So I know for sure that there at least four people that read this blog on a semi-regular basis. Well, three at least (thanks mom for signing up twice to boost my confidence). So for those of you who do read my blog, I'm going to start being a bit more interactive, you know asking questions, trying to illicit answers. . .that sort of thing. I'm doing this because, well, I care about what my loved ones and friends think. And don't want to be selfish all the time!

So the question is: What do you do to try to combat our sedentary lifestyle?

I do crossfit. That's it. My answer is small and doesn't seem like enough. I hike and backpack and snowboard, but not all the time.

My crossfit coach, who is the most amazing coach ever, brought it to my attention that ever since we started walking on two legs we have adapted. We are the most adaptive species on the planet. We live on every continent, have climbed the highest peaks and survived some terrible ordeals (slavery, bubonic plague, war, war and more war). We have shaped our surrounding to fit our needs, building housed and cities and huuuuge governments.

We are ambitious, creative, smart and determined. And now we are fat. We have walkers and canes and scooters that haul our fat asses around when we can't do it ourselves anymore. We take medicine after medicine to lengthen our lives instead of relying on our own massive strength, our huge ability and our stunning determination.

I am NOT going to be one of those people who is scooting around on a machine just because I'm too lazy to get off my ass!

So kudos to my mom, who still walks all day while shopping, dances at wedding while hurting and perseveres through a debilitating disease to be active and happy another day.

And kudos to Tait (my crossfit coach) who really cares and wants the best for every person who walks through his door.

And lastly my dad. The healthiest man I know, you are amazing! This picture makes me smile every time I see you. I'm so glad that you don't need that scooter to walk around.

advertising? hell no! I listen to. . .

Jillian Micheals tells us all (through her many books) to eat organic, eliminate toxins and to buy a HEPA filter. She also tells us that we should buy houseplants for our house as detoxifiers.

Yes, I realize that I may be buying into her multi million dollar scheme to make me spend oodles of money on things i can't really afford. So far, Ive started buying organic. . .all organic (oof, that's a hard hit to anybodies bank account), switched to all natural cleansers, don't buy bottled water ( we use a Brita filter, yummy and cheap) and the latest. . . you guessed it.

HOUSEPLANTS

For everyone who knows me, you know I am horrible at getting thing to grow, but there have been several studies that prove that children learn better with more green plants around. I have managed to keep an orchid alive (although it's not thriving. . .or blooming), so I've moved on to three more plants. They are cheaper than a HEPA filter, which I really want even though I just found out about them and what they do.

So I applaud you, Jillian Micheals, for making me want to spend money on things I never even realized I needed. You're about as effective as commercials.

I am such a sucker. God it's terrible.

and. . . not quite the fittest, but on my way!

So if this truly was a survival of the fittest scenario like our distant ancestors dealt with, like life with no Advil, doctors and Starbucks to get us through the day, I'm pretty sure I would have died by now. If not by some giant man eating saber toothed tiger or man eating giant pre-historic grizzly bear, than by some other mundane reason like not surviving the frigid winters or death by childbirth.

But if there is one thing that makes me more able to survive some sort of Apocalypse or world wide disaster that reverts mankind back to stone age technologies it is crossfit. For example,

the workout for the day was called Roy and consists of:

15 dead lifts (I did a measly 85 pounds, my friend did an awesome amazing 155 lbs)

20 box jumps (which I have a serious mental block about, I can't do them yet, so I did step ups)

25 pull ups

THREE TIMES!!!

and the warm up was. . . run a mile.

So, while I'm exhausted I'm coming much closer to being able to run from large, mean, man eating creatures or survive some an atomic explosion due to superior fitness level (ahem. . that really is a load of sh*t, I'm almost always the last one done, and the last one to finish my runs).

Now onto the cool stuff, here's some pictures from Yellowstone!!

Back again

Well, summer is almost over. I've just gotten back from my second vacation and I'm still tired. This time, there were fewer bugs (but then again that could be anywhere, Backcountry Yellowstone has almost all the mosquito's in the world hoarded there) and more. . . you guessed it . . . alcoholic beverages.

This was a trade off I'd go for any day. The weather was absolutely perfect up in Aspen and the scenery at the wedding was amazing. The bad news is that now that I'm back I've got to start my workout regime up again. that means a few days of intense torture before I can get my rhythm back. Pre trip I ran a 5k and last time I went to crossfit it was absolutely horrible. I was slow and weak and had forgotten everything I learned. Here's to a better week, with considerably less alcohol and no bug bites. Seriously the devil created mosquito's to torture nice people. I'm positive.

On a sad note, school is getting ready to start, my kids have gone through one more summer and I feel like time has been going so fast and so slow all at the same time. Fifth grade is around the corner and my children are becoming more independent and self assured everyday. This is both an amazing thing to watch and a melancholy thing to deal with. I've realized that having my children not need me as much is just as stressful and painful as having them need me too much. Oh well at least I have really stupid cat pictures like this one to fall back.

I'm back from vacation and. . .

I'm still having nightmares about all the mosquitoes. Seriously. There were so many of them the whole family was inhaling them. I have bruises from scratching bites on my legs.

Back country Yellowstone was not what I thought it was going to be like. First, I have read many other blogs that go into detail about the number of mosquitoes and how they have ruined rips. But we went prepared for this trip with 100% DEET, 40% DEET and 25% DEET as well as DEET free repellent. For those of you unwilling to count that up, that is 4 different types of bug repellent. Not only that but all four of us had long pants, long shirts and bandannas to cover up just in case the DEET failed.

Well, the DEET failed, the bugs can bite through clothing and they were so thick that they were in our breakfast food, in our mouths, up our noses and in our water. The worst thing was that because they were so thick we couldn't stop to take a break without getting eaten alive. . .literally. So, by the end of the day we were all exhausted, literally drop dead tired, bitten at least 100 times a day and unable to cook food because the bugs were swarming us.

The second not so amazing thing about the backpacking was that I wanted the family to experience real Yellowstone, away from the crowds, full of wildlife and tons of thermal features not commercialized. Well, we say no exciting wildlife on the back country trip, we were too tired to hike to the cool thermal features and the hiking was brutal. 34 miles in four days with 6,000 feet of total elevation gain and loss. Then once we emerged from the back country the mosquitoes abated, the animals came out ( we saw 5 really neat animals in the 20 minutes after we got back) and the weather was awesome. At least the trip was character building.

The good news is that I think I lost weight. The bad news is that my kids probably hate backpacking for life now and we are really broke!! Gotta love vacation.