Road Trippin': Coming up

Details to follow.  I've got to get ready for Puerto Rico.

Learning Curve (yet another reason to love warm weather)

Hannah's capacity to learn new tricks is incredible. She had never even attempted either of these until about 5 minutes before I got the camera out. Amazing!

Florida trip report, Disney edition

After a wonderful wedding on Saturday, we spent Sunday at church and then with the whole family enjoying each other's company at the house.

Monday morning, Stacey and I got up pre-dawn and hit the road for the most Magical (and most visited) place on Earth. Because we only had a day, we had drawn up a crazy plan to hit all four parks. Our priorities were favorite attractions that we knew were fun and also attractions that we hadn't done before. Obviously, we avoided the attractions that we had done before that weren't fun. We couldn't do everything, but boy did we sure try!

Our first stop was the Coronado Springs Resort Hotel, where we were able to check in at 7:30 in the morning.
Being resort guests would allow us to hit the Early Magic Hours at the Animal Kingdom and stay for the extra Evening Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom.
Once we got checked in, our first stop was the Animal Kingdom.

Great AK-themed tree outside the front gate.

We got to the park before the general (non-resort) public could get in and made a beeline for Expedition Everest, a really fun coaster that goes forward and backward.

Had I been a quicker thinker, Stacey would be in this photo.

After Everest, we went and rode Dinosaur!, then headed out of the park. We had a schedule to keep.

Stacey doing her best Aladar face.

One of us was very surprised.

Our next stop was at Disney's Hollywood Studios, where we got a great parking spot near the entrance, then we stood in line to get into the very crowded park. We were there by the time the park opened, but the lines were so long it took us 15 minutes to get from the back of the line to the turnstiles.
Because the lines for Toy Story Mania! were already at 90 minutes by the time we got into the park, we altered our plan and headed for the Rock n' Roller Coaster,
after which we rode the Tower of Terror with FastPasses.


After these two adrenaline-filled rides, we grabbed some FastPasses for Star Tours (the FPs for Toy Story were already gone for the whole day, and it wasn't even 10:30am!) then headed out of the park and back to the Animal Kingdom.

The motivation for returning to the Animal Kingdom was to see Finding Nemo: The Musical, which I missed out on the last time we were at Disney World due to a sick child. While waiting for the Nemo showtime, we grabbed some lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, which, I must say, was fabulous. Great portions and good tasting food--we highly recommend it!

After the BBQ, we headed into Finding Nemo and were not disappointed. They really do their musicals well at the Disney Parks.


After the show, we were finished with Animal Kingdom for this trip. We would have loved to have done Kilimanjaro Safaris, but that will have to wait for our next trip!

One of the biggest motivations for this trip was the fact that we were there at Christmas time and we really wanted to see the Christmas decorations. Another motivator was the fact that we've had extended stays at WDW twice and never really gotten to do much in the World Showcase at Epcot. As such, it was on to Epcot!

We did nothing in the Future World section of Epcot, simply because of our limited time and our desire to do things we hadn't done before. Additionally, the World Showcase portion of Epcot was the part that was decked out for Christmas. They had "Holidays around the World" storytellers at each of the lands, and we were able to catch a couple of those, including Pere Noël in France.

In addition to the Christmas fanfare, we went and watched O Canada!, Impressions de France and Reflections of China, as well as visiting the pavilions of most of the other lands. We watched Chinese Acrobats and Japanese candy makers, and visited (and sniffed) a life-sized gingerbread house in the American Pavilion.

We grabbed some goodies at the Patisserie in France--yumm!

We watched the Candlelight Processional from afar and decided that we've been spoiled by great choirs like MoTab. Also, the celebrity was Chet Atkins--if I have to look up the celebrity to see who he is, he's no draw for me.

After a counter-service dinner from the China and Mexico pavilions (which we *don't* highly recommend), we headed back to Hollywood Studios for the nighttime attractions.

We got to Hollywood Studios and headed over to the Osborne Family lights. They were, in a word, spectacular. There were so many lights (I read that there are more than 3 million) that it was a tremendous sensory overload. It was fun to just watch them dance and twinkle without having anywhere else to be.

From there, we rode the new and improved StarTours, for which we had grabbed FastPasses earlier in the day. They did a good job revamping this erstwhile stale ride, making it a 3D ride and adding a randomizing feature which makes the ride different every time. When we go back, we'll do this one multiple times!

Rex, the incompetent Droid pilot from the original ride, is preserved in the queue.

After getting a good dose of Christmas cheer and battling the Evil Empire, we moseyed over to Toy Story Mania! just to see what our chances were of getting on. As it turned out, they were very good! The line was only 33 minutes, and the Orlando version has the kind of queue you don't mind spending a half hour in. Yee haw!

