Wow, what can I say. Summer 2016 has been one for the books! Makenna has grown so much and I can hardly believe she has already started 2nd grade, I have a new boyfriend whom I adore, have been getting outside, trying to see friends and family as much as possible, and have been doing my best to stay active most every day. As summer winds down, I’m going to shift my focus on getting back into a routine, kiddo to bed early every weeknight, and try harder to say no to things I just don’t have time for. But first, wanted to share a bit more of my summer! I have posted about lots of fun stuff, but wanted to share the other stuff I missed.

I finished up a little DIY project on an old picnic table my brother Shane gave me, here’s the before:

I also did a pinterest project like this:

Here are the after photos, couldn’t have done it without Dan’s help!

 

I love fixing up my house, I’m just not always the best at it!

Surprises from the BF are the best ❤

He surprised me with food too! A Sweeto Burrito, on their grand opening day northside

Sarah also brought me some amazing food, caprese chicken and tomato soup with fresh basil. I slacked and ate all the chicken before I took a pic, whoops. That’s the fat kid in me

Car selfies, its a love hate relationship

Cat ears at the mall

OK, so I normally don’t LOVE kombucha, but I like to drink it about once a week for the probiotics and all the other health and digestion benefits. This one is by far the best one I’ve tried, sold at Trader Joe’s

This was from the Starbucks in Target, she was amazing!

Makenna’s 7th Birthday!

Our kitty Django is growing so fast!

I’m obsessed with these turkey roll ups. Turkey, cream cheese, mixed berry jelly, an avacado slice, and sprouts! On a side note, why are sprouts so hard to find these days… Ecoli Eschmoli…

Paddleboarding=Love ❤

Ashley G and I

Such a good day!

Makenna doing flips and flips and flips on the bouncy trampoline at the mall

More running selfies, because that’s what I do haha

Wakeboarding!

My mom dancing with Dan ❤

I can vouch that shes an awesome dancer, used to compete in swing! I love this woman!

Walla Walla selfie …I actually clean up pretty nice when I’m not in workout attire haha

I pack salads for lunch way too much

Family lake days!!! One of my faves

Nolan!

Ray killin it!

My #1

Paddleboarding Adventure!

So, Dan and I parked at Pier 1 Imports and put the paddleboards in under the Division St bridge. Apparently we should have been on the south side of the river under the bridge because now there is a ramp specifically for this! But we didn’t mind

It was such a beautiful scenic route. We saw all kinds of huge bridge peices under the water, lots of trash :(, and tons of homeless people living under tarps on both sides of the river. We paddled East to No-Li Brewery, and had a beer

Yummy homemade BLT’s

My fave kind of new shoes, with my fave lil shopper

We had a blast shooting guns up in Ione

Beach Ready! And BTW this book  was amazing, recommended by none other than Dan. Great story if you’re looking for a good read!

Pho Sho!!!

I see some funny stuff as a bartender!

Fun lake day at Twin with friends that have twin girls who are 8, Makenna was in heaven!

….more running pics

You see these stickers all over town on cars that say 26.2 or 13.1 or 140.6 for an Ironman. Apparently this guy is a beast haha

These are pretty much amazing

And so is this organic bread!

Golf day with this cutie ❤

Coeur d’Alene day with my main girl ❤

We went out on a Saturday, which also happened to be the day before CDA Ironman! I love seeing all the people who have trained so hard to be a part of this, such an inspiration!

We stopped by Fine Brewed to pick up an Acai bowl and a BLT to take with us to the beach, love this place!

I couldn’t ask for a better view!!

I can honestly say, this was the first time I’ve ever seen anything this beautiful at a gas station haha

Nothing better than fresh tomatos from Grandma and Grandpa’s garden

First time trying Sunflower Seed Butter. I gotta say, it was really good, but still no comparison to almond or peanut butter!

Another yummy TJ’s find

Sometimes you just don’t have time for the sushi bar but you still wanna satisfy that craving! I don’t recommend this, I still need some real sushi in my life STAT

Makenna with one of her besties, someone at the store called them divas, and I can’t disagree haha

First day of 2nd grade!

Yup, yet another!

