Tag: Goals

September 2022 Goals

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I know I say this every month, but I can’t believe that August is over. It was a wonderful month – full of amazing moments and definitely core memories. Our baby started her senior year of high school, our oldest started working on her new degree path in college, and we celebrated our 23rd anniversary with a magical trip. So much to be thankful for, and so much to look forward to. Before we can look forward, though, we need to look back at August and see how my goals for the month went. So, without further ado, here goes.

  • Add 20 TpT products to my store – I added 18 new products, bringing me to 101 products! I am counting this as complete.
  • Write a sticker club class for Outschool – This did not get done. I think this is a sign that it is not really in my heart to do it, so I am scrapping this goal.
  • Write a series of Public Speaking classes for Outschool that covers ages 3-18 – I wrote a series of classes that goes to 9 – so far no sign ups, so I am in the process of adding one time options. This one gets half credit.
  • Write a series of craft classes – live and flex – This one is still being developed in my head – I am going to start with some one time Fall/Halloween craft classes and see where it goes. But I did not do it this month.
  • Set my fall schedule on Outschool – I have done this and continue to revise it as I go.
  • Finish organizing my classroom and the front room – This one is still in progress. I have this week off, so maybe it will happen.
  • Make 10 blog posts, 20 Instagram posts/reels, 20 Facebook posts/reels, and 31 Pinterest pins – I made 13 total blog posts, 6 Instagram posts, 15 Facebook posts, and 11 Pinterest pins. I am going to give myself a 70% here, but I really hope to be more consistent in September.
  • Make dinner at home 15 times – Definitely did this. It was really nice to know what we were eating. I am hoping to do even more meal planning in September.
  • Hike 8 times (we are headed to Disney for 3 days, so I know I can hit this if I count each day as a hike) – I did this! Not completely caught up on 52 Hike Challenge, but so close!
  • Do 6 strength training workouts to start building some muscles – This did not happen, but we did walk A LOT – both at Disney and at home.

When I look at it by the numbers, I get a 5/10 for August. Not great, but not terrible, either. I need a change in my business, and I am really hopeful that September will be filled with just the right amount of change and motivation. I really can’t wait for the change in seasons – I put out some of our Fall/Halloween decorations already and I am hopeful the rest will be out by the end of the week. Cooler air, beautiful leaves, campfires – bring it on! Here are my goals for this month:

  • Figure out photography and previews for my TpT products and add them to 20 products.
  • Add 10 new Fall products on TpT.
  • Write one time Public Speaking classes for Outschool to covers ages 3-18.
  • Write a series of craft classes – live and flex.
  • Finish organizing my classroom and the front room.
  • Figure out how to set up my classroom for live sewing classes.
  • Make 5 blog posts, 20 Instagram posts/reels, 20 Facebook posts/reels, and 31 Pinterest pins.
  • Make dinner at home 15 times.
  • Hike 6 times.
  • Do 8 strength training workouts to start building some muscles.

I am excited to get in there and learning to do new things in classes and with my products. Hoping to gain more learners and customers this month. If I can build enough momentum, it should carry me into the fourth quarter and through the end of the year – there’s still time to make some great strides towards my 2022 goals.

What are your goals this month? What new things will you be trying? I can’t wait to hear all about it in the comments. 🙂

August 2022 Adventure Date 1 – Disney’s Animal Kingdom

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This month we celebrated our 23rd anniversary, but we have actually been together for 26 years now. When we started talking about taking a trip to celebrate, we were drawn to Disney and their 50th anniversary celebration. You see, we were at Disney for a day during their 25th anniversary. We have photos (somewhere, safely packed away) of the giant pink birthday cake castle. In the end, we decided that Disney deserved redemption for that horrible design idea and we went about booking a whirlwind, adults only weekend at Disney World.

We knew our flight would be getting in pretty late, so our awesome travel agent suggested that we stay at the All Star Sports Resort just for that night and then transfer to our other resort for the rest of the stay. Since there is really only one hotel near the Orlando airport (actually, in the airport) and it is pretty expensive, this worked out really well. We arrived around midnight and then caught a Mears bus to our resort. We had to sit and wait for people for a half hour, but eventually we were on our way to the resort. While we waited, I bought our Genie + for our first day since it was after midnight. We know it is controversial to get it for every park, but we also knew we were headed into a sold out weekend, so we decided it was worth it.

