National Richards Vacation Finale= Thanks Ally & Matt

Sunday evening I found myself on a park bench with Allyson watching Emily play on the playground. The weather was absolutely perfect with a slight breeze and I longed to stop time. Our family vacation was so fun. Thanks Ally for being the perfect hotel, taxi, restaurant, photographer and hostess. Thanks Matt for letting Emily's think you are her BFF. In Emily's words "I just love Ally and Matt"

Can we come back next week?

National Richards Vacation Day 4= I could live here

After sending Bart home on a plane to be with Jane, we finally made it up to Ventura and the beach. Allyson and Matt showed me around the place including their dream neighborhood right on the beach. Emily loved, loved, loved the beach, even though the water was really cold. We practically had to rip her away from it. We had lunch and hung around the town for a while. We stopped by the biggest & funniest outlet mall I've experienced. Next time I'm bringing a bigger suitcase and planning a whole day there. On the way home Allyson and I made big plans about how we could both move up to Ventura together. I'm a big fan!

National Richards Vacation=Day 3: H&M

Originally Ally and I planned to drop Bart off in LA for Dennis Hoppers star ceremony and head to Ventura and to a fabulous outlet mall but at the last minute we decided to stay around LA and ended up in Santa Monica at 3rd street promenade. They had one of my favorite shops H&M and it did not disappoint! We ate a healthy lunch of frozen yogurt at pink berry and then spent a couple of hours in traffic trying to get home. Gotta love L.A. Bart as a side note did not get Dennis Hopper's autograph. He said the man is in bad shape and about to die but he did get a few Jack Nicholson's. In case you haven't gotten enough here is another fun picture of Emily at Disneyland. By this point she was starting to pose with the characters.

National Richards Vacation=Day 2; Mormon Day

Call me a nerd or an old lady but I love genealogy. I get it from my dad who loves to study up on his family history and has told me these stories since I was young. One of these stories is about James Pace who was a lieutenant in the Mormon Battalion. So for Day 2 of our vacation we headed south to San Diego to visit the Mormon Battalion museum. Bart went there a few times on his mission but was surprised to find they had recently rebuilt it. I was very impressed by how they digitally set up the museum. It was like you stepped back in time and joined the Battalion. Bart volunteered to dress up like a member of the army, I loved learning more about the history and Emily really enjoyed panning for Gold. We then walked around Old Town San Diego, ate some Mexican food and postponed going to the beach because Bart wanted to get back to join some old buddies on an autograph adventure. So we headed back early and stopped by the San Diego Temple.

National Richards Vacation=Day 1: Photo ops

We finally made it to California to visit my sister who lives in Seal Beach. Putting first things first we hit Disneyland on Day 1. Actually I'd prefer to rename it Princess Fantasy Fare since that is where we spent the majority of the day. Who would have guessed the longest line in Disneyland would be to meet the Princesses. OK so anyone with a 3-6 year old girl would probably have guessed right. Bart, being a most fabulous dad, volunteered to stand in line while we took off to Toontown. Minnie Mouse was the first character Emily met. Emily in all of her sweetness looked up admirably at Minnie and said "I have a doll of you at home." Then it was off to meet Mickey. He gave Emily the biggest hug! We got in line with Bart and took our chances to see what princesses we would meet (They have 3 of the 8 princesses at a time at the fare) it was Snow White, Aurora i.e. sleeping beauty, and Jasmin. I could tell Emily was a little disappointed it wasn't Cinderella. Snow White was really nice and told Emily that she had breakfast with Cinderella and Cinderella had chocolate chip pancakes. I was so impressed how each of the princesses made Emily feel so special and took time to talk and hear what she had to say. With Emily as our map guide, we rode a few rides including getting on Indiana Jones and going maybe 50 feet and then the ride broke and we had to wait about 20 minutes for the "crew" to get us off the big jeep. Splash mountain was also out of order. It's a small world is one of the only things I remember when I came to Disneyland as an eight year old and is still my favorite ride. My sister Allyson thinks it's a little creepy with all these dolls repeating the same song over and over but I still love it. We then made it to Tinkerbells Garden, found Emily a partner in crime with Eeyore sucking his thumb and then it was back to the Princess Fantasy Fare in hopes we might be able to catch Cinderella. Bart turned into autograph mode and was on a mission to fulfill Emily's wish. He did his "research" and putting all the information together discovered that every half hour the princesses switch and doing some math he figured out a way to not miss Cinderella. It all turned out perfect and Emily got her wish to meet Cinderella which made her "Happily Ever After"
P.S. You might wonder where is Jane. My wonderful mother in law kept her and although I missed her terribly she was much better off in a cozy house playing and taking good naps

Time to Say Goodbye

Whenever Jane hears "Let's Go", sees any of us getting our coats on or moving toward the door, she heads to the coat closet and grabs whatever coat of hers she can reach and literally runs at her top speed to the door giggling the whole way. If she can't go those giggles turn to frustrated screams.
One morning last week, as Bart was leaving for work this episode happened. As Jane was beginning to tantrum, he picked Jane up and gave her a love and said " Oh Jane, you just feel like you don't want to miss out on things."

Some Sadness

The past few days the Sun has been shining the temperature is a little warmer and Spring Fever is in the air. So why the sadness? I've pulled a muscle in my leg. I think it may be the groin muscle or formally called the adductor muscle.

I ignored it for a few days thinking it would go away but in reality I think I made it worse. I've searched the Internet for remedies. Ibuprofen, ice and rest are the only way to heal it. With 6 weeks to go until the half marathon the resting part is making me restless. What if it won't heal before the 1/2. What if I won't ever run again? Am I going to blow up like a balloon not burning any extra calories? So here I sit when I'd really like to be outside on a nice long run soaking in the sun, fresh air and endorphins. All the things I realize I crave, now that I can't partake.