Hi! Greetings from Chicago, Illinois! After not traveling for a few months, I’m on another trip today just a few days since returning from Columbus, Ohio last weekend. I’m here in Chicago on a short visit to hang out with my brand partner, NOW, and visit their production facility. I’ll share more about this adventure on the blog and Instagram next week.

This past week was super busy and quite quick, because we got back Sunday afternoon, and I left again Thursday morning, with lots of work and activities in between. In that time, I prepared and debuted a new hour of LifeBarre, I subbed an extra class, I played tennis twice, I went to the doctor for a post-op from my procedure a few weeks ago, I took Brady to his kindergarten assessment, and Brady also went to his first-ever full-day camp this week at Life Time. He loved it, and he totally handled being gone all day, which is something I was worried about him doing.

Before we get started, can you do me a favor? I’m excited for a blog partnership I shared this week. Could you show some love for this blog post about women’s health and this Instagram post about it too?

Now, let’s get right to the current faves of the day …

Current faves

Fun

An awesome weekend in Columbus, Ohio with friends

We had a blast on our trip last weekend to Columbus, Ohio to see our besties and their kids. I made a little video about our time here.

Here’s a quick recap …

Arriving on a Thursday evening

We usually go to see our friends, Grant and Bre, in Ohio about twice a year, and they come to us too. We hadn’t seen them since around the holidays, so we were due for a visit. We flew out on a Thursday afternoon and had a few delays getting out of Charlotte (and this marked my first time on a plane since November, so it had been a while), but otherwise our travels were fine. That night, we went to their house and chatted until late, while enjoying a charcuterie board and wine.

Spending a full day of fun around Columbus on Friday

The next day, which happened to be my half-birthday, we were all over the place.

We went to watch some youth soccer in the rain at a professional soccer stadium, we went to a delicious lunch at Town Hall in the cool North Shore neighborhood of downtown Columbus (where they had the waitress bring me out a birthday dessert to commemorate my “halfy”), and then we explored the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) museum, which was totally huge and well done. We were there for a couple hours and still didn’t see everything. Brady loves museums, and he especially loved being at a museum with the “big kids” — as he calls Grant and Bre’s three children, who are a bit older than him.

That evening, we went to a food truck festival at our friends’ country club, TCC Muirfield. There was live music, plenty of food trucks serving up dinner, drinks and even a blow-up slide for the kids.

This night, we let Brady stay up way past his bedtime, and he did great. But eventually, he told me he was pretty tired and we went back to their house to hang out, bringing some additional friends along to party after dark. We may or may not have ended the night with a late pizza delivery sitting around a fire-pit.

From one activity to another in Dublin on Saturday

On Saturday morning, I was already quite tired from all the late nights, fun and veering off my routine, but that didn’t bother me. I went with Bre to Life Time Dublin to take her 60-minute Xtreme class. Xtreme is not a class that I teach, and it’s not even one that I take, unless it’s Bre’s class in Ohio. It’s oh-so-hard high-intensity.

Fun fact: The whole reason I even knew about Life Time was from visiting Bre years ago and going to her class there. When we moved to Charlotte and I saw we had a Life Time too, I made it my mission to get a job there — and the rest is history!

After class, we went home and changed into our pickleball clothes and took the group back to TCC Muirfield to play outside.

Our friends play a lot of pickleball, so they are good. I, however, have only really played once before (with them), so I had to try to catch on. It’s actually nothing like tennis, by the way, and I felt like my tennis technique was a real hindrance to hitting the ball properly in pickleball. We had a blast though, and Grant and I played together and won one of the games out of three against Dave and Bre. While we played, Brady and the kids played their own little informal games, and it was super cute.

We went straight from pickleball to hanging at the pool for lunch, before heading home to rest up and shower for the evening’s activities. Also, it was so-so-so-hot out this day, and at times, I felt like I was back in Florida, with sweat dripping from my skin and my hair frizzing the second I walked out the door.

That night, just the adults went out in downtown Dublin for dinner and drinks. We went to Kitchen Social for dinner (where the food was great, but the service was awkward), then we had a delicious dessert at Cap City, before ending the night people watching and chatting it up outside of The Roosevelt Room. There were several weddings at the hotel across the street from where we were sitting, and we witnessed some fun sidewalk antics from the guests.

Making our way home on Sunday

On Sunday morning, we were up and getting organized to fly out at 11 a.m. from Columbus Airport. Our flight had a slight delay, but it wasn’t too bad. And sweet Brady carried a big LEGO set all the way through two airports as his carry-on, because he was gifted it by Grant and Bre, and I was proud of him for putting in the effort (with a little bit of help from Dave and me).

