Christmas 2008

My parents came to California for Christmas this year!! This is Randy's first visit to California since I have moved here. He has never really been a big fan of traffic!

They arrived on Christmas Eve and we went straight to Santa Monica Pier for the afternoon. Had an earlier dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Randy's favorite place and then drove up Malibu to get to our house.

Christmas day we just hung around the house and opened presents, ate dinner and went to the beach to check out the ocean.

We went to Universal Studios the day after Christmas...One of Randy' favorite theme parks! It is a lot closer than Disneyland and geared more towards adults. They had Grinchmas going on there and that was a lot of fun to see!!

On Saturday, we headed up to Santa Barbara, Solvang, Firestone Winery and Firestone Brewery. Mom said the winery was her favorite part of the entire trip. Firestone Winery and Firestone Brewery are about five minutes apart, but totally different atmosphere. Ron and Randy did the beer tasting and they both agreed it was the worst beer they have ever had!!

Sunday was the day they all left and the day Kelly started to get sick!! This was a great Christmas and I was so happy that everyone had a great time!

Mom, Randy and Ron doing wine tasting at Firestone Winery

Kelly at Wharf in Santa Barbara

Mom and Kelly on Wharf in Santa Barbara

Kelly, Randy and Mom in front of Universal Studios

Our first REAL Christmas tree!!

Ron, Kelly, Grinch, Mom and Randy!

Kelly with her Mickey Snowman Hat!

Beach Day for the Dogs

We took to the dogs on an beach day not to long ago and they had a blast. Normally we take them to the beach and they are on their leash and run around, but this time...We put them on 20 ft. long ropes and let them run around! They had so much fun and Ron and I never had to get wet!! (Normally Kehau will pull us into the ocean so that she can swim. With the 20 ft. rope, she got to go into the ocean and we got to stay on land!!)

Izzy about to dig!

Kehau on the way home after beach day!

Running back from her ocean swim...55 degree water!!

Deshae Visit

Deshae came down from Texas to visit for Thanksgiving week. We went to Disneyland for the weekend since she has never been to any Disney park. It was all decorated up for Christmas and we had a great time. Ron and her also went to several local attractions; Malibu, Santa Monica Pier. It was a great week and we look forward to her visit again this summer.

Victoria's New Room

With all my training for 1/2 marathons, I go through running shoes like there is no tomorrow. Victoria has found a great use for the shoe boxes...She will use them as her new bedroom until they bust out of the side and then we toss it!! Isn't she so cute!!

SkirtChaser 5K

Nov 1 some friends and I went into LA and did the SkirtChaser 5K on the beach. It was a cool, chilly, rainy morning, but we went away to run in skirts! Overall it was a good race! Good run, good friends and we had some good breakfast in Malibu that morning!!

Kelly, Debbie and Nancy

Disneyland Halloween Time - 2008

It is Halloween Time at Disneyland again. Since Ron is out to sea right now, Mom came in and we went to Disneyland for the holiday event. She has never been to Disneyland before...She has been to Disney World, but not Disneyland.

We arrived Friday, Oct 24 and headed straight to Disneyland! We spend the day there and then went back to the hotel to power nap before we went to Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party! That was so much fun! Like always, they have tons of candy stations all over the party giving out candy to everyone. Tons of photo spots with characters and many rides to keep you busy!

Saturday, we went to Disneyland again and roamed around the park to hit the rides we missed Friday.

It was such a fun weekend and we had a blast just visiting Mickey and his friends!

Mom, Minnie and Kelly

Mom, Goofy and Kelly.

Mom and I with Walt in front of the castle! Mom said it Snow Whites Castle so small compared to Cinderella's Castle in Magic Kingdom.

Mom and I got Scared at Mickey's Party!

Minnie, Kelly, Mom and Mickey at Mickey's Party!

Long Time....

So, we have been SUPER busy the last month or so. Here is what has been going on:

Went to Fort Worth for the Texas A&M vs. University of Miami game. That was fun to spend time with the family and hang out. Ron had never been to the Fort Worth Stockyards, so we took him down there. Went and ate dinner at my ALL TIME FAVORITE chain restaurant now, Texas Roadhouse...Yummy!

Watching the Cattle Run in the Fort Worth Stock Yards.

