Disney World....birthday style!

The big adventure on our Florida vacation was taking the kids to Disney World......this was their first Disney visit. Although we had just flown in the night before we knew that first day we just had to go. Manly because it was Dani's birthday and we wanted to make sure she felt like a princess. So off we went with Papa and Nana to expierence Disney through the little ones.

As we were driving onto the Disney property the look on the kids face was priceless. She was so excited about getting to see the princess castle she did not know what to do with herself. We went tot he ticket window and got their tickets and Dani's special birthday pin. We talked them into giving us one for Chris to since his birthday is in a little over a week.

From the parking lot we decided to take the ferryboat across the lake to Magic Kingdom. We we walked into view of the princess castle from across the lake I thought Dani was going to keel over. She was in heaven. The ferry boat trip across the lake set the ton for a great day!

The entrance to the Ferryboat that would take us right to the gate to the Magic Kingdom.

AS you can see Dani was more concerned with making sure we all knew where the castle was then taking a picture.

Dani got her special Birthday Button and loved all the attention she got.

Dani and I on the boat with Magic Kingdom in the background

Chris was a little unsure of the heat and humidity.

Nana and Dani waiting to go in the park.

The first view of the castle as we walked down Main Street

Dani waiting for the princesses performance in front of the castle

She was awestruck at the sight of Cinderella

Dani and I hoola hooping before lunch.

She actually did quite well.

Bryan and Chris on Small World.....the AC made the insane making song worth it.

Chris and Dani with no other then Donald himself.

Dani and I on the Magic carpet ride.

Dani was loving the time she got with Arial....as you can see we bought her the Ariel shirt for her birthday.

Ariel giving Dani a high five for turning THREE

Dani and her hero!

Dani enjoying some ice cream.

Bryana and I waiting for the fireworks to start outside the Castle.

Dani thought it was great how the castle changed colors.

Here is the gang (minus Papa behind the camera) waiting for the show.

We had such a great day here and Dani was treated like royalty....Chris too! They got free candy int he candy shops, free ice cream from the ride attendants and everyone saying Happy Birthday to them. Disney was a hit.....plus know all our Disney loving friends won't turn us into CPS for not taking them to Disney sooner then now.

My baby is 3

Sweet little Dani girl turned THREE on the 13th. It is hard for me to imagine that my youngest child is already three, this was the little bean that was just born yesterday!


This is the sweet baby girl that she will always be in my mind. This sweet little bundle of joy that came to me just three short years ago.

Dani was celebrated Princess style this year. We woke up on her birthday in Florida at Papa & Nana's house. We had a big Princess balloon for the Princess and a sweet little birthday cupcake.
The birthday princess celebrating in style with a cupcake for breakfast.

What a better way to celebrate your birthday then a trip to the Ultimate Princess castle......Disney World! I think we set ourselves up on this one, how are we going to top this next year.

May Race....to make up for April

Before we headed to Florida Bryan and I kicked off National Police week with the CPOA (California Peace Officer's Association) Memorial Run in Pleasanton. This was the 1st year that they have done this run and it was great. I think people so the opportunity to help this great cause and really came together, especially in light of everything that has happened this year. Our friend Cheri, who works with Bryan, and her kids came also. Some ran with her and the others graciously watched our kiddos while we ran.

It was nice because a lot of the local departments had all their toys and vehicles there for the kids to see. After the race Outback steakhouse catered a nice lunch and Coldstone was even there. This is enough to guarantee that we will run this race again.

Bryan and I both ran the 5K, the heat and the hills were a killer but we had fun.

Here is Bryan and I looking all fresh and clean before the race....no post race pictures here :)

Dani was able to score some great balloon swords and animals from the clown they had come for the BBQ. Plus you can see she had quite the sticker collection on her pants.
East Bay Regional Parks landed the helicopter after the race. We were right there when in landed, so close that Bryan had to hang onto Dani so she would not fall over. The kids were in heaven. Dani has quite the obsession with helicopters.


I promise Chris was more excited to sit in here.....he just does not like pictures
Dani was loving this. She walked up to the pilot when we got there and asked him if he could do that again! Too cute.

For those keeping track this was my April Run since I was traveling in April and could not make any races.....I have one more when we get back in town for May.

The First Visit from the Tooth Fairy

I knew the day would come but I guess I never expected it. Last Sunday Chris and I were out running errands and all of a sudden Chris exclaims that his tooth is loose, and it was really loose. Instantly I thought, "Crap, I am so not ready for this."

Over the next few days Chris kept wiggling the tooth and checking on it. I was a little worried at his baseball game Tuesday night when it was practically hanging out. Well Wednesday when I picked him up from the after school program he smiled and was without a tooth. He was so excited and I could not have been more happy for him. The only problem was that he did not remember where he lost it or when. His teacher felt really bad and they had looked all over for it with no luck. I told Chris that we would write a note to the Tooth Fairy and make sure she understood.

