Mt. Lemmon Marathon!

Did y'all know that my sister is nutty? She is.

She orchestrated (beautifully, I might add) the Vail School District team to run in the inaugural Mt. Lemmon marathon/half-marathon.

I like to think that I am not nutty. When I first heard about this race, I thought anyone who signed up would have to be out-of-their-minds.

Nope, not nutty. But I guess I am easily persuaded though.

As Chelsea was recruiting runners for the event, sending persuasive emails, getting sponsors, and making me feel lazy, I gave in and signed-up. I think it was the idea of the long-sleeve finishers shirt that really lured me in.

All of us crazies started running up the mountain at 6:00 AM. Three hours and ten minutes later I crossed the finish line:

Some hi-lights from the day (other than finishing, of course):

• Our fellow French Toasts, with cowbell of course, cheering for us along the way at at the finish line.
• Watching Andy (another French Toast) finishing the FULL!
• Finishing 1 minute ahead of Chelsea after running together for over 12 miles (sorry, Chels, it's all physics)
• The ridiculously good breakfast at the Cookie Place
• Putting on the finishers shirt!
• James being announced as the winner of the FULL when he did the HALF (okay...I didn't actually hear this because I was 5 minutes behind James but I know it happened and it makes me giggle.
• Finishing before the winner of the FULL (by about 3 minutes).
• Our fellow French Toasts being there for support! (I know I already mentioned it, but it was truly amazing to have them there.)

Up next - Vegas, Baby!

Our 3 Year Anniversary!

Stevie and I were married on October 12th, 2007 in a beautiful ceremony at SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in front of 275 of our closest friends and family!

So Tuesday was our 3 year anniversary! We celebrated by going to dinner at The Melting Pot while my parents took care of Shyla at our house.

Our beautiful girl!

Disneyland 2010!

Whew! We are back from the epic Disneyland 2010 trip! It was AWESOME! We were gone for 5 days spending 3 days in the Happiest Place on Earth.

3:30 AM Sunday Morning we pulled out of our driveway with a 4-car caravan. The caravan, however, wouldn't last long as certain individuals had to stop to go to the bathroom.

Sunday afternoon we checked into our hotel (we had an adjoining room with Chelsea's family) and we got Dan and Erin checked into their hotel as well.

Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

Shyla found this Goofy sculpture, in the lobby of Grandma and Grandpa's hotel, to be fascinating. Even as he was eating her head!
Lilly got a phone call from Micky and Minnie Mouse on Sunday evening! All she could tell them was that she was eating pizza. Classic.
We all got welcome gifts from Micky Mouse (thanks Dan and Erin)!

And we spent the rest of Sunday evening just playing in the hotel room! Boy were we hyper!

Monday morning we entered the park!

Shyla was overwhelmed, but she was a very good traveler and had a lot of fun!

Toon Town with God-Parents Dan and Erin!

For the first 2 days at the parks, Shyla was stuck to me. She didn't want to be in her stroller and she didn't want to be held by anyone else and she didn't want to be in the Ergo-Carrier. Just me. I love that. But my back hurt and my arms were tired.

In Minnie's house she made herself comfortable by sitting in all her furniture and playing her piano.
Then, while posing for a picture with Minnie, she hit her. Yep, that's right. My sweet, innocent, loving 16 month old baby hit Minnie Mouse straight across the nose. I was mortified. Minnie took it in stride though.

In retrospect, I realize that I didn't prepare Shyla for the trip. I never showed her pictures of the characters or TV shows or stuffed animals. So, I guess I don't blame her for striking out against the giant mouse wearing clothes. Who could blame her? I blame me.

Often, after doing something bad, Shyla will give this I'm-so-cute pose. I think we are in trouble as she gets older.

On Monday evening my parents took Shyla and Zac back to the hotel to bathe them, let them play, and put them to bed. This meant that Stevie, Dan, Erin, and I had about 1.5 hours to do whatever we wanted.

It led to Captain EO and Splash Mountain....
three times in a row! We were drenched!

On Tuesday my mom bought Mouse Ears for all the kids. I wore Shyla's for this picture and had to beg Lilly to take a picture with me.

Lilly met Chip and Dale! Notice, she didn't hit either of them!

Also on Tuesday, while I was in the hotel room with a napping Shyla, a particularly funny thing happened. Stevie, Dan, and Erin got stuck on Mulholland's Mayheim. For a long time. They eventually had to be escorted off the ride. Oh yea, and it was raining the whole time! So you'll notice in the picture above Erin is wearing some dry clothes of mine. But, they got a pass for 6 to the front of any line and used it at The Tower of Terror with Jeremy, Chelsea, and my dad.

While my mom and I waited for them, it poured. And poured. And poured. We ended up racing through the rain with the 3 kids (mine in my arms) to her hotel to put the babies in a warm bath to warm them up.

Tuesday evening we had to say goodbye to Dan and Erin. We SO appreciate them making the trip with us and for being so patient with the little babies and the big babies.

Wednesday morning arrived and it poured. And poured. And poured.

We debated skipping Wednesday at the park and extending our trip by one day (which is what Chelsea's family decided to do) but instead we took my parents up on their offer to babysit Shyla while we braved the weather. We were really happy with our decision: For a few hours Stevie and I enjoyed both parks together in our ponchos, there were no lines, and we did every attraction we could have wanted to do.

Around 2:00 the skies cleared resulting in a beautiful day! My parents brought Shyla to us and we spent the rest of the afternoon with them all! It was SO MUCH FUN!

By this point, Shyla was feeling very comfortable with this Disneyland thing. She and Grandpa walked Main Street together, hand-in-hand.
And she found the balloon lady! She thought this balloon lady was the bee's knees! My mom bought her a giant Minnie Balloon. When it deflates we will put it up on her wall and hopefully avoid another Minnie fiasco in future years.