We arrived and got ourselves into our room (checking in on the app and being able to go straight to the room is amazing!) and ready for bed by 2. At 6:30, I got up and around so I could get our first Lightning Lane booked at 7 (Na’vi River Journey) and also book Individual Lightning Lanes for Avatar Flight of Passage since we knew we were leaving the park around 2 and wouldn’t have a lot of time to stand in lines. We then dropped our luggage off to be transferred to our next resort and hopped on the bus to Animal Kingdom. There are no photos from our arrival – my contact solution takes 6 hours to neutralize, so I had to wait until 8 to put my contacts in. I ended up putting them in while we were in line for our first ride of the day, Kilimanjaro Safaris – not ideal, but my glasses are about 3 prescriptions behind and I really wanted to be able to see… The safari was excellent first thing – we saw a lot of the animals and even to got to hear the lions “talking” to each other. Here are some of my favorite photos.

Black Rhino
Giraffes
Male Lion
Female Lion
Female Lions
African Elephants
African Elephant
Okapis
Flamingos
Warthog
Zebra
Hippos

After the safari, we headed to Avatar Flight of Passage to get in the Lightning Lane line. Oh my goodness! – it was amazing! I was really glad I took Dramamine that morning, but it was such a beautiful adventure – highly recommended! Here are photos from inside the ride just before they have you empty your pockets.

Here are photos from outside the ride for your viewing enjoyment – Disney does such an amazing job of setting the scene.

We also paid for the PhotoPass, so we got lots of pictures of us together – I would definitely do this every time just to get photos with our whole group in them. They can also add some fun effects, called magic shots. We really enjoyed discovering exactly why we made those faces for the photographer.

After Avatar Flight of Passage, we headed straight to Festival of the Lion King since we knew it was starting soon. We saw this when we visited almost 18 years ago, so we were really happy to see that it was fully back in time for our trip. While we waited for the show to start, I booked our next lightning lane. I wanted to get Expedition Everest, but it ended up being down for the whole day (and half of the next we later found out). So, I booked us to meet Mickey and Minnie at Adventurer’s Outpost as our final attraction before leaving the park that afternoon. We also scheduled a mobile order for Satu’li Canteen to be picked up after Na’vi River Journey. Here are some photos from Festival of the Lion King.

After enjoying Festival of the Lion King, we had time to get a few photos before heading to Na’vi River Journey at our designated time. It was a beautiful ride full of surprises and amazing scenery. Here are a few examples of what you will see – although photos do not do it justice.

We headed straight to Satu’li Canteen to pick up our mobile order and it was pretty easy to navigate. I had the Cheeseburger Pods and they were really good. Keith had a rice bowl which was also pretty tasty. Here are photos of our food and also shots from a boat cavalcade we saw while walking between attractions.

Our next stop was the Wildlife Express Train to Conservation Station. We did the Animation Experience, but that is a whole separate blog post as it was our Create Date for August. Look for it very soon!

When we finished at Conservation Station, we had some time to shop and get photos, and then it was our turn to meet Mickey and Minnie! It was wonderful – they were quite impressed with our pins that said Celebrating 23 Years. And they gave the best hugs!

After meeting our favorite mouse and his gal, we had to head back to get checked in at our resort – Port Orleans French Quarter – and get ready for our next adventure – Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. But that’s a separate post.

Have you ever been to Disney’s Animal Kingdom? What was your favorite attraction? What animals were you excited to see? Let us know in the comments below. 🙂

July 2022 Create Date: Starting a Photo Collage Wall

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When we arrived home from Seattle it was July 28th. I knew that I wanted to create the start of a photo collage wall with some of our trip photos, so we immediately started trying to narrow down our choices. If you have read all of my July Adventure Date blogs, you know that we had some gorgeous photos – and the best ones weren’t the ones I posted here from my phone. I knew it was going to be a struggle, but I did not foresee my husband testing positive for COVID two days later. That definitely stalled our date opportunities. We did, finally, narrow our choices down to 3 photos that represented the core of our trip. Our first choice is this beauty that has Chihuly and The Space Needle both represented.

