Cutest Little Visitors

In April I had the two cutest visitors in Miami

Lily & Molly!

My sister braved the friendly skies with a 6 month old and a 4 year old to come hang out for 4 days in the warm weather.  It was so much fun!

We went to the Miami Children's Museum.  They had a cool exhibit on the 50 states.

Molly visited San Francisco

Lily visited the Grand Canyon

They even had a special playroom for kids under 1.

I can't even imagine how many germs were on that toy, but what the hell, I let her play all she wanted :)
We went to the American Girl store where Lily's Bitty Baby had a spa day.

This cracks me up, so funny!

Lily took a dance class.

And we had lunch in the Bistro.

Sarah & Lily feeding their babies

We also visited Zoo Miami, which I love!

I think this picture is so funny... big sister crabbing, little sister smiling.

For her first trip to Florida, I think Molly really enjoyed herself :)  She was so chill and always smiling. 

That baby girl knows vacations are good stuff!
I am heading to Maine for 4th of July and cannot wait to see these sweet girls!

2012 Wine & Dine half marathon

So where were we?
Oh yes, I went on a cruise vacation with Mandy, Annie & Martha in March, posted a recipe and haven't blogged again :)

*******

Taking a look back at the runDisney video for the 2012 Wine & Dine half marathon, this really is my favorite race.  I've run it all three years and I am signed up to run it again in November, can't wait!

Last year, Mandy was in Orlando for work so she decided to extend her time in Florida so she could run as well.  It was a fun weekend!  

Friday we spent all day, along with her co-worker Isabelle, going to 3 of the Disney parks.  I haven't done a park marathon like that in years.  It was fun & tiring! We ended the day with a late dinner at Il Mulino at the Swan resort.  I'd never eaten there before, but it was delicious.

Saturday we checked into the Yacht Club and spent the afternoon by the pool.  This is where we met up with Annette & Brian.  Annette was also running Wine & Dine.

We had an amazing room that looked right out onto the Boardwalk.  I'm not going to lie, we were super tempted to blow off the race, crack open a bottle wine and enjoy the Epcot fireworks from our balcony.  We even thought about just hanging out in the hotel room and then just jumping into the race for the last mile or so, since the course passes right by our hotel :)  

Of course we didn't do that because we are good girls.

Our shirts for the night were all flourescent colors... please know this makes us very, very cool.  

wow, this is super blurry

I kinda like love our bright shirts, not gonna lie.

Everything about the race was fine, well organized and all that jazz.
The coolest thing on the course... these lasers!

I took this pic off of Twitter, so if it is yours, let me know and I will credit it properly

They changed the finish line location for a third time, and I can't imagine why they would change it again, it was super organized.  It ended out in the Epcot parking lot basically in the same area as Princess, WDW half & the marathon.  The set-up is totally different though.  There were big tents for men & women to change in, they handed you a drink (beer, wine, soda) on our way out of the runner's area and then you could head back into Epcot for the post race party.

The weather was spectacular that night, even a little chilly, which I absolutely loved.

Epcot was open until 4am and Amanda & I were there until the end!

Since we weren't able to enjoy cocktails on our balcony Saturday night, we ordered up some bloody mary's to do so Sunday morning!

I told you our room was awesome!

Another relaxing day by the Beach & Yacht Club pool was had before we had to head home.
142 days to go until the 2013 Wine & Dine half!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013 Everyone!
Hope you all had a great holiday season.

I already miss my Christmas decorations

Kim, Heather & Maureen, thank you for the Christmas cards...

and to everyone else who sent me one as well!
I had a great time over the holidays in Maine hanging out with the cutest baby:

Molly!

And playing LOTS of Candyland:

Lily!

This is the first full week I have worked in a month and it has really sucked.  Not gonna lie.

***

I am not really a "New Year's Resolutions" type of person, but I am a list maker.
So here are some things I would like to accomplish this year:

1.  Create & check off a Miami Bucket List.  Let's be honest here.  Miami is not a place I will live forever, so I figured I should see all the things of interest to me in the area before I leave.

2.  Run, attend AquaFit and practice yoga more.  Maybe throw in a cycle class here or there.
As of January 8th, this has been a huge fail :)

3.  PR in the 5K... Annette & I have big plans for EE :)

4.  PR in the half marathon.  Hopefully this will happen at Disneyland during the Dumbo Double Dare weekend!

5.  Better at planning meals / cook at home more.

6.  Clean, purge and organize my apartment.
Bathroom is done!

7.  Budget better / Save more.
Budget is in place, let's see if it sticks...

8.  Wash & moisturize my face more.  Random.  I am very lucky to not have pimply or wrinkly skin, but at the ripe old age of 35 that could come to an end at any moment.

9.  Update the blog.

10.  Blog more.  Honestly I am not sure what I'd talk about, but I do like the creative process of putting together posts, so I hope to do more of them in 2013.

11.  Organize my crap at work.  After spending the fall in and out of the office my work stuff is so disorganized, it's driving me nuts!  I need to organize it all.

12.  Watch less TV / Watch more movies / Read more.

13.  Spend less time online and more time doing something creative.  What?  I don't know.

13 for '13, let's see how this goes.

Catching Up!

