cabin trip with my parents!

This was SO fun. Over the long Veteran's Day weekend Josh and I met my parents in Lake of the Ozarks State Park in Missouri for some hiking and general spending time together kind of stuff. We rented a cabin , cooked our meals outside, played Nerts and Scattegories and hiked around. 

We hiked around Lake of the Ozarks State Park on Saturday. We went on one of the “wildest” trails, meaning it was not groomed, and it was very loud and crunchy due to the massive amounts of dead leaves on the trail. We took food, a pocket rocket, and a pan with us to make quesadillas on the trail for lunch! Later we meandered around the shore of the lake before heading back to our cabin to rest and make dinner. I love the combination of physical exertion, time in nature and relaxation on trips like this. 

 We started Sunday with a cozy breakfast in our cabin and a prayer service. My parents made scrambled eggs in a plastic bag in a pot of boiling water. I was so impressed; the eggs looked a little weird, but tasted super delicious! We prayed and sang, which is always wonderful to do on a Sunday morning.

A random guy at the visitors center had recommended that we should try hiking at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, so after our prayer service we drove there in about 20 minutes. It was another beautiful and warm day; we enjoyed hiking to an old castle, a natural bridge, and a beautiful blue spring. We stopped for lunch on the trail again. We heated up left over Moroccan stew and ate it in a tortilla. Yum! In the late afternoon we played more Nerts and went on a sunset walk before my parents had to leave. My dad had to work Monday, so they needed to get home on Sunday night. It was sad to see them go, but Josh and I had a nice, quiet evening of journaling and singing in the cabin. On Monday morning we ate breakfast, packed up and headed back to Wichita. 

 If you're interested in cabin trips in the Missouri area, I do recommend the outpost cabins at Lake of the Ozarks State Park! Thanks Mom and Dad for making this trip so special!!

project life in 2013: july

week 49

july 1-7

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

What happened this week? We were in Santorini, Greece with my family and our friends the Keillors. We swam, ate delicious food, relaxed, and did a cool catamaran day trip. Read about our trip here.

Anything special in the spread? I made a photo grid to include extra photos my Mom took during our trip. I stuck it in a 5x7 photo pocket (LINK) and then added some business cards and cool paper I found in Santorini to the back side. 

Favorite photo: Well, they’re all wonderful. I like the one of Josh standing triumphantly on the rock and the picture of my dad diving into the water. Fun times.

Overall thoughts? I love the colors in this spread! The kraft core kit worked so nicely with the bright blue in all the Santorini pics.

week 50

july 8- 14

(Click on the photo to see it larger)

What happened this week? We arrived back in the USA! Michael and Kelly Baker-Trapp picked us up at the airport in Chicago and drove us back to Greenville. We hung out with friends and my family. We overlapped with Jordan and Niqui a little bit before they left for North Carolina. Sadly, I didn’t snap many pictures because I was more focused on just soaking up time with friends. We also tried slack-lining for the first time. So fun and quite a challenge!

Anything special in the spread? Not really. I cut around a picture of a bowl of basil to change things up. 

Favorite photo: I love the photo of Kelly playing around with our hammock and pretending to fly. I find that often my favorite photos from these spreads are not necessarily the most beautiful photo, but the one that brings back good memories. 

Overall thoughts? Love this project! I love playing around with the different colors and combinations with the CORE kits. 

week 51

july 15-21

What happened this week? My birthday happened! (I turned 23.) I had a tie-dye party, of course. A summer is not complete without tie-dying. My Aunt and cousins were in Greenville for the week, which was great. We kayaked and swam at the lake. We also celebrated Michael’s birthday. Mine and Josh’s first year anniversary was on the 21st, but because of Michael’s birthday (same day) we celebrated on Monday by going out to ice cream. 

Anything special in the spread? I included two of my birthday cards: one from Kelly and one from Josh.

Favorite photo: My favorite photo here is the one of Mary and Josh playing ukulele and guitar together. She played me a special birthday song! 

Overall thoughts? Fun week! It was hard to choose which photos to included because I had a lot this week!

week 52

july 22- 27 

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

What happened this week? Another week in Greenville. 

Anything special in the spread? A scored card from Up the River, Down the River (our go-to card game this summer). 

Favorite photo: I absolutely love the photo of the sun shining through a leafy tree in our front yard. I had just gotten back from a run and Josh was swinging under the tree; it was such a pretty scene that I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures.

Overall thoughts? Guess what???! This week (the 52nd week of my marriage with Josh) means that I actually documented our first year of marriage! I did it. I loved the process and the end result so much that I want to keep doing it for the next year of our life together. August and September are all finished, so I hope to share those spreads soon. I’m still plugging away at getting caught up on October and starting on November. 

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Kraft core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen, slicker writer pens.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.  

around here.

