Day 4 at California Adventure

California Adventure kind of sucked hahahahaha. There were only a small handful of rides my son was tall enough for and even less for my daughter. So many rides were closed, things didn’t open when the park did. There was just a lot that was disappointing. We did manage to occupy ourselves for the whole day but we were super glad we only went there for 1 day.

My son loves the Cars movie so Cars land was a hit
Frozen snacks……so cold they almost broke your teeth
The rare picture of just us
I found the Starbucks!!!! Both parks had a Starbucks in them but they don’t outwardly advertise that they are Starbucks until you get up close.
He thought Chip or Dale (not sure which hahahaha) was cool but he was a little wary. My daughter wouldn’t even go near him.
There was this cool redwood forest place in the park with lots of fun stuff to climb and explore……but even parts of this had height requirements. What the heck??!!!
Nap time
My sister and brother-in-law got to come and spend part of the day with us! The kids were so thrilled
The ‘san Francisco Pier ‘ area in the park.
My sister!!!!
They both like Monsters inc.
He LOVED this wrecked car outside one of the shops in Cars land. It would smoke and make a noise like it was trying to start. He stood there forever! And we went back several times.
Micky’s philharmonic 3d show.

And that’s a wrap!!!!

It was long and exhausting but I am so glad we did it. I loved watching their little eyes light up and watching them explore so many new things.

I wish the food was better for the prices they charge. I wish some of the characters were more easily accessible or accessible at all. There were no characters from Encanto which my daughter loves and to see Anna and Elsa you had to wait in a line forever and they were behind doors until you got up there so you couldn’t even wave at them and see them if you didn’t want to wait in line.

I don’t see us going back for a very long time, if ever. It’s just soooooo dang expensive! They really do nickel and dime you…..or should I say like $20 and $50 you.

I was very happy with the time of year we went though. Granted with small kids we didn’t go on some of the most popular rides with the longest waits but with the use of watching the app for wait times and trying to be smart the longest we waited was about 20min for a ride. So, I am incredibly thankful for that because I don’t think they would have tolerated much longer.

All in all I am so glad for the memories but I don’t need to do it again.

Disneyland Day 3

Oh man, by day 3 of Disneyland and day 10 of traveling I needed all the coffee! But how dang cute are they??
She loved Dumbo……I tolerated it hahaha. I don’t love spinning things.
So freaking cute!
She loved Winnie the Pooh from a distance but was skeptical up close…… brother was napping during this time.

Sister’s nap time!!! We took it day by day and nap by nap hahaha
Goofy’s house in toon town. We spent time there everyday.
Just before the rocketships in tomorrow land. Robert loved these and apparently so did she…..I HATED them!!!! I felt like I was going to fly out!
Sometimes they have sweet sibling love…..othertimes it’s thunderdome
It’s a small world. We did this every day, short lines and air conditioning!!! Need I say more?
Snacks, snacks and more snacks. This is how we survived most lines.
Every body of water had ducks, which she is obsessed with.
Sleeping Beauty’s castle
His nap
He LOVES to drive!!

Another long, fun day.

Disneyland Day 2

Good morning!!
It was fun to see Disneyland decorated for Halloween.
Runaway railroad! Ella loved it! Robert not so much, I think it was a little herky jerky for him.
Fun in Toontown
Mini’s house!
It was fun to explore the houses and see what was just decoration and what you could really interact with.
Mini me.
He LOVED the rocket ships……I took Ella on once and she loved it…….mama did not lol. I do not like spinning things and it leans to the side and goes pretty fast! Not for me lol.
Napping on the Jungle Cruise
Star Wars land. Sort of a mini date for us to walk around together while the kids napped in the stroller.

Star Wars land is freaking cool! Very immersive feeling….but! Only 2 rides and the rest is all shops……seems gimmicky for a whole land….but 100% worth exploring…..if you are there.

It’s a small world after all!!!! The kids loved everything you could look at and mom and dad loved the air conditioning
Tom Sawyers island. Robert LOVED the caves. Lots of fun to look at and explore.
He was so stinking proud to get his ‘licence’ lol. $7 well spent. He still has it. He spent the rest of the trip showing it before every driving ride.
We ended the night on the carousel.
Hi Papa!
IT’S NOT PAPA!!!!!

