Easter egg decorating

Since Easter is on Sunday, I decided to decorate Easter eggs with Avery today. I didn't want to do something that would be too messy, so after checking out Pinterest, I decided to try out crayons! I didn't buy an Easter egg dye kit, but I already had red food coloring, so I thought that might be useful as well. I took some old crayons that were broken and at the bottom of the diaper bag. I didn't want to waste her nicer crayons on this, since I didn't really know how it would go. The colors I came up with were blue, red, black, yellow, orange, and green. I took a potatoe peeler and peeled the wrapper off, and then shaved little crayon pieces onto two plates. In the meantime, I hard-boiled a dozen eggs on the stove. I also made egg dye with food coloring, a little vinegar, and water.

Then I set up a little workstation while Avery was eating lunch. I pulled her table out into the kitchen, and covered it. I set everything out and let the eggs cool for just a few minutes (but not too long because you want the wax to melt onto the eggs.)

We got started, and Avery loved decorating her eggs. I put one egg at at time in a bowl in front of her, and she sprinkled the crayon shavings onto the egg. The wax melted pretty well for the first few eggs, and the colors blended quickly. Then I realized I could dip her egg into the food coloring, and it wouldn't stick to the wax, so that made a different look on some of them. 

They aren't the prettiest eggs I've ever made, but I'd say we were pretty successful and had a great time!

First boating day of the season!

Travis recently brought our boat out of storage and has been itching to get out on the first nice day! Even though I typically enjoy slightly warmer weather on the boat, it was 60 degrees this afternoon, and sunny, so we decided to take it out! As soon as Avery woke from her nap, we packed up and headed out! We made a pit stop at Chipotle to grab dinner and eat on the water. We were slightly discouraged when we were about a mile away from the ramp, and a bridge was closed, so we had to take the long way around, which took us another 15 minutes or so. However, we were very excited to see the boat docks already in the water at the boat ramp! In previous years, they have waited until mid-May to put the docks in, and it's a struggle to get the boat in and out of the water easily. Now that the docks were in, it was super easy to load our things, put the boat in, and get Avery and Ranger in the boat safely.

Avery was so excited to go for a ride! I can tell that this year is going to be fun because she loves being outside, and she did so well today. She wanted to sit up front with Ranger, so we let her sit there while we drove pretty slow. This was the first year that we can let her sit by herself, and not have to hold her while we're moving. She listens really well, and takes direction to sit and not jump. When we sped up, she wanted to sit with Dad, so he let her sit on his lap, and she even steered! The lake was pretty empty, except for maybe 5-6 other fisherman. Travis fished for about 45 minutes or so, while Avery and I just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. 

Before we finished up, Ranger went swimming which is his favorite!! I'm really looking forward to warmer temperatures and summer now!

A few things about my feet

These are my newest running shoes - Brooks Ghost. My husband has been wearing them for a year or so (different pairs - not just one) and he absolutely loves them. It was time for me to get new running shoes, and I decided to give them a try. I am a neutral runner (as is Travis) and I was previously running in the Nike Pegasus, but I didn't want to get those again. I don't necessarily know if it was because of those shoes or not, but I have been having some foot problems with my right foot. It has been going numb around 4 miles or so (and longer runs.) It doesn't hurt that much, but just feels uncomfortable. I know that my shoes aren't too small, because I have room in the toe, and I normally have my feet sized once a year at a specialty running store. I haven't had very many running related injuries recently, so I thought maybe it would be good to change shoes.

I've been wearing the Brooks now for about 2 weeks or so, and I noticed the numbness was still happening. For me, it's normal to have a little numbness for a few runs while I'm breaking in new shoes, but by my third run, it's typically gone. I went for a six mile run earlier this week, and by mile 5, I had to physically take my right shoe off and walk for a minute to get feeling in it. This is NOT typical for me, so I decided to do a little research. The first thing I realized is that my shoes are probably tied to tight. However, I literally couldn't loosen them because the laces were really short! If I loosened them any more, I wouldn't have enough lace left to tie them! Luckily, I keep many of my older running shoes, and I was able to take my laces from an older Nike pair to put in them. Those laces actually haven't had much use, either, because when I got the Nike's, it was triathlon season, and I almost immediately put my triathlon laces in my shoes (so I wouldn't have to tie them.) Suprisingly, my Nike laces were about 6-8 inches longer! I don't know why Brooks would make their laces so short.

Older Nike shoes with shorter Brooks Laces

I decided to take my research further when I discovered that there are ways to lace your running shoes to address different foot issues - from everything to foot numbness to high arches to heal-rubbing issues. I actually can't believe I never looked into this before. I used a "straight-across" method that gives me more room in my mid-foot.

New Shoes - straight-across lacing method

I also added the "runner's loop" at the top, in order to keep my heal from slipping now that the laces are looser.

Runner's Loop to secure heal

Well, I was really excited to go for a run this morning and try them out! It's been raining for the last two days, so I haven't been really motivated to try them out until today. Travis wanted to take Avery to Little Gym today anyway, so I thought it would be the perfect morning to go for a nice long run.

Then this happened.

Wait, is that a giant bruise on my foot?? Yes, but not from running. About 10 minutes before I was ready to go, the doorbell rang, and I was still barefoot. When people come to our door, Ranger goes CRAZY!!! I was trying to get him out of the way and see who it was, when this lovely bruise happened. He was clawing at the door and my foot apparently was in his way. It may not look that bad, but it really hurt!! The Jehovah Witness at my door must have seen the tears in my eyes as I answered (or she was afraid of dogs) because she handed me a brochure and was walking/running back to her car as quickly as she could. She didn't even ask me if I believe in anything!

As I closed the door, my first thought was that my toe was broken, and I immediately iced it. The swelling went down and it started to feel somewhat better. I decided to attempt to run 3 miles in our neighborhood, and see how it felt. It hurt to put my shoe on, but I knew it wasn't broken. I was able to run 3 miles with just a little pain, but not bad. The good news is that I think my laces really helped! It was hard to tell, and I'll have to do a few more runs when my foot is better, but I think my feet will feel better.

After I showered, the bruising really came into view, and I'm hoping I didn't make it worse. I'm icing it and keeping it elevated the rest of the day - so wish me luck!

Welcome Spring!

Happy April Fools' Day, and Happy Springtime! Finally! It's been a looooong winter, and we are enjoying the warm weather so much! Avery and I have spent hours yesterday and today in both our backyard and driveway. She loves being outside, and it's hard to get her to come in! We've played on her swing set, played fetch with Ranger, played with chalk, dug up dirt in the garden, and run up and down our hill in the backyard about a hundred times. I'm also teaching her to walk on the surrounding wood for our play set - like it's a balance beam! It's been so fun, and I'm just getting even more excited for these nice spring days, and summer which is right around the corner.

We're also getting ready for Easter in a few weeks. I bought Avery the cutest dress, and I'm actually really excited about that! It's the first time I've actually bought her an Easter dress, because for the past two years, we've had really cute dresses that we'd received as gifts, and I felt like it was overkill to buy her something when she had plenty of dresses that she hadn't worn yet. I'm also thinking about doing some kind of an Easter egg hunt with her, but not totally decided yet.

Anyway, I'm off to go for a run in this beautiful weather!! Hope you are enjoying it too!