Tinkerbell Half Marathon

Mom has a TON of photos still on her camera so I will just start with a few things that we did while in our just over 48 hour Disneyland adventure. We left after work on Friday arrived in California at what felt like 2am our time. The plan was to sleep in a bit and then head over to the expo to get my race info. Failure on the sleeping in part but more time for Disney! We bought the park passes and headed right down Main Street, USA. First on the list was a walk through of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, then the world famous Dumbo. We then went on the Casey Jr. Circus train before heading over to it's a small world. Although it was closed for refurbishment I still felt a strong need to go check out that part of the park. It worked out for the best since I found a Dumbo pillow pet. We met up with my mom's friend Timmy and took a cruise on the Storybook Canal Boats. Noticing a very short line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride we decided to go on that before going to the expo. It was quite the wild ride. It broke while we were on it. All of the sudden the lights came on and an announcement to stay where you were, a cast member would be by shortly to assist. I was stuck looking at a not so nice police officer. When the cast member came we had to backtrack through the whole ride. We went on the attraction later and I had one more scene until the end so it was cool that I got to go all the way back and walk the track. We went to the expo where I proudly picked up my bib number 353. Mom has all the expo photos. After that little adventure we went to California Adventure which is under a huge renovation project that is changing the entrance to the park as well as adding Cars Land. Dinner was some pasta with sauce on the side. I love how the chef put the side of meatballs and sauce in a kids serving dish. We went on the LIttle Mermaid and Jumpin' Jellyfish plus Toy Story Mania. The plan was to watch the World of Color and then go back to Disneyland since it was open until 11:00. World of Color=amazing water spectacular. Return to Disneyland in hopes of short lines after the fireworks= lots of crowds (unusual). The biggest bummer, the fireworks that we missed Saturday night were cancelled on Sunday due to "circumstances..." More on the trip when I get photos from my mom.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day to the two people who always told my sister and I that, "you don't need a special day to tell people you love them, you should tell them everyday." Well, you are loved!

Bathroom Demolition

We have had enough of the blue bathroom. Well, I have, and it started leaking into our laundry room. So let the fun times begin! Here is a before picture:That is one ugly vanity and way too many shades of blue with none of them matching. Luke loved the color and wanted to keep the blue tiles if we could just re-grout or put in a new tub without any difficulty. Fortunately this was not possible. He did have fun playing destroy the tiles to get the tub out though.Next came the very tricky part. How to get the tub out of the house. We were lucky in that we have a great layout and PapaBear and Luke were able to maneuver it out in one piece instead of having to take a sledge hammer to it and smash it (a big mess and very noisy). The tub was cast iron and weighed over 100 pounds. Looking at this now I think I should have held the front door open for the boys and let them "sled" out the door Home Alone style. In classy style they dropped the tub in our side yard, followed by a celebratory fist-bump.Continuing the class act they added the blue toilet and sink plus hideous vanity to the collection before taking a break for lunch. They removed the rest of the wall tiles and floor tiles (set in about 2-3 inches of concrete).Our new tub sat in the dining room for a week or two. We picked out new tiles and paint colors. I'll post more about our bathroom remodel when I upload the photos.

Marathon

Great weather greeted us on Marathon Sunday Morning! There were a TON of characters and lots of voluntEARs along the course. Some of the same characters as the day before, but in different locations than usual, which was a nice change of pace for the Goofy people thinking we knew what was coming. Mary Poppins' chimney sweep was a little baffled when I requested he squat down a tad so that my favorite character Dumbo could be in the picture. Disney definitely made the race worth stopping for characters because many of them were multi-character stops. For a while along the stretch between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom I kept hearing "Bad to the Bone." All I could think of was the BBQ joint on the way to the family cottage, although I've never been there. As the music gets louder it gets kind of foggy and a little scary...Who let all the villains get together anyway? There was even the lady from Pirates with Cruella and Scar to name a few. In previous years I've run into Zorro and some Aliens in the cornfield. This year was a cute little raccoon and his friends.I was "Jammin' in the Jungle" with these fellows and the other runners were watching me with odd looks, as well as cast members. Apparently dancing to the parade music while waiting to see the characters is not common. Oh well, it was a great opportunity for me to snack on my fruit snacks and salt packets.I gave Papa Bear a great big hug (aka Baloo) and then continued on my way. Then it happened. The worst thing imaginable in the race, see for yourself: "There's no hope if Tinkerbell is laying down," was heard from a random runner passing by.
People in line started to say, "I believe Tink..." and clapping ensued. Not really, but I can dream.Of course many more characters and things were seen along the way. It was a great race and I ran the WHOLE time. Well, except the water stops where I walk through and drink and waiting for characters. But, this was the first time I didn't hurt and need to start walk/jogging the last 6 miles. I still finished in under 4:30 and was walking without a limp and was back to running/elliptical by Wednesday to keep training for Disneyland at the end of January (3 weeks after the Marathon). Only 333 days 'til next years race weekend starts!

Half Marathon 2012

Good Morning! A little chilly but not bad compared to years past where it was freezing rain or warmer in Alaska (not kidding!). The race was kicked off by our Race ConDUCKtor Donald and his pals. Shortly after the start of the race the character sightings began. There were actual lines during the race to have your picture taken. I waited in some for about 5 minutes. Where else are you going to have this much fun while running though?
I better "Quacken" my pace or we'll be late to our character breakfast at Chef Mickey's...these characters were telling me to fly instead of run. And these two ladies were about a mile from the finish. They were jumping around and cheering for everyone. I stopped to have their friend take a photo with me and them. They were super excited that I did that. Sorry girls but I have to make like a banana and split...but I suppose one more photo won't hurt. What's a few more seconds on the finish clock? I had so much fun and couldn't wait to see the surprises and characters in store for the marathon.

Disney Expo and Day Before the Races

Mom and I had a mini (4 days including travel) trip to Disney for the 7th Goofy Race. We were able to go to the race expo on the day we arrived (hooray for an early arrival and Magical Express waiting to pull out as soon as we arrived). I contacted RunDisney awhile back (September) about my last name change and the Perfectly Goofy. I received an e-mail and phone call shortly after and thought things were good to go. Apparently the Goofy people didn't get the memo so I had a "regular" Goofy bib. We had to go over to runner relations to get this straightened out pronto! They ended up giving me a generic perfectly Goofy bib. (in other words it did not have my name on it)

Mom and I spend that night and all next day on a mission to find alphabet stickers so we could put my name on the bib. Enough of that unpleasantness. On to the good stuff...Friday we went to Magic Kingdom to check it out since the Fantasyland expansion is in progress and the park will be changing and has been already. Of course the first thing, and a must do, was ride Dumbo. We took our time wandering around the park and enjoying the atmosphere and sunshine. We shared our usual hot dog from Casey's Corner while watching a parade. Love the music to the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it Parade. We finished the evening with the Main Street Electric Parade and left before the fireworks :( since we had to get up at 3am to make the race start...The Castle was just beautiful still draped in icicles for the holidays.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's been a long time since my last post. I've been busy as you will read in the coming blogs. Just wanted to share what New Years Eve looked like at our house. We stayed in. Luke watched tv and fell asleep. I pulled everything out of the walk in closet and played organization fairy. It needed to be done anyhow since a large chunk of items had to be taken out for us to access the attic for our ceiling fan project. Here is the bed piled with clothes (and the fur ball) and then the closet after. And so far the closet has stayed neat and tidy (I can't say that about the rest of the room or house).