Springtime Around Vancouver - Tons of Pics!

It occurred to me over the last couple of weeks that I used to take a lot more long walks around the city than I have been in the last few months. I'm 90% sure that my lack of walking is contributing to a visible reduction in my ab muscles, and we CERTAINLY CAN'T HAVE THAT right on the verge of bathing suit season, now can we?? Nope.

So in an effort to get my groove abs back, I'm making a conscious effort to take more long, brisk walks wherein I force myself to engage my abs while walking. Sounds like ya grandmothah's workout, but seriously if you engage and employ the right muscles, you can turn a regular walk into a Walk+ (please note I've just coined Walk+ as a thing. Tell ya friends. And ya grandmothah.)

Anyway - all this to say that I've been going on walks lately, and naturally that means my camera has come with me! Here are some of my recent snaps from around Vancouver...

I just admired the way these colors lined up against each other...

There are cherry blossoms just about everywhere here in Vancouver...

Sometimes I'm fascinated when curbs and flowers meet...

A rainy railing...

Ducks playing in puddles in Stanley Park... 

Trails in Stanley Park, surrounded by enormous greens covered in moss...

Thanks for checking out my Vancouver pictures! Did you have any favorites?

Is anyone else getting down low with their cameras and right up in the face of some pretty flowers lately? Do you tend to bring a camera with you when you go out for a walk?

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

Beach Walks, New Shirts + Workouts of the Week

Howwww the heck has your weekend been so far? I hope you've all had plenty of relaxation and productivity, or whatever blend of that makes you feel like your weekend has been successful. I've been crossing some things off my list (if you follow along regularly, you might know that I try to make a to-do list every weekend), taking walks, and buying the occasional "thing" for myself. Because.

My weekend kicked off well with the Friday afternoon news (via mail) that I won't owe anything additional for my 2013 taxes after all! Big "phew" for that one. This was my first year earning contractor income, so it was a bit of mystery for me how those taxes would play out. I'm also happy to report that not only will I not owe any more money, I'll actually still be receiving a nice refund! #HEYOOOO! High fives all around to everyone else who gets some money back this spring. Go shoppin'. Or save that shit. Your choice. (I'll probably do a bit of both.)

Anyway, what else have I been up to the last few days? I took a couple of walks... this one along the beach on Thursday was particularly nice:

And on Friday night David and I finished off our evening with a sunset beach walk:

I walked downtown a couple times and picked up some new shirts, because my closet isn't full enough yet. (Full disclosure: That was sarcasm.) Seriously though, I had it on good authority that Victoria's Secret was having a sale on their popular v-neck t-shirts, and I a) needed a cute white v-neck that didn't suck, and b) wanted to see what all the hoopla was about with these tees. They definitely ARE cute and have a really flattering fit, so I grabbed two (since the sale was 2 for $34) - a white one and an orchid colored one:

So far I absolutely love them both, and the girl at the counter told me that she owns a few of them too, and that they stand up well to washes.

I also grabbed something that I've been looking for FOREVER: a light-colored chambray button up. You might think that a top like that is completely ubiquitous and not at all difficult to find, but it's been really hard for me to find one that fit me right and didn't have any wacky rogue details like spikes on the collar or weird cowgirl-esque embroidery on it. I got this one from Old Navy after seeing it on a mannequin in one of their window displays. Bonus - it was on sale for $20 (marked down from $39!)

So basically now that I have one of those, things are really going to start happening for me. I CAN FEEL IT!

Yesterday it was raining alllllll day long, so the walk I took downtown yesterday was a wet 'n chilly one.  I originally went into the city looking to get myself a haircut, but the salon I went to was booked up for the day so I made an appointment for Thursday instead. I will take some before and after pictures at the appointment because my hair is loooooong right now, and there's no telling WHAT could happen to it on Thursday!

