Hello again! Well this week I turned in Week #7 of the My Heart Challenge reports. It sure doesn’t seem like we have been doing this for 7 weeks. It is almost becoming “normal” for us to go out and play around and not watch TV. I am glad the TV doesn’t have feelings, because they would be hurt I am sure.
This past week we were very busy getting the kids out of school and to all of the end of year stuff that they have to do.
Leatha graduated from 9th grade, so there was an assembly and a dance for her before she got to go to Lagoon. 
Cameron got kind of gypped, he just got out of school.
Amelia got an award at her school for being a good student, so we had an assembly for that as well as a picnic lunch there in the school that parents got to attend.
We had a dinner with all of the Grandparents to celebrate Leatha’s Promotion, and that doesn’t even take into account any exercise! We didn’t get our 10000 steps every day until Saturday, but we did go to the park, and, while watching the kids, we used the playground equipment to do pullups, and some modified pushups and other strength exercises. Then we took it easy on Sunday, waiting out the rain. It is amazing how much we DON’T do when we can’t go outside.
Then we got to Memorial Day on Monday and decided that it was such a beautiful day that we needed to get to the mountains for a picnic! It started out with a park, but grew into a Millcreek Canyon expedition. I got my 10000 steps going into all of the picnic areas looking for a table, there were a couple of areas that had 3 pullouts along the canyon, and all of the areas were linked with walking paths. We did several of those, one was near 2/3 of a mile by the time we went up and back.
We finally did find a table and then started to work! Getting even a picnic set up is an endeavor for us, but we sure do it in style. We did get some hiking in, as well as some, I guess strength training, cutting wood for the fire. We also made it a point to carry everything to the table that was a bit away from the cars. We didn’t use the wagon, or the wheels on the cooler.
We always have fun in the mountains, this time it was karaoke on the picnic tables for Leatha and Amelia! Video to come at some point.
And Leatha decided to eat an entire half of a watermelon by herself. That was quite a feat. This just wet their appetite for camping this summer, Tristan is already planning.
Tuesday brought another nutrition class for us. This was another one that the kids could attend. We all learned about eating until you are full, and listening to your body’s cues as to when to eat and when to stop. The kids learned quite a bit about it. It was a review for Brenda and I, from the Weigh to Health classes, but it was a really good reminder of the key concepts. It was also nice to go back and read our notes from the older classes and not only see how they still apply, but how they are the same thing being taught for the Heart Challenge.
We finished our night at the park after dinner. One of the parks that we like to go to has a large sidewalk around it that is 3/4 of a mile long, and they have an exercise course that you can do. It consists of stations all around the park where you stop and do stretches or exercises, in between running or walking the circuit of the park. It was fun to do some of them, even if we had to modify them slightly to be able to do it. It was still a good workout, running between a few of them, doing push ups, sit ups, inclined pull ups, and the monkey bars. It will be fun to do that more often and see how much better at it we can get.
And then, in the waning light, we went and played tennis again. It is fun to be able to figure out how to actually play something, instead of just flailing at the balls and spending more time chasing them than hitting them. Give us the summer and we may even be able to keep the balls on one court!
That is all until next time!
-Justin