For the Love of Running

I HATE running. I always have. No matter how much one tried to convince me about "how great it is for you", "you just have to get past your 'wall'" or "it is fun once you get the hang of it," I always laughed and thought, "ya right!" I just never understood how people could run for fun. It hurts your feet, back, lungs. On the other hand, people never understood how I could swim lap after lap after lap. I guess everyone has their niche.

Well, recently in my trying to reach my goal weight mode, I have been walking and now starting to run the hills of Pepperdine's campus. For anyone who has been to Pepperdine knows that that is not a small task. Little by little I found myself getting better and being able to go farther with out fighting the urge to pass out and die on the street from lack of oxygen. So the other day I thought I should try the track just to see how I do there since it is easy to measure distance. I ran 6 miles ... and I didn't die!!!! I couldn't believe it! Better yet, I probably could have ran more except I had to go back home so I could take Isaac to a birthday party.

I have NEVER ran 6 miles. The farthest I have ever ran was 4 and that was once in my life and only because I was mad at Jim and didn't want to get off the treadmill to talk to him. So now that I ran that far, I am hoping to run maybe 7 or 8 miles on Saturday. (I have been running a couple times a week short distances). If I can do that and continue my runs when I go visit family, maybe I can actually run a half marathon by the time summer is over. It actually is starting to seem somewhat realistic to me. I am keeping my fingers crossed and I am hoping that my new found love for running continues and I keep impressing myself because it is such a great feeling and accomplishment not to mention a bonus with all the calories I burn! I know that many of you readers are runners and have ran 6 miles or more, but hey, wish me luck on this new adventure.

Hotness

Disney Disappointment

I don't know why the pictures keep coming up sideways.




On Friday we went to Disneyland because we had tickets to the new show, World of Color. We were looking forward to celebrating our 6 year wedding anniversary a day early with the kids to watch the show. It was AMAZING!!!! I would love to go and watch it again! Below are some video however, they do not do it justice...not even a little bit!

Another thing the Disney is promoting in California Adventure park for the summer is Glowfest. At 8:15 nightly during the summer they turn the Hollywood Back lot section of the park into a dance party. There is a DJ, neon lights, dancers on mini stages and...TONS of alcohol tents!!! What the heck, Disney? The dance party is fine and I think people will enjoy it but come on, 4 or 5 alcohol tents squeezed into the one small section of a street? We found the smell of alcohol completely disturbing as we were walking with our kids down the back lot in the stroller. I LOVE Disney and what they stand for but this is totally inappropriate at a park when families are supposed to come first. In my opinion, if one wants to drink and dance, that is what House of Blues is for and the many clubs in L.A., not Disneyland. It is an environment that I do not think is appropriate for children and I don't think that I will be going back to that park until the summer is over. I formally filed a complaint at Guest Relations in the park and then called Guest Communications this morning to "officially" file a complaint. I told them that if this was the direction that Disney is going, then it is really sad and that they should plan on losing revenue from us since we do not plan on re-newing our annual passports if they go into the alcohol/club direction. I have never been so disappointed with them. It really is sad that they have such an AWESOME new show and then Glowfest.





Glowfest.. I have some pictures that I will post later since it is not working at the moment. Again, the dancing and stuff is fine, it is the alcohol that has to go!

Sweet Elizabeth

Our sweet Elizabeth will be 11 months on Friday. I can't believe it! We are having so much fun watching her grow. She is so sweet and LOVES Isaac. One of the many things they like to do together is make each other laugh and take showers together since we don't have a bathtub. It is so sweet to hear each other giggling. She crawls all over the place and can walk holding on to things. She can also stand by herself but once she realizes it, she plops right back down to her bum. She prefers not to eat baby food and would rather eat "real people food" that has flavor. She loves sitting on Daddy's lap while he reads her a story and always knows that if he has treats, he will give her some. She is also a comedian and really enjoys making people laugh however, she has no problem pointing her finger and rattling off a bunch a gibberish in a firm tone if she is un-happy or wants something. She is also a Mama's girl through and through and has gotten back her cuddles. We love her so much and can't wait to see her grown even more.

Swimming

The weather is getting warmer so we took the kids swimming at Pepperdine's pool yesterday. Both Isaac and Elizabeth have such a great time in the water! Both kids were going underwater but Isaac was going under by his choice. I would love to take the kids a couple of times a week and I am sure as summer goes on, we will. Isaac is getting a little bit more daring every time we go. This time he decided that he could jump off teh side by himself and land under the water.

3 weeks

I know that we are in need of an update, so here we are. The computer had a virus which put a halt on any post for a while but now that it is gone, I write again.

A lot has happened in the 3 weeks since we have been back but it feels like nothing has happened as well. We have been enjoying our family time together with the warm weather. We have been taking the kids to the park, swimming and kite flying just to name a few. Our old Bishop and his family from Utah came down to Disneyland and we were able to meet up with them and their 3 kids for a fun day. Isaac had so much fun being there with kids his age and us adults had fun talking with one another and watching the kids have such a great time.

We also took another Disneyland trip when our friends from SF called us to tell us they were coming that night to go to DL the next day. We were so happy they called. Neither one of them had been there before so we had a great time showing them around.

Jim got an internship with Pioneer Industries doing a marketing/consulting job. It is perfect because he is paired with another Pepperdine MBA intern and since they both live in Malibu, they can work from there on the project that was assigned with only going into the office once a week! We, as a family, were thrilled about that. Right now Jim is actually in Ohio doing some training for Pioneer Industries but will be back in a few days.

Isaac is still enjoying pre-school and I know that he will be crushed when he realizes he only has 4 days left. He loves learning and playing with his friends. I know that he will miss it so Jim and I signed him up for Vacation Bible School at the end of this month.

Well, that is about it in our house besides a few head colds and the stomach flu.