The most important thing you need to know about my absence is...

...it was my birthday somewhere in there.

Yup.

Fifty is nifty.  (insert cheesy-yet-sincere smile)

 

Officially 50, taken just after midnight...

it was even scarier with the flash

Once again I've allowed 6 weeks to pass between postings...or has it been seven? Whatever. I've missed you. You've missed me. Now we're reunited, and it feels so good.

Tonight's not the night to share the ins and outs of my absence, just know that it's a challenge to write a semi-fitness blog when you aren't doing squat in the way of fitness activities and that I've been spending a ton of time with my family.

Back to my birthday...

My present to myself was to take my kids camping.

I've only been camping one time since I was eight years old. ONE TIME. My husband is an Eagle Scout, but he was not coming with us. I was undaunted. He had some valid concerns...

Him (super skeptically): Do you even know how to pitch a tent?
Me (incredibly upbeat):  Ummm....nope! But there are probably instructions, right?

*he hesitantly nodded, indicating that, yes, there probably were*

Him (super skeptically):  Do you even know how to build a fire?
Me (incredibly upbeat):  Wood...paper...matches...what's there to know?
Him (totally exasperated):  You can't just light some paper on fire and HOPE that the wood catches, too! You have to BUILD a fire!
Me (incredibly upbeat):  Yes! Yes!...the whole oxygen thing...right...gotcha!

*he rolled his eyes not imperceptibly, totally unconvinced I was capable*

Him (with great certainty):  You're bringing the stove, right?
Me (with equally great certainty...and incredibly upbeat): Nope!
Him (utterly incredulous):  What! Why not!
Me (incredibly upbeat):  Ehhh, I don't want to hassle with the fuel part and if it still works and how to work it since I've never used it...I figured we'll just eat cereal and sandwiches and maybe jam some hot dogs on sticks and roast them in the fire I'm going to "build."
Him (UTTERLY INCREDULOUS): You are KIDDING?!!!  You can't just stick hot dogs into an open flame and expect them to cook! Jeeeeezus! You need coals and embers...it takes skill and know-how...Jesus...
Me (incredibly upbeat...especially now that he had called upon Jesus to help me):  Ehhh, we'll figure it out...it'll be fun!

So yeah...I totally figured it all out. Did the tent thing. Did the fire thing. Totally rocked it. Didn't do the hot dogs the first night...instead picked up the worst pizza ever to contaminate our lovely planet on the way in. Did successfully toast marshmallows to perfection.

We were having a mini heat wave and Miss C insisted on wearing her new swimsuit all day...which included to camping.

Ballerina swimsuit + mismatched shoes = cutest camper ever.

Stumpfighters. 

These giant eucalyptus stumps were very cool. There were three of them on our campsite. We were the only campsite that had them. Sounds lucky, right? It wasn't. More on that later.

Sleeping in the tent was uneventful the first night. Thankfully.

We awoke the next day and decided to go for a hike. "Hike" is stretching the truth a little, though. The map showed a one mile loop around the camping area and called it "easy"...which was totally the truth.

 

The hike started off really well. Everyone was in high spirits!

We saw wild turkeys...which I must note for Jillsmo because I'm her Top Turkey-Sighting Blog.

No lie...about one half of a mile into the hike, the whining started. It was cool, though. I was all about it being fun...no pressure to complete...a DNF was totally fine. We found a place on the map where the trail appeared to come really close to the road about 100 yds from our campsite. We scrambled up the poison oak-infested hillside (the kids screamed about the poison oak the ENTIRE time) and emerged into a loving couple's morning tête-à-tête over their breakfast. Ooops.

Once back at our campsite, it was high noon and the awesome stumps proved to be the Ghosts of Shady Pasts. Yep. We had zero shade and temps were in the 80's. So being the resourceful life forms that we are, we dragged a blanket over to a shady spot in the middle of all the campsites and .... camped out there all day :)

Miss C brought an ungodly amount of tiny, lose-able toys in her little Dora backpack.

Her favorite part of the trip was the PBJ-on-hot-dog-bun sandwiches. Here she has one jammed on her finger.

We hung out in that shade all day...until we couldn't take it anymore...we needed ice cream.

Grossest ice cream ever...bubble gum. X started to cry. She had been so looking forward to yummy, cold ice cream and hers was disgusting. I was not a mean mom. I didn't make her eat it. I didn't tell her "well, suck it up, buttercup." Nope. I said "yeah! Looks totally gross! what kind do you want? Let's just get you something different." Easiest solution ever, right?

We did cook hot dogs in our second stellarly-built fire. And they were perfect. As was the fire. Again. I am like a pro camper...or a natural camper...or just really damn lucky...or something. Or it was my husband having called out to Jesus on my behalf.

Then the kids played cards and read Harry Potter number-I-have-no-idea with flashlights in the tent.

SO FUN!!!!!

...until it was so NOT. Time for bed, right? yeah, I thought so, too.

They slept well.