Shyla loved It's a Small World! We did it twice in a row!

She really loved the carousel. She did it four times! And she laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
And F for Forgacs (don't ask Stevie what it stands for). Shyla loved these giant letters. She would run in circles around them and play peek-a-boo.

In every aspect this trip was an A+ Success!

In addition to Small World and the Carousel, Shyla also did a lot of other rides:

• Buzz Lightyear
• The Train
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Alice in Wonderland
• Dumbo
• Heimlicks
• Flick's Flyers
• Bug's Life

We took 132 good pictures so this is just a sampling. Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible!

Shyla goes to the Dentist!

This has been my first week of Fall Break!

Fall Break, as you know, means sleeping in late, lounging poolside, and catching up on trashy soap operas.

NOT!

That's right, I said "NOT" like it's 1993!

In my life Fall Break means teaching intersession math, working on DFAT stuff, going to the dentist, going to the eye doctor, taking Shyla to the dentist, going to my physician, taking Pancake to the vet, and cleaning the house.

So far I have:

• been teaching intersession - it's going well but I am relieved that tomorrow is the last day
• working on DFAT stuff - and feeling rather productive with it
• gone to the dentist (still no cavities and baby teeth still look good!)
• gone to the eye doctor (reading glasses here I come)
• and this afternoon I took Shyla to the dentist

Even though she's only 16 months old, we thought it was a good idea to establish dental care. We are paying for her dental insurance and it is SILLY and WASTEFUL to pay for insurance and not get your 2 free cleanings and exams each year (hint, hint, Stevie).

I called around and got a recommendation to this Pediatric Dental Office:

They were wonderful and I was super impressed! There was even a welcome sign with all the kids names on it:

The whole office is jungle themed. While in the waiting room (although they were ON TIME) we shook hands with some stuffed animals.

And made funny faces in this mirror.
And, of course, drank some juice under the shade of the (unpictured) inside tree.
When we went back we met the doctor who was SUPER nice! She examined Shyla's teeth and mouth, flossed them, and put orange flouride on them.

She said everything looks great and she was glad we started her care at such a young age. Overall it was a good experience for both of us.

If you have kids and you don't have a good pediatric dentist, I highly recommend this one!

Now I am off to continue enjoying the leisures of my fall break.

Beth's Baby Shower

Beth and I have been best friends since college when we played softball for Pima. We lived together (with Stevie) for years and when Stevie and I got engaged she decided to move out (it was a sad day). But, she had already met Dave who would soon become her husband and now, here we are 6 years later, still BFFs, and she is soon to have Shyla's BFF, Sadie.

I was honored to co-host her baby shower (especially since she wouldn't let us throw her a bridal shower) with her sister, Abbie, and her mom.

She is due October 22 which is fitting because her birthday is October 19, mine is October 23, and Stevie's is October 26. Secretly I am hoping she is born on the 20th (to fit the theme) or the 23rd!

This delicious cake was made from scratch by one of Beth's Mom's friends. She doesn't do this for a living, but she should! Don't you think?

Beth, Dave, and Sadie were definitely showered with gifts. That is going to be one well-dressed little girl!
Beth and Dave - a beautiful couple! Sadie is going to be just gorgeous!

Beth with her sister, Abbie!

And the happy couple again!

Beth - thank you for letting us throw your shower and I hope it was exactly what you wanted! We are so happy for you and we can't wait to meet Baby Sadie and welcome you into this crazy wonderful world of parenthood!

A Playground in our Neighborhood!

As you know we recently moved. We love our new neighborhood! We also loved our old neighborhood...but this one is better! More on that in a moment...

As many of you also know, my blood pressure has been high (much-too-high) since going on bed-rest before Shyla was born. One reason for that could be my lack of exercise (yes, I know there are 2 half-marathons I am supposed to be training for).

Thus, happily, Pancake and I are reinstating our every-morning and some-evening walks. I am now waking up at 4:45 and skipping the blow-dryer to accomplish this, but my slowly decreasing blood pressure thanks me.

Okay, back to our new neighborhood. Our neighborhood is great for walking because it sits right on the "River Walk." A few days ago, while walking on the River Walk, I noticed a small playground, kind of in the middle of nowhere. I can't tell which neighborhood it belongs to but there is no fence around it, so this afternoon Shyla, Pancake and I headed out to play!

Nice huh? And it only took us about 7 minutes to walk there!

And they have baby swings which Shyla loves!

And she climbed up the equipment all on her own!

And Pancake climbed with her!

Shyla had a GREAT time. Perhaps too much, though. Because at 5:45 when it was time to go home and eat dinner, she went crazy. She threw a bit of a tantrum and fought me getting her into the stroller and then tried to jump out of the strolled nearly the whole way home. It was exhausting. Other than that, though, it was a great outing!

And my dear, sweet Pancake was SUCH a good girl! Although it would be nice to have another hand there (especially while trying to take pictures), I was able to drop her leash and she stayed by us the whole time. Pancake is an amazing dog who we all just love! I'm glad to be taking her on daily walks again because it's our-time together and I know it makes her happy.

We look forward to many more trips to the playground!

Our New Kitchen!

My husband has done a ton of work at our new house!

When we bought our new house, this is what the kitchen looked like. Notice the ugly "antiqued" cabinets, the white laminate countertops, and the weird/unnecessary thing hanging down above the island.

My husband did a ton of work in the kitchen.

Wait for it....

Wait for it....

Tada! Our new kitchen! Notice the lovely white cabinets, the beautiful granite countertops, and the two drop-down lights that replaced the weird thing.

Having a handy husband is a beautiful thing.