Mom, me, Dad and Ron at the Texas A&M vs. Miami Game

Went to Miami to visit with Ron's mom. The weather was not that great, so we didn't get any good pictures from that visit.

I recently did a career change. I am currently a Contract Specialist for the Department of Navy. It is very exciting and very scary to do a career change, but I have been waiting for this opportunity for YEARS and will take full advantage of it.

Lake Tahoe

Went up to Lake Tahoe the weekend after Labor Day to meet up with Ron who was in Fallon, NV for work. We could not ask for better weather...It was PERFECT! My co-worker told me about this little place on the lake called The Beacon. We went there and had a few rum runners and listen to the live band. We also took to Gondola up the mountain and hiked for a little while. We also rented a boat and went out on the lake one day.

Going Up the Mountain

I was a little scared!

The Beacon
View of Water near Emerald Bay

Disneyland 1/2 Marathon Weekend!

This weekend was my first ever Half Marathon! My goal for this race was unlike my fellow group...I wanted to finish in the required time 3 hours 30 mins, finish healthy, have fun and take PICTURES!! I finished in 3 hours 7 minutes...Which was 10 minutes slower than my training time of 2 hours 57 minutes, but I had a BLAST!!




After the race, we all went to lunch and then headed to Disneyland for the day!! Yes, we walked about 4-5 more miles after the race...lol.

Shandra and I after we got our Bibs!

Denis, Debra, Shandra, Nancy, Debbie, Dee and I walking to the start line.

Dee, Debbie, Debra, Nancy and I waiting to get started on our race.

Edgar and I running towards the finish line!

Money Shot!! Was so so excited to see Mickey!!

I was pacing Edgar for most of the race. He seemed to be having as much fun running/walking the race as I was and we seemed to have the same pace. At around mile 11.5 I couldn't find Edgar anymore and and then all of a sudden he was right beside me. I introduce myself and told him I was pacing him most of the race. We ended up running from mile 12 to the finish line together. He runs Disney Marathons every year...It was a really cool experience to have!

Nancy, Shandra, Debra, Kelly and Dee with our Mickey Metals!

Check back next week for more photos!! I should have the professional ones that Disney took - Crossing the finish line, in front of Snow White Castle, in front of Tower of Terror, in Downtown Disney and hopefully many, many more!!

San Diego

We headed south to San Diego for a long weekend a few weeks ago.  We stayed at Coronado Island and it was WONDERFUL!!  We went to Sea World, saw the Dallas Cowboy play San Diego Charger game and just went around to different beaches in the area.

Our hotel was right on the beach in Coronado and we would walk the beach every morning and on the last day we went Sand Dollar hunting and it was so much fun!  We found a total of 5 full Sand Dollars and they are totally different from the ones in Texas...the ones here are black and purple.

Sea World

Dallas Cowboy Game

La Jolla 

Point Loma

Every morning I would wake up and head right outside to this table and enjoy a few hours to on the beach...It was very relaxing!

Dallas Cowboys Arrive!!!

Dallas Cowboys have their training camp here in Oxnard, CA.  They arrived here at Point Mugu and signed a few autographs before heading to their hotel.  I was able to take a few shots with some of the players!

Kelly and Miles Austin (#19)

Kelly and Sam Hurd

Kelly and Marty B. (#80) Fellow Aggie!

Landscaping

Ron and I have been working on our backyard...trying to make it nice and pretty to enjoy!  We got patio furniture, flowers everywhere and we turned this old grill into a planter!  This was the most fun we had during our landscaping work.

Training for Disneyland Half Marathon

Almost 10 months ago I decided I wanted to train for the Disneyland Half Marathon - Aug 31, 2008.  I got a running coach and he planned out a schedule for me.  I was to start training 12 weeks before the race....but as my friends found out I was going to do the Disneyland Half Marathon, out the window the training plan went and now I have 10 additional friends going to do the marathon with me.  

We started training towards the end of April and have changed our schedule a few times to meet the demand of running on our body, but we have finally figured it out and have been going strong for the last few months.

Ron came out on our 9 mile run and took some pictures and that is what is below, but we are up to 10.5 miles now and going strong.  Our 9 mile run took about 1 hour 55 minutes, so we are right on track to meet our goal!

Kelly, Shandra, Debra and Dee

Note:  This is the first time ANY of us will be ahead of Dee...She is our fastest runner and just stopped for a bathroom break and is getting ready to pass us again!