Dex starts physical therapy this week through Early Intervention, so I decided it’s time for me to start exercising again beyond my physical therapy exercises. I’ve been really discouraged the last few weeks on just how weak I really am after three months of bedrest and another two sitting in a chair in the NICU. My physical therapist in the hospital was clear that there would be a significant toll on my physical strength. When she came by to visit one day and I was in the shower, the PT warned my mom that I would only be able to care for my basic needs (shower and dress myself) for the first 4-6 weeks. No laundry, no cooking, no bathing babies, no stairs, no lifting. I’m not sure she took into account that I’d have a baby in the hospital, and there’s no drive like that of a mama bear. Ten days after my c section, I drove myself to Roanoke Memorial, parked in the garage, and walked the 800 steps to the NICU. I think we were all a little surprised at how quickly I was able to do.
But, the rest of it has been slower. Probably because it hasn't been my focus, but I'm ready to start working on that. And you know who my faaaaavorite personal trainer is? Miss Harper Mae Titta. My fitbit-wearing, salad-eating sidekick is always happy to plank it out beside mom or challenge me to a burpee contest (spoiler: she's winning these days.) So, she happily took me up on the bike ride offer, though after mile 7, she was ready for some ice cream. :)
I'm only mildly outdoorsy, but somehow I was gifted these two little girls who are wannabe woodland fairies. If it's above freezing (and sometimes when it's not), Harper and Willa want to be outside. So, last year, we started hiking some of the local trails. We do all these cool things while we travel, but we've had to become more intentional about enjoying the touristy things right here in our backyard like the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Roanoke River Greenway, and the Appalachian Trail. That combined with being committed to giving our kids plenty of unplugged time equals more family outside time.
And so now, Sam likes preaching the gospel of the trail. A few weeks ago, we hiked with the Quesenberry family. This week's victim, Corrie and Alston!
It was only in the 40s this weekend, but it was super (deceivingly) sunny and we had NOTHING PLANNED for Saturday, so a family hike sounded like a great fit (to Sam and the girls. I like my outdoors above 50 degrees. 😊).
Corrie decided to brave it with two-year-old Alston, and Sam was so proud. We started off by taking a look at one of the dams where Sam works, so we hiked down to the river from the parkway and let the kiddos skip stones and climb along the river rocks.
We climbed all the stairs back up to the lookout, and hopped back in the car to head out to Explore Park. They have an assortment of beginner trails, and we randomly chose the River Walk to set out on an easy 2 miles.
The end of the trail had a little picnic area and a great view of the river, so we let the kiddos run around and give us grey hair by playing near the river. 😳
Since McAfee's Knob, Cascades, and Roaring Run, Harper looked at the river and said, "But, where's the waterfall!?" Ha. She's gotten a little spoiled on the trail end payoff.
But, at the end of the day, we go home with tired, hungry, sometimes cold little girls. But, they're also happy and fulfilled. So, off to pick to the next trail...
Every year we have a fun, super full weekend at the Lake house over Memorial Day, and every year, I don't get around to posting any of it until a month later. Haha. For convenience sake, I'll back date it to May, but I think it is safe to say that our summer may be even busier than our "school" year. So, I'll just let these pictures filled with people I love a lot do most of the talking. Hint: there was a boat, a slip-n-slide, snow cones, and sparklers.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
I know some little people who were awfully excited to see MarMar and PapPap. We got there Friday night (the Sweetens came on Saturday), and I think they enjoyed their monopoly on the grandparents.
Though I got to meet McCoy back in March, my family hadn't seen him yet. It may have been a good thing that he got to bake for another two months before these girls got their hands on him. :)
After the Sweetens arrived and we all got our McCoy fix, we spent the rest of Saturday out on the lake.
Since Sam started call on Monday (boo. reall big BOO!), we did our traditional Memorial Day cookout on Sunday, but first the guys golfed and the girls did some hair. Naturally.
Clearly, Harper was very pleased with Leah's not-just-a-boy-mom beauty skills.
Everyone thought we were out there grilling out and slip-n-slide-ing to celebrate freedom and family, but really it may have been this. The unprecedented.
After fifteen years of playing Dutch Blitz, Mom pulled out a rare victory. Haha! We kid, we kid, Mama.
The annual picture is getting harder and harder to take, the older the kids gets an the more babies we add.
This is what the majority of the 28 pictures I took look like:
Since we had to be back in Roanoke by Monday morning, but wanted to maximize our time at the Lake House, we left around 10:30 pm on Sunday evening. It made for a miserable (though quiet) ride home after such a big weekend, but it was nice sleep in and be local on the Holiday. We took the opportunity to go to the river with the girls and explain a bit more to them why Memorial Day is set aside as a day of remembrance.
Even if all they may have heard was, "Don't hurt the ducks!" :)
After having so much fun on our hike to McAfee's Knob last weekend (see what happened there? a few days go by and suddenly hiking 9 miles with two not-able-to-walk-9-miles children and a dog seemed like a good time. ha!), we decided to hike somewhere again this weekend.
My sweet little Squiddly Diddly spent the night with us last night after Harper's softball game (Go, Grizzlies! Big win last night, and Harper went 3-4 with 3 RBIs), so after the girls got up and ate breakfast, I gave them some options on what we could do for the day.
A) Go to Dad's softball game
B) Go to a park and play
C) Go for a hike
And then there was a lot of jumping up and down and chanting of "hike! hike! hike!" Of course, when I gave all those options, it was a beautiful, sunny 65 degree morning. And it was the entire one hour drive to the Cascades until we pulled into Giles County. And then it started raining... I asked the girls if they would still be up for hiking, and since they were still enthusiastic, I paid our $3 parking fee, grabbed the backpack and headed up the trail.
The girls did SO WELL on the hike up the hill! There's a sign at the halfway point (one mile in) that Willa was oh-so-thrilled to have made it to. There were a few times that Syd said, "Can we quit now?" ha! but, she kept on powering through. I did carry WK for the last half mile or so, but the wide path and fun things to look at made the two mile hike up fairly enjoyable.
The girls just could not believe it when we got to the falls. I think they were even more impressed since on the way up, I may have convinced them this was it. Bahahahaha. I'm horrible.
Harper described it best when she said, "Whoa, that looks super powerful." Unfortunately, because of the change in the weather, the area around the waterfall were extra misty and cool, so we were only there for around 15 minutes.
On the way up, I didn't let the girls venture too far down the side trails (preserving energy!), but I told them we could go down as many as they'd like and take as much time as they'd like on the way back down. And those little sweet peas took advantage of that offer. I thought all the rain seeping through the canopy of the trees would make them cold and wanting to get back to the car, but they thought it'd be more fun to explore the creek and sing on top of rocks.
