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Finding Nemo // Seattle Aquarium

Last week, Logan and I ventured downtown to the Seattle Aquarium. I didn’t have high expectations for the aquarium. The building isn’t big. There is also a lot of construction going on in the area, so the parking options weren’t abundant. We ended up parking in a city lot down the street for $4.00 an hour. Overall, I left less than impressed with the actual aquarium. I did have great time catching up with my friend and her little one.

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The one thing that sets this aquarium apart was the fact it is right on the water. Some of the viewing for the seal exhibit is outside overlooking the Pudget Sound. There was a big touch and feel exhibit that I am sure will be fun when Logan gets a little older. Logan did seem to really enjoy the fish tanks with the bright colors.

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I was impressed with the food pricing in the aquarium cafeteria. My intention was to pack a lunch. Per usual, I was rushed to get out the door and that didn’t happen. I ordered the clam chowder and half of caesar salad. It was under $10.00. For Seattle food prices, that is a really good. The soup was really good and the dressing on the salad was amazing. Is it bad I was most impressed with my food during my visit?

I haven’t been to tons of aquariums over the years but the Baltimore aquarium seems to always stand out in my mind. I went there when I was really young but it still leaves a big memory in my mind. On our weekend trip to Vancouver last year, we visited their aquarium in Stanly Park. I liked that aquarium much better than Seattle.

If you are in town visiting. I do recommend getting the city pass. Take a stroll through the aquarium. It’s convenient for tourists and can be done in just a few hours. As a local, this won’t be a place we go often. I’m opting to spend lots of time this summer at the Woodland Park Zoo!

Seattle Workout Vibes

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Photography: Jenna Lynn www.jennalynnphotog.com

Outfit: Streaker Hoodie c/o // Streaker Tank c/o // Streaker Capri c/o // PureFlow 5 Shoes c/o // Marc by Marc backpack

Nothing screams Seattle urban workout more than stretching, running, graffiti walls and industrial buildings.

As I have shared on my blog before, I haven’t had the easiest postpartem recovery. I had a surgery at 12 weeks and another silver nitrate treatment at 16 weeks. Afterwards, I was finally back in the work out world. I started slow with Pilates and tennis until the six month mark. At six months postpartum, I started running again. After a few weeks alternating Pilates and running each day, I feel ready to turn up the workouts.

A few weeks ago was my first time wearing Brooks Running Shoes. Brooks Running has a shoe finder on their website that helps match you to the best shoe for your body and running needs. I was matched with the Pure Flow 5 and already can’t rave enough about them. Not to mention they are freaking gorgeous shoes and I will never own too much pink! My tank, hoodie and pants are Brooks as well. Fit, fabric and aesthetic are really important to me in workout gear. I have to look and feel good when I work out. I feel pretty fab in this outfit and have received many compliments.

IDEA Personal Training Institute West

Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the first day of the IDEA Personal Trainer Institute West in Seattle. The event is a conference for personal trainers to learn new training skills, stay up to date on some of the latest training techniques and of course network with some amazing personal trainers from across the US. I will be signing up for the conference again next year! I walked away loaded with new knowledge, ideas and major doses of inspiration. I will be sharing a HIIT workout I created for Ryan and I from conference inspiration on the blog soon!

I wore my new Brooks running shoes and running outfit. It was the perfect outfit for a day full of action-packed sweaty workshops.

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Photography: Jenna Lynn www.jennalynnphotog.com

Outfit: Streaker Hoodie c/o // Streaker Tank c/o // Streaker Capri c/o // PureFlow 5 Shoes c/o // Marc by Marc backpack

 

Roast for Days

If your life is anything like mine, time is not something you have a lot of. We rarely eat out, which means someone has to plan the meals. That someone in our house happens to be me. I honestly don’t mind cooking, but sometimes the prepping and cleaning up gets overwhelming with a six month year old. Since having Logan, I rely on the crockpot meals more than ever.

After my fiasco leaving the chicken in the crockpot overnight last week, I decided I would stay away from chicken this week. These are my two go-to recipes right now. They make two completely different meals. If you are thinking this is your typical pot roast, you are wrong. I cook the first roast recipe on a Monday or Tuesday and then the next day make the soup with the leftover roast. I use some of the leftovers for sandwiches and the rest goes in the soup. Hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do! We can get 3-4 nights of meals out of the roast. Any other roast recipes people are loving? Please share!

Another tip: I always wait and buy the roast when they are buy one get one free at the store. I cook one and freeze the other. I normally buy a 2-3 lb roast.

