I should have just saved this until tomorrow then it would have been a 7 day anniversary of completing the race. I didn’t get a PR…didn’t even stay close to my existing PR. I even gained a minute from my pooty performance at the Tinkerbell Half this January. BLEAH! Guess I need some motivation –
You gotta love the creativity behind those eCards. Not sure if I totally need to have the bloody knife – the clown alone would freak me enough to make my legs keep moving while my brain kept telling them to slow down. I did get my Coast to Coast medal at the end, pretty dang cool.
I promised you all a photo montage of the race and our family trip to Florida – so here it is. Enjoy – we sure did. 🙂
This was the first trip to Disneyworld for 13yo and 11yo. Sometimes it was hard to figure out if they were having a good time or not. Teen & Pre-teen boys are on their own communication wave length. HunBun gets more out of 13yo than I can…11yo likes to talk about randomness all the time so I have the patience to figure my way through and out of conversations with him. 😀
13yo’s favorite park was Epcot. He loved the countries and Living with the Land. He wants to be a scientist of some sort when he grows up. I keep reminding him that Disney has really cool intern opportunities, so maybe when he’s old enough he’ll get into Disney (so I can reap all the benefits of 13yo being a future employee – WHEEE!)
11yo’s favorite park was Animal Kingdom and Epcot too. They both loved visiting all the countries – although we didn’t get to all of them even with being at the parks for 5 days. Weird.
We spent a day and a half at the Magic Kingdom. There is a lot of similarity between Disneyland in California and the MK in Florida. We do like the Haunted Mansion better in MK – the entrance is super cool and we totally loved the Escher-esque stairwells. We took the boys to the Hall of Presidents – HunBun and I think that’s a great “ride” that has a great place to wait when you’re trying to escape the parade crowds.
Yes. That’s me and the 13yo at MK. Sometimes I can’t even believe how tall he is. I have to remind myself he’s still my baby. 🙂
It was a great mini-vacation for us. If you go to Disney World be sure to download the Disney My Experience app for your phone or iPad (although I think lugging an iPad around would be annoying after a while). It’s like a lot of apps where you can see ride wait times and places to eat – the bonus is that if you sign in you can make dining reservations. It was really helpful since the first time we tried to eat in France (Epcot) we were told we needed a reservation – DOH! So I used the app and got us a reservation for the next night, much to 13yo’s great satisfaction.
It’s been a while hasn’t it? I could give you a whole bunch of blah blah blah about why I haven’t posted anything and it may be interesting to some – but would require me to actually stop & think about why I haven’t been posting. To sum it up – I had a lot going on at work…We were getting ready for a family vacation to Florida so I could run at the Disney World Princess Half Marathon… Life was busy.
I have a whole bunch of photos I am going to post up from the trip we took. It was a great time spent with the kids in Disney World. Their first trip, my 3rd, HunBun’s 2nd. The weather held out for us until the last day we were in the park – when it started raining in the afternoon while we were in the Magic Kingdom. The rain didn’t last long nor was it very heavy but people sure whipped out their ponchos like they were going to melt. Of course everyone in the family had hats on their heads except for me…so I just trudged through the drizzle. Good think I wasn’t wearing a white shirt that day – HA!
Although I didn’t get my PR at this race I didn’t do too badly – and I still had fun. It was nice to run in a different place this time and I will say I did have to adjust a bit to the heat & humidity. The one thing nice about running in Florida was that I was not cold during the long wait for the start. I did decide that I am going to get more serious about my training plans for these runs. I have renewed my commitment to speed drills, tempo drills, fartleks and what ever else I read up on in the running magazines and blogs. I’m also doing more about my approach to eating. Although it is relatively healthy, I am going to expend more control over my snacking. I love me some salty chips….so am going to explore the variety of flavors of homemade Kale chips and store bought crunchy nori sheets.
Anyhoo. Got a lot of work emails to get through – only did about 1/2 yesterday and I got a lot of planning to get through for some organizational changes I’m instituting in my team (doesn’t that sound exciting? 🙂 )
One nice by product of our family trip to Florida? 12yo has been getting up at 6am – instead of his normal 640am…so he’s been on time to leave for school and I’ve not had to pester him to get a move on. Sweet!