Disneyland Day 1

As if I wasn’t crazy enough to sign up for a long race with 2 kids under 3 I then decided that with only 1 day of rest we would spend 4 days at Disneyland.

I loved watching them look at all the new things and explore everything.
It’s impossible to get a picture where we are all looking at the camera and smiling.
Churros!!!! Oh the amount of sugar we consumed.
This was goofy’s house playground. The kids loved these kind of things just as much as the rides.
I love that there were things for them to explore and help their minds work and not just rides.
Daily stroller naps.
Both our arms were dead at the end of each day. Even though we had a stroller half the time the kids wanted to be carried.
I love the wonder in their eyes.
Ducks! My daughter is obsessed with ducks and they are all around at Disneyland.

Don’t know how but we picked a great time to go. During the day, we were almost always able to find a ride that had less than a 20 minute wait. I can tell you anything longer than that and your kids are going to freak out. Even the 20 minutes my daughter would get really fidgety by the end. Snacks are key.

Question and answer

Howdy!!!

Yesterday morning I went to a Bikram Yoga class with my roommate for the first time in…..idk probably 3ish years. OMG was it brutal!!!!!!!!! I remember going when I was in good shape and loved it and thought it was not easy but I didn’t usually feel like I was going to die. I had to sit down several times and felt nauseous through the entire second half of the class, but I will get better!!!

I went home and ate everything in site, took a shower then laid down and ended up napping for about 20 minutes before getting ready for work.

I love the concept of taking a nap but I always wake up feeling groggy and with a slight headache and it takes me FOREVER to fully wake up. But other people swear by mid-day naps, this got me thinking about the things people swear by and thought I would do a little question and answer session. I am going to answer some question and ask that you comment your answers as well!

Here we go:

Naps: for or against?

I am for them but not sure they are for me

Coffee or tea?

Oddly both. I will generally take coffee over tea most days but as I get older my stomach doesn’t always handle coffee as well.

Starbucks or independent?

Both but I heavily favor Starbucks. Because they are corporate they are very consistent, I know what I am going to get every time. I like some independent coffee places but most of the time they are not strong enough for me and therefore not worth the calories of the frothy drinks I get.

Your favorite color?

Some people have their favorite color play a HUGE part in their life, mine plays a moderate part in my life, its is green, pretty much all shades found in nature.

Running: people tend to either love it or hate it

Of course I love it, I just hate having to get back in shape.

Books: take em or leave em?

TAKE EM! 100% take up for me, I am a total book lover. As I get older though I am now going to book binge periods, like I wont read for 4-5 months then I will devour 5 books in 3 days. Though I am trying to fix that by making a book club with my friends on Facebook. We are reading 1 book a month. I have 3 days to finish June’s book and I am on chapter 2. But I can do it! hahaha.

What is your phobia?

Arachnophobia for sure, I hate spiders, they skeeve me out, but I am much better than I used to be. If push comes to shove I am usually kill one if there is no one else to do it and if it is small enough and on the other side of the room I will generally just leave it alone.

I also have trypophobia, which is a fear of holes, sounds super weird but Google trypophobia and tell me some of those pictures don’t make your skin crawl, also this phobia is not recognized as a true phobia in the scientific community. This is one I am definitely working on because in the medical field I am going to see all kinds of gross things and I cannot run away from them.

Favorite food?

Pizza hands down,  very close second is Mexican food.

Hot or cold weather?

Generally I would take cold over hot because I can always put more layers on, you can only take so much off when it is hot. I do get to a point though where I have been in the cold too long and am sick of it.

Ideal vacation?

Truthfully my ideal vacation is a little cottage on the beach, like an East coast, Oregon/Washington coast kind of beach, sweater weather. Going for walks/runs in the misty morning air, and lounging in the house the rest of the day with books and movies and a fire going. Having pizza and floor picnics, afternoon naps. Just super relaxing. For a whole week.

Hilariously, though this is my ideal vacation, it is also the vacation I have never taken. My vacations tend to be go, go, go. The closest I got was 2 days at my bf’s family beach house last November.

I can’t wait to read your answers!!! And if you have any other questions feel free to ask!

 

Book Review**The Anatomist’s Wife


This was a cute fun book. It took a little bit to get into it, the beginning was a little slow; which is interesting since there wasn’t much back story you just sort of jumped in. I read it in one day, it is not a difficult read, I sat down one Sunday after work when I had no HW and just read straight through.