Our second choice was this shot of an Orca from our FRS Skipper Whale Watching Tour.

Rounding out our pics is this gorgeous shot of Mount Rainier with some tiny rapids and waterfalls in front from our time in Paradise.

We added our bicycle spin art to the wall as well – might as well make it about as many Create Dates as we can, right? We also added a little painting that we bought with 2 ladybugs because it reminds us of a story Keith used to tell the girls when they were younger. I LOVE how it turned out and I can’t wait to continue adding to it. We may go back and add some things from previous trips, or we may wait to add new adventures to it. Only time will tell. 🙂

Do you ever display photographs from trips? Do you have a photo wall? I would love to see and hear about it in the comments! 🙂

July 2022 Adventure Date 6: Seattle Art Museum

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Our last adventure for the month of July was a trip to the Seattle Art Museum. We had some extra time our last afternoon in Seattle, so 3 of us decided to use that time to explore the Seattle Art Museum. It was a really cool place and we wish we had more time to spend there.

After we bought our tickets and checked our bags, we headed up the escalator. The first exhibit we entered was Frisson: The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection. I’m not sure I would have liked to live with all of their art, but it was interesting to look at and read about. Here is our favorite view from that collection – my husband says this is exactly how sunflowers feel to him, and I just found it very striking.

Our next exploration took place up the next set of escalators. We were greeted with an amazing site at the top – so many masks! They were from many cultures around the world, and I was completely in love with the displays. Here are some favorites.

We went on to explore a few more areas of the museum. I really enjoyed the Porcelain Room and the Italian Room in particular.

By the time we made it through most of the collections it was time for a very brief stop in the gift shop and then heading out for a snack at Pike Place Market. I would definitely go back another time to explore what we may have missed. Definitely happy with the experience.

Have you ever been to the Seattle Art Musuem? What were your favorite parts? Let us know in the comments! 🙂

August 2022 Goals

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I can’t believe it is the 9th of August – and I am just now getting around to reflecting on how July went and setting my intentions for August. July was a rough month. We had some great joys – we were involved with an awesome production of Guys and Dolls and we got to go on a wonderful family vacation. We also had some great sorrows – a good friend passed away in his sleep during fair week and two members of our family had brought back COVID as a souvenir. This roller coaster of events caused a lack of focus and a shift in some priorities, so I am ready to see where we stand and move on. So, my goals for July were:

  • Add 10 TpT products to my store – didn’t meet this – I did add 3 new bundles, though.
  • Write a Sticker Collectors Club class for Outschool – this was also not completed and will move to August’s list.
  • Make 4 blog posts, 25 Instagram and Facebook posts, and 31 Pinterest pins – because of how the month went, I ended up with only 1 blog post in July. When I finish all of the Adventure and Create posts for the month, though, I will have 7 more posts about July activities. I had 5 Instagram posts, 4 Facebook posts, and 33 Pinterest Pins. I’m going to give myself a 50% on this one.
  • Set my Fall schedule for Outschool – I did this, but now I have a few ideas and I’m going to be changing things up this week.
  • An Adventure Date, Create Date, and 2 Family Game Nights – We did 6 adventures this month and have created something really cool. We are just not hitting the family games nights like I thought we would.
  • Finish organizing my classroom and our front room – I got a lot done on this one – we are at about 75% done.
  • Have a Free Yard Sale with everything we need to give away from organizing efforts – I did this! We got rid of a bunch of stuff!
  • Make dinner at home 12 times (this is a stretch with tech week, fair, and vacation all falling this month) – this definitely didn’t happen. I would say I made dinner maybe 5 times.
  • Walk/work out 15 times (I am starting a new health program this month, and I am hopeful) – I definitely hit 15 walks. The new health program was one of the things I have had to let go for now due to the lack of focus I am experiencing.
  • Hike 8 times (we have a few tours and hikes planned in Seattle, so this should be okay) – I hit 7 hikes – I think I would have made it to 8 if COVID had not struck.

Looking at this list, I give myself 6.5/10 which is over not bad! I really thought it was going to be much worse, so this gives me a lot of excitement and inspiration for next month. Imagine how much I can accomplish if I can just get myself focused again!

