Hi friends! I have one more recap from our anniversary trip coming to you next week, but for now wanted to pop in with some recent life highlights – and a low light, to keep it real!
Recent Life Highlights
A Sunrise Walk
First up on the highlights list: a sunrise walk with my friend Sokphal!
Want to save this post?
Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox. Plus, I'll send you great content every week!
If you read my 2022 Marine Corps 10k race recap, you know that Sokphal was here in town visiting (from Seattle).
Sokphal used to live right by Iwo Jimo Memorial in Rosslyn, and usually once a week or so we would meet up there for sunrise runs. I really miss our run dates!
I didn’t want to run the day before the race, but we wanted to do a sunrise meet up for old time sake, so we decided to meet up for a walk instead.
We met up by her old apartment, which was fun since all the race stuff was set up for the following day – this is the Marine Corps Marathon and 10k finish line!
We followed our usual old running route – down the hill, up to Arlington National Cemetery area, and then across Memorial Bridge.
By the time we got to the bridge, the sunrise was looking really awesome!
This view will never get old. Always fun to see the rowers out on the river, too – you can see them sliding into the picture above on the right hand side!
From there, we walked over the bridge and up to the Lincoln Memorial and reflecting pool area. Hello, ducks – enjoying that view?
We did a little loop around the World War II Memorial before heading back the way we came.
On our way back, look who we saw – “Run, Forrest, Run!!” Too funny.
Getting in the Halloween spirit early, I guess! We actually saw someone dressed as Forrest during the 10k race the next day, too!
Carving Pumpkins
Another recent highlight was carving pumpkins. We didn’t get too elaborate this year, but it was still fun!
Matt’s had 3 bats made into the shape of eyes and a mouth, and I went classic per Riese’s request.
Matt had the idea to slice off the bottom of the pumpkin (instead of the top) to get in and clean out the inside, and that ended up being much easier for putting a candle in the pumpkins on Halloween night!
Recent Food Highlights
Let’s move on to the food! Here are a few of the yummiest things we’ve eaten lately.
First up: lettuce wraps! Y’all know I love a good lettuce wrap – I have a whole blog post about them, in fact: Healthy Lettuce Wrap Recipes.
These were most similar to my Ground Turkey Lettuce Wraps with Sesame & Ginger, but we added brown rice for a little more staying power (lettuce wraps don’t keep me hungry without some added carbs!) and mixed them up a bit.
I’ve also been really into bagel egg sandwiches lately – this one had egg, cheddar, avocado, bacon, and some cherry tomatoes (regular tomato would have been better, but we were out).
I started eating it before I remembered to take a picture!
Grain salad bowls have also been in the frequent rotation, as usual. (Ideas in this post: Mix + Match Grain Salad Bowls.)
This one had lettuce, cherry tomatoes, feta, a rice and lentil mix, and some sliced bell peppers on the bottom with a vinaigrette dressing.
We also had a dinner variation recently with some roasted squash – always love adding roasted squash to grain bowls, especially in the fall!
This was actually a Blue Apron meal… we’ve been alternating between Blue Apron and SunBasket each week as usual depending which menu looks more awesome!
(FYI those links are affiliate links and will get you a discount on your first box, if you’re interested. And if you want to learn more about my thoughts comparing the services, check out this post: Blue Apron vs. HelloFresh vs. SunBasket.)
While I always love my grain bowls, I’m starting to get more excited about soups again now that the weather has cooled a bit… time to go back into the archives and re-make some old faves, like my Creamy White Chicken Chili Soup!
I also spotted this post on a friend’s site recently: Healthy Fall Soup Recipes – lots of good ideas there.
Low Light: Riese Being Sick
And now for a low light: Riese is all better now, but she was home sick for almost a full week! The school germs finally caught up with us… we’d been lucky so far this fall.
She had a fever and was super tired and didn’t want to eat much. Poor girl. No coughing or sneezing, just the fever and she said her mouth tasted weird.
It wasn’t covid, and her strep test was negative, so the pediatrician said it was probably just one of the common viruses around right now.
Matt made her a little cozy resting fort in his office for when it was time to take a break from TV and snooze instead.
The timing was a huge bummer because she had been SO SO excited for Halloween and literally counting down the days for months now.
She missed the local Halloween parade we have in our town (it was on Sunday), but we did make it out for a little trick or treating on Monday. She was better but definitely not totally back to normal so we just did the houses right on our street before she said she was tired and ready to come home.
Wes, on the other hand, was NOT a fan of trick or treating. He basically cried/screamed the whole time we were out (I think very confused and scared with all the new people around and talking to him) until Matt took him home and Riese and I carried on solo. Oh well. Next year!
Have a nice weekend, my friends, and I’ll see you back here on Tuesday with my final anniversary trip recap!
