thankful

Year in and year out I find myself thankful for so many things in my life.

I have a wonderful husband who never holds me back from anything and he puts us, his girls, before anything.

My daughter and loyal dog are my pride and joy, I can't get enough of them.

The family I'm surrounded by are the best, most caring people I know.

And I have the best of friends that share in life's bliss and sorrows.

Eight years ago, I made a trip to NYC with my younger sister and my parents to spend Thanksgiving with my dad's brother (one of my favorite Uncles) and his family. At the time I was two months engaged and I was reeling. A month after being engaged, my dad was diagnosed with late stage prostate cancer. It was a dark time for the entire family, an unknown that we all had to face. But we all got on it and started him on treatment right away.
We all went on as a family and helped our dad and each other out.

That Thanksgiving was bitter sweet, to say the least.

I will never forget spending that time with my parents, who acted like they were in love all over again, while leaving all the problems and worries in SD and exploring another city. It was like the bad news from the prior month only strenghtened the 40 years of love they had for one another.
Angie and I took them into the city, rode the subway, shopped in China Town, visited Ground Zero, lunched in a little cafe, took a walk in Battery Park, and viewed the Statue of Liberty from there.

Spending that time in the city with them was the BEST.

We didn't have the traditional turkey meal at my Uncle's house that year. He & his wife cooked a hearty Filipino dish for the adults. As for the younger folks, my little cousins and others that celebrated with us, well we had the most unforgettable Thanksgiving meal...

White Castle burgers, we ordered 35 of them suckers - how great is that???

Here we are eight years later and while I'm thankful for so much, the one thing I am most thankful for is my brave & courageous Dad. Though he isn't the same person he was eight years ago, he has battled on and continues to live like there is no tomorrow. These days he doesn't say much- rather he observes and watches his children & grandchildren enjoy each other and life. Yet he really doesn't need to say much... he knows he has done his job as a husband, dad and grandfather.
And will continue to do so through his relentless strength.

races

It's kind of weird...I've signed up and ran more races this year already than I have ran collectively in the past 5 years. But the quantity of races I've run doesn't necessarily mean they have been quality runs.

March- Hot Chocolate 15K

April- La Jolla 5K

May- Bridge Run 4 miles

September- Run to Remember 5K

October- Light the Night 5K

November- Breast Cancer 5K

The 5Ks are definitely fun runs and I don't mind running them. Three of the runs mentioned above were sponsored by H's company. Great practice runs and of course for good causes.
I blogged about the first four races, so feel free to check it out on the links above.

Light the Night 5K race that I recently did was pretty fun...considering that I've never done a race in the evening. With the weather being so warm for almost 3 months straight, I was glad to run an evening race with out Mr. Sun present. Since the run was the weekend before Halloween, costumes were encouraged. More notably the run was to honor law enforcement and make tribute to those who have helped out in communities to keep everyone safe.
It was a good cause, and I was glad to have participated.

Hazel, Char and I dressed up similarly and sported some bat wing headbands and custom-cut Batman shirts... because I'm such a big fan of the Batman movies! It was super fun dressing up and seeing all the other costumes, but it also caused some distractions during the run. I don't like to carry anything in my hand when I run, I prefer to have my iPod/iPhone strapped to my arm. And somehow I found myself running with a glow wand, along with glow sticks & glow necklaces around my neck that were bouncing in my face during the run. Thankfully the three of us decided against glow face masks, it was making us dizzy while testing them out in the car...lol!

The race started at the old Naval Medical Center parking lot near Balboa Park, went up Park Blvd, and back down to the same parking lot. And that's it! Suffice to say, the run was easy & fun, but I know I could have done better!

One week later we did The Breast Cancer run/walk...

Thank goodness we planned to get there early and seek out parking in the neighborhood, rather than shuttling it, which can sometimes be a pain in the a**. I have never seen so much pink in once place at one time, ever in my life. It was certainly a beautiful, pink Sunday morning and I was loving it!