Last picture of me being 49...important to take that in the camping place bathroom.

It started to rain as we pulled the tent down and packed up our stuff. That just made it more exciting :) It was an easy 40-minute drive home. The campground is not the most wilderness-y...being just 30 minutes from downtown Oakland! The unpacking was pretty easy...probably felt that way because all the sleeping bags and inflatable mattresses are still in my car three weeks later! I should do something about that...

The next day was my actual birthday.

The sun came up.

My little girl and I went to the local rose garden where everything was in full bloom. She ran, of course. I didn't, of course.

We walked down magical paths.

We stopped to smell roses as big as her head.

She created the most wonderful photo opportunities.

All before 10 a.m.

I am truly blessed to have this life.

I am so grateful for everything (yes, everything) these fifty years have brought me.

Here's to the next fifty!

Sending my very best thoughts and wishes out to all of you :)

hey. whoa. where'd i go?

Hey, guys! It's been a while.

I've been keeping myself busy so as to not dwell on the limited exercise of interest thing (this eliminates swimming from the discussion, so don't suggest it...got it?).

I know you all are curious about how the injection is playing out and probably all the awesome things I've been up to since I clearly have NOT been blogging.

Bullets...here you go:

• PRP Injection? Two thumbs way UP. For two days after, I babied the heck out of my hip, then I started bearing more weight and being more active. A bit of pain...it comes and goes when I walk, especially when I have to carry a child. But the most amazing thing to ME is this:
• I saw Life of Pi in 3D. Triple snap in Z formation. Go see it. About two-thirds of the way through the movie I started crying for a reason completely unrelated to the movie (which did make me cry in its own right). I was crying because I realized that for the first time in ten years, I was not uncomfortable AT ALL while watching a movie. TEN YEARS, people, of pain in movies. It was a mind-blowing experience to NOT have that. I'm calling Injection #1 a success. I get #2 in three weeks. I can't wait :)
• A couple of weeks ago I offered to help someone out. I don't know her that well, but our daughters are best friends. I'm watching her daughter before school for 90 minutes for the next three weeks. The child is super polite and sweet and EASY. And makes our mornings easy...which is hard. She came over every morning this week. Today the mom paid me! Whoa. I wasn't expecting that! Woo hooo! Now I have money to:
• Mail out the Jingle Bell Hell prizes! I had NO IDEA how expensive shipping had gotten :( But they ARE coming, people. Hope to get them out by the end of next week. So Christmas in March not February ;-) I may need to go buy Jennifer some more powdered donuts, though. Not sure how rich in preservatives these guys are!
• We enjoyed a lovely day and went on a lovely walk...

Except for this one. She ran...

...and kept running...

...until she found this tree, upon which she stopped and pointed

and loudly proclaimed,

MOM!!! THIS TREE HAS A PENIS!

I do believe that the entire horde of tourists visiting Muir Woods on that beautiful Sunday morning then noticed that, indeed, the tree had a penis. 

She looked up and saw this...

and delightedly shrieked,

(I say 'delighted' because she's my child)

These trees are SO BIG! They're THIS BIG!

and she jumped to show me how big.

That's why the picture is blurry.

This one got mad.

I don't remember why, 

but I remember that he worked it for a good, long time.

Then we let him take our picture.

He was so excited that he tried to grab his own face.

It was beautiful.

And kind of loud because we were there.

• We followed up with lunch at In N Out, which I think was the kids' favorite part of the experience. Even though I made them all share a shake. 

Hope all of you out there have a lovely weekend!

Anyone doing something fun?

– we have soccer and birthday parties and piano tests and housework to look forward to :)

Following the plan...

Here's a disjointed blog post, but I'm gonna do it. A grand experiment...the Don't Run, Run Faster Plan will be tested like never before!

I have not run since the first week of the month. I have, however, been using cardio machines and biking, doing strength work and stretching. I've walked up and down my favorite monster hill a few times to get some "impact" (albeit low) and real time on my feet.

And Race Day is 10 days away.

I might run this weekend. Depending on how that goes, I might run once or twice next week. But other than that, Hey there, Mr. Race! Be nice to me! I have no idea what to expect from you :)  That's not entirely true. It will be hard. My feet and ankles will be full of twinges, my calves will get super tight and sore, and my hip is bound to hurt. But...my lungs and heart can handle it! This I know.

I just wish had this super easy, free running ability...

She really is a natural.

And can you believe it's January?

Throwing now!

Maybe she's a budding heptathlete?

As we were on this family walk at the park we visited the other day, I was reminded of how good I have it. How good WE have it.

The kids and I passed by these benches and decided to sit there for our snack. Turns out they are memorial benches for local youth killed by violence. The kids were mesmerized. They started asking all sorts of questions...why did they die? how did they die? why would someone do that to them? how could someone kill someone's daddy? how could someone kill a baby?

I did my best to answer the questions with compassion and truth. Sometimes being a parent is really tough stuff. *sigh* But I've got it good. Better than most. I have to always remember that.