She really WAS pointing to Colorado!

While we were in Toy Story, we shut the park down (8pm), so we had no alternative but to go to another park! The last stop on our whirlwind tour was, of course, the Magic Kingdom.


We got there just in time to catch a glimpse of the Main Street Electrical Parade, then we hit a mix of rides that we loved or had never done. These included Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (it was too cold to do Splash Mountain by this time of night), after which we went to the hub and watched the Fireworks show.

It was fun, but I wasn't wowed like I was by the Disneyland show (did I just say that?!).

After the fireworks, we grabbed a Dole Whip Pineapple Float in Adventureland and went to watch the Country Bear Jamboree (Stacey took a nap). After the Bears, we toured the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse, then headed over to Tomorrowland for the People Mover (Stacey took a nap), Stitch's Great Escape (Stacey took a nap) and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I guess there was a reason that Buzz Lightyear was the only one of these we'd done before--it's still a whole lot of fun!

After Tomorrowland, we went to Fantasyland to try to see what we could see of the expansion construction (not too much in the dark, but we caught a glimpse--very exciting stuff!), then we watched Mickey's Philharmagic (we both took a nap; this is actually a really fun show when you aren't dead tired) then took a spin with 999 happy haunts in the Haunted Mansion (I think Stacey took a nap). When we got out of the Mansion, it was 1:30am, and we decided to call it a day (and a half!). We were spent.


After a quick night's stay at the hotel, we checked out and spent the morning shopping at the very large hotel gift shop in Coronado Springs, then over to Downtown Disney for some last-minute souvenir shopping. After that, it was on to the Airport and our flight home.

While there was so much more we would have loved to do if we'd had more time, we were pretty pleased with what we could accomplish on just a one-day pass! We scratched the Disney itch for a while and got to see their Christmas offerings. The only word I can come up with is "supercallifragilisticexpialidocious".

Florida trip report

The week before Christmas, Stacey and I had the opportunity to go to Florida for a few days. The motivation for the trip was Stacey's brother's wedding, but we did our best to pack in as much fun as possible.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and made a detour to Sonny's BBQ, a favorite from my childhood.

After we filled up on pulled pork and stocked up on some bottles of BBQ sauce (it's good stuff!), we headed to the house on Anna Maria Island. The weather was absolutely perfect all weekend.

The wedding was to take place Saturday evening, so Friday evening and Saturday morning were spent prepping. Stacey and her sister made the cake, and the rest of us did various odd jobs.

As a side trip, I got up early Saturday morning and headed up to Clearwater to run the SayNoToDrugs.com 10K race, which basically went across the Clearwater Causeway Bridge and back. Other than forgetting to bring my watch with me, it was a fun race. They even served pancakes at the park by the finish line.

After I got back from the race, the rest of the day was spent prepping for the intimate family celebration that was to take place that evening. The wedding was to take place on the beach, so we spent a good bit of time setting up there. The water was a little cold, so we didn't get in above our knees (and even then only for a short period of time), but it sure was fun being there all the same.

The wedding took place in the evening with a beautiful sunset as a backdrop. Nathan and Ana María are now a family and we're very happy for them.

We didn't do much picture taking (though others did) while on Anna Maria Island, so there's not much else to see here. Did I mention that it was 78 degrees?

Merry Christmas!

It's a good thing that today is only the sixth day of Christmas. We're fresh out of geese-a-laying, however, so you get the annual Christmas letter instead. Click on it for a full-size image (or, if you're an out-of-towner who normally gets a letter from us, wait for it in the mail!). You can find the answers in the post below.

Spoiler Alert!

The image below contains the answers to our annual Christmas letter (click on it for a full-size image). If you want to try to complete the letter, see the post above. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Runnin'!

Pretty much every year for my birthday and Christmas I get some cash, and since the two are only a month apart, I customarily hoard the cash until after the holidays so that I can figure out the best way to spend it and not ruin somebody else’s gift plans. This year, after much deliberation, I decided that I was going to invest in some running shoes. I had never, in my life, owned a pair of running shoes; in my mind, this made for a perfect excuse not to run. I was reasonably athletic and owned both court shoes and cleats, so I figured I was good.

Over the last year or two I’ve been inspired by multiple individuals who have done all kinds of cool (or, in my parlance, “crazy”) things as runners. One of them won an ultramarathon while climbing a volcano on Maui. Cool points for winning, cool points for winning on a volcano, crazy points for climbing 10,000 ft. over a 35-mile stretch. Other friends have dropped significant amounts of weight by taking up running. I, on the other hand, was not dropping significant amounts of weight; I was dropping significant amounts of chocolate chip cookies down my gullet. I like to do this. I don’t think that will ever change. Therefore, I needed to come up with a solution that would allow me to continue to feast on cookies and cake (keep in mind that this isn’t just any old cake, either) without becoming a candidate for the Biggest Loser. Given the inspiring feats of my friends, I figured I’d give running a shot.