This month has an anniversary Disney trip and I am working through a new FLEX course with all the videos and content creation, so I’m going to keep my goals pretty simple. This is what I would like to accomplish:

  • Add 20 TpT products to my store.
  • Write a sticker club class for Outschool.
  • Write a series of Public Speaking classes for Outschool that covers ages 3-18.
  • Write a series of craft classes – live and flex.
  • Set my fall schedule on Outschool.
  • Finish organizing my classroom and the front room.
  • Make 10 blog posts, 20 Instagram posts/reels, 20 Facebook posts/reels, and 31 Pinterest pins.
  • Make dinner at home 15 times.
  • Hike 8 times (we are headed to Disney for 3 days, so I know I can hit this if I count each day as a hike).
  • Do 6 strength training workouts to start building some muscles.

I am really excited to finally feel inspired for new classes on Outschool. I love my current classes, but I miss the feeling of teaching something new for the first time. I can’t wait to see how my fall schedule plays out. I am also really excited to post some reels this month – I have some great ideas for what to create.

What are your goals for August? Do you have anything exciting happening this month? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

July 2022 Adventure Date 5: Seattle Underground Tour

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When we were talking to some of our friends about our trip to Seattle, they told us that we HAD to get tickets for the Seattle Underground Tour. We didn’t really understand what that meant, but we obediently booked that tour for the last day of our trip. It wasn’t until our first walking tour, where we heard the story of the Great Seattle Fire that we understood just what the Underground Tour would entail. The story goes like this (the photos are from the Seattle Free Walking Tour and the Seattle Underground Tour. We saw different parts of this through both tours). In 1889, a carpentry apprentice was melting down some wood glue to be used in the shop. He got distracted and the glue overflowed into the fire, and a series of events that would burn down 33 blocks in Seattle was put into motion. Today, you can see the original site of the fire and the memorial they constructed to the fire.

Plaque at location the fire started
Plaque credits
The strange memorial that is on a pole with metal plates of the newspaper articles about the fire.
A photo of Seattle a few years before the fire
A photo of Seattle the day after the fire

After the fire, which miraculously killed no one, the people of Seattle realized that rebuilding with wood was a really bad idea. They were also really keen to do something about all of the plumbing and sewer issues they were having because the city was so close to sea level. So, they decided to build all of the buildings so that the second floor would become the entry floor eventually. They raised the streets first to install new plumbing that would flow down and not back up with the tide. They knocked down 2 of the original hills of Seattle for the fill dirt to raise the streets. While this was happening, there were ladders at each corner so people could climb up to cross the street and down to get to the entrances of shops. Here is a drawing of what that looked like along with a photo of the building our tour started in and photos of the underground first floor of that building today. I am also including a photo of a building that was constructed at that time to have the entrance on the second level, but then they ran out of hill to knock down, so the street was only raised about a foot, making the door on the bottom floor very short and the intended main entrance very high.

Notice the pipes under the streets and the ladder on the corner.
The building our tour started in as it was originally built.
The original first floor/current basement of the building pictured.
The original first floor windows of the building.
Note the double doors which were intended to be the main entrance after the streets were raised…
There was only enough material to raise the streets about about a foot, so this door is quite short.

After the roads were all raised, the sidewalks were built over to the main entrances of the buildings. The underground remained – and sometimes still remains – intact underneath, which was actually quite convenient if it happened to be raining – you could go to several stores on the same block without going outside. They used manganese glass to make skylights to light the underground space. After a few years of sun exposure, the glass turned purple, so you will still see some purple glass in the sidewalks as you walk around Seattle.

It was really cool to walk around under the sidewalks. There were lots of stories, but I don’t want to ruin the tour. I did find it really fascinating that businesses could use their underground spaces for whatever they like. Some use it for retail or restaurant/bar space while some use it to store things leftover from renovations. One of my favorite things we saw underground was this elevator gear.

The tour ends at a little Seattle history museum with lots of photos of Seattle founders and important people. It was really interesting and I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone that wants to get a unique perspective on Seattle’s history. Our tour guide also had a really great sense of humor, so he made it super enjoyable to learn about plumbing and construction.

