Disney Minnie Marathon Weekend

"Women Run the World" 15K

So I decided to start training for the 15K (9.3 miles) a month before it started and luckily I had some great running buddies to help me with my training. I finished in 1:19:21 We had lots of fun and hopefully there will be many races to come.

MAY DAY

One tradition that Kevin's mom did with her children was celebrate May Day. On May 1st they would decorate baskets of flowers and put them on people's door knobs secretly. I thought it was a cute little tradition so we are keeping it alive.

During the day we decorated some water bottles and strung ribbon through them (so we could hang them on our neighbors doors) and then we filled them with water and fresh flowers. Avery and Boston decorated pictured and wrote "Happy May Day! Love, your secret friend".

Normally you leave the flowers on your neighbor's door in the early morning, but we waited for Kevin to get home so we could deliver them together. We picked four of our elderly neighbors, hoping they would remember this long lost tradition. Avery and Boston had a ball.! They giggled with excitement as we ran and hid from our neighbors. Kevin and I felt like we were kids again, afraid we were going to get caught. We had a great time.

Thanks for the fun activity Pat!

Relay For Life

One day. One night. One community: By participating in an American Cancer Society Relay For Life event, you honor cancer survivors, pay tribute to the lives lost to the disease, and raise money to help fight it – all right in your community.
Much more than a walk around a track, Relay is a time to celebrate those who have battled cancer, remember those lost and get inspired to fight back. Those who have shared the same experience find common ground, hope and healing at Relay. By participating, you have the power to continue the American Cancer Society's progress toward a future where cancer doesn't take the lives of our friends and family.
Relay For Life opens as cancer survivors take the first lap. This emotional time sets the stage for the importance of each participant's contribution. Highlighting the evening is a luminaria Ceremony of Hope held after dark to honor cancer survivors and to remember loved ones lost to cancer. The luminaria candles line the track and are left burning throughout the night to remind participants of the incredible importance of their contributions. There were so many bags around the track, it was beautiful and sad because you realized how many people were effected by this awful disease.
On Friday we joined a Relay for Life team with some friends of ours. It was a great experience for our family. Kevin walked between 11 and midnight and I being the late night girl I am, walked at 12:30-3:45 a.m. We rotated all night long between teammates. The kids had fun at the beginning of the night decorating bags for the Luminaria ceremony. It really was special to see them care so much for the people we knew who died of cancer. I am glad I was able to participate in this and I highly recommend getting involved with your community to do an event like this. It was a great experience. http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/

Our Luminaria Ceremony bags

IOA 5K

Every year Human Performance Institute (where Kevin and my Dad work) participates in the IOA 5K (3.1 miles). This race is all about healthy living: move more and eat wisely. Many corporations and Busineeses throughout Florida patricipate. There were over 7,000 people running or walking this year! I decided that I wanted to be apart of it. We had a lot of fun. Kev ran it in 23.41 minutes and I finished in 23.58! My dad was injured so he just cheered the team on. It was a great run- painful, but fun.

Epcot Garden Festival

Living in Florida had its ups and downs. I don't know if I love being in a tourist city but I do know that I want to live it up while we are here. Otherwise if and when we leave I'll be doing the shoulda-coulda-woulda scheme in my head for the rest of my life. Having a 4 and 2 year old meant that this year we were going to get season passes to Disney. Passes are free for kids under three so we thought it would be the perfect time to get them so we would only be paying for Avery and I. (Kevin is still debating if he wants to get one because we usually go while he is at work, who knows if he'll get one, only time will tell. )

I was pleasantly surprised when Avery, Boston and I ventured to the Garden Festival at Epcot. I was expecting a sea of people hovered over every possible inch of the amusement park, but it really wasn't that crowded. Maybe its because they stretch the festival for over a month long, but it was definitely worth the risk of the park being swamped because we had a great time.

I had no idea they had so many things that kids could do. We decorated pots to put flowers in, made caterpillars and butterflies. They had all kinds of make-and-take projects for kids to do. Our favorite part of the festival was the Ladybug release and Minnie's Butterfly Garden. At the Lady bug release each child received a box of lady bugs and when you opened the box there were approximately 30 lady bugs in each one. ( Did you know you can by ladybugs at Home Depot to help your garden grow because they eat the bad bugs in your garden? I had no idea, I'm obviously not a gardener, but some day I would love to learn.)

