Wordless Wednesday

Wildlife Sanctuary

After visiting the dinosaurs, we went on a couple of hikes and explored other areas of the wildlife sanctuary.

The kids and Wonderful Husband hiking. We saw a deer as it ran away from us through the trees.

They have a neighborhood of play houses. Here both kids climbed into the upstairs of one.

Yes, there is a dinosaur in the middle of the photo. However, this is not a photo of a dinosaur. If you look to the left you can see Sweet Daughter on the porch of one of the houses. If you look to the right you can see Sweet Son on the porch of another house.

Here is a photo of some of the houses. There were 10-12 of them and each was built differently. Some were on stilts, some had upstairs, some had porches, some had two rooms, etc. The kids loved playing here.

Dinosaurs!!

We typically go see the life size animatronic dinosaurs the day after Thanksgiving. This year we couldn't make that day work, but we still wanted to go visit. So a little over a month later, here is our annual visit to the dinosaurs!

That's Sweet Daughter in the hockey jersey and Sweet Son with the longer hair.

The years of them being afraid are long gone. Now they try having conversations with the dinosaurs about the facts they have read on the signs.

They continued the tradition of checking inside his mouth to make sure he wouldn't eat them before climbing on his back. In my opinion, this is the worst way to check if something will eat you.

The biggest of the dinosaurs on display. You can see a smaller child running away when he moved while my kids seemed less impressed. They are growing up and losing some of that wonder that makes small kids awesome. Luckily, they are turning into awesome elementary students instead.

New Year's Day Run

Ok, so to finish off last year, I ran a 5K followed by a half marathon. Why not start the new year off the same way? (If anyone needs an answer to that I have about 100.) That's right, I had agreed to do a double double. 4 races in 2 days. Remember me complaining about the cold weather yesterday? Yeah, it got colder. The wind wasn't as strong, but now it was literally freezing and there was now freezing rain.

This was quite possibly the dumbest thing I ever did. They were telling people to stay off the roads because they were icy. I drove there and freaking ran 16.2 miles. Ok, ran isn't the right word, but I did complete the distance. I was already slightly sore from the day before. I did wear much warmer clothing that I thought was water proof. Turns out water resistant is pointless in this situation.

My phone died because it doesn't like being cold. I had a camelbak with water, but it froze during the 5K, so I didn't bother carrying it during the half marathon. The last thing I needed was a giant ice cube on my back that I couldn't get water out of. My family, not knowing exactly when I would finish assumed it would be only slightly longer than the day before... Um... not so much.

While waiting on me, the kid played on the playground.

Yar! (See the icicles starting to form on the metal bars?)

Ahoy!

They are in their ski clothes and had the entire playground to themselves. I mean who else would be out in this weather?

Wonderful Husband took this photo of me headed toward the finish line. I'm soaked all the way through. I'm freezing. I'm not about to start running. I just want to be warm. 

In the end, I did it. I shouldn't have. It wasn't safe - no one wants to hear "watch for ice on the bridge" you are running across.  After crossing the finish line, I got my medal, a frozen banana, and a frozen protein bar. Wonderful Husband had to help me into the back of the car because it hurt so much to move - everything was cold and wet. It took a long time to warm up (in the back of the car after changing into dry clothes) before I could drive home.

This is the entire medal. It's actually 4 medals that fit on the giant challenge plate. The top left mermaid is the Eve half. The top right bird is the eve 5K. The bottom left bird is the day 5K. The bottom right heart is the day half. The entire thing is huge and heavy. I earned it. I will also never do that again.

See this photo? This is the only photo the professional photographers got of me on New Year's Day. Apparently freezing rain isn't good for cameras so they didn't have any out on the course. I do want to give huge credit to the volunteers and organizers. Every aid station was stocked. The volunteers were out there cheering us on even though they were just as cold and wet as we were. The police kept the roads blocked off and us safe. They handed out warming blankets at the end. The volunteers and organizers were smiling and doing everything they could do make this a great race despite the awful weather. While I won't do the double double again. I will be doing the double 5K's - this time with Sweet Daughter. :)