Have you ever taken an Underground Tour in Seattle? What did you think? Let us know in the comments. 🙂

July 2022 Adventure Date 4: Customized Tours Mount Rainier Day Tour

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I have to be honest, I had picked out a day tour to Olympic National Park when I was planning the trip – it sounded amazing with waterfalls and mountains and so much more. However, by the time I could book our tours in May, that particular excursion was sold out. So, a Mount Rainier Day Trip was booked instead. I have very few regrets about this tour – it was breathtakingly beautiful to be in Mount Rainier National Park, and it was really nice to have someone that knew all the history and the best vistas to show us around.

The tour started bright and early when Customized Tours picked us up at our hotel – they also dropped us off at the end of the day which was perfect since we decided not to rent a car. About 45 minutes into the trip, we stopped at a grocery store to get lunch and drinks for the day – it was nice to be able to save a little money on lunch, and it was also the ONLY time we had Starbucks the whole time we were in Washington. (Not for lack of trying, but they were either closed or prohibitively busy the whole time in Seattle.) The bus driver even provided a cooler with ice and some waters for us to grab throughout the day, and he allowed us to keep some of our lunch and drink items in it as well.

Shortly after we stopped for food, we stopped for our first views of Mount Rainier at a very small community park. It was a quick on and off stop, but got us pretty excited to get closer looks.

As you can see, we dressed in layers in anticipation of some cooler temperatures up on the mountain. We were to be sorely mistaken, though, as it was 85 degrees at the highest elevations we reached. Even with the snow still on the ground. Alas, our trip did not end up being the cooler temps we had heard about and longed for…

We kept traveling through a few more small towns and finally made it into the National Park. Our first stop in the park was in Longmire to hike a short trail, see our first in park views of the mountain, and shop at the gift shop. Oh, and use the restrooms, a necessity if you are busy hydrating all day. The short trail was through some forest – the trees were tall and beautiful. It was a lovely walk, although we felt rushed when we realized we were only halfway through the hike and had 5 minutes before our bus was supposed to leave…

Our next stop was at a scenic overlook. We had to practically drag Charlotte back to the bus at this stop – she kept wandering further down the road to take photos.

A little further up the road we made the next stop – Narada Falls. It is a 188 foot drop, so it actually towers over Niagara Falls, and it has a beautiful rainbow from most angles. It also gave us a lovely misting when we went to the view area – very welcome in the unexpected heat.

How gorgeous is that?!? We were also supposed to see Christine Falls, but that parking lot was under construction, so we were unable to stop. No worries, our next stop was Paradise (no really, that is what it is called) and we got to hike up to another waterfall called Myrtle Falls. The views were gorgeous, we were able to make snowballs, and there was once again a gift shop and bathrooms. Practically perfect in every way.

After leaving Paradise, a sharp-eyed passenger on our bus spotted a momma bear and 2 cubs in the distance. If you look closely at this photo, they are the black spot that looks like a dog and the slightly smaller black spots in the distance. It was really cool to watch them from afar.

Our last stop in the park was at the reflection lakes area. It is a series of 4-5 different lakes that could be really reflective on a calm day. Our day the water was a bit rough, so this is what we saw – still gorgeous!

After the reflection lakes, we made 2 quick stops at a suspension bridge over the Nisqually River and then a stop at a Ukranian bakery on the way home for some amazing pastries. It was so good that I didn’t even pause to take a photo.

I mentioned above that I have very few regrets, but I did have 3. The first regret is that we did not wear shorts – it was so hot, but the forecast had not really predicted that when we left. The second is that I wish we had a little more time at a few of the stops – nothing that could be helped, it was a group tour that had promised some set things and needed to deliver. Those regrets I can 100% live with and take responsibility for. The third regret is that I did not have noise canceling headphones like the rest of my family for the trip home. On the way home, a German grad student (studying history with a focus on war) asked our tour guide for war stories because he had served in the special forces in the Middle East. The guide used the bus’s PA system to start with a story that then quickly went off the rails into conspiracy theories. I have no problem with people believing differently than I do, but I do not think that this was the proper use of the PA system on a bus with a wide variety of people on it. So, in summary, dress for the actual weather, be ready to cut things a little short sometimes, and take noise canceling headphones and you will have a marvelous time on this tour.

Have you ever been to Mount Rainier? Did you go with a tour or on your own? What was your favorite part? Let me know in the comments.

