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Warning:  This might be the longest post ever!
 
We made it home to Washington the first day of December.  I traveled with the boys by myself.  This is what we looked like trying to check bags...

And that isn't even all the bags.  Have I mentioned we don't travel light?!?

We made it to Seattle, the boys were wonderful.  Love love love seeing the Space Needle.

Spent some time shopping in Seattle and watching the Apple Cup game.  Had so much fun with Lindsey, but a little too much like old college times...I am getting way too old for that!  Saw  lots of family on that side of the mountains.

Had dinner (and drinks) with friends...

Hadn't had a martini in a very long time...Lindsey always gets me into trouble ;-)

Got some newborn cuddles in...

Loving me some cuddle time with my youngest favorite guy...Mr. Beckett!  He was 4 months old in the picture.  Everytime I held him, he would just sleep in my arms for hours!  I loved it!  And here Heidi & I were at Cheesecake factory...YUM!  Check out the best cheesecake ever....

Oh delicious, heaven in my mouth...Snickers cheesecake was ahhmazing!!!

The boys played & played & played...

 

Ack!  Can you believe that Connor played with that Husky football???  And what is worse is it was on the morning of Apple Cup!  And the really bad part, I sadly played with it too!  But no worries, my nephew is now the proud owner of a COUGAR football ;-)  And I made a bet with my nephew & lost, we bet 3 candy bars that the Cougs would beat the Huskies, sadly I lost and I had to pay up.  I bought the biggest candy bars I could find!!!

The kids played...

Dylan loved his Aunt Amy...

She couldn't leave the room without him.  In fact, pretty sure she did all the cooking with him in her arms!

Connor got tortured...

 

Dylan got his hair all 'pretty'...

And yes, I think he is even hugging a baby!

Papa dressed up like Santa and freaked out both Connor & Dylan.  Connor went running and Dylan jumped into whose ever arms were closest, happened to be Colby---luckily, he found a new pal for the night.

Went to see some Christmas lights, and there just happened to be dinosaurs...

We even made it to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium one cold day...

Drove to Yakima...

Clear on the way over, hardly any snow.  Boys slept the entire way, seriously quickest drive ever.  It was so nice.

 Boys played a lot in Yakima and had fun seeing lots of family & friends!

 We headed to the Nile to go see Meme Charlene & Pepe Lyle and a little snow...

Such a beautiful day there!

And one day Brianna & I decided to have lunch at Olive Garden and check out some local wine tasting rooms.  So fun!  We started at the Sparkle Room, which is sparkling wine tasting.  Delicious!!!  Then we headed to a few other wine tasting bars in the area and had some delicious snacks as well.  Such a fun afternoon.

 The bottles before they were corked, they still had the yeast in them.

An unused cork, it was SO big!  Pretty cool.

And these bottles had the yeast removed and were properly corked, just needed aged longer and labels put on.

Thanks Traveri Cellars and The Sparkle Room for some amazing sparkling wines...we had a blast sampling 4 different sparkling wines and got to see their production room, which I loved!  I love seeing the process and how things are made.  So fun.

There were more wines to try...

It is safe to say that Brianna & I had fun.  In Yakima, no less :)

Drive back to Seattle was pretty quick too, a little more snow, as it started snowing hard on top of the pass,  But it was beautiful.  And again, the boys slept through it all.

The flight back to Dallas went pretty smoothly too, despite the long line for baggage check (must be the crazy people that have like 7 bags to check!), a delayed flight, a bumpy ride, but other than that, I had two happy and well-behaved little boys.  We had a quick stop in Albuquerque.  The view was absolutely amazing...

The photo just doesn't do the view justice.  I was slow getting my camera out, I had 2 little boys 'helping' take the picture, and I had to put it in manual and turn off the flash, which means holding the camera absolutely steady.  And did I mention it was a very bumpy plane ride?  Especially when we landed.

But, this view was pretty cute too...

We had a great time visiting the beautiful Pacific Northwest!  It was great to spend time with family & friends!

