Flirty Thirties, Sporty Forties

Happy 1st Birthday, Chantry! I'm sorry that your big sister kept taking all your noisy toys yesterday and proclaiming, "Mine!", and I'm sorry that Bowdrie nearly crash landed his remote control helicopter into you when you were trying to crawl, and I feel terrible that your mommy forgot all about getting a cake for you so you had to settle for blueberry muffin mix. Oh yeah, and I'm sorry that Carson keeps saying, "No girls allowed" and closes the door on you and hurts your feelings (and occasionally your fingers)! It's sure tough being the littlest one! I hope you're up for another year of this!

I'm going to run this!! I'm so excited - I was able to get the time off and I've already registered and made all my travel arrangements! I had given up on doing the race this coming year and was planning to wait until 2012 because I wasn't able to find anyone who could go with me, either to run or just go along, and I thought it would be so lonely to go alone. However, I was so disappointed to put it off and I couldn't stop thinking about how much FUN it would be. I looked for other races but they just didn't appeal to me like this one. I've been working hard with that particular goal in mind and to all of a sudden not have that goal or push it back a year? It was such a let down! Plus, I kept thinking about it even after deciding not to go this year and this past week I finally decided phooey on it, it means a lot to me, I'm going to do it! This princess is a big girl princess (and a determined one, to boot) and I'll just do it myself! :-)...

So much for that idea! I've been thinking about getting a dog lately. It seems like everyone around me is getting one and they seem to be enjoying them so much, the dogs are such great companions, and I started to think that maybe a dog is just the thing I need. How fun it would be to come home from work and have a little puppy excited to see me, and I could talk to it and tell it about everything (no HIPAA worries there!), and we could go for walks, and I started looking at pictures of puppies and they are just so precious and adorable! I could totally see myself being the best dog owner ever - buying it a little bed so it could sleep on the floor next to my bed, getting it cute collars and leashes and only the nicest dog hair shampoo and brushes and stuff ... but ... my mom and another friend reminded me that I have this favorite hobby called travel, and it just is not very compatible with being a good dog owner. I'd have to put the dog in a kennel or find someone to watc...

Hooray for Mom! She probably won't mention it but I will mention it for her! She saved Dad's life last night after he choked on bread and grapes. His face was blue and he was foaming at the mouth, and it wouldn't have been much longer before he collapsed. Scary how quickly it happened! It makes me a bit leery about living alone! :-( I better review the self-heimlich section ! (

Pictures from the recent trip to Montana~ Sunday was Cassidy's 2nd birthday and Kalispell Special Meeting. We went out to HuHot with Kahl & Hannah afterwards and then home. Monday I went to Bowdrie's school for lunch and then met him at the bus stop after school. Unfortunately I got sick on Tuesday so I missed going for Bowdrie's cupcakes but Velva got to go. I was just happy to make it home! Chantry prefers to be held ... unless she wants to climb in which case, don't get in her way. Cassidy is surprisingly good with names and is a busy busy girl! So hard to believe she's only 2! Carson still loves when I read to him and loves animals. Bowdrie is so grown up - thank goodness for him - he knows where everything is in that house! I tried very hard to get a family picture but - well, it's not easy with 4! :-(

St Thomas, USVI St Thomas, USVI St Thomas USVI was where we woke up the next day. We found our tour after breakfast, one with shopping, island tour, and beaches. In retrospect, I wish I would have given myself more time for shopping, but oh well. The town of Charlotte Amalie has tons of stores with jewelry, jewelry and more jewelry, plus liquor - particularly rum. We did some shopping, picked up souvenirs, and headed back to the van for the island tour. One highlight was the Great House , which was a gorgeous estate. They have botanical gardens there and an event center, but of particular interest this hot, muggy day, were their Banana Daiquiris! Oh man, I could have drank them all day!!! There's a secret ingredient in there (we got them without alcohol so that wasn't it) and oh boy was it good!!! From the Great House, we went to an overlook where we were able to see the house that Bill Clinton stayed in while president and this supposedly famous picture was taken We saw...

