MudRun

 So I have wanted to do a MudRun for awhile now. My good friend in Florida ran one a couple of months back and that got my excitement brewing again to run one. Anyway, Scott found one on Groupon at the beginning of May and we went for it. It was in Sonoma so we headed up to Scott's parents to stay the night and "prepare" for the race. Well, we at least TRIED to prepare. Looking back we should havebrought a backpack with clothes to change in to, extra shoes, etc, etc. Basically this MudRun is a 5K and this particular race is the most difficult run I have ever run. The hills were killer!! Down hill was almost more intense then uphill. During the run, there are obstacles to go through and most of them involve mud. We thought we had signed up for the 9:00AM wave, but turns out Scott didn't actually register us for the race so we had to wait until the last wave. So I think some of the muddy sections were even more intense because it was starting to dry so there was a very strong suction. At one point Scott yelled for me to stop because he was totally stuck. The suction pulled his shoe off when he tried to pull it out. Oh, the first picture is pre-race. I totally had pre-race jitters and was so excited to run.

 This doesn't really show anything except all of the crazy runners. And check out those massive hills. They were very unforgiving and I had to go against my original plan to not walk and speed walk up some of them.

 You can see some of the muddy finishers. So, there weren't as many obstacles as we thought there would be. While running, you have the option to bypass the obstacle but we decided that we would try and hit every one. I thought for sure I would face plant over some of the walls we had to jump over. I would say the scariest part was the cargo net/ladder we had to climb. It was about 20ft high (or felt that way). It was towards the end of the race so not only are we tired, but there is a huge layer of mud caked to our shoes. The hardest part was getting to the top and having to climb over the side. I learned of Scott's fear of heights during this part of the race. And just when we thought all of the obstacles were over, there was about 3 feet deep of muddy water that we had to army crawl through. I was trying to keep as much mud off as possible but then embraced it and let it get me good.

 Post race. We were so tired

So when we first got there, there was a huge line of shower like spcikets that people would use to clean up. When we finished...those spickets were gone. What the heck!? How were we going to drive home covered in mud?? We asked where the water was and someone pointed to a far away truck leaving to go pick up more water. We were not sure how long it would take so we decided to just sit on towels and suffer the 45 minutes home, caked in mud. As we headed back to the car, we saw the truck return so we rushed back to the wash off area to get cleaned up. Now we thought they would be setting up the showers again but oh were we wrong. The water truck had two huge power nozzles on each side and he just let the water spray out over tons of filthy bodies. It was sooo cold and I opted out getting completely clean because I am the biggest wimp and just don't do cold very well. It was a funny site though. Water shooting out over dancing bodies (and only dancing to keep warm). I bucked up a little and went back in the crowd but didn't last long. At one point it was hitting me directly in the face. Scott was smart and took his shirt off and was using it as a wash cloth. So, he went home fairly clean while I was pretty gross still.
I would love to keep doing stuff like this (hint hint, Scott). I loved running with him because most of it, we just chatted (not during the crazy hill parts). Anyway, there should be more pictures on the official website so I am excited to see them. I would totally recommend the mudrun to anyone that is interested. We are both totally sore and tired but worth it! Oh and my favorite part of the last couple of pictures is my awesome mud flavor savor I grew while running the course!

A Place Where Dreams Come True

 First things first. Scott found a job. After months of searching, interviewing, rejections and so on, he was offered a job at the Attorney Generals Office in Sacramento in the Correctional Law Department. We have been wanting to take Ada to Disney so to celebrate, we loaded up the car and headed out. There were some mishaps along the way. We were an hour behind schedule to leave so I was relieved once we were ready to go, but the car didn't start! The neighbor had to jump the car and we took it straight to our mechanic and replaced a leaking battery. Once we got to Anaheim, our plan was to purchase tickets off of Craigslist at a discounted rate. After finding out that we would have to leave our license with the guy and return our tickets to him afterwards I asked him if it was legal. He proceeded to ask me if Superman shares all of his secrets. I told him I would talk to my husband and get back to him. We did not go that route. An even better solution was to have Scott's Uncle purchase the tickets for us. Southern California residents get pretty big discounts. So we had him order them for us online and send the confirmation to Scott's email (This was all at 10:00PM. We had woken his poor uncle up) Well, the e-ticket never came until late morning the next day. Not going into all the details, after calling Disney and telling them our E-tickets never came, we found out that Scott's uncle would have to come to the park and pick up the tickets for us!! CRAP. Since Scott's Uncle was at work, we decided to make Wednesday a beach day and would call Uncle Craig after work. He reluctantly agreed to make his way to the park (Thanks Uncle Craig) to pick up the tickets for us, but lucky for him, the e-ticket arrived in Scott's email shortly after we left for the beach.. Phew. We felt so horrible putting him out and were so happy he didn't have to fight traffic and parking to go to will-call!

Anyway, we had a great time at Disney. Ada woke up at 4:50AM Disney morning cause she couldn't find her binky (Yes, binkies at naps and bedtime). Then she really couldn't fall back asleep and was back and forth until 6:45 when she was officially up. She had the widest smile on her face and said, "I'm SO excited to see Minnie!"