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6 weeks off...REALLY?!?

I have to take 6 weeks off from running.  Although this is a relatively new hobby (is it considered a hobby???) or rather, an addiction, I enjoy it, I enjoy the competition, the "me" time, I enjoy being able to eat whatever I want, etc.  So, to literally have to take a full 6 weeks off...is not my idea of fun!  I will miss my next 2 races that I have already signed up for and was SO looking forward to running them with friends ;-(

I had gone to the doctor back in October for pain in my right leg and was told to take a couple weeks off.  Which I did (from running), the pain was still there, but not as bad.  Then recently moved into my left leg, but getting worse.  So, after gimping around this weekend after my race, I made another doctor appointment for this morning.  This time he ordered X-rays. 

He came back & told me he had bad news...I asked if I was just a wuss and needed to suck it up?  LOL.  Then he showed me X-rays...very clear there was a nice break!  Yes, I have a fractured pelvic bone.  So, it does turn out that I do have a wierdly high pain tolerance.  He was amazed that I had been running on it for all this time.  Then he proceeded to tell me I was stubborn (who, me???) and crazy (what, me???).  So, I will follow his advice, unfortunately.  Guess my New Year's Resolution will be to lose the 20 lbs I will gain from taking 6 weeks off....LOL  ;-)

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Believe 10K Race

Cold doesn't even begin to describe how the morning started out!  It was a chilly 32 degrees when we arrived at the race!  Brrr.  It was so cold that 'Frosty the Snowman' made an appearance...

Have I mentioned that I am not a fan of the cold?  And especially not running in it.  Great idea of a race Kim ;-)  Just kidding, we had a blast!

We got lined up and started out a little fast, but I like running a fast (for me) first mile because it gives me a little leeway in the next 5 miles.  And at the start, a seasoned runner of this race told us how hilly it was.  And he wasn't kidding!  3 BIG long hills!  Ugh, hills....AND not to mention, the finish line is at the top of a hill.  Lovely. Check out these hills:

The green line shows the elevation change...YUCK!  Have I mentioned I hate hills?!? 

I went with the goal of finishing the race (#1), running the entire thing (#2), and hoping to do it in under an hour (#3).  I managed all those goals in addition to making this time my PR (personal record) for a 10k. 

Stats:

Average pace was 8:36 per mile.  Finished with an official time of 53:32.  Got some great stats from my Garmin, which I love love love having all these stats.  It amazes me!  Although I was constantly looking at my watch every couple minutes, it was a nice distraction from the cold, my numb feet, and my aching hip(s).  LOL.

Other stats:  I came in #74 our of 210 people (men & women).  #25 out of 111 female runners.  And #4 in my age group, I was almost a full minute behind the third place finisher, oh well!  Perhaps one day I will get some bling :)  LOL. 

After the race, we headed to a local coffee shop in downtown McKinney (which has some very neat little shops!).  So, once I got my delicious zebra mocha, I was in heaven.  Then, I couldn't pass up a donut.  Yum!  So worth running 6.2 miles ;-)

 

Despite the cold weather, hitting a bunny on the way, and the hills, we had a wonderful morning!  ;-)

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I got up and ran with Lesley this morning to do our own version of the Turkey Trot, we called it '10k on Turkey Day'.  It was cold and windy.  I decided to map out our 6.2 miles and include the 2 mile long  bridge in our course.  NOT such a great idea.  We only made it about a half of a mile on the bridge  before turning around, the wind on bridge was about 30 mph, not fun and not easy to run in.  So, we headed back and ran around my neighborhood, like usual.  This was the first time I got to use my Garmin watch on a real run.  I love that it tells me everything about my run!  Although I dislike how it tells m..e we started off pretty good, then slowed way down ;-)  Oh well, we still got in our 6.2 miles, I can't complain.   I just need to figure out how to use it correctly.  Me + technology = disaster!

 Then, I headed to Starbucks to bring us home some yummy drinks!  I figured I deserved some deliciousness.

Then onto the food.  Of course ;-)  It was pretty simple this year:

Turkey breast...

