Right Now I'm Loving...

Need a little inspiration?  I recently stumbled across this You Tube sensation.  Now everytime I need a little boost to get off my butt and run, I watch the video.  You'll need to go to this link and then click on the video.  Enjoy!

Spoooky Mickey!

This morning...

Jeff: How are you feeling?
Me: Okay, better than yesterday.
Jeff: Let's go to Disneyland!

This morning Jeff and I got up early and headed off to Disneyland to get there when it first opened.  Our plan again was to go and spend as little as possible.  We decided we would park in the Downtown Disney parking lot since the first 3 hours were free.  As soon as we parked we took the monorail from Downtown Disney into the park.  This was Jeff's 1st time ever on the monorail. 

Right now Disneyland has decorated for Halloween.  They add a whole bunch of decorations around the park and even revamp some of the rides.  Once inside we went straight to Space Mountain since we heard they had changed the inside to add some special effects.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  FAIL.  Instead we headed over to Haunted House.  Haunted is probably the one ride they go all out on and I love how they change it to look like the Nightmare Before Christmas.  Maybe because it's new but Jeff and I agree that we like it better Halloween style vs regular style. 

After that we decided it was hot enough and empty enough to brave Splash Mountain.  We were standing in the 35 minute wait (not long at all) when someone walked by and said they had 2 extra fast passes.  Score!  We used them and got on in less than 10 minutes.  We thought we were lucky to be sitting in the front.  We both thought for sure the water would just go over us and get the back seats.  WRONG.  Jeff and I were soaked!  You can especially tell by looking at Jeff's shorts.  He's making a face because at the exact time I took this picture, he got splashed by one of the logs going by. 

After Splash Mountain we used our fast passes to go on Indy and then ran over to see if Space Mountain was open.  Sure enough it was and it was only a 25 minute wait.  Perfect since it was now 95 degrees outside.  For Halloween, Space Mountain adds video images of ghosts/skeletans throughout the ride.  Jeff liked it but I thought it was a bit lame.  You could totally tell it was a projection on a screen and didn't really blend into the ride. 

We were cutting it close to our 3 hour limit by then and hitched a ride back on the monorail to Downtown Disney.  We left with about 15 minutes to spare, only spending $6.25 on 2 waters (yeah, I know but we forgot our waters in the car.)  It was a great morning at the "Happiest Place on Earth".

The Race That Wasn't

If you guessed we didn't make it to the Megan Savage 5k...you guessed correct.  We set the alarm to 6:30am this morning to allow time to get up and eat something small before the race.  However when I woke up, my throat was hurting and I could only breathe through one nostril.  I told Jeff what was going on and he said, nope, not going.  He just went through this cold and said it's only going to get worse.  If I had ran, I would have just delayed getting better. 

See Chloe?  She had to be in the picture.  : )

I know it's just a race but I'm really bummed.  How hard is it to put one foot in front of each other and just run?  As soon as I get better, we are going to start slow and make sure we don't do too much to hurt ourselves. 

On the up side...the race cost $25 (each) which is a donation to a good cause-children's cancer research.  Something that has always pulled at me since my brother had cancer when he was only 2-3 years old.  Just the idea that a child has to go through what some adults can't handle is enough to make you want to do what you can to find a cure.  Jeff and I both know that science is making strides and if $50 helps, then yeah for Megan's Wings for collecting the money.

Sick Day

Tomorrow is the Megan Savage 5k that Jeff and I had signed up for back in July.  I was so looking forward to training to be able to run the full 3.1 miles.  However, life doesn't always work out the way we thought.  I went through a couple of minor injuries getting back into running which slowed us down a lot.  I had resolved myself to walking the 3 miles when all of a sudden I come down with a cold.  A sore throat, body achy cold.  What to do?  It'll be a game time decision when we wake up tomorrow.  Cross your fingers I feel better!  :(

Flashback Friday

This is one of the very first pictures of Jeff and I together.  Look how young we look!

LA County Fair

On Saturday, Jeff, Danny, the girls, my Dad and I all went to the LA County Fair.  It was a big occassion as it was the first time both girls went to a day event without their strollers.  Daniel had recently sold them in a garage sale so we were going with the "big girls walk" theme.  We arrived pretty early and each scored pretty good parking.  Our goal was to hit the exhibits, visit the animals and then games and rides. 

We had read that there was a traveling circus, Princess Faire and Jurassic Park exhibit going on so we headed in that direction first.  We came upon the circus first where we saw that they were having elephant rides, train rides and a pony ride.  The girls balked at the elephants (they were large and no one was riding) so we walked down to the pony rides.  BOTH girls (wow Kalea!) wanted to ride so they stood in line and paid for their ticket.  They loved it!  Don't they look cute?

After that adventure, Brooklyn was now couragous enough to ride the elephant.  Kalea decided to opt out - I'm actually thinking her exact words were NOOOOOO.  Danny and Brooklyn rode the elephant together (after a brief time out when the elephant decided to do #1).  Brooky had so much fun that Kalea began to cry she wanted to go.  To distract her, Jeff and Dad took her on the mini train ride where I know she enjoyed herself. 

