Bearizona & the GRAND CANYON!!

Grab a glass of tea and get comfy 'cause this could be a lengthy post.

We went to Sedona, AZ for my birthday(see previous post) and took a day trip to the Grand Canyon, with a stop at Bearizona on the way.  Bearizona is like Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs.  :)  You drive through the first section in your own car with a GPS-driven verbal guide through the various "pens" that animals were in.  The second area is more of a zoo-type set up in which you walk through to see all the animals.  There was some construction occurring so it seemed like it was a fairly new attraction.  I'd be interested in going back in a few years to see how it's developed.

All the animals we viewed from our drive - we often had to wait for the animals to cross the road...yes, if you rolled down your window, you could reach out and touch them if you wanted.

White Buffalo

When we got to the bear section, we were reminded and instructed to keep our windows rolled up and if a bear approaches our vehicle, that we are to drive slowly away.

As you can see by the glare in the picture below, we abided by the "leave your windows up" rule.  This one cracks me up - a bear...just chill-axin in the shade!

Then we got to the walking area where we watched these little bear cubs for about 20 minutes.  They were so funny to watch, playful, and so cute!

Then we got to the "petting zoo" area.

He looked like he need a scratch behind the ear.  :)

After Bearizona, we ventured to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  I'm not exactly sure what I expected but...whoa...completely amazed!  The pictures don't really do it justice.  They have it set up so nice so you just park and then a shuttle takes you to all the overlooks and hiking trails.

You can see the Colorado River way down in the canyon...

We took the South Kaibab Trail and our intention was to go 3 miles down and then the same 3 miles back up.  However, they had these groups of kids going about 1.5'ish miles down and back and I witnessed too many of them crying their eyes out so it totally psyched me out.  I told Mike that we should probably turnaround at the 1.5 mile mark, making it a 3 mile hike.  Afterward, I completely wished we would have gone further ~ I definitely could have made it!  It's hard to judge because going down is the easy part...it's hard to imagine how tough the return back to the top may be.

Mike at Ooh Aah Point.

Resting and getting a snack at our turnaround spot.

Quite breath-taking!

I would definitely go back to the Grand Canyon and spend more time there.  I think it deserves an entire vacation of it's own.  We could check out more trails, maybe hike to the bottom, camp, and then hike back up the next day??  Maybe hike down and raft out?  I can't tell you how many signs said, "No Day Hikes to the River!!"...so I will certainly abide by all the rules and ensure we're planned and prepared.

If you've never been, please make sure you put it on your bucket list!!

P.S. Yep, I've been blogging a lot lately ~ I was a little behind but, more importantly, we got a new laptop that actually doesn't make me want to throw it out the window.  Thanks for reading and allowing me to do a little catch-up on my "scrapbooking."

My first VLOG

We recently got a new computer so I'm trying my hand at VLOG'ing. (aka video blogging)

Here it goes...hopefully it works after I select Publish...cross your fingers.  :)

If you have any running necessities, please share in the comment section.

Kleptomania

Per Wikipedia, "Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value.  People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or not significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape."

Ok - I wouldn't define myself as a klepto(the hubs may have a different opinion) and I can resist but I do occasionally, when at restaurants, take more straws than I need for my one drink and use them at home.  Mike doesn't usually use a straw so I usually bring his allotted straw home also.  It's just one of those things I guess...I have this big mug that I fill a few times a day with water so I need just the right straw that fits my mug.

My straw of choice??  Definitely Wendy's straws!!

Might I add that Mike even brings straws home occasionally just for me.  :)

Am I the only one that has an odd quirk like this??  Ummm...let me help you out...the correct answer is "No Kirsten, that's not weird at all!"  :)

Rio Chama

At the beginning of June, Mike and a few co-workers decided to raft the Rio Chama and patrol since some of the river is on BLM land.  They had to check out a few places that are only accessible by raft as well.  Another wife and I decided to join for the 3-day journey.  So the five of us put in the river around noon on Friday and took out early evening on Sunday.  I had never done any sort of rafting so it seems logical that they put me in my own one-man ducky.  ;)  It really wasn't too bad because there were only about 6 rapids over the course of 30 some miles and the most difficult we faced was class 3.

Me and my ducky.  A hat and my water keens were critical for this trip!

Mike also had a ducky - during the class 3 rapid, he did run into the rock cliff...eh hem...but I didn't.  :)  No one flipped their ducky's during the rapids but I always wore my helmet when we got close to the rapids...just in case.

 Here's our crew - three of us were in ducky's and then 2 were in the raft carrying all of our gear, food, tents, coolers, dry bags, etc.

A lot of sunscreen was critical for this trip!

These zip off pants were the BEST! When zipped off they became bermuda shorts(perfect length) and they were super comfy!

We took a few short hikes.

Our view from our tent on Saturday evening.  Two in our party were veteran rafters so they thankfully knew what they were doing, planned all of our breakfasts and dinner, & knew where some great camping spots were.

Campfire - of course we had 'smores!!

It was a really fun trip because it was not busy on the river at all - for this river, you have to have a permit to raft so the number of rafts and groups were very limited.  Like camping, I really enjoyed disconnecting from the world on this trip and getting to know some of Mike's co-workers a little better.

eye problems...and heart issues?

I had to take my poor love bug(aka Stuart) to the vet this afternoon because he's had a goopy & gunky eye for about a month now.  It's something that gets better than gets worse again...and it always seemed to be the worst right after we picked him up from boarding.  (we've had to board Stu about 3 times over the last month because of various travel/etc)  I decided it was time to get it checked out after some self diagnosing from the good 'ole web.