Cranberry sauce...

Delicious homemade rolls...

(oops...I had already eaten one before I could get a picture, it wasn't the last I ate before dinner!)

And then we had green beans & sweet potatoes too...

And of course, my favorite pumpkin pie....

And the whip cream...such a treat for the boys to lick the whisk...love this picture...

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Not enough toys? Really???

The boys have started getting out the silverware to make music.  Not really a fan of this, but it is pretty cute. 

But then I start thinking, don't they have toys that are more fun than spoons???

Obviously, we don't have a shortage of toys...especially not dinosaurs and animals...

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I caved & bought some hideous shoes...

Ugh!  I said I would NEVER EVER buy the boys shoes that:
1.  Have characters on them.
2.  That light up.

Apparently, I officially have lost my marbles!  Here is what I came home with the other day...

What is wrong with me?!?  They light up.  And they have several Toy Story characters on them.  Oh well.  They were so excited and are showing them off to anybody and everybody who will listen...it is pretty darn cute.  And sweet.  And funny.  And it makes it all worth it.

Here are 2 videos that I took of them.  I couldn't help it.  I had just put the shoes in their "shoe basket" and told them to go get their shoes as we were heading to the gym.  Connor was thrilled!

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Date Night...

With my favorite little 3 year old ever!  Yes, Connor & I had another date night.  He actually asked and I happily agreed.  And he even asked to go bowling.  Wow!  He knows what I like.  I love it!  He even picked out my shirt in my closet, how sweet!

Needless to say, we had the BEST time.

Connor truly had a blast and kept telling me how much fun he was having.  Every time he would knock down a pin, he would yell, "BINGO".  Not sure where that came from, but it was pretty cute.  We were nearly tied in the 3rd frame, I was thinking he was going to beat me.  Luckily I pulled out a win 131-70.  I would have been crushed if Connor would have beat me.  I don't like to lose!

And here is a video of Connor bowling...

We both had a both had a blast, just like last time.

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Ahhh, the beach & warmness...

The beach sounds wonderful right now...

Too bad these were taken this summer when we were back in Washington.  The weather is cool here, highs of 60's, which sounds nice, but it is COLD!  So, I enjoyed looking through these beachy pictures and the kids had SO much fun....

They had so much fun!  Which also got me thinking about Seattle and just how much I miss it.  So, here are a couple Seattle pictures from my trip that I just love....

Good thing I am going back for a visit soon :-)  I am so excited!

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Just a couple more pictures...

So, blogger went a little crazy on me...or I just post way too many pictures...you be the judge!  Anyhow, I ended up having to buy more storage for the pictures.  So, let's see how far 20 GB of storage gets me...hopefully pretty far ;-)

I just had to post these 2 pictures from Halloween...the kids faces are just too stinkin' cute!

 Connor & Dylan were THRILLED the kids stopped by for a quick visit & a quick trick-or-treat...and I just love the girls' dresses.

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Happy Halloween!

Here are a few more of our Halloween decorations.  I swapped out pumpkin pictures for our regular ones in the frames around the fireplace.  Love it. 

Then, here are the little pumpkins that the boys drew on with markers.  They both loved this!

We had fun at our Halloween Party on Friday afternoon.  We ate and played...

We even had a pinata at the party.  How fun!

And the food was plentiful and so creative!

The boys LOVED handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters

We headed out with some neighbors to do a little trick-or-treating...

This is what some of our neighbors houses looked like...the boys were not so sure about some, for good reason!  The first is a neighbor who had a walk thru haunted house in their front yard complete with smoke and several live people dressed up throughout it to scare you.

Then Lesley brought the kids by for a quick visit, as they got mobbed by all our crazy trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood ;-)  I have the cutest picture of all the kids, but blogger is not letting me upload it!

***Blogger is being really funky & telling me I am out of room and need to purchase addition storage space for my photos...anybody else have these problem?  Did you purchase more storage, did it work?  I will do some research and try and figure this out soon ;-)  Promise.

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