A Disney Princess?

Ok, so this is my selfish post...because it's just about ME!

On February 27th, I ran in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. My friends Patty and Donna flew down with me to FL for this. Donna ran it also. It was so much fun! This is the race that I had actually been training for. Although my chip timing got messed up because the sensor did not pick up me crossing the starting line, I was pleased with my time. However, next year, I will do it much differently.

I feel that the Disney Princess Half should be experienced...not just ran! At each mile marker, there are Disney characters that you can get your picture with.

There were so many groups of ladies in their tutus having a blast...stopping at each mile marker to get pics! That's what I plan to do next year...just get a group of girls and EXPERIENCE the race. I wore my tutu and crown this year...but there were definitely some "interesting" looking characters, like this guy:

We stayed at one of the Disney All-Star Hotels. If you have never stayed at a Disney resort (which I hadn't before now), it's quite an experience. All of the employees were very kind and helpful. These hotels take a theme and run with it...on a grandiose scale! Our hotel was the All- Star Sports Resort. As you can see, GRANDIOSE...

(That's a football helmet)

(These are large tic-tac-toe pieces)
We went to the expo the day before the race to pick up our packets and race bib.

It says "Princess Tamara". (We began to wonder what the race bibs for the guys said..."Princess John"?..."Prince John"?...NOPE...just "John".)

How cool is this? It's a glass running shoe!

This is after the race...these Princess toes were tired! We lounged by the pool and ate LOTS of food! It was a nice time. The race was well-organized, and I definitely plan to do it again. The ONE moment that I had been anticipating from the day I signed up?

Running through the castle at mile 6!!!

And...yes...it was worth the training and the wait!!! See ya next year, Mickey!!!

The BEST Valentine's Day Ever!

Doesn't this look romantic? Well...in a way it was! This is how Mo and I celebrated Valentine's Day this year. We sat at the fancy table, used the fancy plates and the fancy glasses, wore fancy clothes, and...so did the girls! Yup, we ALL celebrated Valentine's together.

This idea evolved from one of the girls asking why we never ate at the "fancy table". From there, we developed a menu, then the "required attire". I was amazed at the excitement in our house that morning. The girls kept asking "We are having the fancy dinner tonight, right?" THEY are also the ones that decided that we needed to dress up. I came up with the idea to decorate the table and light the candles. It was such a wonderful evening for all of us!

The girls didn't want the evening to end. We just ate and talked and laughed! Honestly, I don't think that any of us wanted it to end! While the girls had their desert...

Mo and I had a cup of coffee. (Yeah, you can tell that he was kinda done by this time)

Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate the love that we have for one another. Well, I can't think of 3 people that I love more than all of them! Truly, I could feel our love that night. It made my "mommy heart" smile!!!

We all had such a good time that we have made it a new house rule that we will eat at the "fancy table" and use the "fancy dishes" once a month. Lexie has decided that we need a different theme each month. The food and the "attire" need to correlate to the theme. She is so creative! Lauren wants to help plan the dinners. She is very creative also...and very organized.

I know that I don't have much longer until all of this will be so "uncool" to them. So I am going to enjoy EVERY second of it for as long as it lasts!

Frostbite 1/2 Marathon

I am trying to get catch up with our "adventures" so (hopefully) there will be lots of blogs in the upcoming days.

(This is one of my favorite race pictures of us)

This is Mo and I at the Cedars of Lebanon Frostbite Half Marathon on February 12th. It was the first half for both of us...ever! Originally, Mo was doing it alone because I had my "first half" coming up 2 weeks later. On Friday before the race, I decided to join him because I had a 12 mile training run planned for that day. I figured that I would just add an additional 1.1 miles to it.

Wow...if we had have only known how difficult this particular half was going to be, I'm not so sure that we would have done it. For the first 10 miles, it feels like nothing but hills! Neither of us had done any hill training. Now...add compacted snow and ice!!! It was crazy hard...and cold!

But...we did it! Our first half was "out of the way". Mo's time was 2:24 and mine was 2:06. It's nice to have a base number now to work towards a PR (personal record)