March 13, 2017 - Monday Madness - Elisa's New Gym and Tanya's Natural Products ExpoWest behind the scenes

Elisa's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 31 DAYS

New Week, New Gym, New Storm

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

​I love the beginning of the week!  A new start!

Guess what I did yesterday???

I did it folks!!! I joined Lifetime Fitness!!
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I'm actually in shock that I did it. But, as I told you yesterday, I was determined to check into the prospect of doing so...and so I did.

Yesterday afternoon, me and the girls made our way over there to get a full tour of the facility.  What I love about this place is that kids are literally treated like adults with access to everything at the gym including all the classes!

It definitely isn't cheap - but because it offers so much in the way of a social outlet for me and the kids, as well as an outdoor pool with a huge slide for the summer, I thought it would be a worthwhile investment for us as a family.

​I'm especially excited about the fact that  both girls  will have an opportunity to start becoming more active and have an additional social and physical fitness outlet besides just the horseback riding.

SELFIE AT LIFETIME FITNESS AFTER WE JOINED (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

MY GIRLS HAPPY THAT WE JOINED THE FITNESS CENTER (c) travelincousins.com

We are scheduled to begin going on Wednesday - weather permitting - very excited!!

I guess it's safe to say that Lifetime Fitness is almost like a "resort club" rather than your run-of-the-mill gym.

The company currently operates 122 centers in 26 states and 35 major markets under the LIFE TIME FITNESS® and LIFE TIME ATHLETIC® brands in the United States and Canada,  

According to their website, their mission is to provide:
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Entertaining,
Educational,
Friendly and Inviting,
Functional and Innovative
experience of uncompromising quality that meets the health and fitness needs of the entire family.

Interestingly, their tag line is "The Healthy Way of Life Company."

​We are certainly looking forward to having fun while we get healthy!!
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March Nor'easter...

BLIZZARD EXPECTED TO START TONIGHT THROUGH THE NEXT 24 HOURS (credit: accuweather.com)

So, what's the deal with the mid-March nor'easter this week?  

I thought that Winter was winding down!  Well, I guess not without one more storm!

According to the National Weather service, a "blizzard watch" is in effect from midnight tonight through midnight tomorrow night (Tuesday) affecting most of the east coast.

This nor'easter threatens to shut down travel due to heavy snow and strong winds from Washington, D.C., to New York City and Boston early this week.

Government forecasters predict that the nor'easter will likely blanket the New York City and Long Island in 12 to 18 inches of snow — and possibly up to 2 feet.

The snow could fall as fast as 2 to 4 inches per hour, creating a total "whiteout."
WOW!! Who woulda thunk?

In any case, my kids are thrilled as they are expecting at least one; possibly two snow days from this storm.

Moving right along...

My day today will be filled with a few errands, one of which will be to pick up a few necessities from the grocery store.  I'm pretty well stocked up, but, the kids managed to finish all of our fruit this weekend, as well as the snacks.

I'm assuming that we may be snowed in tomorrow with the storm starting late tonight.  My plan is to do some purging around the house - more stuff for the Veterans.

Me and the girls will probably do some baking - maybe cupcakes or brownies! No reason not to enjoy some sweets just because we are stuck indoors!

Stay safe!! See ya back here tomorrow!

-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 7 DAYS

Just a glimpse..

​Howdy y'all!

What a day yesterday was...

What a blast each day of the Expo was.

But not only was it a blast but an awful lot of work and quite exhausting.   I was so happy to surprise Cosette with a special child's pass to the expo yesterday.    At least one of these guys would be able to catch a glimpse and see what I've been talking about.

Happy to be at the Expo (c)travelincousins.com

With that Cosette was in awe and had a magnificent time!  

Feel the energy with the Kicktail team (c)travelincousins.com

But some of the first words out of her mouth today were "Yesterday was exhausting!"

