Hiking, Running, Concerts and More...

The past few weeks have been pretty busy, but also full of a lot of fun.  Here is a little re-cap on all that's been going on. If you follow me on Instagram, I apologize, you may have already seen some of these pictures.

Lot's of hiking.  I've been taking some time to hit up some local nearby trails as well as a few further away in the higher elevations.









I even took a day and went out hiking alone.  Before you raise your eyebrows at that, hiking alone isn't new to me.  When I travel around the country, I do it all the time.  This was just actually the first time I have done it here in Utah.  I always let someone know where I am, and when to expect me back and I only hike popular trails that I know there will always be dozens of other people out on, when alone.

I will say, I was given quite a treat when I reached a lake I was hiking to, fortunately I had my camera ready too.  Thanks to this big guy's slow swim.  Watched this big bull moose swim across a lake, and come out of the water not to far from me, and was able to grab a few beautiful shots when he came out.

Since I am spending the summer months sharing Utah travel destinations or hikes for Travel Tuesday, I will share those with you over the coming weeks.

Geocaching, my new favorite fun side thing to do.  Okay, I know apparently this has been around for years even over a decade.  But I apparently missed the memo on it, until a blogger friend over at Run Hike Play talked about it on her blog and told me what to do to get into it.

After we went hiking last Wednesday my sister and I (who were more excited for it than her kids to start, LOL) went out to find a few in the mountains near the trail we had just hiked.  We found two of them.  The kids thought it was a lot of fun, and my sister and I are seriously hooked! Treasure hunting = awesome!  ha ha...  Doesn't even matter what the treasure is, although the ones that have lots of things in them are a bit more fun to find we decided.  Thanks Run Hike Play!

Kenny Chesney time!  My sisters and I are huge Kenny Chesney fans, we LOVE Kenny!

We go to his concerts every time he visits Utah.  It's been a tradition for years.  We have so much fun at them, singing, dancing and acting crazy. We even do alcohol free and better than the drunks, even though people probably think we are. LOL  The best part is, we get to go home and still remember all the fun crazy times!

My sister brought her Selfie Stick, and let me tell you it takes fabulous pictures.  But boy did we get people laughing at us using it.  Pretty much the 7 rows behind us were getting their dose of comedy of us using it.

It was that or the fact that we may have taken over 100 selfies with it and probably looked as vain as they come.  But it's all fun!


I am back to running and full regular activity again.

I am taking a different approach since this last flare up.  I'm doing what I call Plan A.  Which basically right now consists of wearing the stupid clunky boot each night to sleep.  Do I need it still at night? Not sure.

But since every time I have a flare up, it takes a week or two of wearing it to fix the problem. This time I am just going to wear it nightly for a couple of months and see if I can't stop all flare ups all together!  Two weeks going into it, and so far so good.
Since the past 2 1/2 years I have had a flare up about every 2-3 weeks, depending on how this week goes, if I don't have another flare up soon, I will consider the plan so far so good as on it's way to working!
There are other things I am doing too, but I won't bore you with all the details today.  I may share more later on if it continues to work!

Making some changes.  They have both to do with my life, training, and even my dreams.  I will share them with you as I enter into these changes over the coming months.
I have done a lot of soul searching this past flare up, really effected me more than any of the others. I've always tried to keep a good attitude with this work injury, but a few weeks ago I hit my breaking point. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I have been battling this for over 2 1/2 years now.

I am going to share one of my secret pick me ups.  There is this song by Mindy Gledhill called Whole Wide World, that I cannot listen to and not be cheered up.  It alone is the thing that has kept me from breaking into tears on many occasions through the years, and has made me want to keep my head up, think positive and believe in myself and that eventually this will end and I can get back to what I love.
I am a girl with a lot of dreams and goals, and this song just totally hits me right in the heart of what I want and what I do.  You may enjoy it too, so here it is.

I've actually never shared this with you before.  But yes, sometimes to help pick my spirits up I will even listen to this song a dozen times a week and some days even 3-4 times alone.  You'd think over the years I would be sick of it, but it's just the opposite, I love it even more!