 On the trip down, grateful to finally be going (Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us borrow your wonderful Van)

 We were all ready for Disney our first morning when we realized we had the major ticket issue so we ate some donuts and changed into our swimsuits

 LOVE Ada's new suit

 Hanging out at Huntington Beach. It was so sunny just outside of Huntington, then we drove right into a wall of clouds. Surprisingly it was Scott who was cold and not me

 Playing in the waves

 After the beach we took the girls back to the hotel for naps (and me too) then hit Downtown Disney for dinner. Ivy loved the restaurant we chose

 The pizza was supposed to taste like Pizza from Naples, Italy. Since I have been there before I can say that it was close, but didn't quite hit the mark. Can't beat Pizza from Naples. Just can't

 Disney: We splurged...a lot and had "Breakfast with Minnie" and I will tell you what, it was worth EVERY penny. The food was good (buffet) and Ada was in HEAVEN. Random moment of the day. I ran into a guy that I went to college with. He took my sister out a couple of times.

 It took Ada some time to warm up to Captain Hook. Ivy dove right in

 She loved Minnie and kept going back to talk to her

 I think this is Dale. He kissed Ada a couple of times and she kept talking about that

 Ivy loved to grab the noses

 First ride of the day. Ada wasn't huge fan. When she got off she said, "Mom, that was a little bit scary." It made me feel a little bit sick. Poor Scott was in for it after one roller coaster. Some of the Foley Men  get motion sickness really bad.  We were waiting for him at the exit when he got off the ride and he was covered in sweat. He told me he wasn't feeling well and pretty much kept his eyes closed the whole ride and stayed in fetal position. In fact, his eyes were closed and his head was slightly down when the picture was taken. It was sad but funny. He felt a little queasy for the rest of the day

 Small World. Ada loved the dolls that shook their hips really fast.

 Sweet, sweet girl

 Ada loved the princesses

 Goofys House. Loved Toontown. It is so cute and so is that face!

 Minnie's House

 It was around 3:00 and Ada still hadn't taken a nap. You see a smile on her face, but she was slowly breaking down

 Getting ready for the parade. It was amazing. SO much detail goes into every character. I could have watched for hours (well maybe not hours). Although Ada was exhausted, she was totally sucked in. Ivy loved the parade too. She was chatting up a storm

 California Adventure was Friday. It was "Grad Night" for graduating Seniors so it was pretty packed. We went hard all day at Disney and took a little more time getting to the park on Friday. Ada napped while Scott and I ate lunch and fed Ivy. Isn't she the sweetest little thing? I can't get enough of her

 When we first got to California Adventure, I was a little uncertain if we were really going to like it. It was perfect though. We had a great time. There was  Mickey Mouse Club House performance that Ada loved! She talked about that show for the rest of the day.

 Bugland. Ada's face is classic

 "It's our family," as Ada likes to say when we take group pictures

 Ada was shocked to run into Jake from the Neverland Pirates. She was hoping that she would see Izzy too.

 After this picture was taken, we took Ada to a splash pad that she could get wet in. While we were changing her back into dry clothes (yes, out in public) Phineas and Pherb dance party came rolling by. There is a big stage with dance instructors (Along with Phineas and Pherb). Ada was so excited so we hurried to finish dressing her. When we finally got to the crowd, Ada charged right in. She was the only kid in there doing her own thing. She was dancing circles around all of the other kids and dance instructors and following Phineas and Pherb. What made this even funnier, is in my hurry to dress her in her cute shorts and shirt, I had accidentally pulled her stretchy shorts too high and had tucked her shirt right into the shorts. Hilarious.

We stayed until the World of Color water show. It was way past the girls bedtime and Ada crashed in the stroller. Funny story. On the LONG walk back to the car, we looked down at Ada and she was completely turned over on to her stomach in the stroller. She started whimpering so I picked her up. Big mistake. She was still half asleep and started screaming. She screamed and cried for the last 10 minutes of our walk which woke Ivy up and she started crying too. So picture us. Loading up two screaming girls, and trying to get everything in the van. People are walking by giving us sympathetic looks. One lady leaned over and asked how many kids we had in our car. "Two!" She was surprised to hear that. Ada continued screaming for another 10 minutes or so then crashed. Ivy cried for awhile longer too. Then Silence. We got to Scott's uncles house (We stayed with them a couple of nights) and quickly put Ada to bed. We all slept in the same room. Just as I was putting Ivy into her bed, Ada screamed. Freaked me out. I tried to comfort her but she just kept whimpering. When I finally got her to calm down, she told me that a snake had gotten her. Poor thing. That was my first experience with nightmares.
Anyway, we had such a great time. We finished off the week with spending Mother's Day with Grandma and Grandpa Foley and Doug and Jenny's family.
The time, energy and money put into this trip was well worth it. I couldn't have asked for a better week. I think the only thing I would do different next time (well one of the things) is to have one other family go with us so I could ride the rides with Scott (the one's that don't make him sick, anyway). Who is in?