That afternoon, we arrived home incredibly tired, but I had to launch right into a bunch of work. I reminded myself that I need to make sure I don’t have so much waiting for me when I get home from a trip like this in the future. But I always say that, and it happens every single time. Anyone else?

All three of us were so happy to have some fun times in Ohio with our friends, so it was worth it. (By the way, my mom stayed home with Rudy, which was convenient for us, because in the past, we’ve always brought him. And she also dropped us off and picked us up from the airport, and we’re very happy about that.)

Overall, we needed this fun three-night jaunt to Ohio, and I’m so glad we made it happen! We’ll see Grant and Bre in just under five weeks when we all go to the Dominican Republic for another adults-only beach getaway, and that trip is quickly approaching. I need a new bathing suit or two for the trip, any suggestions? 🙂 

Fashion

Here are some of my outfits from our Ohio trip 

I debuted some new stuff, and I was pleased with it all …

A festival outfit

I wore this skirt and tank to the food truck festival, and I was so comfy. I’m wearing a small in the tank and a small in the skirt. And here are my sunglasses, and here is my purse. My sandals are super old, and I couldn’t find anything similar. They aren’t comfy, but they have pompoms on the ankle, and I like that about them.

A pickleball outfit 

I ordered this outfit specifically for pickleball, but I will definitely wear it for tennis too. I’m in a small in the top and the skirt. The skirt has built-in shorts, but the skirt is quite short. I’m 5’8″ and it was probably the shortest skirt I own, and I didn’t realize that until playing pickleball. I also wore these sneakers.

A maxi dress

I made it through the whole trip without wearing jeans, and I’m good with that. I ordered this dress a while back and was excited to debut it. It has an open-back feature, which kept me cool. I’m in a small in this dress. And here are my shoes, and here are my sunglasses.

If you click away from this post and want to remember some of the clothing items, I often link these in my Instagram stories under the “Fashion” highlight or on LTK here. I love to share what I’m wearing with you, and if you ever have a good find to share with me, let me know.

That’s it for the faves, friend. Let’s get to the movement …

Workouts

My workouts from last week

Now it’s time to take a look at my workouts from last week.

I share this recap to show you how I try to get diversity of movement in my week, and how I always take a rest day (almost always). But remember, I do a little bit more than the average person, because I’m a group fitness instructor, so you don’t need to compare your movement to mine.

Workouts from the week of 6/19

• Monday: Taught 1-hour barbell class, 9:45 a.m., played 60 minutes of tennis, 4:30 p.m.
• Tuesday: Taught 1-hour barre class with light weights, 9:30 a.m., took 90-minute tennis clinic, 11:30 a.m.
• Wednesday: Did 50-minute full-body weights workout, 9:30 a.m., taught 45-minute barre class with light weights, 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 45-minute combo class, 9:45 a.m.
• Friday: Rest day
• Saturday: Took 60-minute high-intensity combo class, 9:30 a.m., played 60 minutes of pickleball, 12 p.m.
• Sunday: Rest day

This past week, I taught four classes, played tennis twice, played pickleball once (not a super-rigorous activity), had two full rest days, took a very hard group fitness class and did a fitness floor workout. It was a good one for movement.

Here’s my workout from the fitness floor, which was a tough one, and it left my glutes and triceps quite sore. I’m truly loving these workouts with my fit trainer friend, Laura, shown below …

Best read of the week

Here’s an article worth sharing with you …

Journaling prompts. Okay, I’m a writer, yet I don’t journal. This is something I’d love to do more of one day, because I’ve always found the written word healing. But it can also be eye-opening. Here are 77 journal prompts to get you started, if you feel like you need a good pen-to-paper session yourself.

Quote of the week

Here’s a thought worth sharing with you from James Clear. This one truly speaks to me …

Blog archives of the week

Let’s look back at two posts worth revisiting, including the latest from earlier this week …

Women’s health. I hope you had a chance to read this sponsored post about women’s health care. If you haven’t yet, head on over … “Five things every woman in her 30s should be doing for her health.”

Music. Because I spend so much time creating playlists, I wrote a whole post about my process … “How to create a playlist for a workout class + a barre class playlist.”

Thank you for reading A Lady Goes West, friend. See you back here soon. xoxo

Questions of the day for you

What’s been going on in your world?

What’s one thing you enjoyed in the month of June?