Sunday, November 30, 2014

Visitors

My mom leaves tomorrow morning and life will go back to normal. The past week and a half has been so much fun. Steven's parents and my mom both came to visit, and Steven had quite a few days off work. Tomorrow, it is just me and the girls again! Some of the fun we had...

Dave rode with Aubrey on her bike to preschool. Aubrey was so proud and excited to have her grandpa with her. 

Steven's parents made it in time for Aubrey's last soccer game and we had a great night celebrating.

I didn't take any pictures, but we had a great day back in Monteray at the aquarium. And, we were so excited to spend time with Steven's parents since they have been gone on a mission in Germany.

Aubrey wouldn't let go of my mom when she showed up. When we picked her up at preschool, she was standing at the fence just waiting to see Grandma. It was pretty cute. 

Shopping. Of course. Most of the shopping was fun. The 7 trips we made to the grocery store for various things needed for Thanksgiving was a little less than fun. Especially the last trip we made.

 We spent the Wednesday before Thanksgiving cooking and we were down to prepping the sweet potatoes. I accidentally turned on the back burner (which was holding a newly made apple pie in a glass dish) instead of the front burner. The pie exploded over the entire kitchen and we had to stay up late making another. Yikes.

I'm glad we did most of the cooking Wednesday because Thanksgiving was so much fun. We all did the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. Steven and I ran PR's in the 10k, and the kids did a fun run with grandma. Definitely a Foote family tradition now because running, napping, and eating was a pretty great way to spend the day.


Steven (he beat me by 2 seconds) and I finished 1262/7886 10k runners.  I was 300/3941 women. Coming in 300th place doesn't sound very good, but I'll take top 10%. We have been working hard and it is rewarding to see our speed increase. We still have a long way to go. Some people run so fast! We spent the entire course weaving around people which was tiring, but it was fun to run in such a big race.

The girls made our Thanksgiving centerpieces, including the candle. 


 We decorated the tree and put up the Christmas lights. Let's hope Cora doesn't break too many ornaments this year. Her nickname is "Cora the Destroyer." 

We also had the girls birthday party,  went swimming in hotel pools, fun at bounce houses, park days, and so many other things. Whew. We had fun, and I loved having so many other people around. Between both grandma's I hardly had to change any diapers :) I'm dreading the goodbye tomorrow and the grumpy kids that will follow, but it was all worth it!

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Birthday Party

Last night we had a joint birthday party for the girls. Aubrey and Cora are pretty lucky because both of Steven's parents, and my mom were here for their party. And, I was so glad for all the help.

Aubrey is born December 19 and Cora on December 22. Pretty tricky dates for birthday parties. For the past couple of years we have had the party before the holidays and I think that is what we will always do.

We had the party at the gymnastics gym where the girls take lessons. They LOVE gymnastics and were so excited to share that with their friends. I was excited to not have the mess at my house.
 This little girl loves to jump. We gave them their new gymnastics outfits before the party. She kills me in those shorts.

 Lining up with Coach Joey. He was amazing with the kids. Cora had quite a few little friends, but they were mostly with their parents, so it was harder to get them in the pictures.

 One of Aubrey's favorite things to do at the gym is climb to the top of that blue mat and then do a flying leap into the foam pit. It looks pretty fun to me.

 Aubrey got to demonstrate the equipment and she took her job very seriously.

Cora's favorite part of her gymnastics class is the parachute, so they had a great time doing that with friends.

After the gymnastics activities, the kids all lined up to receive medals. It was really cute to see how excited they were.

Then came dinner and cake. My mom and I had a fun time decorating the cakes and cupcakes. And the clipart photoshop credit all goes to Steven. 

 Seriously... when did she grow up so much? She is a little girl now, and I can't believe she is almost 4.

Sisters. I'm so glad they have each other.

Cora was pretty happy to be eating that cupcake. Until the frosting was gone. Then she was done.
The girls have such great friends who got them amazing gifts. Even though they were exhausted, they both stayed up last last night playing with new toys in their beds. Today also has been spent doing lots of new crafts and reading new books. I'm glad my girls have such sweet, cute friends. 

I think everybody had a great time. It was kind of a big production and I couldn't have done it without all the help I had. It was worth it to see their smiles.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Monterey

We just got back from a quick trip to Monterey. We realized that we can't live an hour from one of the best aquariums in the world and never visit. So, Steven took work off Friday and we made a weekend trip out of it.

We drove down Thursday night and got there in time for dinner and swimming at the Residence Inn pool. The girls were pretty excited to be there. They seem to love hotels. I love the Residence Inn because we can shut the door and have our own room instead of sitting in the dark until they fall asleep.

