Marathon Fun

For anyone who had known me for some time, it's not the fact that I did a marathon that is amazing...it's that I wanted to do it in the first place! Not only is it 26.2 miles, but I had to get up at 2:45am!! I don't think I have ever set my alarm to get up that early. I have definately been up that late, but not gotten up at that time unless a baby was crying!

I got the itch last February after completing a half marathon in Fort Worth. 13.1 miles wasn't so bad, so I told Matt that I wanted to try the full 26.2. He was on board right away! We started planning for the Disney World Marathon (we are Disney junkies after all!). Steph took a little convincing, but we registered in March and started really training in August. It seemed like we were training forever, and 20 mile training runs are hard to do during the holidays when it is freezing outside, but all of a sudden it was here!

Steph and I had seriously slacked off during the last 6 weeks of training, so I don't feel like we were as well prepared as we could have been. 22,000 people started the marathon, but only 15,000 completed it! I'm pretty proud that I crossed the finish line and got my Mickey Mouse shaped medal!

Matt was about an hour faster than us, so he didn't take any pictures. Steph and I took the camera, and all along the course there were characters to take your picture with! And yes, Steph and I wore our Mouse Ears! It was so much fun! We will definately do it again in the future.

What is super exciting to me is that Tristan and Preston are growing up with running/exercise as a normal part of their lives. Tristan says that she can't wait to run the marathon, or the turkey trot, or whatever with me. And really, I can't wait either! On Thanksgiving day in Fort Worth this year Matt's dad joined the two of us in the Turkey Trot. Hopefully in a few years we can make it a three generation run!

This new laptop is beating me down!!!

OK, so I know that I have been super bad about upkeeping this blog all fall. We've been busy, and Preston has taken to only napping a few days a week! Then, a couple weeks before Thanksgiving, our computer crashes, breaks, or whatever you want to call it when it is working fine, and then you come back into the room to the smell of burnt plastic and it won't turn on again! A little frustrating to say the least. We tried getting it fixed and then ended up getting a great deal on a new laptop right before Christmas.

Well, I am used to my desktop and having a full size keyboard and mouse. Plus, I'm not used to all the functions that my new machine will do. Anyway, I was going to start blogging back with Auntie's wedding, and had it all done up, pictures and all, when I accidentally hit something while typing on this stupid keyboard and deleted the whole thing. It's getting late, so I figure I'll just start up with the marathon posting. Same thing happened.

Now I know that all of you are laughing, because you use nothing but a laptop and never have this happen to you, but it is beating me down! On top of that, Ikeep hitting something that opens up a new tab in my browser, while I'm trying to type, or something that shrinks my screen! It's like I need laptop keyboarding for dummies! Of course I have my old keyboard, but it would be way to easy if I could just plug it in! I told Matt that for Valentine's day I want a real keyboard and mouse to use with this computer!

Well, while I have been typing this rant, I have opened a new tab four times and shrunk my text twice. At least I enlarged it once (somehow) so I can still mostly read it. Forgive me if I mispell, it's almost too small to read! I will sign off for now, before it gets any worse, and do my best to update the blog tomorrow! Happy new year to everyone!

Halloween

Here are a couple of quick pics from Halloween. One of Preston's favorite movies is the Wizard of Oz. So he wanted to be a scarecrow. He loves hats, but he refused to wear the hat! Tristan wanted to be Tinkerbell, but the costume I bought was too scratchy, so we enlisted Grandma's help. As Tristan was consulting with her she decided to go with a Sleeping Beauty dress instead. After all, it was pink! She loves it and wears it all the time!

Zoo Trip

Okay, so I have been a super slacker with this blog lately! When we got back from Hawaii, I went to download my pictures and realized I hadn't done it since August!!! So, I will be trying to post several months of outings in the next few days!

I had misplaced my camera during Tristan's birthday party, so I'll have to get pictures from family for that! It's like I am falling apart all of a sudden!

Anyhow, the weekend of September 6th we went to Fort Worth for Auntie Amanda's wedding shower. On Sunday before we headed back we went to the zoo with Coici Amy, Noah, and Jamison. We hadn't been to the zoo in a year and a half, so this time Preston really enjoyed all the animals! It was great to get to do something fun with the cousins!

My Baby is 2

These are not the best pictures, but I took mostly video with my camera, and I don't have everyone else's pics yet. I can't believe that my baby is not a baby anymore! We had a small family party last weekend since Saturday the 9th was his actual birthday. We had a blast! Tristan got to share in his celebration because we are having a big combined party over labor day weekend. I'll try to get some better stuff posted later!

Crazy Weather

Crazy is a very good explanation of the weather in the Texas panhandle. We knew that there would be some storms today, but this one came up on us suddenly with very heavy golf ball size hail!

Luckily, my kids are not scared at all of storms. Tristan said it looked like snow and wanted to go make a snowman. She kept asking me if the hail stopped and there was no thunder could she play in the rain? "Of course," I said. (We play in the rain all the time!)

Preston wasn't concerned at all except for one thing...the knocking sound. Large hail on your roof really does sound like someone knocking on your door, only it's your roof! He wasn't scared at all, he just kept saying, "Mommy, knock, knock...the door!" As if he was trying to say, "Can't you hear that!?! Answer the door!!"

We were very lucky, no broken windows and very little damage. Our siding, gutters, and even plants faired pretty well! Praise to the Lord for protecting us! Others in town were not so lucky. I guess it's a good thing that my trees aren't very big!

wnw

More Alaska

Here are a few more shots of our trip to Alaska! Tristan is still talking about going back. We told her it will probably be a long time before we go there again, but she has some pretty good trips coming up in the near future! I keep telling Matt that we need to make a trip to New York (not so secretly I would love to take Tristan to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway!) In a six month span we will go to Alaska, Hawaii, and Florida. We need to get the other corner of the country! He keeps saying no, and he'll probably win this one!

As for the pictures...you can see how much we enjoyed "exploring" as Tristan called it! And, by the end of the trip, Preston was so tired that he actually fell asleep by himself in the chair during dinner! Bless his heart! We push them so hard, and they are really just angels!