I’ll post those pictures up as a wordless montage…
Oh yeah…DISNEYLAND! We’re so ridiculous I know. 🙂 HunBun was down south for a work meeting all last week so he suggested I fly down Friday after dropping 12yo off at school for a quick weekend trip. I of course said “eeeeeeee” – then got mature and said “yes, let me plan that”. I travel a lot for work so was able to use Southwest points for a one-way to Orange County and Hilton points for 2 nights at the Hilton Anaheim. SWEET!
Our first stop once we got in the park was to Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe for their Chicken Salad Sandwich and the Turkey Sandwich with Gluten Free bun for HunBun. They have the best kettle chips – so thick and crispy. YUM!
I grabbed a picture from foodspotting since I crammed that thing in my piehole so fast I didn’t even think of docu-blogging it in a picture. Of course HunBun got all annoyed at the lady at the counter – if you get gluten free anything at the park be prepared to wait at least 10-15 minutes for your food after you order it; well he went to check on his sandwich and she completely ignored him while helping everyone else – as he sees his sandwich sitting right next to her. So he finally says, “um excuse me – but I’m waiting for my sandwich right there” and she says “oh, well I’ve been waiting for you to come back”. (Insert angry fist shaking here). It’s little stuff like those things that make having dietary restrictions such a pain in the patootie when you leave your house. So after that awesome start we headed off to my favorite ride – of like ever…
Nightmare Before Christmas style. Whee!
We rode this one 3x in a row before getting on some other stuff they got over there. HA! Indiana Jones was closed – refurbishing or something or other – big sign on the fencing said it’ll be back Winter 2012. Our Jungle Cruiser was really punny on the trip – it’s always nice when they go off script a little to include what’s happening in the boat. The ones who just recite the puns and jokes get a little boring.
I just can’t ride Space Mountain or Star Tours anymore – I try – then regret my attempt as soon as they start the rides up. I seriously have to keep my eyes closed and my mouth clamped shut or else the folks around me will be hating life…and me until they can buy a new change of clothes and some water for their hair. I did try Expedition Everest when we went to DisneyWorld this summer – bad move on my part. I can do Tower of Terror though – so bizarre. So unless 10yo comes with us, HunBun is relegated to all the easy rides unless he goes by himself.
Disneyland wasn’t very crowded for being a Friday afternoon. We got on all the rides we wanted to with very little to no waits. We usually FastPass rides while we wait in the lines – so we get a FastPass for Haunted Mansion then wait in line to ride. By the time we get through the line it’s time to use our FastPass. So smart right? 🙂
I spotted this on the “Times flyer”… and that dictated where we were spending Saturday morning.
Yep. We spent the morning over in California Adventure instead. Since that park doesn’t open really early we got to sleep in a little before heading over for a day of line-standing. We got into the park relatively quickly (because you know time is relative in Disney) and while HunBun headed over to the Carsland FastPass line I headed over to get this little beauty…
Marriage made in Heaven
Yes. Starbucks has landed…in California Adventure’s Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe. I got my now go-to drink a Soy Misto along with a cup of berries to go with my Cashew Cookie Larabar. Got to get at least 1 “good for you” meal in a day while on vacation. I grabbed HunBun a Skinny Caramel Machiatto…to which he said “oh, you should have just grabbed me a coffee” (insert angry fist shaking here) 🙂
So now we had time to kill and rides to find until our 1220-120 FastPass window opened for Radiator Springs Racers. The park was not crowded at all! We jumped on ride after ride and even gave The Little Mermaid ride another chance (not for us). We just think they could have done so much more with that ride than what it is…
For lunch we ate at Award Weiners where I tried the FrankenWeenie.
Disneygeek.com
It was tasty…but looks very Frankenstein-ish. I thought I was going to have a massive belly ache after eating it but it wasn’t so bad – must be the bacon right?!? Of course no photo – BOOT! So I stole one of the interweb from the OCRegister.
Doesn’t that look healthy? Not really.
Right after we ate our weiners we walked past Tower of Terror to get to Carsland to use our FastPass and saw that ToT only had a 13 minute wait (spooky). So we jumped on and I screamed as we went up then down then up then down then down then up then down….. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
Even with a FastPass you still have to wait in line to ride the Radiator Springs Racers…BUT the line employee up front asked for 2 people and we jumped! They directed us to fill in a car for someone who was in a wheelchair…and while we were waiting we noticed a Disney employee with a visitor. Well it was one of those Backstreet Boys (the dark haired one)!
It was this one – Kevin
Then as we were leaving Carsland we saw him again with the other guy…this one.
