Disneyland Half Marathon - 2009

This past weekend Ron and I headed down to Disneyland for me to take part in the Disneyland Half Marathon. We arrived on Saturday and headed straight to the expo to pick up my bib and check out all the cool sports stuff they had for sale. After a few hours of walking, we went to the movie and watch Gamer. Since the race was the next morning and we had to get up at 4:00AM, we decided to make it an early night and just relax in the room.

Got up bright and early on Sunday morning and headed to the race!! Last year I was in the very last Corral and it was not that great! This year, I was in Corral D which was a much better section to be in. At around 6:15AM we started the race and all the fun!!

Start of the Race - Mile .25

Running into Disneyland - Mile 2.5

Running in Downtown Disney - Mile 2.25

Running to the finish line - Mile 13

My finish time was 2:55, not be best race or training time, but a 12 minute improvement from Disneyland Half last year.

Happy it is over!!

I was also eligible for the Coast-to-Coast Challenge medal since I ran the Disney World Princess Half Marathon in March. So, I was super excited to get two medals!!

2009 Disney Medals

Nancy, Debbie and I after the race

Debbie and I with Mickey

On Monday, Ron and I headed into California Adventure to checkout all the new stuff they have going on over there. The characters at that park are much more interactive than at Disneyland. There is also a Talk with Crush section on Hollywood Blvd that is worth checking out...It was super fun!

Mickey's New Make-Over

Monsters Inc.

Garden

This past weekend we went out and got some plants and stuff to make the backyard more enjoyable since we will be here another couple of years. The entire family spent the day outside doing yard work!! The picture above was the end product and we are so excited to have a cute little flower area to enjoy!!

Victoria rolling in the dirt!

Izzy and Kehau!

Ron did all the digging!!

July 4

This July 4th Ron, Michelle, Phil, Bradley and I all headed over to Port Hueneme to check out the fireworks. We had perfect seats for the show!! They are nothing like Disneyland Fireworks, but they lasted about 30 minutes and everyone had a great time.

For all my Texas friends/family...Yes, we are all covered up in July!! It was like 50 degrees outside this night and the wind was blowing off the ocean...it was FREEZING!

Hawaii 2009

Got back last week from a week long trip back to Hawaii!! Ron's ship pulled in for a couple of weeks and he invited me to join him there for some much needed vacation time!! I jumped on the idea of going back to paradise for a week.

We stayed at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort. It is one of my favorite places on the island because of the lagoons they have.

The first full day there we headed to the North Shore!! We spend the day just hanging out on the beach (picture below). Then we went to have Ron's favorite thing on the island, Shrimp Truck!! After that we headed to my favorite place on North Shore, Dole Plantation for a Dole Whip. Now, back in the day when we lived there, this place was small and you could find everything Pineapple here. They had several different flavors of Dole Whip and it was not that crowded. This time, man...This place was PACKED!! They didn't have hardly any of the things they had before, but at least we got a whip!!

North Shore Beach

Shrimp Truck!
Ron @ North Shore

That night we headed down to the pool and had a drink, LAVA FLOW, before we headed at to the beach to watch the sunset!!

Waiting for the Sunset

Enjoying my Lava Flow in a Pineapple. We got some really good sunset pictures!!

The rest of the vacation we spend just lounging around the lagoons. I took some floats so that we could just float around the lagoon all day!! It was so relaxing and nice the entire time we were there. We also got a chance to go and visit some friends of ours, Jen and Louis. It was nice to catch up with them and hang out.

Lagoon we spend most of our time at.

Our last night there!

Ellen - No Doubt

On May 18, Jennifer, Michelle, Nikki and I went to WB studios to watch the taping of the Ellen show. It was her Backlot Bash and No Doubt was going to perform a mini concert for every. We left Point Mugu @ 8:30AM and got to the WB lot around 10AM. We parked the car and got into line. We wait 4.5 hours in a parking garage before we headed over to the venue when we started getting into the party mood! We danced, we sang, we took pictures, we had a BLAST!! It was way cool and we were so freaking close to No Doubt it was amazing!! Ellen danced right by us during her dance portion of the show, so if you get a chance to view the show again look for us!

Total number of people who got tickets to the show, 5000!! Total number of people that got in, not sure...That had to turn people away because there was to many!! The show was so worth waiting all day for it.

All pictures were taken with camera phones since we didn't think we would be allowed to have camera's at the show. Next year, we will know better!!

Jen, Michelle, Nikki and I.

This was the walk from the parking garage to the venue.

Nikki and I so excited to see No Doubt.
Nikki, Michelle and Jen waiting for the show to start!

Here comes Ellen our way!!

OMGoodness!! It is No Doubt right in front of me!!

La Brea Tar Pits

This past weekend my friend Jen, her son Ty and I went into LA to have lunch and visit the La Brea Tar Pits. When we first arrived at the La Brea Tar Pits I was so excited because I had once seen it on My Girl 2 and thought it looked really cool. Once we got there and I actually saw the exhibit outside, disappointment is an understatement...lol. I complained to Jen for a little while before we headed inside to the museum to check out some old fossils. Once I was inside, the trip started to get better! I enjoy museum's so it was fun for me.

There was this really cool light art work outside of the LACM (Los Angeles County Museum). It was really, really cool looking!

After the Tar Pit experience we headed to a cupcake shop called Buttercake Bakery. I am not 100% if I tried them at the Cupcake Challenge, but I did have an coupon for them and thought why not try them out. So off we went to Sunset to sample some cupcakes. I love shops that sell the mini-cupcakes b/c you can sample a little of each one. I got the coconut, mocha, red velvet and butter cream. They are not the best cupcakes I have ever had, but they are okay. The coconut was the best by far and I would recommend that to anyone, but not the others so much.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun!!

Guest of Honor: Shandra Sessions!!

This past weekend my friend Nikki planned this 80's Rockband Surprise Party for our dear Shandra who is leaving us...for Texas!! Yep, still get to see me some Shandra because she is moving to DFW!!!

We all had a blast all week planning our outfits, shopping, etc...Then on the day of the event we ran around getting all the last minute stuff ready and getting Shandra over to the party!!

Cherry Dazzle Spank is our wonderful band name!! Not all the members are in the picture below...Actually, there are several missing, but here are a few of us!!

Some of the Band Members - Cherry Dazzle Spank!!

Getting Ready for the Gig!

Denise and I about to go stage!!

Our version of St. Elmo's Fire Pose!!

Nikki and I jamming out!!

Cherry Dazzle Spank!

Disney Food & Wine Festival

Went to Disney California Adventure this past Sunday for my friend Nancy's 49th Birthday!! It happen to also fall on the first weekend of the Food and Wine Festival. We go to the park and it was really crowded, but we got our ears and tried to enjoy the day as best as we could!!

We went to Wine Country Trattoria for Nancy's birthday lunch. I have never been to this resturant before and found it to be WONDERFUL! It was good food and not that expensive for a Disney resturant, $27.00 for the both of us!

Chicken Panini

After lunch we walked right into a line for Arrowood Winery tasting. We tasted three wines from them; Chardonnay, Viognier and Cabernet Sauvignon. I am not a big wine drinker, but I liked the Viognier.

Nancy and Kelly at Arrowood Tasting

We wanted to get a seat at the Robert Irvine, Dinner Impossible cooking class, but in order to get into this show you would have to wait in line for at least an hour before the class. So, we just walked by when he was giving the class and listen for a little while.

Robert Irvine, Dinner Impossible

Overall, the day was fun..crowded, but fun!!