Friday Round-Up - The Ocean, Lessons, Idols and Bob

Mystic, CT - We took the boys here over the weekend for the aquarium, seaport, ice cream and Mystic Pizza.

Hooray for Friday!! You know what I'm most excited about? The Olympics are starting!! I'm so excited. Are you? There are so many events and athletes that I want to follow. How am I going to keep track of the schedules?? While I ponder that, here are some great blog posts from this week for you to read.

Where are all the other surfer girls?
This is an interesting piece to follow up my last post about taking a vacation alone. The author Elizabeth brings up some interesting points that resonate with many of the comments you all left on my post - the need for downtime but also the desire to share that time with friends, family or significant others. She also talks about the gritty reality of traveling alone as a surfer girl. When I traveled alone, I did feel like I had to answer questions about why I was alone. But unlike Elizabeth, I was returning to the safe confines of a surf camp that made me feel a little less alone and like I was visiting friends. Also, she does a great job talking about some of the realities of being new out in the line-up at a surf break.

Pour Your Heart Out: The Ocean's Waves
Every week, Shell over at Things I Can't Say hosts this amazing meme called Pour Your Heart Out which basically offers bloggers a safe space to literally pour their heart out about whatever it is that's on their mind. This post reminded me why I love the ocean.

The Best Lessons Learned
I loved this post by Jules over at Pancakes & French Fries because basically, she describes my life. But seriously, Jules captures some of the hard challenges that comes with raising children, especially how we second-guess ourselves (a lot) but how those instances, more often than not, lead to the best lessons that our kids will learn.

I believe in you
Ilene at The Fierce Dive Guide to Life kind of went straight to my core with this post about the support that we all need to reach our goals. She's got a way with words.

On Creating Idols
Lindsay over at Lindsay's List did knock me to my knees and made me stop and think about the things in my life that I place more importance on than they may warrant. I've been struggling with determining and balancing the priorities in my life. I'm not the most religious person but I appreciate Lindsay's honesty and her faith.

It's Bob Again
Sigh. I'm kind of jealous of Kristin and her boyfriend - Bob Harper. Every once in a while, Kristin gets to tape a workout video for Bob's online training club. In her latest jaunt to LA, she did three killer workouts, including a one-on-one with Bob. Awesome.

Finally, I'm guest posting over at Cupcake Kelly's today. Kelly is training for the Nike Women's Half in October with Team in Training. I trained for the NYC Triathlon with Team in Training and today, I'm sharing my story. Come over for a visit!

That's it! Have a great weekend. Are you excited about the Olympics too? What's your favorite sport or event?