Nationals Game and Turkey Run Hike

On Saturday I headed to my first Nationals game of the season with the ladies. I find that anytime I go to a game with more than two other people, we never actually watch the game and it mostly becomes social time.  We should probably just meet at a bar but it's nice to be in the stadium. We all met in the BullPen to enjoy pre-game beverages.

I love that the stadium has so many upgraded food options.  Being a Mike Isabella fan, last year I was frequenting his G Sandwich Stand.  For this game I found two new delicious and exciting things:  1) An orange crush cart - great addition and just like being at Dewey! and 2) the salad at the Taqueria  - not your normal ballpark food but I needed something refreshing and light with the heat.

In the end, the Nats lost but great day out with the ladies!

On Sunday it was about a million degrees (again!) but we opted to go for a hike thinking the trees would keep us cool. We love to go hiking on Turkey Run Loop which is about 4 miles and generally takes us an hour.  The mixed terrain is great exercise and Barney loves that he can run down and play in the Potomac.  This ended up being quite a workout in the extreme heat, especially for Mark with Mason on his back!

This weekend was a good mix of friend and family time.  It was nice to do an activity with Barney too!

ClassPass Trial Week 1

I haven't been loving running as much as I did in my pre-baby days so I've been exploring other fitness options. Several of my friends do ClassPass and rave about it, so I emailed to inquire about trial promotions and they gave me two weeks free - perfect! Basically you pay $99/month and have access to a ton of gyms and boutique studios. There are currently 184 participating locations in the DC area. Within each month you can visit each studio (or chain) up to 3 times. My goal over the next two weeks is to try as many places as my schedule allows!

I signed up Sunday night and since then have visited four locations:

Pure Barre was my first stop on Monday! I loved the high energy, music and total body workout. The instructor spent some time with me prior to the class since it was my first time, which was great. The tough part was that the instructor doesn't do the whole class with you and there were close to 20 people so I ended up watching and following other students and probably could have used more help with technique. Anyway, it was a great workout and so fun!

On Tuesday I was still sore from my Barre class, so I decided to just go to a gym and hit the treadmill. Balance Gym at Foggy Bottom is right by my office so that worked out well.  This gym is actually located in the Fairmont Hotel so I didn't have high expectations but this gym is great and not a typical hotel gym. They have a ton of classes, equipment and a saltwater pool. I also liked that they had a massive locker room with showers and hairdryers. I could conveniently workout pre-work or over a long lunch on days I'm in the office - love that!

Thursday I checked out Barre: 60 at Barre Tech and I liked this better than Pure Barre. There were only 3 people in the class so I got lots of help with technique throughout and the instructor did the majority of the class with us. I also felt like there were more ballet movements and use of the actual barre. I also bought some "sticky socks" so I'm a legit Barre student now!

Today I checked out Body Ride at Revolve -what a great workout! The instructor focuses on formation first, pace second and resistance third, so it was really easy to jump in as a newbie. I was happily surprised that there were weight and stretching components to the class. I also liked that it was in the dark with great music and it was easy to zone out and forget that everyone was there except the instructor who was cheering you on via her headset. I was sweating up a storm but couldn't stop smiling through the whole class and all I could think of was Elle Woods, "Exercise gives you endorphins.  Endorphins make you happy."

Great workouts this week and after years of running alone it was nice to have all the encouragement from instructors! Pending the success of trial week 2 I'm leaning towards purchasing ClassPass!

A JJ themed day!

It was a rainy day in Arlington so it was the perfect day to check out Jumping Joeys which just opened the week prior. JJ is a room full of moon bounces and is conveniently located near Washington-Lee HS. It is $10 for an all day pass and socks are required. Mason loved it - shocker - and Mark got in on the action too!

Great exercise and family fun!

Later in the day we headed to JJ's first birthday party! It was a great celebration with lots of kiddos and Lilly everywhere. Mark snapped this great pic of all the kids.

Happy first birthday JJ!

Flight Trampoline Park

After the success with the bounce house at the MONA picnic, I was excited to take Mason to the Flight Trampoline Park in Springfield.  The park has specific times for the 6 and under crowd to access the entire park, and during those times the cost is only $10/hour for child accompanied by parent. The parent gets to jump too - YES!

First of all, this place is amazing and great exercise!  I think I had more fun than Mason. There are trampolines, basketball trampolines, dodge ball trampolines, a pit of foam squares and an airbag area. There is also an arcade which came in handy while we waited for our assigned time.

I didn't realize this from the website, but they admit people in 1/2 hour segments.  We arrived at 10 am, waited in line for tickets for 15 minutes (I heard that was not typical) and then had to wait 15 minutes until the 10:30 time slot started. Everyone needs to sign a waiver, which would be an additional step, but I was able to complete it on my phone while waiting for the ticket line. There are cubbies to store your items, and benches and the arcade where you can wait until your time slot starts. You also have to be in bare feet or some sort of special flight socks.

I purchased an hour ticket, but Mason was so exhausted he only lasted 30 minutes! Here is Mason enjoying the activities:

At some point they added dance music so it became a jumping dance party.  I love little kids dancing! We got home and Mason took an extra long nap!  I'm sure we'll be back soon.