Then they ran off and played...

And the sun went down...

 And everything was beautiful...

Saturday Sweetness

Now it's my turn to complain about where I live ;-)

This pond has a paved path around it that is one mile. There are many types of water birds that hang out here in addition to the fabulous Canada geese. We didn't see anything but geese and seagulls today, but I have seen other birds here before. This path is where I used to run my mile repeats back in the olden days...back when my mile repeats were in the 6:10 range. Like, a million years ago. 

We were actually headed to Mt. Tamalpais (the mountain in the distance) for a nice, gentle hike. But prep time got away from us. And there was lots of screaming and yelling and recalcitrance. It's hard to remember what preceded what...so in the interest of 'no shame and no blame' we'll just leave it at this:  it was a difficult morning. So instead we drove 7 minutes to this park. We brought a picnic lunch, all the bikes and scooters and everyone had the best time.

I only got pictures of Miss C's 'best time' because she wasn't leaving the trees and I really couldn't leave her unattended. The older 3 rode and ran around the pond without us.

 Examining the ants.

Praising the tree.

Harvesting the seeds off the tree.

How could this sweet family outing possibly get any sweeter?

Must.

Have.

DONUTS.

Some of the stuff I've been leaving out...

1. I've been rock climbing. No pictures. I need to figure out how to carry a camera (or phone) when I climb. Anyway...my instructor-turned-friend paid me a huge compliment the other day, and I am feeling so good about deciding to give climbing a try. And I climbed 2 routes rated 5.11a that evening :)  Meaningless to most of you awesome readers, but it's improvement and it's got me excited!

2. I have not been running much at all. And I am planning on organizing an Ellimpics for us injured athletes. Look for details coming soon, and submit suggestions for events. That said, I am increasing my running miles this week so my training for the EGames™ will be limited ;-)

3. I have been working out a good deal, though, and the other day set a completely pointless PR on the elliptical...speeding 3.1 elliptical miles (yes, that is 5K) in 20:03. It would be so amazing if elliptical speed translated into running speed...but it doesn't.

4. We went to the beach and everyone had fun...not just Miss C and her Squishy...

~soft frisbee necklaces, playing with sand crabs with cousins, getting buried alive!~

~boogie boarding and a wicked riptide...this was the first time in 15 years that I've gone in~

yes, it was very cold

~digging a trench...guess which picture shows the fight...hint: all four kids are in it~

they spent literally all day off and on digging this

~then they planted a really big stick~

~Big G and Miss C paid homage to the planted stick~

and that bottom left pic is what the beach looked like when we left

...and this is what we drove into. Northern California coastal summer weather at its finest! 

The Vacation Post You've Been Waiting For...

Summer vacation has been going on for a whole THREE weeks. Everyone who has been reading this blog for the last 6 or more months knows what that means... school break = time to go to the zoo.

Yes, another ZOO post.

How many times can you go see the same zoo animals without wanting to poke out your eyeballs? Well, if you're three years old, there are no limits...

Happy!  :)

But if you're 12 going on 13, you've seen it all and done it all. And riding the stupid train is particularly boring...especially when your mom makes you leave your 500-page, hardcover library book in the car...

Not happy.  :(

Personally, I never get sick of the zoo. You never know when you will see something that makes your jaw drop...like an elephant penis...or something that makes you go "awwwwwwwwww"...like an adorable baby giraffe.

Baby is next to the tree on the left. See? It's the small one. ;-)

I let the kids take most of the pictures this zoo visit. I could have made several thumbnail collages of 'finger shots' but opted not to. Instead, I am sharing some very mundane animal pictures...sorry, no penises...

Left: the zoo now has 7 otters. They were frolicking wildly in the water and having a blast. It reminded me of my kids fighting, but the otters looked like they were having fun. 

Center: this is the first time EVER that I have seen the warthog. I actually used to think they were lying about having a warthog. Right: the emu was out of the corner.

We went to the Reptile Room. I try to stay out of that place because there are a bunch of 'quiet please' signs posted all over, and my kids have sign-blindness. This time, though, they begged. And were relatively quiet...and took lots of pictures. Thankfully, for the sake of the animals, without the flash...

Left: the frozen frog. Another visitor kept insisting that it was a fake...but I could see it breathing.

Center: Big G insisted this turtle is his 'spirit animal.' He launched into a 20-minute dissertation on what that means and why he believes this. I have no idea what the other 3 kids were doing during this time.

Right: super cool bright blue frog that was only photographed because I insisted it be.

Big G did eventually get with the Fun Program. He was the primary photographer and even played nicely with his little brother...

Pretending to surf on top of a swimming tortoise. 

Q-Man went on his first-ever roller coaster ride with his more-experienced sister...

...and loved it! 

And for some reason, there's this picture of dirt...

...not entirely sure what that's all about. 

And it isn't even in focus. 

Maybe I took that one...I've been having real 'focus' issues lately.

Happy weekend to all :)