Doc thought it was maybe because I was nervous, so the other day I went to use the blood pressure machine at Rite Aid, and then at Kinney Drug.  The first time it was 122/79, pulse rate 61 and the next it was 119/72, pulse 62.  I gave these numbers to my sister who is a nurse, and she said that is perfect. Whew!

I still have to have my blood drawn to test my cholesterol etc., but I have been taking these Krill Oil capsules, that I received a couple of months ago from Everest Nutrition.

I tried taking fish oil capsules before, their Omega 3 fatty acids are good for cardiovascular health, and joint support but gave up because I really disliked the fishy odor/taste.  This particular Krill Oil offers 54x more antioxidant power than fish oil.  I can take these capsules without issue, when I get my lab tests back I'll know for sure if they have been helping, but if you're in the market for this type of supplement, I say give it a try.

Frank is still Frank.  He's shown us that not only can he break through screen doors, he can also go through windows.  One Saturday morning, Mike saw some people park on our street, it looked like they wanted to speak with us about their religion, we weren't in the mood so he closed our front door and said to ignore the doorbell.  When they rang it, Frank barked, but stopped when I told him to be quiet.  Next thing I know, someone is knocking on the door that leads from our kitchen to the garage!  Mike opened it to tell whoever it was to take a hike, and in trotted Frank. Yup, he wanted to greet these people, so he sailed through the front window, knocked out the screen, and landed in the bushes, a good three feet drop.

Here he is in his Fourth of July Finery:

School starts in 13 days, we still have lots on our schedule until then, a joint birthday party for Mike, his Dad, Eliza and my sister Ali, the State Fair, more pool time.  I've already started some of my PTA duties, and I'm hoping to add more hours to my work schedule. So things are chugging along.

So??  How has the summer been treating you???


*note, I was sent two bottles of Krill for the purpose of sharing my thoughts on the product.