This is Brittany Howard, from the Alabama Shakes, one of my most FAVE bands ❤ That voice tho

I recently went to a work meeting that was Catered by Christ’s Kitchen. They put women to work who have been victims of domestic violence or addiction. They give them on the job training to help get them back in the work force. Love it. The food was delish too

At Kendall Yards

I can honestly say I’m finally happy again in life. Losing my Dad was the hardest thing I’ve been through, and it taught me a ton. It taught me that sometimes things in life happen that are out of your control, and there is literally nothing you can do but deal with them the best way you know how to. Some things take longer for some people, sometimes we have to put on a happy face for our children or go to work when we would rather cry, or go for a run just to clear our heads.  In the end we will figure out how to be happy again. We just can’t give up on ourselves It’s been 3 years and not a day goes by I don’t miss him, think about him or wish I could have just one last conversation with him.

Have a great week everyone! Peace and Love ❤

 

 

 

 

 

Natalie and Lance planned a beautiful wedding, and everything about it was first class. We started with rehearsal on Friday night followed by rehearsal dinner at Angelo’s in Coeur d’Alene.

There were probably about 40 people and I did not hear one complaint about the food or wine! So good! I ordered the port wine and gorgonzola ribeye steak and it was amaze!  Highly recommended! Thanks Kellers!

We headed back to the hotel for some wine and a girls night. Renae had Natalie read all her “Letters to the Bride.” They were truly heartwarming and lets just say there was not a dry eye in that room, especially after Leslie’s tearjerker!  Every letter was personal and had at least a few great memories or advice in it! Such a great idea!

Here’s a quote from one of my faves ❤

Wedding Day

Saturday the wedding festivities began. I decided to wake up extra early and get my run in for the day! I love Coeur d’Alene, and happened to figure out that the wedding venue was only a couple blocks from the Centennial Trail. I hopped on near the park which brought me down and around to the boardwalk, then I went around the park and back through downtown.

As I got closer to the beach, I noticed some orange street cones and people blocking the streets off, wasn’t sure what what going on until I got close to the beach and realized it was the Coeur d’Alene Triathalon, so of course I had to stop and check it out/cheer people on/ look like a creeper all alone taking pics while running haha

I saw this that I need in my life ASAP! “Let’s go be runners” OK! Don’t mind if I do!

This kind of made me miss my tri days! Finishing a triathalon is a different sense of accomplishment than straight running. And the training is a lot different too.

Pretty sweet these paddle board rental shops are popping up everywhere! I wish Spokane would get on this bandwagon (a post is coming soon about paddle boarding in Spokane!)

 

CDA is another quaint beautiful little town! I could live here! So many people all over being active and eating healthy all over the place, it’s very motivating! The city does a great job of  being fitness friendly.

Im guessing the loop was about 2.3 miles or so, but yet again, my Garmin decided not to co-operate grrrrr

Wedding Stuff

So, just a warning, I got quite a few pics right up to the wedding, but then I decided to put the phone away and have fun …or maybe just had nowhere to put the phone in my bridesmaid dress, but thats neither here nor there haha here’s a bit of what I got:

Venue pic from their site, Blackwell Hotel

Bride getting her hair did

Flower girl too ❤ Watching her made me wish my daughter would have been with me for the weekend, but she was across the lake with her Dad.

Selfie! And if anyone is interested, this headband is from the icing 🙂

Being super serious

Love this Mrs.

I’ll let Nattie share her actual wedding photos when she gets them 🙂 Can’t wait! They were done by Crystal Madsen, the best in town, and she went to Rogers with us to boot ❤ The wedding was a beautiful success, very laid back and fun!

The Morning After

By the time we got out of bed everyone had already eaten breakfast and was packing up. So Dan and I decided to take a walk through the town and do some exploring …yes… in our matching shirts!! GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE! HAHA

Ummm somehow Dan managed to change???? Wait, what??? haha Anyway, we stopped at this cute shop called Fine Brewed. It was very eclectic and had everything from acai bowls, beer, wine, smoothies, protein shakes, salads, to fresh pressed juices. It’s cute inside and they played great music.

Pic from their site

We ordered the basic acai bowl which was topped with banana, granola, strawberries, and coconut. It was sooooo yummy!! I believe Method also has them if you’re looking for somewhere in North Spokane. We also got a protein shake that had honeydew melon in it, that was great too! Highly recommend this place! Here is a link to their facebook if you want to check them out @ Fine Brewed.

Oh and Sundays they have a bottomless mimosa bar SAYYY WHATTTT! I’m not into champagne, but I know tons of people who love it!