Today is looking like a GORGEOUS day so far. The sky (from what I can see from my living room window) is completely blue and the sun is shining. Practically bikini season already!!! Just kidding, we're not quite there yet. But David has started wearing his Keens, which means warmer weather is on its way! (His Keens are a bit like Punxsutawney Phil, in that respect.)

Alright, so enough blabbering. On to my workouts from the past week!

3/17 (cardio)

15 mins elliptical

15 mins biking

3/18 (lower body and core)

10 mins rowing

2x:

   - 40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

   - 30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 30 diamond clamshells on each leg

   - 30 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric push off, each side

   - 30 Brazilian crunches

   - 60 bridges

   - 1:00 plank

10 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

3/19 (upper body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:

   - 12 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 12 tricep extensions on exercise ball, 5 lbs each hand

15 squats, holding 10 lbs

15 squats, holding 15 lbs

15 squats, holding 20 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

10 lat pulldowns, 60 lbs

3/21 (lower body)

5 mins elliptical (1/2 mile)

2x:

   - 30 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

   - 12 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

   - 5 single leg squats on bench, each leg (I'm practicing this one - not strong enough yet!)

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric pushoff on each side

   - 30 diamond clamshells each leg

15 squats, holding 15 lbs

15 squats, holding 20 lbs

15 squats, holding 25 lbs

I plan to get to the gym today as well, but not before enjoying this sunshine! 

Did you do any random shopping this weekend? 

Has spring begun to sprung where you are?

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

Workouts of the Week + Digging Into Netflix

We finally finished watching Breaking Bad last week, so this weekend was one for digging deeper into the bowels of Netflix to see what else we could discover in there. This resulted in us watching Lost In Translation (Friday night), The Peacemaker (Saturday afternoon), and even a little bit of The Emperor's New Groove (Saturday night in bed).

I didn't care for Lost In Translation at all - it was terribly boring for me. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, nothing happened in the entire movie. To boot, Scarlett Johansson's character's voice was ultra-annoying - she gave a meek-yet-breathless delivery of all of her lines, which kind of made me want to punch her in the stomach. Hard.

The Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman was decent - in a timely "Isn't Russia terrifying?" type of way. I like action movies, so this was more my speed than the movie we'd watched the night before.

We watched about a half hour of The Emperor's New Groove in bed last night. I've been trying to make Dave watch this movie forever.  I liked it so much when it came out originally (back in 2000) that I went and saw it in the theaters twice at the time! It's terribly hard to get Dave to ever watch a Disney movie, so having him agree to watching even 30 minutes of it was a win for me ;)

.  saturday morning breakfast instagram  .

In addition to watching movies this weekend, we also took a beach walk in the pouring rain yesterday afternoon near Dave's UBC campus. It was nice to take a walk on a beach we hadn't been on before, and we even got to see a bunch of seals playing in the water! I wanted to bring my camera so badly, but I knew that the pouring rain was just not going to be conducive to taking pictures.

In other news, I was pretty much killin' it at the gym this week. My shoulders are soooo sore right now! Hopefully I didn't pull something... Here's an outline of my workouts from the past week:

3/9 (lower body and core)

10 mins rowing machine

2x:

   - 12 squats, holding 25 lbs

   - 20 Russian get ups holding 8 lbs

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists holding 15 lbs

   - 60 bridges

   - 50 Brazilian crunches

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric pushoff (each side)

3/10 (upper body and core)

5 mins biking 

3x:

   - 12 chest press on exercise ball, 15 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted crunches on exercise ball, 15 lbs

   - 12 bent over rows each arm, 15 lbs

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 12 Arnold press, 10 lbs each hand

   - 30 reverse crunch + leg raise

12 squats, holding 10 lbs

12 squats holding 15 lbs

12 squats holding 20 lbs

3/11 (cardio)

10 mins rowing machine

25 mins bicycle

3/13 (lower body and core)

5 mins elliptical

2x:

   - 30 alternating side step squats, holding 15 lbs

   - 30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 30 plank knee to elbow

   - 30 diamond clamshells on each leg

   -  30 reverse crunch + leg raise

   - 15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

   - 30 cobras

12 squats, holding 15 lbs

12 squats, holding 20 lbs

12 squats, holding 25 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

3/14 (upper body and core)

5 mins biking

4x:

   - 12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 20 weighted v-sit twists, holding 12.5 lbs

   - 12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 20 alternating weighted side bends, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 12 tricep kickbacks each arm, 5 lbs

   - 20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

   - 24 alternating medicine ball flys with 8 lb medicine ball

   - 30 cobras

12 squats, holding 15 lbs

12 squats, holding 20 lbs

12 squats, holding 25 lbs

That last arm workout was a doozie... I don't normally do 4 sets of exercises! Stopping after 3 sets was the original plan but then I thought that I could handle another round. That's probably why I'm so sore today!

It's another rainy, grey day today, so there might be some more Netflix movies in my future. Do you have any random movie recommendations?

Have a great Sunday!

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

Pops of Green in Grey Vancouver

One of the things I love about the weather in the Pacific Northwest (which is how I continue to refer to Vancouver, even though technically I should be saying "Southwest" now that I'm a Canadian resident), is that the mix of rainy days and sunny days makes everything a gorgeous, healthy shade of green.

This past Sunday started out as a beautiful clear day with blue skies, so I thought it would be a perfect time to head out for a walk with my camera and try to snap some pictures around my Kitsilano neighborhood. It seemed like too long since I'd taken some good Vancouver photos, and I was excited to see what sorts of pretty things would catch my eye out in the sunlight. Unfortunately by the time I'd finished getting ready to go outside, it had turned rather overcast again. Womp womp. Not to be deterred, I still donned my jacket and hat, stuffed my camera into my pocket, and headed outside. Here are some of the random snapshots from my walk:

.  the monkey puzzle tree  .

.  fern growing in the nook of a mossy tree  .

.  thick, bright moss growing on a tree  .

.  this tree was completely covered in moss on its north side... and devoid of any on its south side  .

.  half mossy  .

.  mossy curb and pavement, as seen from directly above  .

.  green lines  .

.  slightly different green lines  .

The grey skies were an omen, obviously. It started raining on me when I was still several blocks away from my house that afternoon. Not that I really minded -  I just tucked my camera away and scurried home. It's been raining off and on for over a week now, which is normal. We'd been spoiled by unseasonably sunny days for several weeks prior to this rainy stretch, so I can't really complain. After all, without all the rainy days, we wouldn't have all these pops of green all over the place!

I hope you are all having a great week. Has it been rainy or snowy wherever you are?

FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST INSTAGRAM

Sweat Round Up of the Week

This weekend has been nice and relaxing! I didn't have much to do besides catch up on a ton of blog-reading, watch some movies, and give David a haircut. Plus I scrubbed the bejesus out of my bathtub, so... that was rewarding. We took a nice long walk into downtown Vancouver last night and scoped out some of the fools who were running around in costumes. The fog around here finally lifted, revealing that some places around the city have actually put up holiday lights already! #ThatsWhatsUp!

On top of taking nice daily walks this week, I got in one decent arm workout and one decent leg workout. Check out my workouts below:

10/23 (cardio & lower body)

21 mins elliptical, 2 miles

.  new long sleeve base layer top from forever21  .
.  love it for going to/from the gym!  .