We were surrounded with so much positive energy by happy, hopeful people, this was definitely a race that had a different sentiment to it. Fortunately I have not been affected by breast cancer, nonetheless a different kind of cancer has stricken a loved one, so I was more than happy to be here and support survivors and honor those who have passed on. <3

We were kind of late to the start line up, so the 5 of us (H, Kurtis, Char, hubs & myself) found ourselves blended in with all the walkers. I would say that 75% of the people at this event were walkers, so you can only imagine how difficult it was to get through the thick crowd of walkers. (element #1) Everything was fine & dandy until we reached the Quince Street exit and it was literally an uphill battle, which was figuratively downhill for me. (element #2) And if it couldn't get any more difficult, the sun was continuing to beat down on me as I dragged my a** up the hill. (element #3)
It was comical how the finish line was right there once you reached the top. Imagine that!

The race itself was not one of my better ones, but we were there for the cause not for the PR, right?

Great run for a great cause, please pardon the excuses elements mentioned above, just making myself feel better.

Wish me luck on my Thanksgiving Day 10K run.

10K, yes I will need the luck!!!

barre benefits

A little while ago, I purchased a membership to Xtend Barre and told myself that I would commit to classes at least 4-5 times a week once I started. I also looked at it like this: purchasing my membership upfront and committing to classes x amount of times a week will lower the cost of each class. My first month is barely over, so a class that is normally $20 is currently costing me $7.50 per class! And yes people, that's because I am doing my best to go as much as I can.

Saving me money AND getting in shape...a win-win!

 

Almost 1 month has passed and I'm pleased to state that I've been a regular at my local Xtend Barre studio. I'm seeing a lot of the same faces, testing out the different instructors and getting very familiar with the moves that were once so difficult for me to do. I am hooked on this stuff and I'm loving it!

The instructors are great, they have amazing bodies- I can only hope that I look like them one day.

It's also worth mentioning how it feels like I walk into a Lulu outfit competition at every class. I will admit, I've become addicted to Lulu also, but I am not all clad in Lulu attire at every class.

Too funny, but it's all good- I get it!

 

 A mother can't help it, but I experience serious Mommy Guilt when I leave for that 1 hour away from Camille. So much thanks to hubs for allowing me to go, especially when he is not getting much exercise himself other than walking Cloie. But at least they are both getting out; there were days when I couldn't even find time to get exercise in. The combination of daylight savings time and cooler weather has limited my outdoor runs, so hitting the studio for barre has been the perfect solution. And speaking of which, we are running a 10k on Thanksgiving morning and I've ran zero miles the past 2 weeks. I hope barre is setting me up to test my stamina.

 

Barre updates to follow...

present day

Now that I've caught up on our Big Island vacation posts, I can sort of continue where I left off with my blogging...even though we are almost three weeks post vacay. However, within those three weeks, so much has happened and so many events flew by and I don't want to let it pass with out mention. Birthday parties, the start of Xtend Barre, Halloween, Election Day, pre-school events, shopping obsession, two 5Ks in a row, holiday decor. 

Other than what I have planned to blog in the coming days, I am currently thinking:

...the holidays are approaching and I'm already getting antsy. My Christmas shopping has a deadline this year, as it does every year, but not 2 days before Christmas. I started a bit last night at the ever-so-trusty Target. I need to stay away from my favorite stores, or I'll never get it done.

...along with the holidays, cold weather is upon us. The weather is a nice change and I whole-heartedly welcome it. Bring on the boots, heavy coats & jackets, scarves and umbrellas.

...finally Election Day has come and gone. I hope the political banter can come to a calm and people can resume their friendships with the opposite party. 

...there is constant complaining about pharmaceutical companies making big bucks and charging a sh*tload for the public to purchase. Right now, I am thankful for them. Life is good for us.