The next morning I went on a run while Steven took the girls to breakfast. Our hotel was right on the edge of farm fields and it was really pretty. The miles flew by and I stopped to take a picture.

We spent the next five hours at the aquarium. Definitely glad we made the drive to visit because the aquarium really is one of the best. I have been to quite a few aquariums, but none this good before.
 Typical of them right now. Cora is a moving blur and Aubrey is a ham.

 I think I heard, "I want to touch it!" all day from Cora.


 The real ocean on the deck overlooking the aquarium. We were lucky enough to see dolphins too.

 Walking to lunch.

 Can never get her away from water.

 Aubrey is at a great age to take to places like this. She had a lot of fun and was fun. Cora... not so much. She just wanted to run everywhere, and we had to drag her away screaming on more than one occasion.

We had another fun night of swimming after the aquarium and the girls crashed at the hotel. Steven and I watched a few episodes of The Office for the second (third?) time. We really need something new to watch...

Saturday we went and visited the famous (and very cool) Dennis the Menace Park.





Then back to Cannery Row for some lunch and the $10 Ghirardelli ice cream sundaes. I can't resist those. Aubrey sobbed real tears when the ice cream was gone.

We spent a few more hours at the aquarium since we bought season passes. It is so expensive to go once... and not that bad to get passes so anybody want to visit and go with us again? The aquarium was way more packed today than yesterday. I'm glad we got to go yesterday to look because I spent today just trying to not lose a child.


And then we ended our day with overtired girls and a lot of this.
We had a great time. I think at some point as your kids get older, vacations may actually seem like a vacation. We are not there yet, and I think I am more tired now then when we left!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Half Marathon

Steven and I finished running our first half marathon this morning! And, I'm already blogging about it because we are so tired that the only way we are surviving is by letting the girls watch a movie this afternoon.

We decided to sign up for this race exactly 8 weeks ago. When we were picking a race, we looked for distance from our house, and a race that wasn't on a Sunday. So, we signed up, and I casually looked at words like, "Coastal trail series" and "975 feet elevation gain" but didn't think about it too much.

We followed our training plan pretty well, except for at Disneyland and I had a cold for three of those eight weeks that would not go away. But, we felt ready. We know that we are not really that fast, but I felt pretty confident I could finish in one piece.

When we woke up this morning, it was pouring rain. I'm definitely a sunny skies kind of girl, but we got ready quickly and got to the starting line with plenty of time. I'm so grateful that Natalie came to watch the girls, because I really didn't worry about them at all.

It looks pretty sunny in this picture, but it was raining, and I could not stop shivering.

We started the race off at the pace we planned. I'm glad the new Taylor Swift album came out this week because I listened to it the entire race. Shake it off :)

Most of the first six miles were between a 8:40-8:50 pace. I was feeling pretty good, but kind of hungry. I had a plain bagel this morning, but clearly need to eat more. I have a hard time figuring out how to fuel since having an upset stomach is one of the hardest parts of running for me.

Then, the hard part set in. We had to climb almost 1000 feet in about two miles. Straight up hill. Straight up a muddy, rocky, slippery mountain. I mostly just survived these miles, but Steven managed to snap one picture of how pretty it was. Pretty but miserable and s-l-o-w.

Since the course was an out and back course, we turned around at the halfway point. Now, we had to run back down the mountain. While this was easier on my lungs, it was just as difficult for me. The trail was really muddy, with lots of loose rocks and tree roots, and I just spent every step trying to not fall. Around mile 8 I slipped and almost came crashing down, but somehow managed to keep going.

The last five miles we were back on track running at our planned pace. As Steven and I both discussed after, the last three miles were just, "when can the pain stop" but we kept going. I felt pretty good except for my feet and ankles had taken quite the beating down the mountain. When I saw the blue finish line up ahead, I was so excited. I could stop soon!

We finished together right at 2 hours 10 minutes. Which, is not a super fast time, and is something that I had to accept. When we were training and before I knew how difficult the course was, we were really training for a sub 2 hour half marathon, which is a goal I really wanted to make.

But, it just wasn't going to happen on this course, and even though we didn't make it, I am so happy. I was really proud of our effort, and how we kept going when it was not easy. We finished 28&29/110 half marathon runners, and I managed to finish third in my age group so I got two medals!

I can't believe that I'm already planning this, but I have my eye on a completely flat half marathon in March so I can see how fast I can really run.

Running 13.1 miles is never something that I thought I would do. It just seemed too hard and too far. But, we did it! And, I'm so glad that I got to do it with my best friend. A year ago Steven was on crutches, so I am both amazed and grateful at how blessed our little family has been this past year.