Provo Halloween Half Marathon

I decided a couple of summers ago that I wanted to be able to train and finish a half marathon.  That finally happened, I was able to run in the Provo Halloween Half Marathon.  I got a training schedule from online, and then I started my training.  I started with 3 miles and thought this is easy, then as it started to get to 7 and 8 miles and started to wonder, then I had a really bad run at 10 miles and questioned my sanity.  I missed a few days in my training due to vacation, getting sick or not getting myself out of bed, but i made myself a promise that I would not stop running when the big day came.

The reason behind that is because honestly if I stopped running I knew my legs would not let me keep going.  The day of the race came and I was nervous, I got up early caught a ride with a friend that ran it as well, and then headed up to our starting place.  Got everything ready, made sure my music was good to go and waited for the gun to go off.  We were off and down the canyon, it was cold and fun to see what everyone was dressed as.

I got to mile 6 and thought that was easy, then we had a hill come at us at mile 7, I made it up and then back down and to mile 8, then I kept waiting for my next mile marking to come up without seeing one for a really long time.  When I got to a water station and hurried and got a drink and seriously was worried I had only run 1 mile, and if that was the case I was going to be worried, well the next mile marker I saw was such a great sight to see at mile 11.  REALLY, 11 I can do two more miles!

This is the point where I started seeing people stop running, I really just wanted them to continue running, I mean we had all come so far, don't stop now.  I could feel my legs and the exhaustion in them, but I kept running, 1 more mile to go then, .1 more mile.  The finish line, my mom and my time are the last things I saw, before I stopped and realized I had to keep walking or my legs were going to give out on me. 

It was such a great feeling to cross that line and realize that after running for 11 weeks, I was able to accomplish this goal and to do it in 2 hours and 10 minutes.  I have to say I am very proud of myself and what I was able to do, what my body was able to do!

SNOW!!!

I can't even tell you how excited my kids were for the first time it snowed, if you notice in the first few pictures there is only a small amount of powder, but enough to make a snow angel appear on the deck.  They played for along time in this little snow fall, because it was so warm out there still.

Our second storm was sooooo much better.  Landon finally gave up walking in it and just crawled through the snow.

Claire wasn't crawling through the snow, but purposefully falling and kind of getting her face in the snow.

he said cheese for me, look at the cute face, but Claire was ready for the attack

She loved throwing snow at Landon, she would laugh so hard and then run away, he was unsure of have snow thrown at him, but when he got her back he was in little boy heaven!

Snow is so fun!

San Diego Zoo

We broke up our trip and headed to the San Diego Zoo in the middle of the week, the kids loved the animals, the nice thing about a zoo is that every cage brings something a little different.  The bad thing about this zoo is that is was big so we saw the zoo in a day.  It was a lot to see in one day and the kids were exhausted by the end of it.  let's take a look at some of the animals we saw:

Landon's hand

getting a treat, love these faces!

playing at the little park

the petting zoo, they loved it and we had to keep reminding Landon to be soft and stop hitting the animals.  They actually had to move the rabbit farther into it's cage so Landon would stop poking the pore guys eyes out!

relax, take load off, have a foot massage, and smile!  What a great day at the zoo!

California Adventure

Cars Land was amazing, we headed there first thing, it was so cool!  The kids loved it and Landon could ride on two rides and Claire could do all three.  Loved Mater's tractors, i mean really look how cute they are!

Cutest kids ever!!

We got to meet some very favored vehicles while in Cars Land, they got nervous when they revved there engines, because they would move as well, so I ended up in the picture!

So fun to float on air and bump into people

Claire wanted to go on this ride, it shocked me, it was the only ride I told her she didn't have to try because it was really scary, so we asked if she wanted to go with daddy and Landon and go on a different ride or stay with the rest of us and go on this scary ride.  She stayed and did really well until we were outside of the elevator to get on.  As you can see she is in my arms, every time the doors would open and she could see light she would look up really fast and then would cling a little harder.  AS soon as the ride was over she said to me, I am not riding that ride again, then told Daddy how scary it was.  I said okay you  don't have too. 

We ran into Buzz

and Jessy

listened to a few jokes from Mr. Potato head

and got to wear cool glasses as we were on this ride.

We went back and saw Cars Land at night, it was amazing all lit up!

Claire loved The Little Mermaid ride as well, and we rode that a few times, Landon just wanted to go on  all the rides, with his look of awe and amazement  I loved seeing these amazing family friendly parks from the eyes of my kids, talking to them in the lines, laughing with them and just seeing the pure joy they felt while taking in this vacation.  It was so fun to see them enjoy themselves so much!

Disneyland

We spent two days at Disneyland, we had so much fun! I made Claire try every ride she was tall enough for, she is tall so she could ride almost every ride there.  She was very brave and would remind me ever chance she could that she was.  She was terrified, mind you, but she was so brave.   Those big rides made her cry and hug me tighter then I have ever had her hug me, but she talks about them all still. 

Waiting to head in, our first day

Rapunzel was so good with our little girl.  We stood in line to see her and Claire kept saying, Mom I am going to give her a big hug, I am so excited to see her.  Then when we got in there she was scared, and Landon was scared.  He started heading for the door and Rapunzel noticed so headed after him, which changed his direction back to me, then she knelt down starting talking to Claire.  I asked if she wanted to give her a hug and so she timidly did so.  She talked to her for a while and then we headed out, she made Claire's day that much better!

hello, anyone home

small world

Toontown adventures

We got to meet Mickey! 

Claire loved the tea cups and that we got to spin so fast, she couldn't wait to ride it again.  Landon was pinned to the wall of the teacup with a shocked look on his face, it was priceless.

the spinners

the non-spinners

cute faces after a snack and a rest

Claire-Jessy anyone

wearing his Mickey Mouse hoodie

Claire loved this ride the best of them all, when she was asked what her favorite ride was, she her Daddy's absolute delight "Star Wars" came out every time.  She wouldn't ride it at first, but I made her do it, see what happens when the mean Mommy makes her ride the rides she doesn't want to?  I am so glad that she didn't miss out on this ride, her and Daddy rode it quite a few times together and it was fun for them to do it.  I stayed with Landon and we rode on a few other rides when it wasn't nap time. 

This girl, I am so proud of her, she is afraid of everything that she can't seem to control.  She never liked being thrown in the air as a baby or toddler.  She didn't like to be scared by someone, she didn't like to try anything new if it looked scary at all.  She tried everything, even if she was scared, and she cried or got quiet from how nervous she was.  And she knew she was being brave.  I think it made this more fun for her.

Happiest place on earth, I would say so!