It's what I think of as I contemplate getting back into all my running goals and marathons.  So if you are a girl, and if you've ever had a dream, no matter the dream.  You may enjoy too. (Although, it's very possible you've already heard it years ago when it was more popular too:)

Pretty wordy post this week, sorry about that! 

This week begins my dive into what is the start of the busiest part of the wedding summer season for me.  (I know so many think about June brides, and yes there are lots.  But I have always historically had even more August brides than June brides:)  

September is also a very busy wedding month for me, so I have been working a head on a few things to lesson my burden as I get through the next two months.

But this is me we are talking about, and I work extremely hard so that I can play even harder.  So you can guarantee I will fit plenty of hiking, camping and fun in-between the crazy wedding schedules I have over the next few months.  With that, I better get going, I have 2 weddings in 4 days, this week and I have a ton prep work still to do!

Have you been enjoying your summer?  If you're a hiker, have you been getting lots of hiking in?  Are you a fan of the Whole Wide World song too?  Or if this was your first time listening to it, did you not just love it:)

The Summer Blogging Slow Down

You may or may not have noticed I have significantly dropping the amount of posts I have been running this summer.

There are two reason's for this.  One being, I am more of a summer gal than any other season and summer means time to play and it means less time I will spend looking at a screen.

Another is, others feel the same way.  I've looked at my blogging stat numbers over the past several years, and summer stats drop a little and I am fairly certain I am not alone in this.

People get busy, or want to be outside playing and to be honest that is a better place for them then sitting in front of a screen.

Which is how the idea for this post came up. Summer blogging, and my suggestions and tips on it. Granted, remember to take this as purely my opinion, absolutely no offense was meant to be made to anyone!


THINGS TO REMEMBER

* It's okay if your numbers drop a bit in the summer. It's, normal.  Don't stress about it, and don't feel like a failure or that your blog is going downhill.

* It's okay not to post quite as often.  Give yourself a break, take a vacation or give your dedicated readers a break.  There are lots of reason's to blog a little less and in my opinion it probably won't hurt your blog in the long run, unless you stop blogging altogether.
Which you can also do, but stopping completely may require you to begin the rebuilding process when you come back.

* Have extra time, it's okay, to write posts and store them for the fall.  Spring, Winter & Fall I like to blog 4-5 times a week and try to stay consistent with it.  But life happens and blogging takes time and during those months I may not be able to write that much each week.  Which is why yes, if I do have spare minutes to spend writing a post, I will just save it in my drafts to use another time.

* If you follow other bloggers, don't feel like you are letting them down if you miss a few posts or a week while you're on vacation.  No one is going to blame you for having a life:)  Besides if your a some type of healthy living blogger, we promote getting out and enjoying life and we can't do that if we feel super obligated to visit every single blog we follow every day.  No one is going to look down upon you if you miss a few posts.  It's summer, we all understand!

* If you have plenty of time and you can keep up your normal blogging routine, then go for it. Just keep in mind others might not be able to spend as much time, so don't get bummed if you're not getting the page views or comments that you normally do.

* Don't stress on any thing blog related!  I say this all the time, blogging should be fun!  Unless you have turned it into a $50k-$100k full time job (if you have I am jealous).  Even if you use it to make a little side income as I do, it is a hobby and all hobbies should be enjoyed.
If you feel stressed, get off your computer or tablet and go outside get a run in, go for a hike, take a swim or start up a new sport.  Come back to blogging after a little time away, and remember to keep it fun, enjoyable and stress free!

* Take a bit of a break and slow down a little and work on other things.  Maybe summer is a great time to work on building your social media following.  Or going back in and editing older posts that were popular and bringing them back to life again.  Clean up your blog or make over due edits to it. It's a great time, to try new things.


Do you take blogging breaks during the summer?  If you watch your stats, do you also notice a slowing trend in the summer months?  Or are you just super awesome and never have trouble posting frequently and regularly?  (I wish that could be me, but it's not:)