We knew his name – Brian
We didn’t take photos…cause we didn’t really care (and think that’s rude). Although I did make a funny (I thought so) post about seeing them and that they were “Incomplete”. Get it? Like their song…Incomplete? Bwahahahah!
We wandered around California Adventure until about 230 then headed over to Disneyland where hopefully the taping of the Christmas Parade was winding up. Instead of wading our way through the crowds lined up along Main Street U.S.A we jumped on the train and rode our way to New Orleans Square to hit up the Haunted Mansion, again! For those of you who haven’t seen it decorated for the holidays…here’s a vicarious ride along for you!
We did a FastPass line wait/ride again. It was so crowded at the park and I don’t think just because of that parade taping. So we stopped at Mint Julep Bar so I could eat some Mickey shaped beignets and stare at people (I mean people watch). To suit the holiday season, they had pumpkin flavored beignets. I didn’t really taste the pumpkin – they just tasted like a less sweet version of the originals. Didn’t photo (as usual) but this was more because my fingers were covered in crack sugar. So I grabbed a photo from The Disney Food Blog.
From Disney Food Blog
This was my sweet treat from the Parks. I didn’t get a Dole Whip this time, the lines were ridiculous on Saturday and Friday was too chilly to get one.
We did go to Storyteller’s Cafe over at Grand California for dinner Saturday night and ate the buffet. I did grab a bunch of desserts – which my eyes liked more than my belly. I ate so much to the point where I said “if I eat one more bite I will literally puke”. 😦 I had 2 plates: green salad, potato salad, roasted veggies, fruit salad and 2 cups of chicken corn chowder. Then the plates of dessert. Whoo whee! We certainly got our money’s worth there! Took a few photos after the fact, when my brain registered it should’ve done that.
Overall we had a super nice time, just HunBun and me. We left the hotel at 440am to drive home. We got to Anderson’s over in Santa Nella a bit before 9am for our regular breakfast stop. We reached home around noon. Hoorah!
Hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as I did! I’m back to normal living this week – starting a Green Smoothie Challenge (I got from Vedged Out) and hopefully going to yoga every night this week.
So it’s been dead quiet on this bloggedy blog because the whole family was in Disneyland for their Half-Marathon weekend! Wahoo-ey!!!!
I’ve got a bunch of photos to load up for sharing. I haven’t entirely got the hang of mobile posting so I may need to read a primer of some sort. I also don’t fully understand all the fizzy whiz-bangedyness of the iPad (I am using for this post now) so if I want this bloggedy blog to be what I know it can be I gotta get up on it.
Enough moaning and groaning right?!? Think of this as a wet-your-whistle kinda post until I get on the old home PC tomorrow.
By the way, in case you were wondering, I improved my time with a new PR. Da-da-da-dah…..2:11:25 (according to Xact event alerts in my in-bin). Some room for improvement to get to my goal of 2:00, but overall totally stoked I did that well after 3 very early mornings and 2 full days in the parks.
So today is a REST day…it was yet another early wake up for the 6 hour drive home (with a stop at Anderson’s Pea Soup in Santa Nella – best apricot pancake syrup – for brekkie with HunBun, 12yo and 10yo). Catching up on emails, DVR tv and vacation laundry.
Hi! My name is Cathy and I'm working hard to balance health and life. Sometimes it's hard, especially with work, family and my own interests competing to fit into the 24 hours a day we've all been blessed with. This blog is a place where I can share what I'm doing to move - with direction and magnitude...on the vector.
Literature, more than anything inspires me to be the greatest version of myself. Through this blog and my teaching, I hope to share the love of literature that can only come from understanding that great literature is not just read, but demands to be felt.
You gotta love the creativity behind those eCards. Not sure if I totally need to have the bloody knife – the clown alone would freak me enough to make my legs keep moving while my brain kept telling them to slow down. I did get my Coast to Coast medal at the end, pretty dang cool.
11yo’s favorite park was Animal Kingdom and Epcot too. They both loved visiting all the countries – although we didn’t get to all of them even with being at the parks for 5 days. Weird.
We spent a day and a half at the Magic Kingdom. There is a lot of similarity between Disneyland in California and the MK in Florida. We do like the Haunted Mansion better in MK – the entrance is super cool and we totally loved the Escher-esque stairwells. We took the boys to the Hall of Presidents – HunBun and I think that’s a great “ride” that has a great place to wait when you’re trying to escape the parade crowds.
onthevector 