...Camille is growing too fast. She knows what she wants and she knows how to get it. Her height surpasses a lot of the kids in her class. I think she is taller than all of the boys in her class, and prob the 2nd tallest. It's def not my genes. :)

Big Isle: day 9

Saying good bye is always a hard thing to do. Whether you are saying good bye to a person, place or thing, its always hard. In our case, we are saying good bye to the Big Isle and this is undoubtedly the saddest part of our trip. 9 days total, but 2 of them count as travel days- our 7 FULL days of  no responsibilities, beauty, splendor, sunshine, happiness, magnificence, bliss....it was true paradise!

 

Camille really was bummed to learn we were leaving that morning.

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go.

We did pretty good packing for our trip, only one check-in bag, the rest were carry-ons or our personals bags.

Hey, saved us $25- that paid for 3 trays of fruit for us!

 

On our inter-island flight to Oahu, we got a quick refreshment. Calm down, POG monster!

Honolulu has the best airport, why? Shop while you wait. Of course I didn't shop, but it was fun window shopping and sampling those yummy Honolulu Cookies at the store.

My sweet keiki fell fast asleep even before take-off, simply exhausted from our vacation.

She was out for 3 hours, more than half the flight home! That definitely made for an easier trip.

Now back to reality, thank you Big Isle! We certainly plan to come back, and learn even more about your history, landmarks, beauty, culture, land, etc.

One of the best family trips. Ever!

Big Isle: day 8

Today was slated to be a day of sightseeing & quality time at Camille's favorite pool.

And so our day began...

 

Of all places in the world to fail at landing a great coffee shop, sad to say, Kona was it. :(

Hate to admit this, but "the Machine" fell on our radar one too many times. The only place that had coffee we enjoyed was in Waimea-- 30 minutes away.

A long way to go for coffee, so Starbucks it was!

 

I caught a shot of the sun coming up behind the mountains. I think I'm more of a sunset gal, but then again I'm never up early enough to enjoy a sunrise.

 

This is a statue of the infamous King Kamehameha, a fearless leader of the Hawaii Islands in the 1800's. This Hawaiian landmark represents so much spiritual and cultural importance.

 

We reached the end of the road at Pololu Valley lookout, and were told that we can visit black sand beaches. We were also told that the trail down to the beaches were not too bad to hike down. That was NOT the case, and with a 3 year old...not even close. There was no way we would make it all the way to the beach scaling that hairy mountainside. And poor Glen was practically doing a kettle ball work out with Camille in tow. Above picture is how he carried her up and down the trail. 

Needless to say we did not go all the way down- there was a point on the trail that was not favorable for a 3 year to go down, or even for someone carrying a 3 year old.

What we saw from where we decided to stop going down was enough for us.

Although, it really was breathtaking.

 

On the way back, we cut through a mountain road that had some remarkable views of Waikoloa and surrounding beach towns. The landscape changed dramatically and it had me in awe at how beautiful this part of the island was. It was at this moment where I wished we had a few more days here. 

All the history and rich culture was so fascintating. A little nerdy, I know.

 

This is us in Waimea waiting for a table to have lunch.

 

Another photo taken in Waimea at the coffee mill. This was "the one place" that had choice coffee.

If it weren't so far away, we would've been there every morning.

 

Having fun with floral hair accessories. :)

 

I didn't know what the word Heiau meant until visiting this one- the Puukohola Heiau. It is basically a very sacred Hawaiian temple. This particular landmark took 1 year to complete and was built solely by hand comprised of rocks transported by a human chain from an area 14 miles away.

Fascintating, huh?

 

Randomness:

As for this device, the joby came in handy when we wanted to snap a picture of all of us in a remote area and when we didn't want to bother people to take a picture of us. It is always a big FAIL when we think we can count on random people to take a fam picture of us.

Its quite comical, actually.

