A picnic at the beach

Today's plan was to get up early, go to Safeway to get all the things we needed for our picnic at the beach, and leave the house by 9:30 so that we could get to Buntzen Lake before they closed off the parking lot. That didn't exactly work out as  planned, mostly because we got out of bed at about 8:30. I rushed to Safeway while my hubby was still in bed and my chicklet sat in front of the computer. I also quickly stopped at Cob's Bread to get my multigrain bread. This meant that as soon as I got home, I ate toast. 

Did I mention that I also stopped at Starbucks on the way home? Yum, yum soy chai latte!

Once I got home, I tried to get my family into gear and my daughter helped me make the sandwiches for the picnic. For them - ham and cheese. For me - a veggie sandwich with cucumber, avocado, lettuce, red onion and Havarti cheese. And that was the first thing I ate when we got to the beach! Of course, this was after our 2.5km walk in with all our gear. Definitely a well deserved meal!

Between swimming, suntanning and chatting with our friends, we had some snacks. All healthy, all delicious! In terms of the veggies and dip, me, my hubby and my daughter ate about 2/3 of it. I probably ate 1/3 on my own! The rest were my personal servings of snacks!

This morning, when I was shopping for our picnic food, I made a pit stop in the chip aisle. As a family, we have religiously brought chips with us to pretty much every single beach visit we've done. Typically, we bring BBQ or Original Munchies...they're our family fave. I didn't really want to pig out on chips and I was worried that I would lose all self-control and do exactly that if I was at the beach all day with the bag of chips in front of me. So, as a precaution, I bought Original Munchies AND a bag of pretzels for me.

Now, you might notice there are no pictures of pretzels above. Why you might ask? Because I pumped my family so full of good food that they never got hungry for the chips and so I wasn't tempted to pull out my pretzels. Double score!! Between the sandwiches, strawberries, grapes, veggies and dip, and cheese, crackers (vegetable thins) and kielbasa (for them not me) we were all full. We didn't even get to our watermelon!

About six hours after arriving, we packed up our gear and headed back out. Another 2.5km hike back to the car. Sort of. The good news for me and my chicklet is that we were lagging way behind my hubby on the road back to the car, and our friends drove up behind us. By this point, I was walking with one shoe off and barefoot on the other because I got a bad blister (hiking along a trail into a lake and back with flip flops is not a good idea). They felt bad for me, so squeezed my daughter and I into their car and drove us back to our car (we waved at my hubby as we were driving past). I'm pretty sure my daughter said "ha ha sucker". Good times. Once we got to the car, I drove back and picked my hubby up. See how nice I am?

When we finally got home, I was starting to think about dinner because I had nothing planned. I considered ordering takeout Sushi for me and the fam, but no one else seemed as excited as I was about that idea. So I pouted and made a grilled cheese sandwich with leftover fruit and veggies for my chicklet. I'm not entirely sure what if anything, my hubby ate. I then ate another piece of toast.

 
 And then I went for a run. I wasn't sure how far I'd make it with all the walking and sun today, but somehow I dug deep and managed to run 4.5 km. In 23 minutes! Getting better! When I got home, I showered and then threw together the rest of my picnic leftovers. Everything I mentioned eating above, plus some almonds (10. I'm not sure what my obsession is with counting almonds).

After I ate, we took the guinea pig out to play, and I did some cardio exercise trying to catch him. Before I put him back, I clipped his nails. See how cute he is?

After this last 'chore', I poured a glass of wine and relaxed in front of the TV.

And that was my day. Pretty freakin' AWESOME if you ask me! I love weekends. I love seeing my friends. I love my little family!! And I love feeling fit and healthy enough to do all of the things we love to do together!