Love this quote and thought it was appropriate for a wedding recap blog post:

This one is a little more me, anyone who knows me, knows…

Have a great week my friends, peace and love, Sami ❤

 

 

 

A couple weeks ago, 5 of my best girlfriends and I rented a mini van and headed to wine country to help Natalie kiss her single life goodbye!

We tried this lemongrass ginger beer first thing, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who loved it!

Renae was the Maid of Honor and found this amazing condo in downtown Walla Walla

The rooftop patio was my fave ❤

Complete with a roof too hot tub and a grill!

I’m pretty sure I want to live here… someday… when I can afford to move all my friends and family here 😉 haha kidding, I love Spokane!

So, Renae made these awesome bachelorette kits! She even had her mom sew the bags they came in. So cute!

They were personalized with everything from bracelets to penis whistle’s (I’m pretty sure Sarah is never throwing hers away) to homemade wine glasses that match our bridesmaid dresses. Oh, and the hangover kits too. She is so thoughtful.

Downtown Walla Walla Run

So the first night there, we pretty much hung out, went to dinner at a mexican restaurant, and didn’t get too crazy. Thank God because I’m training for a relay race and had to get a run in!

We were close to downtown so I decided to leave from the condo and check out the wineries and such.

And a few other cool places. The courthouse was beautiful.

And had to take a photo of this Record Shop haha

Such a cute town, love the big American flag in the middle of downtown!

It was so awesome seeing things in town at a slower pace than driving, I thought 7:30 would be a great time because there would be no traffic or people, and there wasn’t. The bad thing were all the stop lights. I guess I didn’t think that part through, and no, I’m not the runner jogging in place at every red light haha

Back to the hotel!

So, we got up and went to Clarette’s for breakfast, which was a really good hole in the wall if thats your thing. It’s definitely mine! Then we hit up Dutch Brothers, Emily’s obsession, so she could get her fave coffee the size of her head! She’s obsessed! Can I just say that I love these girls ❤ No drama!!!

Once we got all ready, we took a million pics (sadly, not on my phone) and headed to do some wine tasting!

First stop was Kontos Cellars, this was my fave wine we tasted! I regret not buying a bottle, but didn’t want to pack that around all day…

I stole this pic of the tasting room from the net, I had to because Natalie, future Mrs. Keller, wanted a pic with the cork “K”

Then we finished our wine-ing at Plumb Cellars with a wine slushie!! OMG so good!

 I think I’m getting old because while the rest of the girls went bar hopping, Renae and I decided to head back to the condo and relax

I’ll leave you with our “morning after mug shots” haha

Hope you guys have a fab rest of your week ❤

 

 

 

 

As the Spokane to Sandpoint Relay gets closer and closer, my motivation gets better and better! I was getting nervous because my back injury was not getting better fast enough, but after physical therapy, I was golden! The hard part about taking a break from running is that, if you don’t use it, you lose it. So basically I had to start over, ughhh I always tell myself I am not going to do this, but it never fails!

So, like I said, starting over is rough, but you just make yourself do it and it does get easier! Here are some pics from the last couple weeks of my running excursions. And let me tell you, the times on the old Garmin were starting to scare me. But now, they’re almost race ready!

Track Running

This morning was 3 miles on the trail starting at Boulder Beach, I love that stretch at 7:30 am! The sun is in a great spot, its cool, mostly shaded and beautiful!

I’ve never seen anyone down below the dam like this, so obvi I had to take a pic!

There was a rowing team finishing up, I couldn’t quite catch them, but got a pic of them getting out.

I’m obsessed with my new shirt, GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!!! I love this, but I also love that Dan and I have matching shirts haha pics to follow 😉

So here is a problem I have been having. My Garmin is REALLY getting on my last nerve. I get the “locating satellites” message for like 10-15 minutes, then I start the timer, but it won’t GPS my run. So I’m forced to go back to my old ways using the Run Keeper app, buuttttut I also use Spotify for my music, which is fine, except when I try and take a picture it overloads my phone, my phone powers off and KILLS my phone battery 😦  Anyone else having these first world problems?? Can I fix this? HELP!!!

But, to be completely honest, it’s probably good for me to run unplugged sometimes. No music, nothing tracking me, just me and the pavement. It was kind of nice to focus on my breathing, the views, the smells,  and all the wild animals for a change ❤