#33 Disneyland... AGAIN

My mom surprised Zoe and I with an all expenses paid trip to Disneyland in October this year!  Woo hoo!  We went over Fall Break... just my mom, Zoe, and me.  It was fabulous!

Top 10:

10. Being with just Mom and Zoe.
9.  The Fall decorations... seriously amazing!
8.  Listening to Zoe ask how much longer ever 10 min... no joke... on the drive there. 
7.  Meeting George... the biggest sheep I've ever seen.  PS... Did you know Disneyland had a petting zoo?
6.  The vanilla iced coffees.
5.  Trying to figure out with Zoe where her name was on Jack's list... at the Haunted Mansion... all 6 times we rode it.
4.  Listening to Zoe giggle on all the fast rides.
3.  Pizza and salad at Pizza Port... every day.
2.  It's Disneyland.  Nuff said.  AND 5 days of it.
1.  Having my child spit on another child, then having the parents harrass me and threaten to spit on Zoe.  And hearing my mom call him a jerk. Just awesome.



One of Zoe's favorites... Matterhorn!





This is George.





At the parade (getting wet) at CA...
no idea why she wanted her blanket that way...





Another favorite... Thunder Mountain Railroad



Diva



And, yes, another favorite... Splash Mountain. 
Do you see a theme?  Sorta matches her personality.





Pobably getting ready to spit....



I mean, seriously, is this kid cute, or what??



#94... Run in a 5K... Nope, make it a 10K

In an earlier post, I noted how my dad somehow conned me into running with him... running in a half marathon no less.  So, we thought to get ready for it we could run in the Phoenix 10K... along with my friends Leslie, Bre, Rhonda, Sarah, and Kristen.  Two weeks before the run, my dad pulled a muscle and couldn't run... how sad!  He still isn't able to, but we are hoping he'll make it for the half in January.

The day started with my clock being set on day light savings time so I was 40 min. behind... luckily the girls came back for me.  :)  We made it on time... with time to spare to hit the porta potties... thank goodness.  As I mentioned before, I am a SLOW runner... and I proved it by being the last of our group to cross the finish line.  But, I did run the whole way so I figured I did pretty well.  However, that last mile was somewhat challenging, which makes me wonder how in the WORLD I'm supposed to run over twice that much in 2 months.

Anyway, we celebrated with a HUGE breakfast at Saddle Ranch, complete with mimosas and bloody mary's... Yum!

101 in 1001

Jonathan and Zoe were at the finish line waiting for me... sadly we missed each other at first... but here are some pictures from their adventure...

Jonathan's perspective....

Zoe's perspective via the bike trailer....and the back seat of the truck....

Happy Birthday to Zoe!!

My baby turned 5... which is impossible to believe, but it's true.  She is outrageous and full of life...unmatchable!

Top 10 things to remember!:

1. She likes to wrestle with her shirt off.. .and show her "guns".
2. She wears tutus to sword fight in.
3. Wearing dressup dresses to the store is normal.
4. She asked when we were having naked day at school.... hahahah!
5. She does NOT like to be told what to wear.
6. If I forget to clip her toenails, she tells me I forgot to take care of her body.
7. She calls little dolls, lego people, etc... humans... which sounds normal, but not coming out of a 4/5 year old's mouth.
8. Her rapunzel wig is a mandatory fashion accessory now.
9. Some sort of bling is always an accessory for dressing.
10. She climbs and touches EVERYTHING!!

Before....

 

10 days old...

Today!! (Disney trip... blog to come....)

Runner or Shuffler?

I cannot in any way classify myself as a "runner"... especially since I don't even really run.  I shuffle.  Imagine an elderly person in pink fuzzy slippers with a walker "racing" for the best spot at the bingo table... they could probably out "run" me....

In in any case, I'm still dragging my behind out of bed at 5 in the morning 2 or 3 days a week to run, plus doing a "long" run on the weekends.  My dad sends me a running schedule made by marathon pros or something, which he sticks to like glue.... I use it more as a guideline.  I actually made it 4 miles... with a couple walk breaks... the other morning.  My knee hurt the next morning and so did my hip flexers.  He made it 6.  Hmmm....  Let's hope I make it up to 6 at least before November 7... it's our first actual race that we are entering.  The Phoenix 10K.

My dad also sent me a super cool website that lets you create running routes... then I use the "snipping tool" on our computer and just save them... Here's the site: http://www.usatf.org/routes/

... and here are a few of my runs..(I know this must be extremely exciting...):

2.5 miles

3.0 miles

 3.2 miles - did it this morning actually

4.2 miles (did this the first time last Friday)

5.1 miles... I have yet to do this... next Saturday is the plan.

I have learned to plan longer runs with bathrooms along the route.  Ha ha!

It's On Like Donkey Kong

My dad says to me the other day that I should run a half marathon with him.... which not only sounds wrong coming from my 60 something year old dad, but slightly insane.  I tell him I'll think about it... and in the mean time he says something like.. oh, I wasn't serious.  I don't see how you'll be able to do it.  What?  Then, in an email he restates his concern.... "I really don't see how you'll be able to do this...."  What.ever Old Man!  It's On Like Donkey Kong!

So, guess what..??  I'm now running in a half marathon.  For some, this is normal... running that is.  For others, like me, it's painful and highly unenjoyable.  However, I've been able to drag my a** out of bed at 5 in the morning about 3 days a week for the past 2 weeks and have gone running...  I am happy to say that I can actually run 2 miles with relative ease. Now I just need to tack on about 11 more to that and I'm good to go.  This weekend I'm supposed to run almost 4, so we'll see how that goes.  I should wear some sort of tracker just in case I pass out.

I've discovered a slight hiccup in my 5:15 am running... Dude, I gotta go in the morning... and if I don't, you know... go... then I have to go in the middle of the run or cut it short.  All I can say is, thank goodness Village Inns are open at 5:30 in the morning, and let in people only to use their restroom.

My aunt and uncle from Texas - my dad's younger brother - are now coming in for the race.  They are actual runners... unlike me, who actually shuffles instead of runs.  Family affair.  Should be rather interesting. 

The Cinders

After years of Jonathan asking and me having excuses of why I couldn't go.... Jonathan finally got me to go riding with him.  We went up to the Cinders in Flagstaff.... lots of dust, red necks, Hundred Dollar Hill, drinking, etc.  The only reason he talked me into was because I didn't have to stay over night.. .thank goodness.  We brought his Teryx... and, it was actually fun.

Old lava flow from Sunset Crater Volcano...

Zoe-isms

Yesterday Zoe told me that a girl in her class was... are you ready for this?.... "totally wack"!!  Hahaha.... I laughed out loud, then quickly told her that we can't call people that because it's not very nice.  Later in the evening I was retelling the story to Jonathan and Zoe overheard me... she quickly corrected me and said, "No!  She's totally 'bwack'!"  Hahahaha... oh.  So then we quickly told her that that may be true, but we don't need to go around telling everyone what color they may be.  Hee hee....  (side note... the said girl is actually a twin whose mom is Hispanic and dad is African American - to be PC... and one girl looks like the mom, and the other the dad... so perhaps that's where the clarification came in on what color she is.)


Another funny thing... Jonathan and Zoe went to Petsmart to buy random fish, which they let go in the pond behind our house.  They will probably die... and it was the shortest time we've ever had pets.