July 2022 Adventure Date 3: Seattle Terrors Extended Tour

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I have always loved ghost stories and watching ghost shows on television – Haunted Travels Week was my Shark Week before all the streaming services. I do not like horror movies, but tell me about a ghost that might be in a hotel and I am all ears. So, when I was booking our tours for Seattle, I knew I wanted to find a ghost tour of some sort. Seattle Terrors Extended Tour was exactly what I was looking for!

Our tour guide met us by the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle (spoiler alert – the Four Seasons is not part of the tour), and they were fantastic. They knew a lot of history and made it just spooky enough to be interesting, but not spooky enough to give my nightmares. There were serial killer stories, information about the first elevator west of the Mississippi – which was not used for the living, lots of spooky ghost stories, and ties to a couple of cults. We thoroughly enjoyed it! The tour was largely centered around Pike Place Market, but there were several other stops as well. I do not want to give too much away, but here are some photos from that evening – the market signs are amazing when it is dark!

Overall, I would definitely recommend this tour. We enjoyed the whole thing, including the extended tour stops. I would warn anyone wanting to do the tour that you will go up and down a lot of steps and hills – it is not for the faint of heart. Even the girls really enjoyed it, though, which is saying something.

Have you ever done a ghost or haunted tour? Where were you? Would you recommend it to others? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

July 2022 Adventure Date 2: FRS Clipper Whale Watching Cruise

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When we decided to travel to the Pacific Northwest for our vacation, I knew there were 2 things that I wanted to do above everything else. The first was to go on a whale watching tour. I have always loved dolphins and whales. I wanted to be a Marine Biologist (until I found out how few get to work with dolphins and whales) and I even adopted a humpback whale named Pepper when I was in college. I found the FRS Clipper Whale Watching Tour and immediately knew that it was the one. They have a guarantee on their site that you will see whales on their tour (with an asterisk, because really, whales are wild creatures and can’t be controlled or completely predicted). Anyway, it was the first of our activities that I booked after we had our flights and hotel.

We arrived at the pier for our tour and had not problems getting aboard and seated. I sprung for the first class deck to give us each a little more room, and I made sure we all had forward facing seats. It was a beautiful day – you could even see the mountains, which I’m told is often not the case. Mount Rainier was on one side and the Olympic Mountains were on the other, and it was just gorgeous to be out on the water and see so much green on the shore. Here are some scenic shots of Mount Rainier, the Olympic Mountains, and some cool suspension bridges we went under (you have probably seen video of one of the bridges twisting and turning in the wind – that is why there are 2 right next to each other).

We hadn’t been traveling very long when Charlotte and I decided to get spots on the top deck. I am so glad we did, because pretty soon we were told that a humpback whale had been spotted. It was so exciting to see it come to the surface a few times in a row to breathe and then do a full dive with its tail coming up. We got to watch this cycle twice before we left in search of the Orcas. I was also really excited when I went through the photos at home and saw I captured the tail twice. 🙂

We traveled about another hour to get to the area the Orcas had been spotted. I do want to point out that I know that Orcas are actually related to dolphins and not whales, but they repeatedly called them Killer Whales, and I am fine with it. It was amazing to watch the pod of Orcas interact. We got to see them traveling and hunting something. There was one mature male and several females and juveniles. You can tell the mature male because his dorsal fin sticks straight up and much higher than the others. We were also a little amazed at how close people on jet skis were to the Orcas – I would not have been comfortable with that. Here are my favorite Orca shots.

I could have watched them for hours – it was so cool! I am completely thrilled with our tour and have no regrets. Having said that, I do have 2 things I would suggest to others looking to book this cruise.

First of all, I think that the people on the lower deck had better views of seal life. Our seats were well above the water, so we did not see the porpoises and other sea life that those in the lower deck were able to see. It also got extremely hot and stuffy on the second deck on the way back to the pier. If I did it again, I would get seats on the first deck. They also had better access to the front of the boat view area, the galley, and the bathrooms.

