So I’m back from vacation! It was a pretty relaxing time, just hanging out with friends and all that fun stuff. We did cut it short by one day because someone just needed to get back to the new house! He was having anxiety being away while so much stuff was going on. It wasn’t too bad, although I didn’t get to go putt-putt, which I was weirdly looking forward to this year.

We had our annual dinner at J.B. Hook’s, which is a really nice restaurant that over-looks the lake area by the toll bridge. Pretty much any table in the place will give your a pretty nice view, but our favorite tables are ones next to the windows.

I used to get this pasta there that I love, but since I’ve developed an, aversion let’s say, to dairy products, I don’t get it anymore because of the cream sauce. So sad…This time around I tried the grouper supreme, and while it was tasty, I probably wouldn’t order it again because the fish wasn’t quite firm enough for my liking. The hollandaise and shrimp that came on top of it were so delicious, though!

Other than that, most of our meals were eaten at the cabin, with the exception of a lunch out here and there. So not many restaurant visits. I did use the Open Table app to make our reservation for Hook’s, and once I use it a bit more, I will post a review on it. It was pretty simple, and it hopefully will work well around home!

I got two runs in, one 4 miler and one 3 miler, both hilly as hell because of the area surrounding the cabin. I’m sure there is a flatter space somewhere, but it’s not in that arm of the lake! Both of them went OK, nothing to write home about, but I didn’t trip and fall like I normally do, so that’s a plus! I also swam laps one morning with my friend Amy, and realized I am woefully unprepared to swim! I had to take a break pretty much between every lap, but I got a little over a half a mile of swimming in 31 minutes. So not too terrible I guess. I definitely need to get my behind in some water and get some swimming in if I want to do ANY triathlons. Then we bummed around town and got pedicures and some lunch, then decided to go kayaking since it was too warm to really go riding.

I’ve been wanting to kayak for a while now, so this was a perfect opportunity and now I’m kind of in love with it! It was not as difficult as I thought it would be, maintaining my balance in the kayak and I even managed to stay in after a larger boat passed by causing some decent wake waves. Pretty sure I’m going to need to invest in my own kayak, so that I can kayak with everyone here at home. And maybe venture out on my own a time or two, depending on someone’s confidence in my abilities!

After we got home, I haven’t done much by way of exercising or anything since we’ve been pretty busy with house stuff and canning all the things there are to can! We helped friends this past weekend pick, juice, and can over 70 gallons of sweet corn, 79 gallons of tomato juice, and 69 gallons of green beans! We have almost 36 pints of green beans at home now, which is good because after having home canned (jar) green beans, neither Matt nor myself were able to stomach going back to tin-canned beans from the grocery store!

Then I’ve mostly been focused on cleaning up the house and catching up on vacation laundry, waiting to hear when our new puppy will be born! Matt finally agreed to getting a new puppy this year while we are still in the old house, so after researching breeders, we found one we liked and sent in our deposit. We chose to go with a breeder rather than rescue a dog since this pup will have a purpose! He is going to be our bird-dog, so we wanted to go with a breeder that has good lines and proven work ethic, rather than rescuing a dog a not knowing what we were going to come up with!