HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, RYAN!
If you’ve been following along for the last few years, you know that every year, for Ryan’s birthday, I make him his favorite dessert: A Black Forest cherry kirsch cake.
This was year four… and it’s finally the year perfected the recipe to account for our altitude here in Flagstaff — 7,000 feet above sea level.
Happy fire season!
You ever just find yourself hyper-fixating on a food?
I do this all the time. If I find a recipe that’s easy, healthy, delicious and relatively affordable, I will make it over and over and over again until I am sick of it and can never eat it again.
My latest hyper-fixation recipe is this really easy tropical orange smoothie that’s loaded with antioxidants and flavor!
It’s that time of year!
Ryan and I both just wrapped up a stint on the Wolf Fire, a roughly-10,000 acre forest fire down on his district.
While I was (luckily) able to get right back to my normal life — working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at my day job, teaching (and taking) yoga classes at my studio, making healthy dinners away from fire camp, train running and hiking with Ochi — after I demobilized, Ryan actually hopped right into a fire assignment with his former Hotshot crew, Blue Ridge. He’s down in Phoenix right now working on the Wildcat fire.
My assignment on the Wolf Fire lasted for about nine days. This is my fourth season working as a Public Information Officer (PIO) on wildfires, and while I’ve worked as a PIO on about a dozen wildfires at this point in my career — everything from a Complex wildfire to a Type 3 wildfire to initial attack! — this fire assignment was pretty cool for a few reasons.
It’s REI Anniversary Sale time!
No joke, I look forward to this annual sale so much that I usually get my order confirmation email before I get my “the Anniversary Sale has started” email.
I wanted to write this post sooner, but Ryan and I unexpectedly went down to Phoenix last night to see my Detroit Tigers play the Arizona Diamondbacks, and before that, I was on a fire assignment for about 10 days.
So, short of placing this year’s order (these camping utensils and this solar panel) immediately, I haven’t had time to sit down and write this post out until just now.
Every experienced yogi was once a beginner, and every studio regular — at one point in their yoga journey — walked through a studio’s doors for the first time.
Yoga can be a vulnerable and scary practice. Trying new things is intimidating! Especially when you’re trying new things in a new environment in front of new people.
And you may or may not be very sweaty.
If you’ve never been to a yoga studio, it can be an overwhelming experience at first. So, I took a second to jot down some etiquette tips for new and beginner yogis who maybe haven’t participated in a studio practice before.
I mentioned it in yesterday’s post about our girls’ trip to Cottonwood, Clarkdale and the Verde Valley, but I recently had a chance to check out Tuzigoot National Monument for the first time.
I’m formally assigned to a fire right now, and while I almost passed up on this past weekend to sneak in an extra day of work, I’m really glad I pushed myself to follow through with the plans I’d committed to months ago when I booked rooms and bought tickets.
I spent this past weekend down in Arizona’s Verde Valley with two of my good Flagstaff friends — Jenni and Lexie — for two days centered around wine and nature.
Another list full of stuff I probably didn’t need to buy, but bought anyway.
This month included both Emily Henry AND Kristin Hannah’s newest releases — so what’s not to love!