Caribbean Cruise, Part 3 Day 5 - Grenada Grenada I went for a run the next morning and the fitness center is at the very front of the boat on the 17th level, so you're way up high, and it looked like I was going to run right off the treadmill all the way into St. George's, Grenada! It was fun looking over all the people outside who were watching as we got closer to the island. Velva signed us up for a tour for "Highlights of Grenada" at the last minute and I'm glad she did. We learned a lot from the guide, Henry, and I gained a new appreciation for spices and this island. My thoughts: #1. Thank goodness this van is air conditioned! #2. Thank goodness Mom isn't here #3. Thank goodness I wasn't driving! They drive on the left and as long as they think they can squeeze by with a millimeter or two to spare... perrrrrrfect! Our guide, Henry, was a fascinating guy - part Scottish, part East Indian, as well as a mix of other stuff. Apparently that's not ...

Caribbean Cruise Part 2 Day 3 - Aruba Aruba I woke up and looked outside at the beautiful turquoise water of Aruba! Hello, Caribbean!! It was great! I hurried and went to have breakfast and then came back and grabbed my scuba gear and headed down to get off the boat and get to the meeting place. Of note - the previous afternoon at lunch, we'd heard this man talking and talking and talking with the most unpleasant voice! I'm not sure what it was, maybe it was because it was so high, but it just was harsh on the ears! I noticed he had a scuba shirt on and sure enough, he was there in that group the next morning! I ran into him several times and he was quite nice after all, not just when diving, but oh, that voice!! So at 8:30 AM, we found out that scuba in Aruba was cancelled due to poor visibility. :-( Guess I won't get to see the Antilla wreck this time! I picked up my stuff and headed back to the boat to go wake Velva up. She wanted breakfast so that took a littl...

I'm not very smart sometimes! Why, exactly, did I come home from vacation?!! Thank you, Odhett, for pointing that out! haha Aaah, the cruise and vacation ... divine! Velva and I flew out on Nov 6th, a lovely day of course, and now that I've done so, I don't recommend taking an overnight flight on the night we turn our clocks forwards or backwards! It's quite confusing when you land! Oh yeah, US Airways deserved their ranking as the least friendly airlines. We were a little late landing in Puerto Rico because of a thunderstorm that was going over the airport but we got a fabulous view of some of the island and surrounding ocean. Once we landed in Puerto Rico, we grabbed our bags (we each checked one and carried one) and got a taxi and went straight to the Pan American pier in San Juan. It was a confusing mess of people, with lines going this way and that, some long, some short, some clearly meant for the other huge ship that was docked there. We definitely didn...

Diving in Bonaire

Diving video from Dominica.

Pictures from recent trip to Seattle with Mom for her birthday.

Anybody wanna go traveling? I've got a couple stretches of time off and feel like going somewhere but don't feel like going alone.

Pictures of the little darlings from this weekend

Latest kid pictures :) Ok so the one of Cassidy in the bathtub made my heart stop! I thought she had Chantry for a second!!! Aaack! I just love Cassidy's dress and how sweet Carson is with Cassidy!

After I read Rory's blog I decided it was time to write a post about my ... life revolution of the past few months. I decided on my birthday to make this year a year of health. I didn't know exactly what that would look like at the time, but that was my theme. Then while in Hawaii, well - there's something very sobering about trotting around in a swimsuit in public. "You can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time but you can't fool any of them when you're wearing a swimsuit!" I was inspired to change my diet and life. It seemed like I'd been slowly adding weight and my 'baseline' was creeping up and up. I wasn't sure how or what would happen or if I could even do it, because I've failed a few times before, but I started making changes there in Hawaii and it has launched me on a really amazing journey - very educational to be sure! It's amazing how much info is out there that I just did n...

Why I don't have kids - but they sure are cuties! haha

Spring is on the way! Signs of life! Spring is going to come! It is, it is! I'm so excited to see green things coming up that I planted last year :-) I even decided to try my hand at growing things from seeds too - some herbs, some flowers ... wish me and them luck!! I'll keep updating it as they grow.

Poooooor Bowdrie! He and Carson were horsing around on top of the changing table upstairs and they fell off and Carson landed on Bowdrie. Jen called Mom, who said you better take him in! He has 3 broken bones in his arm and they had to call in an orthopedic surgeon and he has pins for 3 weeks in there and he has to miss the rest of ski season :-( Looking at these pics, even though he's okay and obviously doing fine, makes me tear up! :-( Poor little guy!!