San Diego and Disneyland
October 18th, 2009 / posted by Jake
We recently took a 10 day vacation to the beach in San Diego and at Disneyland! For Lindsey and myself, this was our first vacation for longer than 3 days in over 3 years, and it was long overdue.
We stayed in cottages on the beach at Pacific Beach for 5 days and it was absolutely wonderful. The weather was slightly overcast which I felt was better than blazing, unbearable heat. The kids got to spend time playing with their cousins building sand castles, burying each other, and playing in the ocean while watching the dolphins swim around near us. Lindsey went surfing and I went body surfing a few times which is always a highlight of any beach trip for me. Nice walks and runs on the beach! While eating breakfast out side one morning a bird landed right next to Kaitlyn’s plate ready to eat! The kids jumped and screamed making this event the highlight of their breakfast. Because the cottages were on the beach, the crashing of the waves put us to sleep each night.
Both Tyler and Kaitlyn really had no idea what to expect from Disneyland when we would tell them about it. All they understood was that Mickey Mouse was there which kept them excited. Tyler is our official roller coaster rider, we were surprised that he liked space mountain with the Halloween additions, let alone Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain!!! Kaitlyn was memorized by it’s a small world! We were able to ride plenty of rides and see some shows! We did some trick or treating at mickey mouses trick or treat party one night. The kids favorite show had to be the mickey mouse clubhouse show at California Adventure. Tyler loved it although wasn’t the dancing participant that Kaitlyn was. It was 2 great 15 hour days of Disneyland!! When Kaitlyn is a little older we will get season passes!
For our last night at Disneyland we put the kids to bed with grandma and spent 4 hours going on all the rights possible before the park closed. We had a special way in which we were able to get to the front of the line on each ride so we were able to hit each of the rides multiple times which made it a great way to end our Disneyland adventure.
We also were able to visit Lindsey’s family and hang out along with some horse back riding!
It was a great family vacation to remember (I could have done without the drive home)!! It was nice to be able to visit with everyone and relax!
5k run, Funderland, Sac 911 Memorial
September 14th, 2009 / posted by Jake
Summer is coming to an end as has been made apparent these past couple of days with the light rain we’ve been receiving. I LOVE the rain especially in the fall. Living in Holland for 2 years where it would rain all the time only reaffirmed this love. So I look forward to spending our evenings outdoors with a light jacket enjoying the weather with the kids, or riding our bikes together, or watching the rain and lightning.
We’ve had a few events come up that I thought I’d share. For the past month or so I have been working on a website for the Sacramento 911 Memorial Climb in honor of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives 8 years ago with the collapse of both World Trade Centers. The Sacramento 911 Memorial Climb is a climb organized by local firefighters in which 343 firefighters would climb 110 stories, carrying the name of one of the fallen 343. Once they got to the top of the building they hung it on a memorial in remembrance of him/her. It was a great feeling being able to be apart of such event – if only it were under difference circumstances. Even though the memorial climb is over, there are a few pictures from the climb posted on the website as well as minor details for next years climb. http://www.sac911climb.com. Lindsey, Tyler, and Kaitlyn came out and as was expected Tyler loved seeing all the firefighters and firetrucks.
If you haven’t seen on Facebook, I took up running a few months back as my main form of cardiovascular exercise. I would always make fun of runners because to me they always looked as though they hated life every time I saw them out running. Now that I’m addicted, I see why runners do it – it feels too good not to. I try to run anywhere from 3-6 miles each day. I recently participated in my first race. It was only a 5k but a good experience for me and I feel I did pretty well averaging 7:48 per mile which can be seen here. If you are interested in tracking my runs, I’ve created a separate page here where I’ll post them.
We enrolled Tyler in pre-school at the beginning of the summer and he’s enjoyed everyday of it! Some weeks he goes 2x a week and others 3x a week for 3.5 hours a day. His class has about 20 other kids his age. His teacher, “teacher pam”, says Tyler does well in participating during the activities and in interacting with the other kids which is good to hear. She shared a particularly funny experience with us recently. She asked if we play eye-games with Tyler to which we said no, not understanding what it was she meant. Apparently Tyler will wink at “teacher pam” or raise his eye-brows at her in a flirty way from across the room and she’ll do it back to him, causing him to giggle and go into shy mode.
Kaitlyn was sad the first few times she’d go with Lindsey to drop Tyler off at school. She wanted to stay and play with the other kids and didn’t understand why she couldn’t. However she got over it quickly when she learned that for the next 3.5 hours it was just her and mom without the older brother teasing her. During this time she usually dresses herself up in everyone’s clothes, plays with her babies, or finds something to keep herself occupied the entire time. Watching her do her own thing on her own is precious to watch!
September 14, 2009 – 3 miles
September 14th, 2009 / posted by Jake
3.04 miles this morning before work.