We are officially on vacation at the beach! Finally.

We drove down yesterday and had a smooth trip down with little to no traffic. It took us a little over 6 hours to get here, and that was with two stops. The weather was nice when we got here, which helped with setting up mid-afternoon. Sometimes it can be very hot!

The dogs didn’t take long to get settled in. I like traveling with our camper because the dogs can come with us. It’s minimal stress for them, too, since the camper is a familiar place.

As usual, my dad, his girlfriend, and my little sister have a campsite next to ours. Once we were done unpacking, my little sister and I swapped birthday gifts at their campsite. It has become a tradition for us to wait to give each other birthday gifts until the beach (my birthday is July 12 and hers is August 3). After that we all had dinner (sloppy joe’s and corn!) at my aunt and uncle’s camper. It’s always fun to have a big group to hang out with!

I’m looking forward to lazy days spent reading on the beach, endless games of Cards Against Humanity and Dutch Blitz, sitting around the campsite socializing, and overall some relaxation. I’m also really looking forward to doing some running with my little sister as we both train for the Hokie Half Marathon!!

Do you take an annual vacation? Do you go to the same spot, or mix it up?
Have you been on vacation this year?

When we got Annabelle back in the fall, I knew she would not stay in our backyard forever. She’s a cow, after all, and cows get big. Too big for backyards. It’s crazy to think that she was just 35 pounds when she came to live in our backyard.

Earlier this summer the day came for Annabelle to move out. For one, she had grown to over 700 pounds. But the second, and probably more pressing reason, she had started to come into heat. This means that for an entire day every three weeks or so, she would be bawling at the top of her lungs all. day. long. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she came into heat right at the end of June and proceeded to bawl all night.

July third was moving day. We loaded her onto a trailer and took her down the road to a farm that raises beef and dairy cattle, where Barry works part time. It wasn’t hard for me to see her go, because she should be with her own kind. But boy did we have a time actually getting her into the trailer! She is not halter broken, which means she resists being lead by one, even when you’re trying to take her to greener pastures.

But we finally did get her on the trailer, in the pouring rain no less (I was having Ragnar flashbacks…). Then it was off to her new home!

Once we got over there, unloading her wasn’t as difficult because it didn’t require a halter. Barry simply backed the trailer up to the gate into the field and we ran her out of the trailer.

It was kind of funny, and sad, when she stood at the gate and watched us drive away. But I knew she was going to be much happier there, with her own kind, once she got settled.

She is in with a group of Angus heifers. That means they’re females her own age, and that they’re a beef breed (she’s a dairy breed). I like that she’s not hard to pick out in the field! Barry said when he drives by her on his way to/from work she looks up, because she recognizes the truck. She’s made friends, though, and is settled and happy. Just like I knew she would be.

The dogs, while a bit confused, have handled Annabelle’s move just fine. They still check out her pen each time they go outside, especially Scout.

Scout and Annabelle were close buddies from the start, and bonded right away. It was really cute the way they would lick each other’s noses and the way Annabelle would follow Scout around the yard. At some point we will have to take the dogs over to the farm to visit.

For the future, we have plans to move Annabelle to our own land if/when we find the right property. We have talked about either raising a few bull calves, as steers, to put with her, or maybe putting goats with her. I guess time will tell!

Once again, I am linking up with Debbie over at Deb Runs for her Wednesday Word weekly linkup.

This week’s word is commitment. It’s actually one I suggested 🙂 Be sure to click on the button above to see who else is linking up this week and to join in!

When you make a commitment to something, you make a promise to yourself to fulfill an obligation. Without sounding full of myself, it’s something I’ve always been pretty good at. It kind of goes hand in hand with my Type A personality. Once the decision is made, I stick to it. I like to finish something after I start it.

Running, and especially training for a race, provides a great lesson in commitment. You learn to stick to a 5 mile run when the going gets tough during mile 2, and to stick to an 18 week training plan to get to that goal race. My willingness to stay committed to something was tested most last fall when I used the Hansons Marathon Method while training for the Marine Corps Marathon. It was 18 grueling weeks of training, running 6 days per week. I hit weekly mileage totals I hadn’t ever done before and conquered weekly training workouts I wasn’t sure I had the strength to complete (10 miles on a Tuesday!?). I came out on the other side of training with a deeper understanding of what I can do when I set my mind to something.

While following the Hanson Method, I also learned that being committed doesn’t necessarily mean following your original plan no matter what. While it would have been nice to follow the training plan exactly as written, things happen. That’s life. The trick is figuring out how to stay committed to your overall goal, even if it means changing the original plan.

