Princess Half Marathon

The weekend I have been waiting for has finally come.

Princess Half Marathon!!!

My friend and I went up together on Saturday - our race was Sunday.

Packet pickup wasn't so bad....

But then the Expo - that was fun! 

Of course they never had anything I wanted... not my shirt....not my Ariel shoes...

see?? even the display was gone!!

Then it was time for dinnnnner!  We left and went to Disney Springs (the former Downtown Disney). We ate at the Boathouse. It was really good!!  The night before a big run, you're supposed to eat pasta, but it goes against every grain in my body... which is odd because I used to be ADDICTED to pasta! Every meal I ate was pasta, but since I've changed my eating habits, I have just kind of stayed away from pastas and breads....BUT, I gave in.... and it was SO good. But so were their fish tacos.

My friend had her carbs in the form of truffle fries. Um. Yum!

Back to the hotel room to get everything laid out for the race the next day. We were in bed by 8:00. haha. No problems falling asleep either.

The next morning, our alarms went off at 3:50 AM...

Yes, 3:50 AM

Crazy. For real.

But, we were out of the door by 4:30 and ready to go!

Arriving at Disney, before the crack of dawn. The race started at Epcot. I have no idea where though. Once we parked, they walked us about 3 miles to the corrals...and it was dark, and everything was different since they had tents and barricades up. 

Waiting in our corral....

here we go!

Just a few THOUSANDS of people crazy enough to run this race.

They had fireworks go off for every corral.

Our turn!!

I'm not sure how many miles it was before we saw the entrance to Magic Kingdom...maybe 2 or 3??

They had either performers or DJs every so often. It was so fun!

My friend, Shushana... she was so great to stay back with me. I know she has been wanting to get finished with a half marathon in under 2 hours... and with me, she was way down to 2:30, but I had a lot of fun...and motivation with her!

When we turned the corner and saw the castle, it was kind of an emotional sight... you got goose bumps...even though I've seen this castle a BAZILLION times with as much as we've been to Disney, something about it just put the spark in you. 

On the other side, there was the Frozen characters. and it was "snowing!"

Mile 11 - my Ariel!!

Mile 12, we were back at Epcot.... holy crap. just 1 more mile!!!

Photo Op!

Mile 13 - HOLY CRAP !!! We're almost there!!!

We did it!!! I ran my FIRST Half Marathon THE. WHOLE. TIME!!!

Ron made it there in time to see me cross the finish line!!! I was so excited that he was there and found me...and hearing my name being cheered from the side. 

What a great first Half Marathon. I'm pretty excited to get more under my belt!

I need to find a place for my medals... what should I do with them?? I foresee more medals in my future!

Hello, February!

Man, oh, man.... I don't even know where time goes.  We are already halfway through with February!!  Not sure how that happened so quick.

So here's another photo dump, because I've been bad about blogging.

Autumn gets her homework folder at the beginning of the month, and she's always excited about it - so we had to get started right away.... she's doing research on Space right now. haha

Playing with Caroline in the tent....

So....never mind the laundry in these baskets have been washed, dried, and sitting in the baskets for about a week...but now since autumn has used the baskets to contain the siblings, they will now be completely wrinkled clothes. And no. I don't iron, and no, I won't launder them again. So, if we show up to school all wrinkly, everyone will know why. Haha. And no, I didn't take them out to prevent said wrinkling because they were contained....and quiet...and happy.

And then, there was the finger mishap... for real. This is my finger now - all lopsided. Oh well, I guess it could be worse, right!?

And the missing sock dilemma has gotten out of control!! I can not wait for this cold weather to be over so we can go back to flip flops!

Parent teacher conference night happened.... and I brought my workout clothes to do a quick 30 minute workout before the night started. LOVE Beachbody on Demand.

Just some teacher kid shenanigans before school. This the problem with having a firefighter husband... him not getting off until after I'm supposed to be at work already. Let's just say I don't get much done these mornings. haha!

Then there was this little nonscale victory where I got to head to the sports store to UP my weights!

My heavies are now 15s! woop woop! considering that I started with 3s, 5s, and 8s, and now I'm up to 10s, 12.5s, and 15s .... I'm pretty stoked!

Just some afternoon play time in the front yard with my girls.

Funny.. in my FB memories, there was a picture of Brooklynn wearing the same shirt that Caroline was wearing that day. I couldn't resist a side by side. Love my babies!

This day was a day that I took all 3 girls out to run errands because Ron needed some rest time after coming home from a busy night at work.  They were so good that day.. and we had a great time - even out to lunch! My little hams.

I just love how much they love their baby sister.

So, I have a half marathon next weekend.... so I've been trying to do some long runs. I actually got up to 10 miles NONSTOP!! what the what!?  If that's not a nonscale victory, I don't know what is!

ahhh... the joys of making the kids clean up their own mess. It's a never ending battle with trying to keeping the house clean.

Ugh.. and Valentine's cards.  This is one holiday that I could do without, honestly. As a teacher, as a mom, and just in general.

Big kudos to my husband. The amount of cords that consume our kitchen counter bugs me to NO. END. when we redid our kitchen, this side counter (which isn't really used for anything) never had an outlet, only a switch for the light. He finally changed it out to have a socket, and then figured put how to make a makeshift charging station using the plug on the living room wall. I'm pretty excited! Now we don't have to keep changing out our cords and having all the cords take up the counter space! P.s. hes never done electric work, and he MAY have blown up our coffee pot that was on a DIFFERENT outlet, but hey... He did it! Haha #itsthelittlethings #organized #slightlyOCD

Just a little target practice to round out the evening. Lol  This was all Ron, decided to make duck targets and put them on Popsicle sticks. haha And i love how Autumn is in her Camo shirt too.

ahhh.. the sickies have entered our home.... poor Autumn got it first. It has since claimed Ron and now me. Brooklynn and Caroline seem to have dodged it so far.

Speaking of Caroline.. gosh I just want to eat her!

Brooklynn is Bear Cub of the week... They get to take Duffy for the weekend and journal about him... first stop, gymnastics! (I used to do this with my class... Haven't done it the last 2 years though..its so cute how the kids love the animal and HAVE to bring it everywhere)

But it seems that Caroline likes Duffy Bear too!

When you have kids, and your husband works 24 hour shifts, your best friend comes over to do "happy hour" with you and your kids...and that includes doing paper mache!

And lots of other laughs and fun.... love my friends!!

Saturday morning shakeology smile!  This girl screams for my shakes every time I make one...as do the rest of the girls. She is so stinkin' cute - I can't even handle it.

And this girl. GOSH. I was making hotdogs for lunch and she asked if she could do it. "No babe, it's hot water. Not safe for you." Her response?? "But Mom... I can use the tweezers to put it in the pot!" 

Just stop. I can't handle the cuteness.

And then it was a sisterly affair to make the muffins for tomorrow morning breakfast.

Caroline is not very helpful, though. haha

And then it was Ron's turn in the kitchen - it has become tradition for Valentine's Day for him to make chocolate covered strawberries with different toppings. I tell him to keep his money and don't buy the over priced flowers or jewelry... he did this one year and brought them to work for me as a surprise. They were perfect! And that's all I want, every year.

And I will leave you with this beautiful picture of Ron and the girls. The perfect picture of Daddy's little girls and their love for him. I never really knew what it was like to be a Daddy's little girl, but I sure do love watching it with my girls.

Happy weekend, friends!