{My Journey}

Coming up...

I still haven't made time to upload photos from the rest of the trip and for the last post but I will get to ot eventually. We have been doing some preparations for Christmas. Taking the true Advent approach and doing a little each day. Yesterday I addressed all the Christmas cards and plan to mail them out this weekend if all goes as planned. Our elf on the shelf made his appearance from the North Pole to spend the 25 days of December with us, checking up on the girls and reporting back to Santa. We lovingly names him Happy Jolly Christmas, but call him Jolly for short. Liberty named him...Piper seems uninterested at this point.

Yesterday Liberty started having congestion again and after school today said her ears hurt. Since Nellis was not helpful on the appointment front (we can get you in Monday--thanks but no thanks) I trekked her back to the clinic and it was well worth it. She saw the same PA and since they had her last visit on file she just did it as a follow-up at no charge and prescribed a stronger antibiotic. Hopefully it does the trick. At least Liberty learned from last time not to wait to tell me her ears hurt.No late night wake-up and crying this time--thankfully! The PA also checked Piper and so far she is in the clear. Hope it stays that way.

Tomorrow we are off to the airport to pick-up Susan for the big run on Sunday. She is flying in Saturday, running along side me and then darting back home later that day. It will be a whirlwind, but I'm grateful to have a running buddy for this race. I think it will go better (even with this head cold Liberty conveniently shared with me).

Even though I still have a lot to do around the house before Susan's arrival and then the rest of the family later in the week, it will have to wait. Right now my main goal is to keep ahead of this cold with Vitamin C, Green Tea, and plenty of rest. Hope it works. 

December...

The first of December--finally! We have been anticipating December's arrival. It is always a busy and fun time of year and we love it! I am looking forward to all the little things that make the holidays brighter for us. Piper is really into seeing Christmas lights and is understanding the Holiday a little more this year. It is that whole discovery thing all over again and it is wonderful to experience it all with her and Liberty.

Today we had a busy day. Liberty was invited to her first birthday party of the new school year. Little Steven was celebrating at Chuck E. Cheese and Liberty was excited to attend. Piper even got to tag along and she made fast friends with some of Liberty's classmates, but Emma really took her under her wing and spent the majority of the party with Piper. Such a sweet girl!

As if the party wasn't exciting enough, we participated in a Library Tree Lane event at our local library. It was a reading of Twas The Night Before Christmas and a short puppet show about giving, followed by a visit with Santa. Now, Piper has not wanted to see or visit with Santa yet this year and we've had many opportunities already. She started out saying "NO!" but to my surprise she went up to Santa and sat on his lap. She even answered a few questions and told him she wanted a puppy (stuffed, not real)! We've had a major break through. I will try to post a photo soon, but it is late--just wanted to get the days events down for memory-sake!

Characters...

Today was full of character and characters! We decided to spend the day at California Adventure park and except for a few rides (Toy Story Mania, King Triton's Carousel, Bugs Land and Monsters, Inc.) we basically saw shows and lots of characters. It is harder to do rides there as a threesome for a few reasons. One being that a few of the rides Piper is too little to ride so those are excluded. Two being that some rides seat only two in a row and so those are excluded. That leaves a small handful...but lots of shows to make-up for it. We could spend the whole day watching various shows and be totally content. We even met Santa today so that is done for the year--although I'm sure we will find him out and about again in the next month.

Some pictures from the day:

  

Happy to see Mickey first thing in the morning.

Cowgirls hats at Toy Story Mania Midway shop. So cute I would have bought them had they not been $28 a piece! 

 

Liberty was picked to be on stage at Drawn to the Magic.

 

Meeting up with our friends Jennifer and Rebecca. John, AJ and Piper were also there!

 

Love this picture of Liberty with Snow White. I always enjoy seeing her meet her favorite princess.
 
 
 
 
 

Thanksgiving Day...

 

Today was a full, fun, and action packed day. We accomplished so much more than I had expected to, as I had planned to keep it low key and easy going. We still had a pleasantly carefree day. The morning started much earlier than I had anticipated since we had a late night prior. We were out the door, fed, dog fed and walked and ready to enter the park by 8:30am. We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of crowds (especially compared to the night before when it was super crowded) and easily covered Fantasyland by 11am. I brought some fall-themed clothes to change to girls into for our big Thanksgiving dinner so we did that, hopped onto the Monorail and landed at the Disneyland Hotel for our feast. The buffet was really similar to the years past, lots of variety and all the traditionals as well. Although, I have to say that we didn't really do the traditional dinner. I enjoyed some tasty salmon with my stuffing, sweet potatoes and specialty faves. Liberty had a slice of cheese pizza with her salad and fruit. Piper had a tasting of turkey, some waffle fries and lots of fruit. Piper was the only one who had turkey!! We spent a lot of time at the dinner because we had to see all the characters who came out to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving--like Pocahontas, The Three Pig, Pluto, Minnie Mouse (as a cowgirl), Donald Duck (as a Cowboy), and Chip 'N' Dale. After we were satisfied food-wise and entertainment-wise (lots of dancing to the band was done by the girlies between characters) we set off to catch a few things at the park before calling it a day. We went to Princess Tiana's Jubilee (new and exciting and Liberty LOVED it)! Had a perfect view of the fun then went over to New Orlean's Square to meet her and her Prince before running to find a perfect last minute spot for the parade.We happened to find a spot next to some nice people who made room for us, there wasn't the usual 50 plus people pushing in around us during the parade, AND we were on MainStreet right as they rounded the bend so we had perfect head-on views.

