Wild Horses

I just had the most majestic run probably of my life. I honestly never thought sweating could be such a beautiful experience. It was 4 miles of blissful happiness.

I've ran in a lot of places in my life. I grew up at the beach. Running along with crashing waves was my life for many years. Chicago had some beautiful runs with the most recent being a deer spotting about a week before we moved West.

But tonight. You guys.

When we flew back to Chicago after finding a rental here in Reno, I sat next to this guy who grew up in Chicago but moved to Reno on a whim just because he wanted to be among the mountains. He and his wife went all up and down the west coast and settled here because of the proximity to the mountains. He told me about these wild horses that roam in our general area near the mountains in South Reno.

Never did I think I'd see them. But today, we did.

We had dinner and prepared some ice cream cones (Umpqua, Oregon based... #hearteyes) and headed on a walk to the local elementary school. It's just under a mile away and about .2 mile away from our house, we pass a little free library right in our neighborhood. There are trails that run behind houses just like in our Green Trails neighborhood in Illinois. As we approached the school (and park behind), I saw the wild horses! They were walking in the street near the school, all 11 of them. There are 10 grown and one baby horse. And they're beautiful. A local stopped to chat and explain the horse situation and how there used to be 5 groups of them, but this is the last remaining group.

We played at the park and then it was back home for bedtime. I strapped up my shoes and went for a run after the kids went down. I'm not a morning runner, but I love running at sunset. I ran the same route we walked with the kids earlier and then took a left for a run along the mountains. It's a road that dead-ends and the only ones driving it would be utility workers or homeowners up in the mountains. I passed no cars. I passed no people. I ran by the same group of horses in the fields as the sun was setting. The mountains were shadows of beauty and jackrabbits were scurrying along the road every 1/4 mile. Butterflies were crossing the path and I was perched high enough along the mountain ridge to see the city (and casino) lights and snow capped mountains in the distance.

It was downright gorgeous.

We've already taken our first day trip to California to see Donner Lake and the ski resort towns along part of Lake Tahoe. I had Thrifty ice cream and ate legit Mexican food and thrift shopped (scoring these cute Born brand shoes for Claire for $2!) and hiked and rode a canoe with my loves.

My mind has been in a million places this week as I sleep on the floor still in anticipation that our house sale is swift. There is some activity, but nothing we're willing to celebrate until the moving truck is being loaded with comforts of home and headed West. We bought a couch and some bar stools here, but that sums up the amount of furniture that's in our 1700 square foot rental at this time. Soon things will change and soon this will feel like home, too.

Tomorrow we're headed to Downtown Reno for Artown, which is a month-long festival of free art activities and festivals for all ages. Tomorrow morning's kid-friendly activity is a Discovering Acrobatics show. On Thursday, they are holding a free tap dance class for kids.

Summer is all kinds of fabulous.