103:365 - 13.1 and DONE!

I did it! I ran the Gazelle Girl Half Marathon today with a time of 2:20. Without my BRFs (Best Running Friends) I could not have trained through the snowy slippery winter nor made it across the finish line after 13.1 miles! 

98:365 - In the green

Spring in Michigan: the shoulder season where your kids will be in crocs one moment and rain boots the next!

97:365 - Arts and Crafts

Beckett will find art materials in anything. After spending a weekend at grandma and grandpa's and emptying out their cereal stash, Beckett created a series of A frame houses out of wire and cereal boxes. 

95:365 - Lunch...out

Lunch out with my girl today. It's become a tradition to go to Butch's when we have a half day of school or a mid-day doctor's appointment. Today, she found a message in her pretzels -- complete with a love knot.

94:365 - Decisions

Zoe was probably 5 or 6 years old when her friends began getting their ears pierced. At the time, she had lots of questions and asked and asked to get them pierced.  But, each time I told her "When you are 10, the decision to pierce them is up to you." It was partly about being responsible enough the care for ears, partially that I wanted her to wait and a big part was that I wanted her to be in control of making a decision that permanent.  When she turned 10, she asked again.  I told her that the decision was up to her and that when she was ready, I would take her. I could not have predicted the amount of agonizing over the decision she made. I was so proud of her weighing the pros and cons and, in the end, when she made her decision, I knew she was ready.  Off we went to Claire's, in the mall, like my mom and I did when I got mine pierced.  While I never got a good photo of her picking out her first studs, or getting her ears pierced, the photo she did let me take was one of this newly pierced, and very content with her decision, girl.

91:365 - April Fools Day

Zoe turned the camera on me today and caught me in the same pose that I usually get from the kids! What I truly have decided that I love about this photo are all the decorations and streamers and ribbons that the kids have decorating their rooms. It's a happy photo :) 

90:365 - Double Digits for our girl

Easter bunnies, jelly bean hunts, baskets and birthdays! Zoe's 10th birthday was a full day celebration. The girl was thrilled with her cake. She loved her new chalkboard tee and roller blades but the look on her face when she received some cash from her uncle was priceless!  Ten is going to be an exciting year for this girl; I can feel it!

89:365 - Birthday cakes and Easter eggs

Zoe's request for a red velvet birthday cake with cream cheese frosting also came with a schematic for incorporating her first double digit birthday with an Easter theme. This year, her birthday and Easter fall on the same Sunday! And so, we spent today baking, and dyeing and frosting...   

87:365 - Celebrating at school

 Zoe celebrated her birthday with her class today with ice cream sundaes, the birthday hat and lots of giggling in the hallways. The smiles are so sweet still and the giggles are contagious. It is clearly good to be (almost) ten!

84:365 - Heading Home

Today felt like planes, trains and automobiles. After a long drive from St. Augustine to Orlando, we were on our way home. Beckett made sure Sister Monkey got a good view as we took off down the runway.

83:365 - Cramming it all in

If there was something to do in St. Augustine, we did it today! We started out touring the grounds of what is believed to be the Fountain of Youth. The kids thought it tasted nasty; I agreed! Next up was a tour of the Castillo de San Marcos where we learned about life in a Spanish fort and watched them shoot off canons. We walked through the old town of St. Augustine and picked up meat pies and treats for later at a great coffee places called Kookaburra. Next, we went to Ripley's Believe it Or Not which freaked our Zoe and amazed Beckett. Finally, the sun came out, the air heated up and we went back out to our hotel on St. Augustine Beach and spent the last few hours of daylight building castles and doing cartwheels on a mostly empty beach. Lastly, Zoe had her first pina colada tonight at dinner at a cute place called Mango Mango's Beachside Bar & Grill.  It is going to be hard to head home!