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Pepperoncini Roast

by Sarah Johnson

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 8 hours

Ingredients

  • chuck roast
  • 1 tsp seasoned salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 tbs au jus (I buy the powder form in the spice section at the store)
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • Jar of pepperoncini (add liquid from jar as well) or 1/3 jar of pepperoncinis from Costco
  • 1 tsp. dried parsley
  • 1 tsp. dried dill weed
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. onion powder
  • 1 tsp. dried onion flakes
  • 1 tsp. dried chives

Instructions

Spray your slow cooker with nonstick spray.

Place roast in the slow cooker and sprinkle with black pepper and seasoned salt.

Sprinkle with parsley, dill weed, garlic powder, onion power, onion flakes, chives and au jus mix.

Place peppers on top of spices.

Add the stick of butter on top.

Set your slow cooker to 8 hours and forget it. Do not add additional water.

I serve with mashed potatoes, but you could serve with egg noodles.

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roast ingredients

soup

Vegetable Rice Roast Soup

by Sarah Johnson

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • Leftover roast (chopped into tiny pieces / Sometime I have more leftovers than others)
  • 1-2 cup of rice
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • dash of worcestershire sauce
  • dash of franks red hot sauce
  • 1 tsp garlic
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp parlsey
  • 2-3 cups water

Instructions

Cook 1-2 cups rice on stove.

Chop leftover roast, onions, celery and carrots.

Once rice is cooked add roast, onions, celery, and carrots to pot.

Add in worcestershire sauce, franks red hot sauce, can of tomatoes and spices to mixture.

Simmer on stove on low for 20 mins or until warm.

Serve and enjoy!!

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Ready for a New Week

Lots of personal thoughts today but sometimes you need to share. This picture below sums up how I felt after last week. It was one of those weeks where I felt like I couldn’t keep my head above water. I got my first taste of how there are no days off in motherhood. All I wanted to do was sit and mediate for a few hours but that doesn’t get to happen with a six month old that doesn’t like to nap. I think I had two emotional breakdown cry fests in my living room floor. During one of them, I think Logan was actually a little concerned looking. They both made me feel better. Sometimes you just need to cry.

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The week was filled with doctors appointments, teaching Pilates, a job interview, taking care of the little man, trying to cook dinners, squeezing in my workouts and planning out some short term business goals. I don’t want to get into too many details about all the doctor appointments but I am so tired of going to see specialists for Logan. Each visit seems to take an emotional toll on me but I am thankful so far he seems to be completely healthy. On top of that, I know it’s time to say goodbye to breastfeeding. Logan is probably only 25% breastfed now but I am having a harder time letting go than I ever thought I would. Each day I tell Ryan, today is the last day. At the time I feel free and happy. Then the next day comes along and I continue. Breastfeeding was never the easiest for me and I had to work really hard at it. It consumed so much of my life over the past six months.

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Friday afternoon, I got away from the house for a little while to meet up with some of my mom friends at Greenlake. We had a little picnic and enjoyed the beautiful 70 degree Seattle weather. I love that Seattle has such amazing parks and so many places with water. My sweet friend Lauren gave me flowers and I seriously couldn’t have needed them more. Over the weekend, they kept bringing a smile to my face.

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By Saturday, all I felt was pure exhaustion. Ryan is still working at Seattle Tennis Club on the weekend in addition to the long hours of his legal job during the week. I made Logan a batch of green beans and didn’t do much around the house Saturday. Saturday night, we went to watch Ryan’s tennis match on the east side.

It’s now Sunday and Logan is down for a nap. I have a big week coming up and there are no doctor appointments involved! I hope to be better planning meals this week or maybe I should say executing them. Thursday afternoon I put four packs of chicken in the crockpot. I like to cook a lot at one time, shred it and then put in bags to use or freeze for chicken dishes. Friday morning, I woke up to a nasty smelling house and chicken still cooking away in the crockpot. I hope to do better this week! Now if I can just relax like Sumo does in the laundry basket.

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Lululemon Motivation

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This week is flying by. With the weather being so nice here, I have been able to take my workouts outside. Running and Pilates have been my go to workouts the last week. I was doing Pilates everyday but since adding running back in, I have alternated Pilates or running each day. On the days I run, I am trying to make sure I spend some time stretching with the Peak Pilates fitness ring. I love this workout accessory and love that I can lay in the floor watching TV to get my stretching in. As an athlete growing up, flexibility has been something that I have had to invest a lot time in.

Sharing my current favorite Lululemon bra today. Love the back of this bra and it always looks cute layered with tanks or to wear alone.

 

Weekend Tennis Adventures

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Our weekend was filled with tennis. I had my last match on Saturday night. I played doubles and had my good luck charm Logan with me at the match. Our team lost but we won our doubles match! I’m sad it was our last USTA match for the season. After our match, it was fun to drink wine, snack and catch up with my team.

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Sunday was another beautiful day in Seattle. We spent most of the day at the Arizona vs. Washington men’s tennis match. Ryan was a grad assistant coach for University of Arizona so we had to go cheer on his old squad. We felt a little old since all the guys he coached have graduated and moved on. It was nice to catch up with the coach and cheer on the Wildcats. Arizona lost but it’s fun to watch such a high level of tennis.

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We finished the weekend sitting on our back porch since it was so nice. We got in bed early and watched the season finale of Walking Dead. Um…anyone else annoyed with how it ended??!!

Off to meal prep, work on some training programming for the hubby and hopefully squeeze in some Pilates this morning.

Splurge Top

 

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I think every girl struggles a little deciding when to invest in an expensive piece of clothing and when to buy a cheaper version. I grew up in the South and have always loved Lilly. My style isn’t quite as preppy as most of the line but I love the prints and the bright colors.

Their Elsa Top has always been a favorite of mine. It seriously flatters almost any body top. Depending on what color you purchase, the top can be worn with your summer or winter wardrobes. I have a total of three of these tops and will continue to add to my Elsa collection. This is an investment top well worth the money.

 

When the Rain Doesn’t Stop

Ryan took Easter off and I was so excited for a full day to spend as a family.

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When people talk about the rain and grey anytime you mention Seattle, it used to annoy me a little. As I have mentioned on here before, this winter lived up to all that wet hype. The news says it has been the wettest winter recorded at SeaTac airport. I am now ready for lots of sun!

The weather report showed rain for Sunday but I was determined if it was the normal Seattle mist that we were still getting outside. The plan was to check out some trails at Carkeek Park right by our house. This is a big park on Pudget Sound. I like hiking and trails but with a baby now it’s not as practical to drive far away for long hikes anymore. I want to find some little gems really close by. We got up around 7:00 and by 9:30 were out to Carkeek. It rained the whole way to the park and the second we pulled into the entrance, it started pouring. We sat in the car for ten minutes hoping it would clear because on the radar it looked like it would. It didn’t. If it was just Ryan and I, we would have gone out in the conditions but not with Logan.

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Our plans for the day changed. We stopped by the neighborhood coffee shop Caffe Fiore on the way home. It was super cute and in a really residential area. I had a latte and we sat there and enjoyed our coffees watching the rain.

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We came home and got ready. Since having a baby, it’s much harder to get out of the house and find fun social activities that you can bring the baby along without stressing out. Through my PEPs mom group, we have been introduced the family friendly atmosphere of all the breweries here. We ventured out to Rueben’s Brews this time and met another Seattle transplant from North Carolina. Carolina girls gotta stick together!

Reuben’s not only delivered in good beer but it has good seating, clean restrooms and baby changing tables in the restrooms. I have decided breweries are great for babies because parents get to taste good beer, the stimulation of all the activities are good and if the kids melt down its loud enough in there not to bother everyone. Logan was good and spent the first hour looking around and taking it all in. I could tell he was getting tired so I fed him and then put him facing me in the Ergo360 for an hour nap. The brewery white noise put him right to sleep. I am excited to keep checking out other Ballard breweries and sharing. They had over 24 beers on tap and the menu was a little overwhelming. We went with the tasting sampler of their six top sellers. I even loved the fact they had a pink beer!

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Life Lately

Logan and I met up with our friend Courtney for a brunch date at Louisa’s in Eastlake on Friday. We have really cut back on eating out since Logan joined our family six months ago. If we do make it out to dine, it’s normally for brunch or a really early dinner. Brunch is was. I ordered the biscuits & gravy and it was delicious. I would totally recommend this place.

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Saturday morning, I had the chance to attend a blogger conference with other Seattle bloggers. It was beyond inspiring and has me motivated to keep putting my heart into this blog. When I started this blog, I wanted to be a “fitness” blogger. My blog has become more of a life diary as I learn to create and find my path as a new mom in the fitness industry. Being a mom isn’t easy and there is still so much people don’t talk about. I hope to continue to share my experience with y’all – good or bad.

Saturday night, the boys were off to the Sounders game. Logan and I put on our pajamas and hung out at Courtney’s eating take-out Indian food. Nothing I love more than leggings and a sweatshirt. Speaking of new mom struggles, breastfeeding has not been the easiest thing for me. At six months, I am still breastfeeding and glad I have stuck with it. I started supplementing some formula at 4.5 months since Logan’s weight continued to be a issue. I am thankful I did and has made the experience less stressful. Logan is happier and so am I. My baby boy is growing way too fast!

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