Lunch in Santa Barbara

As I was enjoying my train ride up the coast last March, I kept thinking how much mom would love the experience.  She loves to ride in a car and watch the world go by.  So, today, we took the train up to Santa Barbara for lunch.

The people on the train were nice and patient with the extra time it took mom to get on and off, and we made friends with lots of people during the day.

We took a trolly tour around the city and saw some interesting sights including the Santa Barbara Mission.  Last weekend they had a sidewalk chalk festival, and the drawings were amazing.  Hard to believe they were done in chalk.

But best of all was the ocean view...gorgeous!

Picture Wall

Monday's Memory--Family Pictures

This is how my scrapbooks begin, with family pictures of mom and dad.  I love these pictures for so many reasons.  Both families went to the same photographer, unplanned, and he used the same props in both pictures. (Notice the picture on the wall and the hassock!)  Uncle Jack is looking pretty spiffy in his uniform.  You gotta love the style of shoes.  But, best of all, the smaller pictures are mom and dad's senior pictures.  They even have some kind of metal with 1942 embossed on them.  Pretty cool.

Mud Run

While I was in Utah, this is what Amy's kids were busy doing!!!

River walk

Instead of the  usual scenery that I see during my walk at home...streets, houses, cars...this is what I saw during my walk this morning.  Much nicer!

Dance Recital Time

I flew up to Utah to see Sophie, Claire, and Luke in their dance recital. All of the songs came from movies this year.

Sophie in Jungle Book

Claire in Monsters Inc.

And Luke in Like Mike

They all did a great job and I was so happy to share this time with them..,way to go, guys.

Todd turns 40!!!

Yep, he turned 40 today.  Shopping was easy this year...we all gave him $$$ for his Alaska trip later this summer.  And I didn't have to call him to sing because I was out there and got to sing in person.

Happy, happy birthday

Mother's Day

The reasons I love being a mom...

Can you believe I don't have a picture of just Todd and me??!!  So I'm reserving this space and will rectify that the next time we are together!  Coming soon...a picture of the other reason why I love being a mom!

We didn't find time my last trip to Utah, so this one will have to do until later.  This is from when I visited Todd in DC, summer of 2010.

Annie

Emma wanted to try something different than dance lessons, so she was is a production of Annie.  She made quite a cute orphan.

Happy Birthday, Todd

Todd turned 37 today!!!  When I facetimed him to sing, I got a surprise bonus...Sophie was cuddling in bed with him, so I got to visit with her too.  Happy birthday, sweetheart.  I love you.

  Can you tell he is not a morning person?!

Happy Birthday, Claire

Claire had a long weekend of birthday celebrating...an outing to the nail salon with some friends...a Cinco de Mayo family party...and birthday pancakes, presents, dinner out, and cake on her actual birthday.  It was fun to facetime her to sing "Happy Birthday".  By the end of the weekend, she certainly felt 7.  Happy Birthday, Claire Bear.

Surf City Run, July 4, 2013

As I looked at my bucket list, I realized that all I needed to check off the race one was to ENTER a 5K.  It doesn't say anything about actually participating in the race!  Then I looked up my goals for this year...

Second, physical.  I am going to ENTER a 5K walk.  I know that I could walk 5K right now, but that's not the point.  I want to train, to get into better shape.  So, I'm going to train and be ready for the HB 4th of July race.

Again, it just says to ENTER!!!  And today I entered.  So I guess I could  check it off my list.  But that was not the intent of either my list or my goal.  I wanted to get into better shape.  So I've started training.  I started by just walking the 3 miles.  After a few days of that, I started running a little.  By a little, I mean a little.  I run for 45 seconds twice every mile.  And that is about to kill me.  I have always found Kathy to be amazing, but I have a new found respect for her...how in the world can she run for over 3 hours without stopping when I can barely do 45 seconds.  Well, I have 2 months to see if I can improve...and not die in the process!  Wish me luck.