So before bed that night we wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy and left it under his pillow. he was so excited! In the morning he came in my room and was a little perplexed that his treat was left on the nightstand and not under the pillow. Oops! my bad.

Here

Our happy little toothless wonder!!!

Asparagus Festival

The one thing that the Central Valley knows how to do is party it up Asparagus style. Every year they transform the waterfront in Stockton to an asparagus wonderland. I took the kids after school last week with some friends to enjoy the fun.

Our first stop had to be at one of the many asparagus booths to get the yearly treat of deep fried asparagus. I think I actually gained weight while waiting in line, but man is it yummy!

Dani was my little rug rat as usual and had fun eating all the food and running around dancing to the Beach Boys cover band.

Chris was in awe of the golfers teeing off into the Port! I think he could have stood here for days just watching the golf balls land in the water.
Kyle, Logan and Chris had fun looking at the cars they had as well as some of the fun CHP cruisers they had out there.

Dani was in heaven with the purple snow cone.
Then it was time for the rides. The kids had a blast and it was nice because there was not much of a crowd on Friday. That is one thing I have learned over the years.....go on Friday, the crowds are a lot better.

She loved her little pink plane.

Tracy Trash Day

Like most of you know Tracy Trash Day is something that Bryan and I look forward to. We have been on quite the cleaning binge lately so this came at the perfect time. A few weeks ago we had our garage sale and ever since then we had been accumulating a pike in the garage of all the things that would get swept to the curb come time.

I the week leading up to this there would be various items starting to appear on the curb, this is the sign that the day is near. So last Thursday night Bryan and I went through the house getting all the garbage and random items that were no goodwill worthy. Everything was brought to the curb that we were ready to get rid of.

All night long we heard cars and trucks drive up and down the streets looking at piles, picking out items and finding treasures. Even while Bryan and I were taking things to the curb there were cars drive by to look at what we had out there. One lady parked down the street and waited for us to close the garage to go through our greatest possessions.

The next morning while I was a the gym Bryan heard some noise outside. Our pile was still there and there were still a few good items there. Bryan watched as two women got out of their pick up, inspected the pile and decided it was time to dig. They found a garbage bag, dumped it out and started filling it with the times that they liked. I was so proud of my husband because he ran to grab the camera so he could document it. I have trained him well.

This is all just another perk of living in Tracy!

I thought this shot was classic!

More to come I promise

I have been slacking in the blog area, I know.

I have a stock pile of pictures and posts I need to put up. Since the last post we have had baseball games, the Asparagus Festival, Tracy Trash Day (and man did Bryan get some good pics), fun with the dogs and more.

Also I have to say that unfortunately there was no April Race..... but I told myself I will do 2 in May to make up for it. I was going to run the Great Spear It run at the Asparagus Festival last weekend but instead I had to fly to Chicago for work for the weekend. I was bummed because this really is a great run. I already have 2 in May on the books so I hope that counts.

I will try and update in the next day or so.

We'll see......right!

Here's a picture to hold you over until then. The three most precious people in my life.

Another year.....

Yesterday marked year number 32 for me.......or older if you lose track! (mom)

No big hoopla, just a nice day all around with family and friends. I wanted to start the day right. I got up a little early and beat the rain with a morning run, 3.2 miles in honor of my 32nd year. Then all the daily activities of a mom continued: showers, breakfast, dressing the kids, packing snacks and off to school and daycare and onto work.

This was the first year the kids are truly understanding birthdays. Chris was so excited to wake up and tell me Happy Birthday, it made my day. Then there is Dani girl who insisted to all the ladies at the gym the night before that" Mommy turning 4 1/2 tomorrow" LOVE HER! When I got to work there was a note on my laptop from Bryan that said "open me". Inside was the cutest little handmade card from Chris and a card from Bryan.

The day continued on with Bryan scoring more points for sending flowers to work and getting some nice treats from my friends at work. In typical fashion of being married to a police officer I got a call around lunch time saying plans were changing. Bryan got called into work because they needed a dog for a search warrant that the SRU team was serving on a meth lab. Of course why won't they, it was my birthday. No biggie though because I was just planning on heading home after work and hanging with the family. Little did I know Bryan had made plans for the night.

A few hours later Bryan called to let me know it was going to take a little longer but I needed to be home by 5. He had arranged for a sitter to come and watch the kids so we could go out that night, shop for my present and then get dinner. I told him I would still have the sitter come and just pray that they got done sooner then later and we could still get a late dinner. Thankfully by the time I got home and got the kids settled with the sitter Bryan was finishing up. We met up at the jail (how romantic, right?) and were able to still enjoy a nice night out.

So like I said, no big hoopla, just a nice day. But still birthday 32 left me feeling loved by my family & friends and ready for a great year ahead.

Dani girl

I love this sweet girl. This was taken at our friends house last weekend during a birthday party.

This picture makes me smile. Thanks for taking it Julie!