Around here it feels like fall. We've gone apple picking, we've made & eaten a lot of applesauce and we've been admiring all the beautiful trees. We've gotten sick, we've consumed copious amounts of tea, and we've gotten better! I've been painting, practicing yoga, riding my bicycle to school a few times a week and even running again (a very little bit). Josh has been editing the rough draft of chapter 1 of his thesis this week!! He's also been working on getting a new door for our room, but has already been thwarted twice. We have a door in our room that leads to an outdoor balcony and stair case to the back stoop. This door is rotting and needs to be replaced, but finding a door that fits for the right price is proving to be a challenge. In other news, we're thankful for lots of time with family lately; Celeste came to Wichita a couple weeks ago to celebrate Grandma Kay's 90th birthday! And this weekend we're heading to Lake of the Ozarks State Park to hang out with my parents. We're staying in a cabin and we'll be hiking and cooking our meals outside. It should be great! We also have five new family members; Lauren and Daniel now have pet ducks (Indian Runner ducks to be exact.) Josh and I just get to have fun and watch them splash in water while Lauren and Daniel actually do the work to care for them. Actually, I've helped out a little bit with building an outdoor house for the duckies. Josh is really wanting to get a kitten, but Daniel and I still aren't so sure. We're excited that we get Monday off work! Anyone else this lucky?

Have a beautiful weekend!

our diy duvet cover.

Whew. I am SO glad this project is finished. I was a little ambitious in starting this duvet cover. I saw this  and decided to recreate it. I went out promptly the next day to buy a bit of fabric to accompany some of what was already in my stash. I’m not in to measuring or taking time to make a real plan. I just like to start sewing and see where that gets me. Hastily, I did some measuring to ensure that our duvet cover would actually fit the duvet we already have. Josh was excited for a fun duvet cover, so he helped me cut out strips of fabric. I must admit that sometimes sewing feels tedious to me. Cutting strip after strip bogs me down. 

On the flip side, I love to see progress. I love looking at the finished product and thinking “I made that.” This duvet cover had it’s ups and downs. I started making it in early August and then picked it up again in September after our move to Wichita. As it started to get a bit chillier, Josh and I were eager to use our duvet and to have a nice cover on it. I stayed up later than desirable one night to finally finish it and, I’ll admit, I was rather grumpy. But it’s done and we love it!

I can’t really give a tutorial for this project because, like I said, I don’t have concrete measurements for all the strips of fabric. I do encourage you to just try making something new if you get inspired! And try not to get grumpy like me along the way. You can do it!

camping in kanopolis.

Back in early October, Josh and I headed out of Wichita for a camping trip with our friends Kenzi and Cora. We decided to explore Kanopolis State Park, which is close to the super cute Swedish town Lynsberg, Kansas. We had an awesome, blustery time in Kanopolis! Josh and I haven’t been camping or hiking since this summer in Norway, so I was eager to pop up our tent, make some camping stove meals, and hang out in front of the campfire for a few days.  During our weekend getaway we did get to eat tasty meals, toast marshmallows and chat in front of the campfire. We also spent a lot of time reading and writing in our tents because it was so darn windy outside. We even ate breakfast in our car! Kenzi entertained us with "who-dun-it" puzzles while we ate pancakes. On Saturday we went hiking on Horse Thief Canyon trail. I love wandering in nature. While tucked away in my sleeping bag I read my Great Grandma Z's journal from a cross-country family camping trip she took with her husband and four kids in 1956. It's called "Ways to the Wilderness." I think my Great Uncle helped get her journal published and it was passed around amoung our family. I find myself bringing this book/journal on all my camping trips. I just love reading about her experience in the wilderness, while I am also sitting outside (or in my tent) on a camping trip. Do you guys have any books like that- you know, ones that you only read on certain occasions or certain times of year?

Anyways, I was delighted to find out that Kansas has some good opportunities for camping and hiking. We only had drive about 1.5 hours outside of Wichita to reach Kanopolis. If you're interested in camping/hiking, but live in a not-so-awesome-for-hiking type state, look around for State parks or wilderness areas. You might be surprised!

Interested in hiking or camping in Kanopolis State Park? Here’s some info: 

Kanopolis State Park is located in Marquette, Kansas and has lots of camping sites for tents or RVs, as well as trails for hiking and horseback riding. We set up camp right on the shore of the lake, which made for a super windy weekend and stunning sunsets. The Park charges a small fee for cars and for each night you camp. Not far from our campsite was a basic bathroom and a water pump. Fun fact: Kanpolis was the first State Park in Kansas. Find out more here. 

Enjoy the Autumn air this weekend!

travel guide to norway.

Today I'm sharing my travel guide to Kjeragbolten in Norway over on Dirtbag Darling, a fun outdoor blog. Check it out here!

we ran and ran and ran.

