Lovell Canyon 10K

This morning Hilary and I headed out in the windy weather for our first 10K since we started running in Feb. The cold wind and early hour dampened our enthusiasm, but after hiding in the back of a truck until the race began kept us warm. (What happened to the 90 degree weather we had earlier this week??)

Here's my horrid early-morning pre-race photo (whilst hiding in the truck): Once we started out, I warmed up quickly and even the fog we ran through with bits of snow pelting us didn't slow me down. The first 3.1 miles were mainly uphill at a slow incline, which meant the last 3.1 were a lovely downhill, increasing my pace and excitement.

I kept a fairly steady pace (about 11:30/mile), just around 71 minutes total and enjoyed the scenery up to the end. It wasn't my best 6.2 mile time of 68:12, but considering the hills, snow & wind I'm pretty happy with it & placed 12th in my age category.

After some breakfast kindly given by the Salvation Army, we headed home sore, but feeling pretty good about it all!

Busy Birthday Weekend

Last weekend (Sunday, the 5th to be exact) our little man turned 2! He had busy, but incredibly fun-filled weekend.

Saturday morning we attended the North Las Vegas 'Eggstravaganza'. Alec loved meeting the Easter Bunny, face paint (a ladybug), pony ride, chasing chickens & of course, the egg hunt!
Saturday evening was Catherine's birthday party-complete with a petting zoo and balloon animals (well, train in Alec's case).We decided not to do a birthday party this year-just the cousins over for dinner on Sunday, which became a total Thomas the Train day! We had bought Alec the Thomas train table and it was definitely a hit. He plays with it more than all his other toys combined. I made him a train cake which was also a hit. We also dyed Easter eggs (seeing as we'll be in San Diego on Easter Sunday baking a wedding cake) and Alec enjoyed putting stickers on them.

Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary

Last Friday Alec and I were able to meet up with Hilary and Catherine at the Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary. Thanks to the drizzle and grey skies, we had the place to ourselves!!Alec and Cat enjoyed playing together in two different messy mediums.

1. Dirt: Picking up clumps and dropping it on the ground (or, in dropping it in Cat's pigtails, as Alec so obviously preferred)

2. Rain Puddles: Running and splashing in them, then trying to splatter them with their hands. It was so fun to watch the two of them running around and giggling.

Lastly, we entered the 'petting zoo' area and let them run around with some goats. Thank goodness it was at the end, since it certainly was a stinky experience.

Another point for the 'Nature' argument...

Hilary invited Alec & I to join her & Catherine in making some Christmas crafts this morning. Alec is not the least bit interested in crafts & I struggle to get him to color pictures (no future Rembrandt in our household), but we always have fun with the Muckleroys, so we decided to go.

Alec & Catherine are polar opposites, each perfect representations of their gender. Today's example is: she likes things neat, he likes them messy. When we started allowing the children to pick out decorations to make trees, Alec was more interested in dumping the bowl on the table...4 times. Each time, Catherine would glower at him, then painstakingly pick them all up and put them back into the bowl.
Then, Hilary brought out the paint and a sense of foreboding filled me. At first, it was cute, he would put his hand in the paint and mix all the colors, Cat was clearly getting frustrated:
But, that wasn't enough, he decided it would be fun to paint things other than the ornaments:

I would have been worried about the damage, but Hilary's the one asking him to say 'cheese' while she takes pictures of it & it was child-friendly, so it all wiped off!

I love Cat's face in this one, it's almost as if she's thinking, "Now, how am I going to clean this all up??"
I'm still up for an arranged marriage though, I think they compliment each other well and they're both so cute!

Halloween

The week before Halloween, Alec had been invited to Catherine's Halloween party. It was a bit hot to be putting him in the tiger costume I'd bought him (when we were planning to be in Colorado by Halloween), so he wore his lovely Chinese pajamas. Thanks Ong family!!

The party had a lot of age-appropriate crafts and Alec enjoyed coloring his candy bag & decorating a pumpkin face:
Halloween night we had a party with my siblings (& spouses!), uncle & cousin where we played games for an hour, took Alec trick-or-treating around the block, then watched 'Hocus Pocus'.

I hadn't planned costumes for Paul and I, so at the last minute I became 'blackmail' and he became 'God's Gift to Women' (which Paul thought was blasphemous and immediately took off after pictures).

It was cool enough for Alec to wear his tiger costume part of the time! He looked so darling in it!
Alec really enjoyed trick-or-treating and was polite enough to remember to thank people!
It was so much fun for us this year, as he really got into all the games and decorations. He LOVES pumpkins, especially a ceramic jack o'lantern my grandmother made him with his name in the mouth. She bought him little battery-operated tea lights for inside it that he insists on switching on each morning and lovingly placing in the pumpkin. Thanks, grandma!

Gilcrease Orchard

Whilst Paul's parents were still here, we were able to meet up with Hilary & Catherine at Gilcrease Orchard. Now, I know you're all thinking, "what's an orchard doing in Las Vegas?" The answer is...catering to families with small children for an extremely short time period. Arriving about 2 weeks before Halloween, we expected to find some good pumpkins and were sorely disappointed. The few we could find were incredibly squishy, green or mangled. Regardless, we plunged on, determined to get a cute photo shoot of our adorable children and managed to find several respectable candidates for photos.





Paul managed to find a 'Thomas the Tank Engine' outline for a pumpkin, so I carved Alec his first jack 'o lantern...with a Thomas face. I guess it was all right as he kept pointing at it shouting, 'Choo choo' or 'Eh! Eh!' (his current sound for pumpkins and all things Halloween, I guess it sounds spooky to him).

The jack o' lantern shrank in on itself within 2 days (sigh)...

Lied Discovery Children's Museum & lunch with daddy!

On Friday Alec & I were able to meet up with Hilary and Catherine at the Lied Children's Discovery Museum. I was impressed with all the displays and interactive materials that kept Alec & Cat occupied for 3 hours:


In the 'Crafts' section for the younger children, they got to paint a coyote. I think Alec got more on his body than the paper.


Alec was giving hugs, though I don't think Cat was a huge fan!



I think I know how to make Disneyland a bit easier for myself in future...

On the way home Alec fell asleep...which means he refused to nap when we got home. Paul and I decided to go to lunch and try out a new Mediterranean place.

Turns out Alec is a huge fan of tzatziki-he perfected the technique of dipping the pita (and his hand) into the sauce each time.

The Springs Preserve

Friday Alec and I were able to meet up with Hilary & Cat for a play-date at the Springs Preserve. There were a lot of hands-on activities to amuse the children. This first was a glassy floor with simulated water moving around under it.


After exploring the museum area, we took them to the children's play area...which was outdoors...and clearly not designed by someone who has children-there was practically no shade! There was a large train you could sit in, so Alec immediately toddled in that direction and enjoyed poking around in it.

It was so cute to watch the children interact. Alec is all boy-he's constant motion, exploring everything, afraid of little. Cat is all girl-shy, delicate and cautious. To best illustrate the dynamics, check out this photo:


When we reached the overheated point, we headed around to check out the 'trading post' (children can trade various objects from nature), then a 'recycle' exhibit. I have no idea how these orange balls fit in there, but they were a hit!


After watching me, Alec decided he'd like to try cranking the balls up the machine: