• Reading

    June Book Report

    When I wrote my summer goals last month I mentioned wanting to read three books this summer. I am well on my way to getting that done and adding more to the list. I credit a few things for this, one of them being that I gave up Facebook back in late April. The last time I spent this much time away from the site was for the last half of 2009. I’ve done little hiatuses here and there, but it just got to be too much. I don’t have the personality where I can just say I won’t log in…because I will. I have to actually close the account.…

  • Baby Teddy,  Family,  Hiking,  Outdoors

    Tips For Hiking With A Baby

    When I found out I was pregnant in December of 2013 I knew that our outdoor hiking life would be changing for awhile. I tried to find other people online who still did outdoorsy things with their babies and kids, people who hiked and backpacked with babies and toddlers. I didn’t want that aspect of our life to change that drastically. Of course, it has and it did. But, we still have made it work. Are we doing any long distance trails? Nope, but we are doing long dayhikes. It was our hike in Sam Houston National Forest in February that helped me realize that we could do it, that…

  • DIY

    Guest Bathroom Makeover | Part II

    This would be the messy phase of this project. There’s dust everywhere and we both can’t wait until this phase is done so white footprints can stop being tracked around the house. It’s coming along but it’s a tedious process for Chris, putting on the mud for the drywall, letting it dry, smoothing it out. Chris thinks at the end of the week he can have it cleaned up and start painting. We’ll see!

  • Hiking,  Outdoors

    Hike it Baby Hike at Terry Hershey Park

    An Amorpha sp. I mentioned Hike it Baby a few posts ago in my link roundup and that I was going to try to go on one with Keely last weekend. Well, we did make it despite some passing t-showers that were coming in off the Gulf. It didn’t threaten to rain until we were about to leave the hike anyway. We met at a parking lot at the outlet of the Barker Reservoir/George Bush Park in Katy. Terry Hershey Park is a greenway that lines Buffalo Bayou heading east towards Houston. I hadn’t seen Keely since 4th of July in 2013. We’ve kept in touch via email, blogs, and…

  • Thoughts

    ThredUP – Outdoor & Hiking Clothing Review

    I’ve been seeing ThredUP mentioned a lot lately and I finaly decided to check it out. Someone had posted a link to $10 off your first purchase with the company and I thought it was worth it to see what they may have. Instead of going with the typical brands that most people into fashion would go for, I instead went for brands that you might find at REI or Backcountry.com. Outdoor and hiking brands. It is rare to find good outdoor clothing brands at a Goodwill or other similar stores. Some of the brands I searched for were Patagonia, Lucy, Mountain Hardwear, Prana, Icebreaker, Arc’teryx, Stonewear Designs, and REI.…

  • Thoughts

    Reading & Loving Links

    I’ve got a lot of ideas and posts up my sleeve in the coming week or two, but until then I thought I’d share some things I’ve bookmarked in recent weeks and months. +I heard about the Qalo silicone wedding band on two fitness podcasts recently. I wish I’d known about it (I wonder if it was around 5 years ago?) when I hiked the AT and FT. It is super affordable and much more realistic for hiking than even the simple silver band I wore. +My brother made a video of his kids fishing during a campout back in April. Love it! +The map and plant geek in me…

  • DIY

    Guest Bathroom Makeover | The Beginning

    A week or so ago Chris randomly tells me that he’s going to tackle doing a mini-makeover on the guest bathroom/Forest’s bathroom. This came after several months of dormancy on projects around here so I wasn’t expecting it. Really, we typically keep projects like this (except last summer and working on the guest room and Forest’s room) for the winter time and leave summer for working outside. I guess it was on his mind so he went for it! It was probably the second worst room in the house when we bought it, the guest bedroom being the worst. Now it is definitely the worst room. Chris had already started…

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    Forest at 9 Months

    Y’all. I have the best kid! I know, I know…but really, the best kid! Every day he’s turning more toddler like. It really is hard to think about how little he was even just a few short months ago. Major milestones this month were cutting his top two front teeth, bringing his teeth count to four. He’s also sitting up like a pro these days which has allowed us to take eating out to a whole new level, meaning he gets to sit in a highchair while we eat. I think he enjoys being up and sitting at the table with us but now we battle the ‘Drop The Toy…