On our way to the Princess Faire, they had an ice sculpture exhibit for $1 each.  Danny, the girls and myself all went it.  You wrapped a fleece blanket around you and walked through the cool ice sculptures.  It was cold!!!  Cold and cool! 

After that we walked over to the Princess Faire.  They had a cute little play house full with a stove, cupboards and food.  The girls played there for awhile and then Brooky decided to try on the princess dresses.  Honestly, they were gross!  Dirty and I kept imagining all the sick kiddos breathing on them.  She dressed up fast and then disinfected with some antibacterial.  The girls made little foam crowns that they ended up wearing for part of the afternoon. 

After that we walked over to the Jurassic Park exhibit where both girls needed to be reminded that they were indeed fake dinosaurs and not going to eat them.

We then walked over to the animals where Kalea enjoyed herself way more that last year.  Last year she was miserable and kept holding her nose saying "stinky!".  This time she did not complain about the smell once and even tried to pet the animals through the gates.  At one point during the bunnies, Brooky shouted "Next time we should surprise Aunty Shasha with a new bunny".  Ahh Brooky!  So cute. 





By this time the girls were wearing down.  Kalea had been carried on an off and Brooklyn had started to sweeten Uncle Jeff up enough to get shoulder rides.  We played a few games and went on a few rides.  My eldest niece lived up to being a big girl and went on a pretty adventerous ride by herself for the first time.  So proud of you big girl!  After that we called it a day.  Kalea sums it all up!  Literally fell asleep purposefully using her duck as a pillow.  We missed you Aunty Shannon!  Hopefully this gives you a good idea of how it all went down!

Flashback Friday

One of the things I look forward to in fall is the LA County Fair.  Jeff and I have gone almost every year together.  Unfortunately last year my dear husband had to sit it out since he had just had kidney stone surgery.  We plan on going tomorrow so as a kick-off, here is a picture of Jeff from 2007.  What?  He's holding a baby there too???? 

Disneyland Take Two

Jeff and I are so meant to be. Before I could ask him to skip out on riding, he had already cancelled and announced we were going to Disneyland. Love that man! We headed out to Disneyland early this morning with a goal of getting there when it first opened. We were one week early for the Halloween decorations but they had some up for the ride into the park. Side note: when did the tram operators gain personalities? Ours was funny in a sarcastic way. Once we were in the park we got on Pirates and Big Thunder. We were a little bummed because Space Mountain and Indy were both down but oh well, we have a year to catch them. After that we went over to California Adventure and rode some of the rides there.



We ended up hitting 5 rides before we left around 12:30pm. AND, we spent less than $10 there. Hahahaha Disneyland! (Thanks Morgan for the free parking pass!)

Stop! Jeff Is Holding A Baby

Our Saturday started early when we took Shannon to the airport to catch her flight to SF. Chad had heard of a good deal when signing up with Navy Federal so we drove down to Costa Mesa and signed us all up. It sounds pretty boring but you'll never guess what happened while we were there...Jeff held Noelle for the first time. I quickly grabbed my phone to record the moment. No one would believe it otherwise!





After that we grabbed some lunch at Stonefire Grill. It was my first time there and it was delicious! We split a pesto pizza, chicken tortilla soup and a rib-eye salad.

After the drive home, Danny, Brooklyn and Kalea came over for a bit. Kalea is finally at that age where she can now use the camera. She took a ton of random artsy pictures that weren't half bad for a 3 year old.





I'm trying to convince Jeff to skip his ride tomorrow so we can go to Disneyland. Wish me luck!

PS The Disneyland pictures are now up, click here to see them.
PSS My mom just text me that she is sitting 2 tables away from Robin Williams. She said she is totally staring!

Flashback Friday

This picture is of me and Jeff at my college graduation. Jeff suprised me with an Edible Arrangement of chocolate covered strawberries and made sure my graduation day was special. It was a busy weekend, Crystal had just graduated and a few days before and then Chad graduated the next day! Go CSUF!

Brooklyn's 1st Day of School

Today was Brooklyn's 1st day of kindergarten. My baby niece is getting so old. She spoke with Danny this morning and he said she sounded very excited. I'm sure to get a full recap this weekend. Love you Brooky!

Disneyland #1

Jeff and I made the very spontaneous decision to purchase Disneyland annual passes. I have been talking about them ever since they introduced their payment plan option. On Friday, my wonderful husband finally agreed to buy them.

We decided to go today for our first trip together. Uh, hello, why didn't anyone tell us it was Labor Day weekend still? We got there around 11:30ish and the parking structure was already full and they were re-routing us to park in Downtown Disney. We finally got in and went straight to California Adventure to get my pass. The first ride we went on as passholders was California Screamin. After that we ate lunch and then used our Fast Pass to get on Tower of Terror. We then trekked it over to Disneyland to finish our day. Doesn't the husband look cute?


Once there we went waited in the 20 minute line for Pirate's. After that we bought Shannon's requested rice krispie treat and headed home. Trip 1 was crowded but at least we have the next 364 days to try again. Next time, when it's less crowded!