Made It!

Made it to the top of the mountain all 4.3 miles of it.

Eating Well

Dinner from a few nights ago.  Orange sun-ripened tomatoes straight from the garden and freshly made mozzarella cheese.  Andy was still making his batch as I was loading mine onto the tomatoes.  A perfect side dish. 

Patience

I am beginning to understand why some people don't encourage healthy activities with their kids; it takes an incredible amount of patience in the beginning.  This year has been an incredible test on my patience.  As a parent at hockey and t-ball practice, you spend most of the time encouraging your child to stick with the group and keep going.  On bike rides, hikes, kayaking and other sports it takes an incredible amount of creativity and perseverance to keep Little Man from taking a break every 3 minutes (no joke: I have timed him).  There have been days that keeping him going has been so exhausting that a part of me never wants to do whatever activity we are doing again.  However.........

 I have come to realize that the time I put into encouraging, prodding, bribing and at times losing my patience eventually pays off.  Eventually they get it and it all starts to some together.  Eventually, it becomes an amazing enjoyable experience.  Eventually, they can make it to the top of the mountain and realize how incredible the top can be. 

As for me, as I watch the 10 year olds wait for their moms to catch up on the trail, I can take great satisfaction in the fact that soon he will be the one waiting for me:)



How Many Challenges?

This summer I have somehow managed to get myself into four different challenges:  Amazing Park Challenge; Sizzling Summer Challenge; Venture Vermont Challenge and The Vermont Winery Passport.  Each one has someplace you have to visit, something you have to do or a combination of the two. 

 

To start off with, my friend Lisa convinced me to do this Amazing Park Challenge with her, and at the time, I have to admit I was not 100% sure what I was getting myself into.  The challenge is through one of the local parks and rec and involves 10 different challenges at various parks in our area.  Some included finding clues on hiking trails, building sand sculptures at the beach and a variety of other tasks.  While we got off to a bit of a rocky start because of the thunderstorms and flooding at the beginning of the year, we finally managed to get rolling and as of yesterday finished all of the challenges.  It was fun and we went several wonderful places we otherwise never would have visited.

 

 

The second challenge was one we did last year; The Vermont State Parks Venture Vermont Outdoor Challenge.  We did this one last year and have a season pass to all the Vermont State Parks because of it.  Basically all you have to do is visit the state parks and take pictures of yourself doing things at them like fishing, camping, hiking (all stuff that we do anyway - why not get rewarded?) and when you get to 250 points you turn it in for a season pass at the state parks.  Why would I not do this one again? At this point we have about 70 points to go.  Almost there. 

 

 

The third challenge; Sizzling Summer Challenge - through my health insurance.  The reason I decided to do this one was purely for the Grand Prize; a one night stay at the Hotel Jay and all day passes to the Pump House Water Park.  I have been wanting to go to this place since they opened up two years ago, so I figured that there is no harm in doing one healthy thing a week (go to a farmers market, cook a healthy meal, try something new) and post a picture once a week for the ten weeks during the summer.  So far we are on track and having a great time.

 

 The final challenge is the one I am no where near completing.  My friend Tara convinced me to do The Vermont Winery Passport(It's not like she had to twist your arm...).  Basically, visit 10 wineries in Vermont, get your passport stamped at each and enter to win a two night getaway for two.  Why not? I like wine, I would love to have two nights away with my husband (Phew! At least she didn't say 'away from'!).  So far, we have only visited one winery that belongs to friends of ours. 

 

A little much, but we have had fun so far this summer.  We may finish them all, but if not we have done some pretty cool things because of these challenges.