The long weekend gave us plenty of opportunities for mini adventures. In fact, by Saturday we were a bit stir crazy even after breaking out cigars around the backyard fire pit on Thanksgiving and introducing the first ever Hoobing Family Game Night (It’s a long story that I will go into some time but Andy is now obliged to play games with me which I am, of course, thrilled about.)

One thing Andy and I virtually gave up when having kids was an ability to workout together. It’s not like we exercised every day together pre-kids but every so often, we would go for a run or dust off our mountain or road bikes and ride, or whatever we were in the mood for. This is something we definitely took for granted at the time and now in our current situation miss.

There is something about sweating together that really does bring people closer together and I mean that with no hidden dirty message. When you exercise with someone, the conversation is just a little different than if you are sitting across the table from them at a restaurant and silence is perfectly acceptable as all of your energy may well be needed to pump blood through your body at a faster than normal rate.

So ever since the day two weeks ago when we hatched a plan for both of us, together, to go mountain biking with my sister, Anna, and her husband, Derik, we have been like two little kids giddy with excitement. I didn’t stop to think about how hard the excursion was going to be physically because I was just so darned excited to do it.

This collage pretty well sums up what we have been up to. I got back on the mountain bike for the first time in a very long while last week when I met my sister, Anna, to ride Friday morning. Unfortunately I ran into some bike issues which prevented me from shifting to the three lowest (read most essential) gears. After a valiant, yet unsuccessful attempt to fix the shifting problem ourselves, we ended up trading bikes on the uphill as she was able to push the big gear and make it. She was quite impressive!

I mentioned my current weight which is not budging and even appears to increase some days. Then I said offhand, “But, it’s been awhile since I’ve weighed myself when I like to, in the morning after pumping, pooping and exercising but before eating.”

It’s still postpartum week but I have to tell you I am already getting really excited for next week as I finally transferred the photos from the past two weeks off of my camera and there are some great photos to share.  I cannot seem to find any time during the day (or night) to [...]

Now my July obsession is out of the closet. If you have any interest in watching the Tour de France, the next three days of mountain stages in the Pyranees are going to decide the winner and it is promises to be SUPER exciting. Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador are duking it out for first place and it will be a doozy. I have already revealed who I want to win (Andy!) If the cycling doesn’t do it for you, the fans on the mountain stages are great as well especially in the Pyranees with all of the crazy Basque fans as well as other crazy fans from around the world. And if that isn’t enough to entice you, they are in the south of France which is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS and historical, begging me to visit EVERY day I watch the tour.

Reason #498 why I love Idaho in the summer: Mountain biking with my sister on a BEAUTIFUL DAY!

Has summer finally arrived? If I get a say in it, let’s keep this weather up. What a perfect weekend!

As we got closer Ray kept saying everything was going to be okay while I kept saying, “I don’t know if I can go around him.” We both ended up being correct as Erin and Ray passed the bulls and I promptly turned my bike around and started going back up the hill again. I started wondering what exactly I thought I was going to accomplish with this and forced myself to turn around and face the bulls. Meanwhile, Ray was talking to the bull telling him to ignore me and pay attention to him.

Last weekend I reluctantly participated in the Bogus Basin Hill Climb. I say reluctantly because I really didn’t feel in shape enough to participate but my father in-law, Ray, had had everyone else bail on him so I signed myself up. The two glasses of wine the night before coupled with an extra ten pounds [...]