My second advice directly relates to this obstructed view. As you can probably see in my photos of the humpback whale, there were towers and bars and equipment on the front of the boat which obstructed the view from the top of the boat at times. We chose spots with a clear view almost everywhere except 11 o’clock (if straight ahead was 12 o’clock and straight behind was 6 o’clock). I figured that we would be able to see almost everything with a clear view. I was wrong, of course. The boat pretty consistently turned to keep the whales at 11 o’clock. I don’t know if it was because of some track equipment or what, but it was definitely a theme. So, choose your spots on the top deck with care so you can see at 11 o’clock.

I would 1000x do this again. It was exciting and the good far outweighed the bad for me. Have you ever been on a whale watching tour? Where were you? Would you recommend it? Let me know in the comments below! 🙂

July 2022 Goals

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I know I say this every month, but I sincerely can’t believe it is already July! Wow! I am not complaining, we are getting so close to some super fun vacations, but we also have online classes and fair projects that need some time. Looking back, June was actually a really productive month. First of all, I stopped coughing, so I was able to be more active. Secondly, Keith and I had our little waterfall tour in Cleveland which was wonderful. In fact, we liked getting away on our own so much we decided to book a Disney trip for our anniversary in August. Celebrating 23 years during their 50th anniversary celebration just seems right. Also, we were there for the 25th anniversary birthday cake castle, so we decided we needed some redemption for that…

Without further ado, here is a recap of my June 2022 Goals:

  • Add 20 products to my TpT store – I did this! I am up to 80 products and need to start switching gears to get more traffic to my store.
  • Write a second insect flex class and a second sewing flex class – I did this, too! I wrote a Slumber Party Sewing Club FLEX Class and a Discovering Insects – Ancient Bugs FLEX Class. They won’t run until August because I need some time to get things ready, but I am super excited to have them written and available.
  • Make 5 blog posts, 25 Instagram posts, 25 Facebook posts, and 40 Pinterest pins – This was not a good month for social media and posting on the blog. I got 3 blog posts, 7 Instagram posts, 8 Facebook posts, and no pins. This will be my focus for next month.
  • Update Play-Doh listings for TpT to follow copyright guidelines – I finally took care of this!
  • An Adventure Date, Create Date, and 2 Family Game Nights – We did the 2 dates, but I am going to have to rethink Family Game Nights. We are not doing well… I am hoping maybe we can play some games on the planes or in the hotels this month when we go on vacation.
  • Organize cabinets and shelves in my office, including clearing craft supplies from front room – This is about three quarters of the way done. I have more organizing to do, and I think I need to host a FREE Garage Sale with everything we are getting rid of.
  • Reserve the rest of our Seattle tours and tickets – This is done! I am so excited for this trip!
  • Make dinner at home at least 16 times – I think we did about 10 dinners at home this month.
  • Walk 12 times (cough and energy dependent) – It took until about June 10th to be able to walk without coughing, but I think we got in 10 walks.
  • Hike 6 times (cough and energy dependent) – I had to look these up twice, but we did this! Our waterfall tour and Schnormeier Gardens tour helped a lot.

I feel really good about this – I earned a 7.5 out of 10 this month! It’s amazing what feeling good and having a little extra time in my schedule will do for my productivity. As I mention above, this month I am pivoting a little to start driving more traffic to my TpT store. With that in mind, here are my goals for July 2022:

  • Add 10 TpT products to my store.
  • Write a Sticker Collectors Club class for Outschool.
  • Make 4 blog posts, 25 Instagram and Facebook posts, and 31 Pinterest pins.
  • Set my Fall schedule for Outschool.
  • An Adventure Date, Create Date, and 2 Family Game Nights.
  • Finish organizing my classroom and our front room.
  • Have a Free Yard Sale with everything we need to give away from organizing efforts.
  • Make dinner at home 12 times (this is a stretch with tech week, fair, and vacation all falling this month).
  • Walk/work out 15 times (I am starting a new health program this month, and I am hopeful).
  • Hike 8 times (we have a few tours and hikes planned in Seattle, so this should be okay).

I am really looking forward to our family vacation this month – it has been almost 6 years since we have taken a true family vacation to somewhere new and 10 years since we have flown anywhere as a family. We are running out of time for these family trips, so I am so glad it is working out. I can’t wait to share the adventure with you in a post later this month! Have you ever been to Seattle? What are some things you loved? What things did you think were over-rated? Let us know in the comments. 🙂