Vet visit was fine - nothing serious, gave me some cream stuff to put in his eye and an anti-itch pill.  While the vet was checking out Stu, she listened to his heart and said..."his heart beat is really slow and sounds a little abnormal."  Kirsten- "Umm...what?"  She took another listen, for longer this time, and indicating his heart rate was 56 beats per minute and was fairly irregular.  She indicated dogs, in general, have a heart beat between 90-160 beats depending on the type of dog and the size.  She recommended we get him an ultrasound and EKG to check it out further.  She said as he gets older he could need a pacemaker depending on the seriousness.  Seriously??!!

You'll be surprised to hear that I did not breakdown in tears at the vet...but I did start crying when explaining it all to Mike.  Just news I certainly don't want to hear about my bambino.  In all Stu's checkups, no one has ever mentioned this(he probably goes to the vet about twice a year) so at this point I'm not going to panic.  He's been a little lethargic lately anyway so maybe he was extra relaxed at the vet...I'm going to give his eye time to heal and then see how he's acting.

A pacemaker for a dog?  Doesn't that make you laugh out loud a little bit?...in spite of the seriousness of a slow/irregular heart beat.

a birthday in Sedona

We spent my birthday in Sedona, AZ in early May.  We also ventured on a day trip to the Grand Canyon but the GRAND CANYON most definitely deserves a GRAND post of its own so more to later on that.

Welcome to Sedona, AZ ~ red rock country

We arrived on my actual birthday, settled into our cottage, enjoyed a dinner out, and a few cocktails.

We did A LOT of hiking so we got a lot of great pictures of the amazingly beautiful landscape.

So lovely!  I wish I could post every picture we took ~ so amazing.

~ Chapel of the Holy Cross ~

View from the entry area of the Chapel of the Holy Cross

One day we took a longer hike of 6 miles in a nicely shaded trail that crossed a creek bed about 10 times.  It was a fairly easy hike and fun to see all the wildlife and, once again, the beautiful red rocks.

We visited Slide Rock State Park where there is a natural rock slide that you can actually slide down.  It was incredibly slippery/slimey anywhere that water hit the rocks...it's a "you should be on all fours" type of slippery because you have no grip whatsoever.  Right when we got there a 70 year old gentleman slipped and hit his head on the rocks and wouldn't come too.  The woman he was with started screaming and I starting freaking and Mike took off running back toward the Ranger station because no one had cell service.  Luckily the gentleman did eventually "awaken" and Mike brought the ranger back and the ambulance showed up shortly after.  What a scary and helpless feeling!

Here is the slide.

Sliding down the slide ~ it was SO cold so I only ended up going twice.

Mike's turn.

Enjoying the day at Slide Rock.

More hiking and wonderful views.

I'll post again to relive the Grand Canyon and Bearizona...such a great trip full of adventure and beauty! 

The warm weather in April really got me thinking again about running another half-marathon and I've decided to go for it.  The race is 9/16 here in Santa Fe ~ anyone want to join me?

Here is the schedule I'm using - this is sort of a combination of various training schedules I've used in the past.  Besides strength training (which I've really never done in the past while training and I now know is way more important than plain 'ole cardio, so I hope to be consistent with 2-3 days of strength each week), Thursday's are going to be a "mix it up" day so I don't get bored.

Throughout the training:

• Wednesday's and Friday's are strength days - I'm going to do my best to achieve my strength days!!
• Thursday's are HIIT/Cross/Downhill days - HIIT=High Intensity Interval Training which means I'll use the treadmill and do something like 30 second sprints/30 second rest for 30-45 minutes(which includes a 5 min warmup and 5 min cooldown).  If I don't do HIIT, cross-train, or downhills, I'll run 3-5 miles, depending on where I am in my schedule.  I've been doing some HIIT and am really enjoying it!
• Sunday's are Rest/Strength/Yoga days - depending on what I accomplish during the week will determine what I do on Sunday's. 

I started a few weeks earlier this year and have incorporated some catch-up weeks.  When I travel, I usually don't follow my schedule very well, if at all, which is why I incorporated some extra weeks.  I also didn't have the best "base" of miles prior to starting so the first few weeks are pretty light.  If I jump into lengthy runs without a good base, I usually end up having IT band problems so I'm hoping to steer clear of those issues by adding a few extra weeks.  :)

Week of 6/4:
Mon - 3
Tues - 3
Sat - 4

6/11:
repeat week of 6/4

6/18:
repeat week of 6/4

6/25:
Mon - 3.5
Tues - 3.5
Sat - 5

7/2:
repeat previous week / catch-up

7/9:
repeat week of 6/25

7/16:
Mon - 4
Tues - 4
Sat - 6

7/23:
Mon - 4
Tues - 4
Sat - 7

7/30:
Mon - 5
Tues - 4-4.5
Sat - 8

8/6:
Mon - 5
Tues - 4.5
Sat - 10

8/13:
repeat previous week / catch - up

8/20:
Mon - 5
Tues - 5
Sat - 10

8/27:
Mon - 6
Tues - 5
Sat - 12

9/3:
Mon - 6
Tues - 5
Sat - 8

9/10:
Mon - 4
Thurs - 3
Fri - 2-3
Sun - RACE!!!

I have my schedule in an easy to read excel doc posted on my refrigerator but wasn't able to get that format imported into the blog.  Hopefully you can follow the plan ok.

Let me know if you'd like to join me on 9/16!!  :)  I ran this race last year and starting at mile 3, it is a slight downhill all the way to the finish line so it's a fairly "easy" course.