Snaps from Snowzilla: DC Family Photo Shoot in the Blizzard!

Oh winter. How I love you. But hate you. But mostly love you :)

Anyway.

Earlier this month we got hammered with an EPIC snow storm (erm, blizzard), which was actually a TON of fun. The last time we had snow this intense was circa the '09 "snomaggedon" storm, so everyone was pretty pumped to see the city shut down and snow-covered after a four-ish year capital city blizzard hiatus.

Besides spending the "snowzilla" storm hunkered down in my apartment snuggling my cats and concocting treats in my kitchen, I also ventured out into the elements to do a special family photo shoot in the snow for my friends Adam and Dani.

I can't remember the last time I did a shoot in such extreme weather -- but it was so fun! We walked all around the National Cathedral area to capture these amazing images and had a crazy good time as well.

Here's a look at some of my shots:

I'm definitely not a pro when it comes to shooting in the snow, but I'm not half bad either!

Spright Updates on Working Out in the Heat & Summertime Fun

90 degree heat? Check. Watermelon overflowing at the grocery story? Check. Feeling like you live in an oven? Double check.

It's official: the dog days of summer are in full swing here in Washington, D.C. Lucky me.

In all seriousness though, this summer has gone by in a blur. Between traveling to Canada to visit family, visiting with friends, traveling to weddings, its so hard to believe there's only a few more true weeks of summer left before my graduate school classes begin at Georgetown. Sigh.

At least this summer has been very productive for me in terms of Spright.com & USO work -- that's at good thing right?

I'm not going to spoil all the wonderful things I have in the books for you to enjoy on Spright over the next few months (trust me, I have a TON of things coming!), but I will say that one of my stories -- about working out in the heat -- hit the site last week and I couldn't be happier.

I loved that I was able to reach out to my alma mater's own Dr. Todd Miller for advice in writing this story. He really helped me understand all the interesting ways the body adapts to temperature changes without making me feel like I needed to re-take my freshman biology class.

Anyway, here's a little snippet for you to enjoy:

Exercising outside in the summer months can feel a little like self-inflicted torture, especially for those first few workouts. Your face gets red. Your skin gets sweaty. Your breathing gets increasingly labored as you push yourself to finish your final set. Even recovery can seem to be more difficult than it would in cooler months.

However, after a few consecutive days of exercising in the heat, you’ll probably start to notice that dealing with stifling outdoor temperatures while you work out isn’t as difficult for your body as it was a week or two ago — all thanks to process called temperature acclimation. Simply stated, temperature acclimation is an adaptive bodily process the body undergoes to become more tolerant of working, exercising, and living in the heat.

I wanted to learn more about what goes on inside the body during the temperature acclimation process, so I  reached out to Dr. Todd Miller, an associate professor of exercise science at the George Washington University, to talk more about how the body adapts to working out in the heat. Here are the major takeaways from what I found out...

Read more here!

Stay tuned for more fun things to come!