While training for Marine Corps, I faced a dilemma when I wanted to travel 6 hours across the state to attend a friend’s baby shower and watch the Virginia Tech football game on the same weekend I needed to run 16 miles. But I made it work. After being up until 2 AM the night before (watching the game- we won. GO HOKIES!) I got up at 5 AM to make the 6 hour drive home. Halfway through the drive home, I stopped in a town where there was a trail I could run on. I got out and ran my 16 miles, then got back in the car and drove the rest of the way home.

Days like that remind me that it takes hard work to stay dedicated to something, but if you want it bad enough you’ll figure out how to make it work.

What does commitment mean to you? Is commitment a strong suit for you?

**Quick shout out to my little sister, who is celebrating her 21st birthday today!! Never forget – we don’t have any control on getting older, but we do have control over whether we grow up or not. I hope you have a great (and safe) birthday!**

Our annual vacation to the beach is coming up and this weekend centered around making all of the preparations for our trip. Naturally, it all began with making several lists. 🙂

Before I got down to some serious camper cleaning and packing, I got a few other things out of the way. That included taking Hank to a follow up vet appointment and giving the dogs baths (since Hank was cleared to get his incision wet!). The vet said everything is looking good with Hank, although he’s still about 10 pounds under his usual weight. Other than that he’s continues to do really well (ICYMI Hank had to have emergency surgery for bloat recently). Understandably, going to the vet now makes him very nervous.

I spent the better part of Saturday doing a lot of cleaning in our camper to get it ready for the beach. In addition to my usual cleaning, I also took everything out of the cabinets and organized.

We even came up with a solution about dirty laundry while camping. Dirty laundry often becomes an issue at the beach because we are there for about 10 days. We usually just put the laundry under the bed, but that can get kind of smelly. So this time we decided to try putting containers under the bed to put the laundry in. Hopefully it will work!

Saturday evening Barry and I headed a little way down the interstate to meet up with his parents for dinner at Cracker Barrel. It was great to see them and spend some time together! Dinner was really yummy (I had a baked BBQ chicken with cranberry and apple chutney on top) and then we spent a long time sitting in the rocking chairs on the porch and talking.

Most of Sunday was spent finishing up my cleaning/organizing in the camper. Then I started the packing process. I also snuck in a 3 mile run to cap off the weekend and conclude week four of training. This past week included a 3 mile run on Wednesday, 3 miles Friday morning with Kim, and a 7 mile long run on Saturday morning.

Just one week of work and a whole lot of packing stand between me and vacation!

What did you do this past weekend?
Anyone else getting ready to go on vacation?

Last week was fair week in our neck of the woods. Barry and I had wanted to go for a full day during the week last week, but were unable to due to work schedules. Instead, we had to settle with catching it on the final day, which was last Saturday. Barry had to work during the day, so I caught up with Kim for a run. At 8:30 AM it was already nearing 80 degrees on top of the humidity. Woof.

Barry got home from work in the evening and although it hadn’t cooled off much, it was time to head to the fair! The first order of business was dinner and at the fair that means corn dogs! The picture is a little blurry…. I was hard pressed to get a picture before we started eating them. 😉

After that we headed into the arena for the main event that evening: the rodeo.

They keep it simple at this rodeo and just have the bull riding and some barrel racing. After the National Anthem and a prayer, things got started. They ended up only having two full rides (staying on for 8 seconds), but it was still pretty good entertainment.

After the rodeo ended, we walked around for a bit and looked at everything else at the fair. They had a bunch of rides, but we didn’t go on any. We wandered over to the livestock area and ran into some friends who are our old neighbors. The livestock awards were going on and their daughter had shown a few sheep and a heifer earlier in the day. We hadn’t seen them for awhile and it was great to catch up! From there we wandered around some more and looked at all of the displays before indulging in some funnel cake right before we headed home.

Sunday I spent most of the day recovering from staying up too late at the fair. I did my usual weekend stuff around the house and got in a short run. I also made some braided bread. It had been too long since I made some! I originally got the recipe from HRG.

You know it’s a good weekend when you’re exhausted come Monday morning, which I was. Although I should mention I think I was pretty worn out all weekend from my 15 hour workday last Friday (4:45 AM to 8:15 PM, UGH!). Luckily I shouldn’t have one of those again until the end of August.

Do you have a local or state fair you go to? Our state fair isn’t until the end of September, but we usually don’t go (it’s about 4 hours away)
What is your favorite fair/festival food?