I eventually bought the shoes and, after a false start with a sore foot, began running when the weather began to be tolerable, around April. When I bought the shoes, I thought maybe I’d take on the Bolder Boulder, but I didn’t really give myself enough time to train for it (I blame the stupid long winter, actually), so that was a non-starter. I ran my first 10K distance on July 2^nd, and two days later ran in our Ward’s 5K fun run. It was, in fact, fun.

After the 4^th of July, I began to think seriously about running a race. I started looking on line for training programs and figured out that I was, serendipitously, on track to train for a half marathon. After finding the two Colorado Half Marathons that don’t happen on Sunday, I determined that I was on pace to compete in the ADT Half Marathon on Labor Day. My parents live in Colorado Springs, so it seemed like a good race to make my first as we could stay the night down there. I did all of the training that Runner’s World online told me to do, though I was never happy with how slow I felt I was doing the long runs. I did enjoy the taper week, when I got to run shorter distances (at faster paces).

Race Day came with a nice crisp morning, but really the weather was perfect for a long, morning run. The most I had run in training was 11 miles, so I really didn’t know how 13.1 was going to pan out. My plan all along was this: I was going to latch on to the designated 2:00 pacer (that is, the guy that committed to pacing racers to run the race in exactly two hours) and see how long I could hang with him. If I was successful in keeping up with him, then I would hope to break away near the end so that I could come in under two hours.

I had absolutely no problem keeping with the pacer (seen in the photo holding the flag). I ran about 20 feet behind him for the first half of the race, then ran right behind him or right next to him from mile 7 to mile 12. We actually conversed for probably three miles, as other runners had gone on ahead or fallen behind. At mile 12, I got excited when I saw the mile marker, looked over to the pacer and realized that I was a few steps ahead of him. This was no doubt the adrenaline, but I figured I’d open it up and see what I could do over the last 1.1 miles. This was, without a doubt, my favorite part of the race. They say you learn something with every race. I learned a ton, but this one point stands out above any other: I really like passing people. Up until that point, all of the training and preparation was basically a competition with myself. While I found my personal improvement and goal setting to be quite satisfying, I must say that there’s a certain je ne sais quoi in smoking someone who’s been running ahead of you. I must have run that last 1.1 miles in about 8 minutes flat, because I beat the pacer by 1:20 and he finished right at a 9:05 pace. That was tremendously satisfying (though it made me wonder how much earlier I could have broken away).

Another point worth mentioning is that my family was hanging out at a park through which the course ran at miles 4.5 and 8.5. This was huge. Seeing them along the way was a big boost--David and Sarah even ran along with me for a minute or two. They were near the finish line waiting for me as well, and David ran with me for another minute or so.

Here’s the most astounding thing about the race: It went exactly according to plan. I envisioned myself keeping with the pacer. I envisioned myself breaking away toward the end. I envisioned myself running the race in 1:58ish. My final time was 1:58:04 (exactly a 9:00 mile pace), and it wasn’t chip-timed, meaning that even though it probably took ten seconds for me to even get to the starting line, that time counted toward my overall time.

The only anticlimactic moment came at the finish line, because I was confused as to where the exact finish line was (in retrospect, I think it was a strip of red tape on the ground)! In the video I raised my arms triumphantly not because I was crossing the finish line at that moment (which, apparently, I was), but because I heard somebody announce my name over the speaker system. Then I saw people stopped ahead of me in the chute and I realized "Oh, I guess I'm done".

My mom and wife were surprised that I didn’t even seem tired after the race. Make no mistake, my legs were sore after the race, but I think I was on such a high from the accomplishment that I didn’t seem drained.

The Saturday after Labor Day, folks from the Parkview Ward held a 5K in which I ran. Even though my legs still were pretty heavy (that lasted about two weeks) from Labor Day, I was thrilled with my time (3 minutes better than I ran the 5K on July 4^th), and I really, really loved passing people. Especially younger people. That’s when I knew I was hooked.

Looking forward, I’d like to run some more races (and pass some more people). I think maybe I’ll do a 10K this fall, then set my sights on smokin’ the Bolder Boulder. After that, who knows? Right now I’m thinking maybe another Half Marathon (Georgetown to Idaho Springs in August?), then maybe doing the ADT again on Labor Day, but this time possibly as a full Marathon. That would involve more training, but I wouldn’t rule it out. At any rate, I’ve got the bug. I’m not going to go insane with it and run ultra marathons or anything along those lines, but for now, I’ll keep on runnin’.