Of course I loved the little bit of medical knowledge that was in here, after all everything I am doing right now is leading to becoming a doctor of physical therapy so I extra enjoyed that part.

It wasn’t a terribly deep book, there wasn’t much character development in my opinion (seems to be a theme with the books I have been reading lately lol, guess when I read right now I want a break from thinking hahaha).

Overall it was an enjoyable book and I would recommend it for a vacation or spring break type of book.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think?

Hello from not so sunny California 

Hi!!!! Wednesday morning I flew to my hometown of Long Beach, CA for my grandmas 90th birthday party!!!

After an errand with my mom we hit In ‘n’ Out

Yep, my priorities are in check hahahaha!! 

Got a new shirt from Costco 

Met my friend for a little workout 

After 2 miles someone tells me you arent allowed to run only walk……say what??!!! So i walked 2 more miles with my friend while we chatted….but I don’t need to come here again. 

Went out for dinner and dancing…..on a Thursday night hahahaha. 

Friday we did some preparations for the big birthday party

Then today, Saturday, was the party. 

We when got to the venue to set up there was a little water being pumped out from this crazy storm SoCal had

We took some fun photos 

My sister and I

My awesome brothers 

First time all 4 siblings have been together in almost 9 years. 

Siblings and mom

Birthday girl in the middle, 90 years young!!!!

I love my family soo much!!!

After party at my aunt’s house

And now I’m ready for sleep. 

Goodnight

Hawaii day 5 and heading home

By day 5 i needed to relax so while the girls went out i thoroughly enjoyed having the condo to myself and reading pretty much all day.

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I took a break from reading to go for a run on the lovely overcast day with some drizzle coming down.

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And yes when i say lovely, i mean lovely. The drizzling helped a bit with the temperature.
Though the humiditing mixed with the drizzling led to me dripping sweat.

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A lot of it.

After running i enjoyed a delicious simple lunch

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Then i contined to read for the rest of the day until the girls got back and we all went to dinner at Duke’s. I had Ahmazing fish tacos!!!

Today was pretty much all traveling. A cab picked me up at 9:45. It took me an hour to get through security, Hawaii’s airport is packed.

Then i spent 5 hours in a plan then a $50 cab ride later i was sitting on my porch waiting for my roommates dad to let me in with the spare key since i somehow didn’t pack mine.

And now i am finally in my own bed so excited to go to sleep.

Goodnight!

How was your weekend?

Hawaii day 4

We got up sort of early again and hit Pearl Harbor.

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It was definitely a moving experience

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My souvenir was a book 😌
After Pearl Harbor we went to a local coffee farm.

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They had soooo many different coffee flavors it was insane!! Yes i bought several samples lol

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After coffee was had it was time to see where the coffee came from!

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First comes the flour

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Then green berries

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Then red ‘cherries’

After the coffee farm it was Luau time!!

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The pig.

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The dancing and entertainment was great but i have to admit the food was lacking for me. Being as i am not eating meat they had 1 fish option and it left a lot to be desired in my opinion. But it was still a great night!

Now for a dilemma, i feel like we have been going going going since we got here, which i understand and enjoy, you want to get in everything you can while you are here. On the other hand to me part of a vacation is taking some time to relax from our hectic everyday lives amd i feel like we haven’t done that and don’t plan to.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Hawaii and the plan for the girls is hitting up a macadamian nut farm, possibly snorkelling then hanging out at a beach and maybe surfing. Those things could be fun but are nothing that i am dying to do. So do i stay at the condo tomorrow and relax or go out with them?

Part of me feels like if i don’t go out with them i am wasting the day but i also feel like I’m going to be exhausted for work and life when i get back if i don’t take the time to rest. Desicions, decisions.

What would you do?

What does your perfect vacation look like?

Monday Motivation**December 7, 2015

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This is such a good one because i haven’t been drinking enough water lately.

Monday- today i was relaxing, saying goodbye to family and flying home.

Tuesday- 7pm training appt

Wednesday- walk the dog, bike at home

Thursday- 7pm training appt

Friday-walk the dog, run 1.5 miles

Saturday/Sunday run 2 miles, walk the dog.

Artemis and i are still getting into a walking schedule.

Here is to a great week ahead!!!