As I sit here recapping the day, I just can't help but smile at all the fun we had together. We wish Jon or any of our family could have been with us, but as it stood--the day was perfect! I couldn't tell the girls enough how much I love them. I am so thankful to be their momma (Liberty's term)/mommy (Piper's term). Piper kept saying, "I love you so much!" and it really melted my heart. We really had a fantastic day, no worries, no disciplining, no running around crazy, no stress, no schedules, just plain old family fun. One of our best T-Days yet!

Excited about...

Okay I know Thanksgiving has not come yet, but I am getting so excited for Christmas and this is why:

 

This little girl was jumping up and down and screaming, "yea, yea, yea!" when this HUGE tree came into her view. The wonder of Christmas and all the beautiful sights that emerge this time of year are all at her fingertips and she is one excited child. It is going to be a fun season!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from all of us here! Hope it is a frightfully good day for everyone.

 

 

Here is a sneak peek of what the girls will be wearing for costumes tonight and at dance class. Liberty is Rosetta the Garden Fairy and Piper is Tinkerbell the Tinker Fairy.

Pumpkin Patch

 

 

 

This is the closest thing to a pumpkin patch we have here so we make the best of it! It is actually an amusement type area with pumpkins so we can get a few pics and then let the kids have fun. The funniest part was that Piper was sitting on a pumpkin for the shot of them together and she kept sliding off of it. The final picture is after about the third time of her sliding off, so I just called it good even though the group shot was a little weird with the side eyes on them both. Sometimes as parents we just have to accept the quirky pictures, move on and just let them HAVE FUN!! That is what we did-- had fun! They rode swings, twirly rides and then went down a giant slide about 6 times. They both rode ponies, Piper chased some goats and rabbits in the petting zoo and Liberty did a bungee bounce. Just a good evening of Halloween themed fun. In a week, they will be selling Christmas Trees at the same location and this Halloween fest will be just a memory-- and a good one for us!

Half Marathon

Well the time has come and almost gone for me to write about my big event. I ran the Disney Half Marathon in Anaheim on Sunday the 6th of September. The race start time was 6am but by time I made it through my designated corral and towards the start line it was close to 6:45am. It doesn't really matter, except when you pass each mile marker and the clock shows a time much higher than what is true it can shake your confidence! Good thing I had my trusty Forerunner 405 to give me my true time and my mile split times and show my pace. The race had over 11,000 participants and was by far one of the more crowded bigger runs I've done (Bolder Boulder is much larger but much shorter too). I wasn't too thrilled about the later start mainly because of the heat. It was one of the hotter weekends I've experienced in Anaheim (and I have been there many times) and very humid. I could also smell the smoke from the wildfires burning just north of the city. I had hoped to run a personal best at this race but soon discovered it was not going to happen. The crowds actually caused us to stop running at multiple times in the race. When the course would narrow, we would stop. Also the water points caused backups. It was almost as if the participants didn't know to keep moving, grab a drink and keep going. It was kind of strange! The very first water point was just ridiculous. It was in a curve and narrow part of the course and then the walkers and people getting water and powerade brought the race to a stop. It was maddening! So, at this point, I just resolved to run the race and have fun. I decided the PR would have to wait for another race. I stopped to take pictures of the Disney characters that had come out to greet us and just had fun. My mile pace was a full 2 minutes slower than during training, but oh well. I finished my second half marathon (13.1 miles) in 2:42:41 and I am proud to have completed it in a decent time regardless of circumstances. It was not an easy task training for this race as a single mother. I had to get babysitters so I could do my long runs and it was really hard to get everything coordinated throughout. I have to thank everyone who supported me in my efforts: Mom, Dad, Kim, Susan, Alexis and Veronica, Charlie and Dorothy, Jennifer, Jenette, Jon and especially Liberty and Piper. I appreciated all the well wishes before and after the race. It meant a lot to know I had a cheering section. A run like this is nothing to take lightly. All of you knew that and respected my choice to do it and supported me during training and the race. Thank you!

I haven't decided on the Rock'n'Roll Marathon here in Vegas in December. I have an injury I am trying to heal up but would love to do it. Would enjoy it even more if Susan would run it with me! *wink*wink*

I leave you with some photo from the course.

 (It's official!)

 (Loved this tshirt at the expo)

 (Stayed at the Dreams Tower Disneyland Hotel)

 (The start line is in sight.)

 (Cheering us on.)

 (Stopped for this photo for Liberty--she was thrilled.)

 (Angels Stadium on approach.)

(entering the stadium)

 (looking towards the score board)

(Finish line my time was officially 2:42:41)

Firefighters boots...

It is that time of year again when the firefighter do their fill a boot campaign for the MDS. We went to Albertson's to return a movie to the Red Box there because the one at Walgreen's was not taking it (grrr). We saw the guys and promised to fill a boot as we left the store. So, I gave the girls each a dollar to donate and they were more than happy to help. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera set to snap a photo so I got this weird video clip (sideways since it was suppose to be a photo) instead. That will teach me to make sure I have my camera in photo mode instead of video when I shut it off.

Second Day of School

Liberty had to take in five items that said something about her to share with the class this week. We put thought into all her items and made sure they were the best representation of her. One of the items was a book that she has had memorized for quite some time. It is the book she always reads to "my baby, Piper" and it is titled I love you through and through. Since they started sharing early we were still in the classroom so I stayed to watch her share her items with the class and READ her book! It was wonderful to see her stand there so confident in front of all her peers. She is a strong little girl.

Her items:

1. "Snow White doll because she is kind, sweet and a good friend just like me."
2. Wyoming Cowboy hat "because I love my Dad and he is working far away."
3. Book (see above)
4. Photo of her and Piper because she is a good big sister
5. Coloring book because she likes art, coloring and drawing.