Yay! We finished our first half marathon a couple weekends ago. Both Josh and I have been runners for a while because we've both played soccer (and other sports) all our lives, but this was a slightly new adventure. Yeah, soccer requires a lot of running, but it does not require running 13.1 miles at the same speed without stopping. In that sense, training for a half marathon was new territory. Even though we aren't super experienced long distance runners, running is one of our top choices for daily exercise because we can do it just about anywhere outside, it's a good work out, and it's free (except for the running shoes). Plus, we both really enjoy running. 

A half marathon seemed to me like a really cool challenge. My mom has done several 13.1 mile races and I was inspired! Now that I'm not participating in organized sports, I wanted something to keep me exercising daily. So I got Josh to sign up with me for the Prairie Fire Half Marathon and we started training in early August. I roughly followed this training plan, so I was running about 3-4 times a week, including one long run. I usually didn't do any sort of weight training, but next time I definitely would! A few weeks before the half marathon I started doing yoga twice a week, which helped with the stretching aspect of my training schedule. Each Saturday I would increase my long run by one mile. My first long run was 5 miles and my last long run before the race was about 11 miles. I usually really enjoyed my long runs. Okay, some were super windy and difficult. But overall I loved getting into a groove, spending time outside, challenging myself physically and having time to think or listen to music.

For me, the toughest part of the training was towards the end when I was running longer distances and my knees started aching during and after runs. Occasionally my knees even hurt throughout the day. Like I said before, I really should have done some weight training. I think that would have taken some stress off my knees. Josh ran pretty much as often as I did and he ran similar distances. He usually ran a mile longer than me on our long runs. I think he’s just a little more ambitious than me! In looking back, Josh thinks he probably should have done more varied exercises rather than just running. Overall, though, he felt ready for the race!

The week before our race we took it easy. We ran a few days and did some cross training, but nothing above 4 miles.  We also sat in the hot tub and the steam room at the YMCA to let our muscles relax. We had a relaxing weekend and then woke up excited and anxious 
Sunday morning at 6:30am.

We're pretty lucky that we live three blocks from the start line of the race. We ate a little breakfast Sunday morning and then walked over to the race. It was chilly! I was wearing running shorts, a tank top, and a long sleeve shirt, which turned out to be a perfect combination. I was cold on our walk, but felt fine during the race. 

We found it exciting to start the race along with a huge mass of people. Josh particularly liked weaving in an out of the mass, passing slower people at the start of the race. Amazingly, Josh and I started running together and ran for about half a mile until the crowd thinned out and Josh took off. I would like to note that I only finished about ten minutes slower than Josh! 

For the first half of the race I was mostly just thinking about the race, the people cheering on the sidelines, and the other runners around me. I didn't really think about how I felt running and my mind didn't wander off much. I was really wrapped up in the whole event. A lot of family and friends of runners were gathered on the sidewalks with funny posters. Our race bibs had our names printed on them, so a few people we didn't know cheered for Josh and me by our name. I found that really encouraging. We also got cheered on by our family! Meme and Will (Josh's Aunt and Uncle) live on the race route, so they were cheering for us with posters around mile 5. I was really looking forward to that and it gave me a little extra pep in my step.

I grabbed water at most of the drink stands and stopped to stretch at one of the stands for about a minute. Other than that, I kept running straight through mile 13.1. My legs were feeling really stiff for the whole second half of the race, but I still found it quite possible to keep moving. Before the race I had an subconscious goal to finish in under 2 hours. After mile 11 I realized that I could definitely make that goal a reality so I sped up a little bit after mile 12 and then kind of sprinted through the finish line. I immediately saw Josh, which made me happy. My final time was 1 hour and 52 minutes! For Josh, the race went pretty smoothly, as well. Some of his favorite parts were passing people and getting to see the sunrise as we ran through downtown Wichita. The first half was a breeze for him, but the second half was more difficult. He had made a subconscious goal to finish under 1 hour and 45 minutes. Josh's final time was 1 hour and 42 minutes so he met his goal, too!

After the race we relaxed, ate some food, and sat in the hot tub at the Y for a while. At different points in the afternoon Josh and I crashed and slept for a couple hours. That was very much needed for our recovery. Since the race two weeks ago I would like to report that I have not gone for a single run (nor has Josh)! This past weekend I played very low key soccer for about 30 minutes and that is the extent of my exercising. Josh played in a more intense soccer game for a couple hours over the weekend, but other than that we've been taking a break from heavy exercising and long runs. I'll admit that my feet have been hurting a little- maybe a strain from the race. After resting and caring for my feet this week I hope to start running a little bit again and doing some other forms of exercise. 

The final verdict: we enjoyed challenging ourselves and completing the race, but it's not exactly our favorite thing ever and we don't plan to do it again anytime soon! Thanks for reading about our half marathon experience!