"Who would think that walking around and eating all day could be so exhausting?!" and she was right.    I woke up this morning feeling it too.  I guess it's a good thing that there is no Expo to go to today! LOL

With yesterday being the last day of the event and many of the vendors wanting to be rid of their samples - it's high time for the CRAZIES to go all "Black Friday" on the place!

Ohhh the things that some people will be for a free thing!! 

It was certainly a bit of madness. In all honesty it was more than just a bit of madness. 

WHY DO PEOPLE GO COMPLETELY NUTSO OVER FREE THINGS?

Well to tell you the truth, I saw it coming. And not only yesterday. I had noticed there were a few people (I'm being polite here) with "guest" passes who seemed to only be there to stuff their bags full of goodies - this was their sole purpose. And of course this only got worse yesterday. 

We had witnessed several people approaching vendors and interrupting conversations and meetings to literally just ask for free stuff!!!

We arrived on the scene yesterday just shortly after the doors had opened. We being myself, Cosette, and Andrew.

Did I mention that I somehow even managed to "run into" Andrew on Saturday just by chance?! ​​

Running into Andrew (c)travelincousins.com

So anyhow, as we were approaching the venue I was explaining to Andrew and Cosette what some of "those" people do, and no sooner had I spotted a group of 3-4 of "those" people.

I told Andrew and Cosette that I bet they were "those" people.   Seeing all the loads of bags that were being carried away from the venue (and at such an early hour). 

As we passed "those" people, they were emptying the bags into the back of their vehicle and heading back into the Expo with empty bags that were ready to be filled all over again!

And this was to be seen throughout the halls in the show.

(C)travelincousins.com

Well at this point you might be wondering why the regulations aren't strict and put limitations on the number of bags that can be carried out of the facility.

​And guess what...  
They have such regulations. However they only really start enforcing these regulations a few hours before the shows ending time. At the shows ending time there are HUGE boxes set up near each exit that are marked FOR DONATION. 

And as of 6pm on Saturday - both the Hilton and the Marriott were coming to a close (being they open and close a day early) and Second Harvest volunteers were on the scene and ready to take whatever food stuffs were left over.  ​

Volunteers for Second Harvest (c)travelincousins.com

In case you aren't familiar with Second Harvest - 

Second Harvest Food Bank reaches out to the community for donations, grants, fundraising, food drives, food rescue, harvesting and volunteers to help provide food, education and advocacy for the hungry. We work with partners in the community to create innovative, sustainable ways to end hunger in Orange County.

Founded by the Council of Orange, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Second Harvest began providing food for the hungry in October 1983 in Orange, under the leadership of Dan Harney. In 2008, Second Harvest moved to a new facility located at the Great Park in Irvine on the old El Toro Marine Base, more than doubling its capacity to meet the needs of Orange County’s hungry during the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression.

In 2012, Second Harvest became an independent 501 c3 corporation. Since its founding, Second Harvest has provided more than 350 million pounds of donated and surplus food to local charities, or the equivalent of 291 million meals.

And this is a worthy cause - not all of these other people collecting free stuff and for what purpose? To resell them? I highly doubt they are going to be consuming all of these goods on their own!

So anyhow that was just a little glimpse of some behind the scenes at Expowest.

As we get further into the week, I will continue to organize my photos and put together my recap and product reviews as an article post. So please do keep a look out. 

Other than the Expo things that I need to accomplish this week are - Laundry (big time), to (still) finish unpacking, packing, birthday pampering (Sunday is the Big Day), shopping (for the week, for St. Patrick's Day, for the trip, and for my birthday), working of choir stuff, working on other trips, taking the kids to their classes and much more...

What I don't think I'll be getting around to this week is probably not making my way into the gym. Have you read all about Elisa and and girls joining a gym? So cool.

Although I'm not a member of Lifetime, I am a lifetime member with 24hr Fitness - being a member with them since they were Bally's way back in the day - I think since 1994ish - that is 23 years folks!        And I just love going to the gym!
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We leave for our next trip in exactly one week. I'm still not sure if Dominic is coming or not. 

We shall see,
​-T