I do wonder if people's eye sight is off if they can't take decent pictures. Looking through a lense and centering objects doesn't seem too tall a task. The 2 times that were offered to take our pics on our trip turned out to be more artsy shots...you know, where we are all the way at the bottom of the picture and the wall decor is the focal point OR the one where it was a full body shot of all of us but we are in the corner. Artsy fartsy!

Last day of our trip tomorrow. :(

Big Isle: day 7

I can't believe how fast the days are flying by. Day 7, already?

I will admit that I had a lingering homesick feeling for a bit, but it soon passed when we got upgraded to an ocean view room. Leaving the lanai door opened in the evening was a nice change to get fresh air, rather than the recirculating cool air. But leaving the door opened didn't help our cause when a neighboring room would come out on their lanai and smoke a cig. 

WTF people, it's a non smoking hotel.

So we mentioned it to the front desk and boom, upgrade! 3 days too late, but oh well.

The room was a breath of fresh air...pun intended!

This is the view from the lanai of our upgraded room. Sweet!

Today was beach day once again!

So we packed up fruit, POG, water and a few snacks that we had laying around and headed out to our fav BI beach, Mauna Kea. Based on our planning for the last few days, this was going to be our last day at the beach and we made the most of it.

The sun was out most of the time we were there, and even though the cloud cover came in, we stayed for a bit longer. Just hanging on to that little piece of time on the beach.

Daddy & Camille had fun making sand castles and practicing soccer zig zags.

POG monster, she couldn't get enough.

If my iPhone wasn't in my hands, it was my camera shooting away and documenting our last few days in paradise.
So sad! :(

Have I failed to mention that it was my birthday today? I guess not. :)

When that day comes around once a year, I don't typically play it up. There has a been a year or two when the work calendar missed my birthday, it slipped by with the team and I was relieved.

What's important to me is spending the day with my husband and girls. We can have a meal from our favorite taco shop, ice cream from Rite Aid and watch Tinker Bell at home and I would be totally fine with that. And though that would be perfect, today was slightly different spending a gorgeous and fun day at the beach, dinner at Roy's with their signature molten lava cake... and all in Hawai'i.

Best. Day. Ever. 

Big Isle: day 6

Three and a half hours at the beach is equivalent to pretty much, "all day."

And that was how we spent our day...all day at the beach.

At the rec of sissy once again, we went just a wee bit more north and reached a beach called Mauna Kea. This is an exclusive area and only 40 parking spots are available for the public to use. 

White sands, clear calm waters, fifty shades of blue (ha!) for miles on out, and the best part...not a lot of people. My kind of beach!

It was such a perfect day for relaxing and letting the girl play in the sun as much as she wanted, with multiple reapplying of sunscreen. I was tucked away in the shade of the tent, so she needed this hat!

The quintessential toes-at-the-beach picture.

After the beach, we drove up the coast of Kohala and checked out the small town of Havi.

This is where the Iron Men cycled up and made their turn around.

We had dinner at San Sei and wasn't too impressed like we used to be in our Maui days.

It was worth giving it a try since the Island Market was beginning to get old.

And day 6 came to an end.

Big Isle: day 5

Today was all about visiting food places the second time around.

 

Back at Dave's for breakfast. We knew how to order this time and just shared.

It was a little disappointing how the coffee wasn't as good as the other day. :(

We have yet to find our coffee place on the island, and it's already day 5!

 

Back at Da Poke Shack as well.

This place is a hole but it serves the best poke! Because the drive to Kona is a little out of the way, we got a handy styrofoam cooler and hauled a few different flavors of poke back to Waikoloa with us. The cooler turned out to be very handy for the rest of the trip.

Yaaaay for us!

 

And while in Kona, a visit to the infamous Kona Brewery was a must! We stayed for a beer...

well Glen drank a beer, and headed back to the hotel so we can watch the Chargers lose on MNF!

What a joke & embarrassment that was.

