Pack your bags, We're goin' to Grandma's.

Yep, we are headed to the state of Washington (home of the Cougars, Mariners, Seachickens, and Pirates of course.) The grandthings have not seen their precious, little (not to mention, only) granddaughter since last July (and the Great Grandthings have not seen their only great granddaughter since then either!) Yikes! She is so different and grown up! We are excited for them to spend a week with her. She is at a fun age right now and you can actually communicate with the little monster.

So....we fly to Salt Lake, then up to WA. The flight to Salt Lake is 5 hours long. Yes, I said 5 hours!!!! WITH A TODDLER. So, if you remember tomorrow, please pray for us as we fly and that the flight, and all the details around it, goes swimmingly. We have the diaper bag packed with various things, plus the DVD player (thank you God for Veggie Tales). I just hope to keep her interested enough so that she doesn't think she needs to run the aisle or scream bloody murder or have a blow out or meltdown or get sick. I could go on and on...maybe it would be better if we could snap our fingers to our destination. I would pay extra for that service. BTW, Delta charges $15 for your FIRST BAG! Maddening. Don't they know I am traveling with a toddler and need to bring every possible bag I own? Really?

This is a picture of Iz with all her "bye-byes" aka bracelets. She calls them her "bye-byes" because she puts them on and then waves us bye. Strange, but that is what she does. And yes, that is Sanka, trying to get in on the action as usual.

Congrats Jenee'!!!!!!!

Well, my younger sister, Jenee' got engaged! We are very excited for her and we are digging the destination wedding plans in Jamaica next summer! When she gets married, she will become Mrs. Jenee' Elizabeth Taylor. Cool, eh? So, check out the rock below. I am pretty sure it is heavy to carry around and her arm is tired. Good grief! Nice work Brad.

St. Patrick's Day 8K

Well, I managed to get myself up and drive to DC to run about 5 miles in rather cold weather with 5,300 other insane people. These people were ready to go with green tights, tube socks, hats, kilts, tattoos, you name it. There was a plethora of 4 leaf clover everything! The bagpipers were out along the route through DC, which was nice until I almost ran one over. Awesome. For whatever reason, he decided that walking out into the road during the race was a good idea. Also, if any of your decide to run in a race such as this, a word to the wise, walk during the water break because there is a good chance you will spill water all down your face and clothes if you try to run and drink. Also, when you throw your cup down, try not to throw it on someone.

So, I finished in 46:53. My goal was to be under 50 minutes, so there you go. For women, I finished 612 out of 2,372. Not too shabby. Now, I run the 10-miler in 3 weeks....yikes.

My foot held up pretty well yesterday (at least I didn't have to stop because of the pain.) I am convinced that it is a shoe issue and I need more cushioning as my heel strike is very pronounced and running on pavement makes it ten times worse. I might have to start "gellin" "Are you gellin?" Ha, I hate those commercials.

Oh, one more comment, there is a lot of spitting during the race. I never spit once. Should I have? Do good runners spit? I am not sure if people do it to get spit in their mouth because it is dry or if they have a cold or excess spit or just weird. I found it disturbing and also found myself dodging a few spitters.

Sunny Day in Occoquan

Well, March gave us a few nice days that happened to fall on the weekend, so naturally we take our walk to the river and feed the ducks. We also treated ourselves to a family dinner date at a restaurant by the river. Isabella loves to eat out and does very well in public places.

On our way back, there is a ramp by one of the stores that she discovered last summer. When she saw it, she immediately went running up it, like it was her long, lost friend. So, you guessed it, we spent a good 20 minutes up and down this thing...she was singing and telling us all about it the entire time. Hilarious.

Snow, snow and snow

Love the snow and this time we got enough to attempt a half decent snowman. Yeah!!! I wish I could express to you how excited Izzy was to make a snowman. She loves them and to have her own, was excitement beyond words! (Then Sanka thought it would be cool to dig (in her true Husky form) the snow man to pieces. Sad.

Plotting her destruction...

Okay, neither of them are looking at the camera.