My Kia, My Summer

When I moved to the mountains 8 years ago, my luxury sedan with 215,000 miles wasn't going to get us up and around mountain passes to the surround hiking and mountain biking trails.  With two small children and a small budget, I bought my first ever new car; (click to continue reading) a Kia Sorento.  I drove it home from the dealership in a terrible snow storm.  I was impressed with the power going up the passes.  Other cars were slowing as my Sorento powered up to the high elevations.

My Sorento easily hauled our bikes to trail heads.

 My bike rack is very pink to match my very pink mountain bike!

Getting to mud runs...

And trail runs...

Even a 100+ mile relay trail run through the Colorado Rockies.  We rented a Kia mini-van for the event.  The gummy bears were our mascot.

They melted long before our 24hr+ relay team melted.

Our passenger/team mates' pillow being tied to the top.

No paint was harmed in the decorating of the SAG vehicle.

Our driver was rather obnoxious.

 Good thing, because we were stuck in the van with him all day until running our three 3-10 mile segments of the relay.  Fun memories made in that Kia van that day!

Tunnel of Love marked the end of my relay.

I hopped back in my Kia, loaded my road bike and headed to Boulder for a 62 mile charity bike ride. Wish I had the same amount of power as the Kia.

Around here, you hear a lot of people say they came to Colorado for the winters and stayed for the summers.  That's sort of how my Kia ended up for me: bought it for the winter and it got me to and from all of the summer activities I love.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Next-Issue

When I lived in big cities, I used to enjoy going to a big box book store and pursuing book titles and thumbing through magazines.  Sometimes I'd even leave with a book I knew I needed in my collection.  I'd kill time with no kid responsibilities- like getting dinner on the table or running around to the next activity.

While reading and thumbing through magazines was a relaxing escape back then, those are the things that went by the wayside with the daily to-do list.  When I got my iPad a couple of years ago, I began downloading books and started reading again.  At times, I prefer turning the pages of an actual book, but the convenience of grabbing the lit up iPad at bedtime and not needing to turn on a lamp has me downloading more books.

I can't remember the last magazine subscription I've owned.  I've come to rely on shared posts on FB for interesting articles from a variety of sources.  Now there's Next-Issue; a magazine subscription app offering more than 90 magazine titles for an unlimited viewing plan of only $9.99/mo.  The premium plan is just $14.99 for titles such as The New Yorker.  You can even try it out for a FREE 30 day trial period.

Here's what I like about Next-Issue:

You can download a full magazine for viewing when you are away from a wi-fi connection.  I downloaded several issues of Yoga Journal, Eating Well, Fitness & Architectural Digest.



I especially like having the cooking magazines at my finger scrolling tips.  I can easily go back and reference a recipe.  Here is a screen shot of the Architectural Digest Issues & how the pages load

Another favorite about Next Issue is that they offer plenty of back issues & automatic downloads for the newest issues.

Ready to try it for 30 days?  Start your FREE TRIAL!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.