This cute hat had me in shame and holding my head down while at the hotel bar.

Waaaaaaah!

Big Isle: day 4

Iron Man Tri must have inspired me. My day started off with a morning run on the treadmill.

Running on the beach or on the streets is way too dark and kind of scary.

This is what the resort looks like at 5 o'clock in the morning. Much prettier in the day.

 

Loving the "inspirational messages" on my socks.

 

 

On our way to Hilo, we stopped at Tex's for big breakfast and picked up some malasadas.

It was delicious, but waaaaay too heavy for me. Glen had the infamous ono dish- Loco Moco, Camille had the pancakes and of course bacon & I had the omelet with hash browns.

Told ya so - HEAVY!

 

It was such an amazingly pretty drive to Hilo along the coast.

During the drive, this was our view to the left.

The right side view was sporadic residential areas, lush green scenery, and even a few waterfalls.

 

Visiting the Hilo Zoo/Rain Forest was a nice way of getting out for a leisurely stroll, albeit the setting is NOTHING like the World Famous SD Zoo. Pretty sad, but it's Hawai'i...people go to the beaches.

 

One day in Hilo is barely enough. There was so much on this side that we still wanted to see, especially after a short visit to the National Volcanic Center. We got to walk through a lava tube, and poor Camille she was terrified after daddy told her it was a batcave....good one!

But she was fine as long as he was holding her.

Driving back was just as pretty, but we were beat from the heat and a long day on the road.

A beautiful Hawaiian sunset last night. Aloha!

Big Isle: day 3

It's a BIG DAY on the island, especially for the 1,900 women & men who were participating in the Iron Man Triathlon. I can barely get myself to finish a half marathon, so a 2.4 swim, a 112 bike ride & a 26.2 mile run is astonishing!

 

Highway K, the main road on the west side of the Big Isle, was blocked off to most traffic throughout most of the day. While being "trapped" in our resort area is typically a good thing, it wasn't really ideal for us. Relaxation is great, but we like to get out, explore and do sightseeing.

I did the gym thing, we spent a little bit of time at the pool, had lunch and walked through the mall.

We even drove out to the main road to check out the athletes, which by the way was really fun cheering them on and getting a "hang loose" back when I'd throw one out to them.

Then we were left with not a lot to do.

Little did we know, there was a way out and alternative roads to take throughout the island. Kind of a waste of a day, but whatever- any day spent in Hawai'i can't really be a waste. Towards the end of the day, we escaped the resort life and went to Hapuna State Beach and stayed until sunset. It was another beautiful one.

Big Isle: day 2

Aloha & Good Morning!

Thanks to this great thing they call Time Zones, I was up at 4am local time. If yesterday wasn't such a taxing day of travel and hassle and unhealthy eating, I would've been up at 3am.

Daddy Glen & Camille got some good sleep and woke up 2 hours later. Good for them!

Our first stop for our 1st full day was big breakfast at Dave's Coffee Shack, a local hole in the wall (not too bad of a hole, though) that was highly recommended from sissy's August trip to the Big Isle.

No pics of the food unfortunately- it would've been worth the effort to dirty my hands with the filthy iPhone and snap a shot. I guess our hunger got the best of us and we just dug in!

 

Normally on vacation we hit the beach, but the pool looked so inviting. And this particular pool became her favorite place at the hotel. Of course...sand bottom pool shallow enough for her to wade in without the wings. The look on her face shows how much she loves it!

 

We decided to try out the snow cone shave ice hut that was parked on the beach adjacent to our hotel. This picture is cute, but don't be fooled by the imitators.

Not too hot about the beach either; Camille couldn't build any dirt sand castles.

I couldn't believe it myself, but we spent most of the day at the resort, with the exception of walking to the King's & Queen's Marketplace to kill a little time. We will surely be regulars over there!

 

This picture was posted already, but I'll post it again.

Our first beautiful sunset on the Big Island.

Stunning!