When I chose “Verso L’alto” or “Higher, toward the top” as one of my themes for this year, I kicked it off with a challenge of hiking every day for a month. Part of the reason behind this challenge was to get me out of my normal hiking routine and explore new trails and new mountains! I thought maybe my theme for the year of hiking wouldn’t really count if I wasn’t always going new and flashy places. And it WAS wonderful to explore so many new areas, and I will continue to try and do that, but I have fallen in love with the Phoenix Mountain preserve and while I thought returning there again and again might get boring, I learned during that 31 day challenge that it is anything but… and that realization has only gotten stronger int he months that followed, so today I wanted to expand on that and share a few reasons why hiking at the same mountain preserve over 50 times in less than a year still remains anything but boring…. Continue reading
Arizona
Family Fun: Anniversary Edition
Earlier this month, my husband and I celebrated seven years of marriage! Since May is the month of ALL THE THINGS we took some time last month to head out for a special day date together before the chaos of may set in. Continue reading
March Goals and February Re-cap
WOW! February has really flown by and here we are at another monthly goals check in. It was a strange month filled with fighting sickness and trying to mend my leg and all sorts of ups and downs, but it was also a month filled with progress. Continue reading

How To Not Lose Your Cool During an AZ Summer (especially as a one car family!)
Since it’s about to hit record breaking heat this week- (supposedly tomorrow? What is going on here?!?!) I thought I’d write a post about some of the things we do to survive the triple digits! Continue reading
Day Dating…
I’ve written before about how it can be fun to something a little less traditional than a full dinner date or dinner and a movie. And we did something a little different for our date this month too! Continue reading
Crock Pot Hot Chocolate
SO the weather here in Phoenix has been crazytown. Friday we broke the record with how hot it was, and then yesterday and today it was about 70 degrees. We were confused, but OH SO THANKFUL to have some more days of playing outside. To celebrate, we made some hot chocolate. Continue reading
Lavender Lemonade
So, I know it is still winter, and even here in Phoenix temperatures are staying a bit chilly and cloudy, but instead of a hot drink this week I have a drink we made to use up some of the delicious, in season produce Continue reading
HAPPY 2017!
Happy New Year friends! I hope however you celebrated you found some happiness and peace. We had a low key New Year’s Eve and a very focused New Year’s Day preparing, cleaning, and shopping for things we need as we enter the home stretch of my pregnancy. I also made a decadent treat for us to fight off the chill! Continue reading
Arizona Life: Summer is for Salads
So… given my last few posts, this should not come as a surprise… we have not been cooking as much as we were this winter/spring. AT least, not formally cooking. See… it’s summer in Arizona, summer in Phoenix to be more precise which means there have only been a handful of days under 105. Continue reading
Cooking #12: Colorful Cooking
There was a time when my plates of food looked tragically monochromatic. Then I realized that my body was getting pretty sick when I ate most meat (hence my journey to pescetarianism) and suddenly I had to start reproaching vegetables and trying new foods. By far one of my favorite discoveries I’ve made since jumping in on this brand new Continue reading