Ok, so where were we?
Right!  Disneyland half marathon weekend.
Two weeks after returning from California, I headed up to Orlando to run the Miracle Miles 15K

Very inspirational race.  You are running to raise money for the tiny babies at the Winnie Palmer Children's Hospital NICU.  Since the race was three months ago, the one thing that still stands out to me was a sign that said something like "The tiny babies Thank You".  I saw it at a point in the race when I really wanted to walk.  But damn those tiny babies... they have it worse off than I, so I kept running ;)

The following weekend was the runDisney Tower of Terror 10 Miler.

80 degrees with 80% humidity at the 10pm start time.  Whoa.
I am usually a very sweaty person, but this night topped it all.  Absolutely soaked from head to toe once I was done.
Loved this course (the stretch on Osceola Parkway was a little boring, but other than that it was great).  Loved the after party.  Would totally recommend it to anyone.

The next week I went to Texas for a conference.
Before leaving on Saturday I was able to explore the Alamo

and the Riverwalk in San Antonio.

I was glad to see these places since I had never been, but I definitely don't plan on spending lots of time in Texas throughout my life.  No offense Texas.

The day after I returned from Texas I got to hang out with my good friend Matt, whom I had met in Alaska.  He is a fancy diplomat now.  Well he is stationed in Haiti, so I am not sure that part is fancy.
Anyways, he was in Miami for the weekend to go to the movies and stock up on stuff at Costco.  We only got to hang out for about an hour, but I am glad I saw him!

A few days later someone became a big sister!

So of course I headed to Maine to meet my new niece Molly!  Cutest, most kissable cheeks ever!

After being back in Miami for two whole days, I headed across the pond for a seminar at sea onboard one of our ships.
We got to visit Italy

Astrological Clock in Sicily

and Greece

Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the back ground - Athens

The original Olympic Stadium!

LOVED Mykonos!

Santorini

and Turkey

ruins of Ephesus

We did work onboard... proof:

Great trip!  I love Europe!

Four days after my return from Europe, I headed back to WDW for the third running of the Wine & Dine half marathon.

Yup, this one and Disneyland are my two favorite runDisney events.  Oh, and probably Expedition Everest too :)
LOVE the Wine & Dine half.  It honestly gets better every year!

The next weekend I was able to visit with my friends Danielle & Bill when they passed through Miami before heading out on a cruise. They are always so much fun to visit with!

For Thanksgiving, I went to Annette's in Tampa and joined her family for turkey day in Orlando.
Thursday night Annette, Brian & I braved the Black Friday sales.
Oh my hell.  Toys R Us was my worst nightmare.
Target was awesome... Toys R Us not so much.
I told Toys R Us they should go check out how Target was running their operation and copy them.
Yeah, I am thinking Black Friday shopping is not for me.

All of last week I was onboard my company's newest ship as we had 2 two-night inaugural sailings for travel partners & media.  That was followed by a 3 night sailing for our sales meeting.
90% Exhausting.  10% Fun.

I am home this week cramming all my Christmas cheer into 5 days (cookies, gift wrapping & christmas cards) before I get on another ship on Saturday for one more seminar at sea.
Whew.

I am really excited to relax in Maine for the holidays!

The rest of Marathon Weekend

In an effort to wrap this up before Princess Weekend this weekend, here is what else my family was up to at Disney World during Marathon Weekend...

My parents, sister, aunt & cousin all took part in the Family Fun Run 5K on Friday morning

We took my niece to the Magic Kingdom on Friday afternoon.

Let me just tell you that taking a 3 year old to Disney World is so much more fun than taking a one and a half year old (when she first went).  She absolutely had a blast and was really into everything.  She loved the rides, especially the teacups!

I also found it funny she picked out the same Mickey balloon as she did the first time she was here.

Those suckers are tough, the balloon is still alive and well in my living room!
Lily loves her balloons so much, I never have the heart to pop them and throw them away, so I bring them home with me.
These Disney balloons are like $10 or $15 but you definitely get your money's worth!

She took this great picture with Tigger & Pooh :)

Friday night we had dinner at Portobello at Downtown Disney.

I gave my spectators goodie bags as a thanks for waking up early to watch me run (and walk) around Disney World.

Don't you wish you could come see me in a marathon? :)
After dinner as we walked out of the restaurant there was a band playing, so Lily put on a little show for us.

And the adults all took pictures of her...

Can you tell she is the only kid in our family?

Saturday night we had a Princess birthday party for Lily, she turned 3 on Sunday!

My friend Annette came to visit with her family.  Addison (Annette's daughter) and Lily share the same birthday, so they were both dressed in their "birthday girl" outfits!

They were friends when they first met last year, and they picked up right where they left off, so cute! Lily was sad when Addison left.

A tad dramatic...

Sunday after the marathon, I took a quick nap, then I headed over to Epcot with Amanda and Sarah to meet up with Derek & Celeste.  We did some drinking around the world to celebrate the 26.2 miles.

The Jalapeno Margarita from the Mexico tequila bar is delicious!

We had dinner at the Germany Biergarten Restaurant which was fun and then ended the night at The Boardwalk (ESPN & Jellyrolls)

I have no idea why Derek is doing this.

So that ended our trip in January.  It was such a great time and of course, it went by way too fast!  Luckily I will be back up there in ONE DAY!!