3x: 

  - 15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

  - 15 goblet squats, holding 15 lbs

  - 20 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

  - 1:00 plank

10/25 (upper body & core)

7 mins elliptical, .7 miles

12 overhead press, 12.5 lbs

20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

12 bent over rows, 20 lbs each hand

30 Russian get ups, 5 lbs each hand

12 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

30 weighted v-sit twist, holding 12.5 lbs

12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

30 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 12.5 lbs

15 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand, kneeling on bosu ball

15 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand, kneeling on bosu ball

30 cobras

12 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

Hey here's something else worth noting - my mom wins the MVP of my recent music scene because she randomly sent me the new Justin Timberlake album in the mail:

Completely unprompted. Completely awesome of her. This album is The 20/20 Experience, Part 2 of 2. You may remember that he released Part 1 earlier this year, after taking a way-too-long hiatus from releasing his own music. I haven't fully formed any huge opinions about the album overall, but one of my favorite tracks is a sexy little diddy called You Got It On. Listen to it for a sexy time!

How has your weekend been going? Did you get in any good workouts this week?

Find me on Facebook! ~ Holla @ me on Twitter ~

Concord Battlegrounds and a Bit of Boston

At this point, it's been kind of awhile since I got back from my voyage to Massachusetts, but I am still coming across photos from my trip that I haven't posted here yet!

Dave and I have a sort of unique habit of splitting up when we go home to Mass. to visit. His family lives about 2 ½ hours away from mine, which usually results in the two of us retreating to our separate parts of the state and spending time with family/friends separately. So though we flew into the state together, we were then actually apart for about 2 ½ weeks. #WompWomp.

When only a few days remained in our trip before we'd be flying back to Seattle together, the two of us reconnected at Dave's parents' house in Boxboro, MA for a few days of relaxing alone. (His family was vacationing down on the Cape.)

Boxboro is about 40 minutes northwest of Boston, right smack in the middle of tons of historic points of interest. There are super old rock walls all throughout the town as well as plenty of old-as-hell houses. The town is neighbored by nearby Concord, Lincoln and Lexington with Cambridge also just down Route 2.

If you were to make the trek from Boxboro back southeast towards Boston, you could make quite the historical "American Revolution" tour out of it. So we did!

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Dave and I set out from his parents' beautiful Boxboro home and made the short trip to Concord. We parked at the Visitor Center and took a look around the building's exhibit before beginning our afternoon of walking along the Battle Road Trail.

Battle Road Trail is definitely interesting, especially if you are into American history. Along the 5-mile trail you'll pass historic houses, taverns and farmlands, as well as Revolution-related sites, like the spot where Paul Revere was stopped and detained by British militia on the night of his infamous midnight ride.

There are still old rock walls along each side of the historic road, so you can really envision what it would have been like for it to have been an active road hundreds of years ago.

.  click to enlarge!  .

Some of the old houses were actually open to the public, complete with employed re-enactors performing and answering questions.

.  hartwell tavern  .

Here I am as a tavern bar wench:

.  don't i look like i might serve you a drink and then punch you in the face?  .

.  captain william smith house  .

.  featuring ya girl!  .

The following day, a sunny and perfectly-temperatured Monday, we drove into Boston to continue our historic crawl.

But the first order of business on a beautiful Boston summer day is to relax on the grass in the Boston Common (America's oldest public park) - soaking in the sunshine, blue skies, and wonderfully familiar skyline:

.  le sigh  .

The Common's Frog Pond transforms from an ice skating rink in the Boston winters to a shallow community waterhole in the hot Boston summers:

After basking in the Common's summer energy for a bit, we jumped onto the freedom trail and spent the afternoon following it through Boston's Financial District and North End.

Here's the Old State House - where the Declaration of Independence was read to the people for the first time. It was also the site of the Boston Massacre:

Part of the charm of Boston is that there is so much history surrounded by modern elements. You can see in the above photo that the Old State House is overlooked by skyscrapers.

.  the old city hall  .

Have you ever walked the Freedom Trail or Battle Trail Road in Massachusetts? They'd probably both be lovely in the fall!
Find me on Facebook! ~ Holla @ me on Twitter ~

{Linking up with What I Learned Wednesday}
p.s. I am featured today over on the Much Ado About Somethin/One Fine Wire Tell Us Tuesday linkup: