End of summer recap!

I’m back! With a new last name! Brandon and I got married last month on July 22, 2023. It was a great weekend with family and friends, and it felt like the perfect celebration for us. I plan on making a wedding related post down the road with all of the tips for what worked well for us and how we made the day special. Now the wedding was just a few days out of my month long hiatus, so I’ll share what else I’ve been up to!

Washington DC

Brandon and I kept our DC trip pretty secret, and we were able to surprise the boys until we got into the airport! We’d decided to turn our honeymoon into a family trip because let’s be real — we’re with each other 24/7 since we share a home office. Plus it was good to do a trip with the boys that involved flying since they’d never flown before! We had a great time, and the city was so family friendly. We were able to walk almost everywhere and where we couldn’t walk, we took the subway! It was a little tricky to navigate at first, but once we figured it out, it was a breeze. We stayed near the National Mall, and it was the perfect location for visiting neighboring museums and landmarks. Our only regrets were paying almost $50 on four small Ben & Jerry ice creams and not being able to see more museums/attractions. That said, the length of the trip (4 nights) was just right.

Our favorite visits on our trip were the International Spy Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and flying. I think we could’ve passed on the Air and Space Museum because it was a little boring, and honestly the zoo wasn’t as lively as we’d hoped!

Reading

Where to start with my reading! I can’t tell if I’ve been a book worm lately or if I’ve just been lucky with a good book selection! Since the wedding, I have read seven books, and I highly recommend them all!

• The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
• The Awakening by Kelly Armstrong
• The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
• Wrong Alibi by Christina Dodd
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
• The Messenger by Lois Lowry

Queued up next is Son by Lois Lowry! Most of these books I read in middle school or high school, and it was so nice to see that they were as good as I remembered!

Working out

I was able to squeeze in two Chloe Ting workouts before the wedding, first the 2023 Summer Shred Challenge followed by the 2023 1 Min Challenge. I then took a two week break from Chloe Ting to relax and go to Washington DC. It was a good break, but I still got plenty of exercise! Every full day in DC we walked 9 miles! I’ve since started up the 2022 Get Fit and Moving Challenge, and it’s been a great way to stay active. One thing I’ve done differently this time around is not skipping the warm up and cool down videos. While it does add an extra 10-20 minutes to my workouts, getting a good stretch in has been worth it!

Well, that’s all! Once we get past this heat wave, we’ll cozy up with some football which will give me plenty of time to blog! We should also have more house news in the next couple weeks since we plan on reaching out to the builder for a little pulse check.

Have a good weekend!

Davien