I am WAY late posting about this, but such is life right now. One of these days I’ll finish everything and tell you all about the stuff that has been keeping me so busy. But on January 8th I did something I have never done before. I ran a half marathon. For real, I did.

(Don’t ask why I’m holding up my phone. I have no idea, but I think I get a pass for doing something weird b/c I just ran a half marathon.)

I signed up in the beginning of October in hopes to get me working out and losing weight. Well, I worked out – maybe not as much as I should have – but I didn’t really lose weight. Bummer. But, I did GAIN something – and not on the scale, this was positive. I gained some self confidence and a new motto. My motto for 2011 (and just maybe forever) is – I CAN DO HARD THINGS.

If despite the pain and every ounce of my body telling me to just give up I was able to still finish the race – then I CAN DO HARD THINGS.

I won’t bore you with all the details of the race. I will say the first 7 miles were great, fun even. (I think I squealed as I ran through Cinderella’s Castle – did I mention it was a Disney race?) It was the last 6.1 that really had me struggling. (Um…maybe its b/c I didn’t really train regularly after Thanksgiving) But it was exhilarating to cross the finish line. I am proud that I can say – I ran a half marathon. And I fully intend to be able to say, “I have run 2 half marathons.” And MAYBE in the future I will say, “I ran a marathon.” Because, after all, I CAN DO HARD THINGS.

 

Today was our 9th visit to Disney World since “Santa” left our passes on Christmas morning. (You had better bet I’m keeping track, I want to be sure we get all we can out of them.) I think its safe to say that “Santa” left us the best present possible for our family. It has been so much fun to just pop in for a few hours on a Friday night instead of sitting at home. AND we’ve even managed a trip or two where we didn’t spend any money (except the gas it took to get there). Today we went for almost an entire day. The kids hadn’t spent much time at Hollywood Studios, except for a 2 hour trip we made there for a family night the Monday after Christmas. So we headed out to show them what was there.

One of our goals today was to get to ride Toy Story Mania.  When we’ve been there in the past (Anthony and I on my birthday and then the Monday night as a family) this ride has had 2+ hour waits, and no fast passes available. We arrived at the park at opening and the wait was already almost an hour and the fast passes were for 1-2 in the afternoon. We opted for the fast passes. We always joke that the rides that we’ve had a hard time getting on will probably be disappointing, but this one was not. We all agreed it was our favorite of the day and that it topped the Buzz Light Year ride at Magic Kingdom….now hopefully we can ride it again in the coming year.

The best part of having these passes is the memories we are creating.  Of course, there would be memories without the passes, but it seems to have given us more family time where we’re all focusing on the same thing rather than being at home involved in our individual things. I do wonder though if after 365 days of Disney if we’ll be sick of it. Maybe…but then again, maybe not.

 

The picture above is from Disney (EPCOT) on Tuesday. My brother Mike was here on business so we were able to take him out for an afternoon with us. We love visitors…and we’re hoping to be able to have more visitors over the year and to make some Disney memories with them too.

This is the first post of 2011. Half way through the first month and I just NOW posting.

THAT was not the plan.

The plan was to post AT LEAST once a week, but more like 3 times a week. But, I have been busy and time has been slipping away. I realized yesterday that despite the fact that I’ve taken pictures of my own kids this year I haven’t even DOWNLOADED them. Even when I am not posting on my blog that is not like me. So today I’m repenting. I’m starting again, re-beginning the new year, and re-committing to keeping up this blog. Because, no matter how busy I am its more important to record my children’s life – to make time to do that. And although all that I’ve been busy with is good – great, actually – I need to make time to prioritize. I asked Anthony how I can accomplish all I’ve set out to this year he reminded me to remember what is most important, and do it all in that order, and it will all fall into place.

So, here are a few pictures to go with the goal….lets see if I can keep it. 🙂

P.S. I just realized that these pictures were taken 2 weeks ago in my effort to “restart” last year’s goal of taking a picture of my kids every Sunday. Obviously I’ve done well…these are the only Sundays I have for the 3 Sundays of the year so far. I am just a mess.