82:365 - Rocks and gators

Today we left the tourism of Daytona beach and headed north on AIA towards the oldest city in the United States: St. Augustine. Zoe has been studying US history this spring and St. Augustine was the perfect city to visit! It was a drizzly, cool day but we stopped along the drive to spend time discovering the unique cocquina formations along the east coast. The tidal pools and neon green moss were a great distraction for kids and adults. Beckett and Rodger took turn being crabs in the crevasses and Zoe took a turn at being the photographer. With the storms still rolling through, we made it to St. Augustine and headed straight for the Alligator Farm. The sheer number of alligators was insane and the size of some of the larger ones was a bit unnerving. I couldn't imagine running across one in a swamp! The kids were in reptile heaven! Dinner tonight was at Salt Water Cowboy's: this tiny house-turned-restaurant on the water. Of course we all had to try the fried alligator!

81:365 - A Gorgeous Sunrise and Great Coffee

A gorgeous sunrise this AM off the balcony. Kids were up early so we headed out in search of a local coffee spot to grab a few cups and a bite to eat. We found a great place called Sweet Marlays in the old section of Daytona. The coffee was fantastic and the patries and muffins were delicious! The day was filled with more exploring around town and more beach biking. We had an amazing Italian dinner at Don Vito's and all went to bed beyond stuffed!

80:365 - Daytona Beach and the bikers

A beautiful, but cold, day in Daytona. We walked to the pier again and watched dolphins play in the water. It was almost too chilly to be in the ocean so the kids spent a lot of time in the heated pool. Their favorite activity of the day was biking on the hard packed sand on beach bikes. They would both zoom up and down the beach just barely drifting into the edge of the water. 

79:365 - Ponce Inlet and Blue Crab

This morning began a little grey so we grabbed some breakfast and some coffee and walked the beach south to the pier. The kids hunted for shells and played in the surf while we planned the day. A quick drive south led us to the beach at the red brick Ponce Inlet lighthouse. We walked the beach, the pier, and the played in the water for the afternoon before completing our mission for the day: the search for blue crabs! We stopped at Brigadoon Fish Camp in Port Orange and hand picked our crabs.

The kids loved it! After a dinner of shrimp and crab boil over looking the ocean from our condo, we watched the sun set and the Ferris wheel from the Daytona Beach pier light up the night sky. 

78:365 - Daytona Beach

I did have a to skip a few days of the blog for the first time. We arrived today in Daytona Beach for a very quick family get away. The place we are staying is overrun with spring breakers which is such a far cry from our "normal" family vacation but a few days away with the kids on the Atlantic will do our whole family some good. First order of the day: get to the beach!

75:365 - Survivorman

Beckett has been enthralled with watching shows like Survivorman or Dual Survival - both shows where someone has to survive in the wilderness with next to no supplies and survival is based solely on skill. Today, while he played in the remaining snow, he made a "fire" to roast a "booby bird". If this is any indication of things to come, camping this summer should be a wild experience!

74:365 - Running accessory

Broke down and bought a Garmin running watch.  MUCH more convenient than carrying my iPhone around in a baggie in my pocket! And, how funny that it matches the color of our wall!

73:365 - Sick Day

Poor little dude wasn't "feeling it" today - no appetite and a big fever out of nowhere. So we spent the day on the couch, watching movies with his water bottle tucked by his side. Hoping he makes a quick rebound.

72:365 - If it looks like a chicken...

...then it's a chicken. Or a little boy whom decided to feather himself up like a chicken. Beckett got into the art supplies today and turned himself into a fabulous chicken. I haven't laughed that hard in weeks!

71:365 - Out of Focus

Sometimes capturing the kids ends up with an image of a forced smile, a goofy face, a frown, a turned head, a limb chopped out of the frame. Rarely, I nail it. This photo has so many things technically wrong with it. Primarily it is out of focus. But I love it. This photo, better than many many others, captures Beckett completely: mid-giggle with his tongue between his teeth. To me, it is as perfect as he is.