Family Vacation at the Beach

I hope you all had a great weekend! Sorry I was MIA last week, but I have to say it was nice to “unplug” and just enjoy time with my family and soak in a little sun! Everyone should take time to decompress and “unplug” now and then, because it is so needed with the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.

Anyhow, as always, good things must come to an end. We had a wonderful time with my family at the beach last week and a nice weekend at my parents’ house with my brother, sister-in-law and nieces for one last visit before they go back to Montreal.

It was great to spend time all together as a family, since we only get those opportunities a couple of times a year. We especially enjoyed meeting our newest niece, who is a little over two months old! Keenan was fascinated with her and always wanted to help feed her, hold her hand and check-in to see how she was doing. He is certainly ready for a sibling!

Helping Nonna feed his baby cousin!

Speaking of siblings, Keenan and my niece had a blast playing on the beach pretty much everyday. They had a little routine every morning: wake up between 7:00 and 7:30, potty break and then head upstairs for some Sesame Street with a snack of cheerios and a little hot cocoa (a little dark chocolate almond milk mixed with cow’s milk). While they drank their hot cocoa, my husband and I sipped our (much needed) coffee. It was too cute, as we all had our warm cups in hand! Once everyone else was up, we all ate breakfast together before getting ready to head out to the beach.

Having lots of fun looking for sea shells and playing (rather digging) in the sand.

Also, I forgot to mention that Keenan and his cousin slept in the same room for the first time! This was big, since Keenan tends to talk for a while and take a rather LONG time to fall asleep these days! We definitely had our challenges of him refusing to calm down and fall asleep (keeping my niece awake), but all in all, it worked out well having them in the same room. Hopefully the next time we are all together, Keenan will have an easier time going straight to sleep!

Anyhow, since it was my niece’s birthday last Tuesday, we celebrated by taking her to UC Santa Cruz’s Seymour Marine Discovery Center followed by a nice lunch, riding the carousel at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and enjoying ice cream. It was a fun day and my nice certainly enjoyed herself!

Celebrating my niece’s birthday!

I can’t forget my niece’s special dolphin and goldfish cake (thanks to my sister-in-law’s and brother’s creativity!).

Licking the birthday candles!

As far as the food went, we all took turns cooking. Since pretty much everyone in my family loves to cook, we enjoyed wonderful meals from pancakes, waffles, crepes and No Oat Oatmeal for breakfasts and crab, pasta, fish burgers, carnitas, Massaged Kale Greek Salad for dinners. Of course, we also enjoyed some good vino and craft beer. We also had some yummy desserts, too (probably too much!). My two “baking assistants” and I also made some Paleo Chocolate Chip Cherry Protein Cookies (since we didn’t have chocolate chips, I used dried cherries instead).

My two ‘baking assistants!” Sorry, this is the only food picture that I took all week!

Oh and I can’t forget our dinner out at Phil’s Fish Market! I ordered the Sicilian salmon, and my husband and I split the artichoke provencal, an artichoke immersed in a broth based sauce with tomatoes, olives, shrimp and scallops. Everything was delicious! What made the dinner even better was the live band that was playing. Our table was right next to the band, so Keenan was mesmerized watching them play and bouncing to the beat in his booster seat. After we were all finished with dinner, we enjoyed a little dancing! It was such a fun evening that we can’t wait to go back to Phil’s the next time we are in the area!

Having fun at Phil’s!

As for working out, I didn’t do a whole lot, but I managed to do two beach WODs (such a nice change from working out in the box!). My first workout was running the stretch (about  2 miles) of  the beach followed by 100 air squats, 50 push ups, 50 jump squats and 3 minute plank holds (regular and each side). The other workout that I did was a buy-in of 50 air squats and 50 jump squats followed by a 10 min AMRAP of 25 grasshoppers, 25 push ups and 25 sit ups. Both workouts felt great, but after all of the food and drinks I consumed last week, I’m ready to get back into my regular routine of CrossFit!

To conclude our week, (when we got back to my parents’ house), we had a nice evening out on Saturday at my brother’s charity event, A Third Party, which I have been helping with. My brother started the organization almost eleven years ago in honor of my late brother, who passed away in a tractor accident on my families’ farm. My brother loved to party and helping others, so A Third Party is devoted to throwing parties where friends, family and strangers can celebrate his spirit and provide much needed assistance to a party in need. The event went very well and I want to thank Health Warrior, Drink Chia and Tropical Traditions who helped contribute to a “foodie” basket that was a part of our silent auction!

A basket full of delicious goodies!

Sorry for such a long recap; I hope you will forgive me! Well, after a good workout of “Elizabeth” this afternoon and training my client, I’m ready for bed.

Questions:

– When you are on vacation, do you workout? If so, what kinds of things do you do, i.e. running, hit the hotel gym, create your own, etc?

– After returning from a vacation, what is the first thing that you do to get back into your “daily routine?” I always unpack first and then start a load of wash. I hate the feeling of not being unpacked and having loads of laundry to do after being gone.