The lady bugs were thirsty so they sprayed water all over every one's arms so the lady bugs would stay on your arms for a while and then you were supposed to release them into the gardens. Boston's favorite part was getting sprayed with water and he repeatedly kept going up to the "water sprayer man" to get dowsed with water.

Avery loved Minnie's Butterfly Garden . She would of stayed there all day if I let her. I thought it was so neat that they had a little house that had over 100 cocoons in all different stages of metamorphosis. Maybe I get excited about learning about simple things all over again because I have a daughter whose eyes light up when she learns something new like this but I will say, it makes me smile. We will definitely be back for seconds this month. I recommend it to anyone coming to Orlando before June 5th.

Avery's favorite butterfly

the cocoon house

Thompsons come to visit

It's amazing how when you see old friends it feels like yesterday. It's been a long time and it really felt like just yesterday we were all hanging out. We were excited for the Thomson Family to come and visit. Avery talked about it for weeks before they got here. The kids had lots of fun at the Beach. They played so well together. Ben was nice enough to bury the kids under the sand. Boston didn't want to get out once he was buried. It took a while before I could convince him to do so. We had a great time.

Fun at the Beach

We also caught up with them at the Magic Kingdom for a couple hours.

We cherish their friendship and can't wait to see them again

Kauai with Morris Family

I don't know what it is about Hawaii, but for me it's the only place I can go on vacation and no matter how long I stay, I don't want to go home. My favorite Island is Kauai. It's beautiful and there are so many things you can do. We went on a Hike just about everyday to amazing waterfalls and views that only Kauai can provide. It was truly spectacular. And what's great about enjoying nature is that it doesn't cost a penny, it's priceless. The reason we went to Hawaii is to celebrate Kevin's Dads 60Th Birthday and what a celebration it was.

When we first got to Hawaii we we stayed with some of our favorite people, Tyler and Kacee Allred. We stayed together in a resort in Kapaa. We got a great deal because it just opened and they were still working on the facilities. It was beautiful and the perfect place to stay because it was in the middle of everything we wanted to do. The first hike we went on was amazing. There were some locals that were jumping close to a waterfall that was about 30 feet so Kevin and Tyler joined them. We also went Kayaking which we loved so much that we took our kids with us a second time so they could enjoy it. It was so fun to see Tyler and Kacee, it was just like old times when we both lived in Utah.

Ty and Kacee

Kayaking with our kids was actually a lot of fun to do with our kids and they loved hiking to the waterfall afterwards. Boston fell asleep on the way back. I was holding him in the front of me with a sling. I slipped and fell on a hill, luckily I landed on my backside. He was so exhausted he didn't even wake up. I guess that's what happens when you go, go, go all day long.

kayaking on Wailua Rivier

After we stayed with Ty and Kacee we stayed at this beaut with Kevin's family. It was perfect. There were 20 of us and it never felt over crowded. It was a little older and I loved it that way because it had so much character and personality. It was perfect. The first hour we were there Kevin saw a bee on a window and tried to kill it with a shoe, as a result- the window shattered. I can't wait to get the bill for that one. After that incident we had a great time. I recommend this place to anyone who is planning on doing a reunion of some sort.

The Dali Hale!


Another one of my favorite places to go was obviously the beach. Boston and Avery loved it. Our favorite beach was Tunnels Beach. It had all kinds of small shelled crabs and beautiful seashells to collect. We also loved kee' Beach. It is set up against the Napali coast. Both beaches are breathtaking.

best buddies

Me and my Angel

toes

and more toes

Here is pictures of the whole Morris Clan. I don't know why we didn't get a big group picture of all of us. I think we were just having too much fun!

Tim and Pat

Boston, Kevin, Avery, Jared and Brian

Johnny, Shane, Josh, Jen and Erika

Genise, Wyatt, Zoe and Matt

Mark and Michelle

and us!

One thing that's always a big hit with the little ones is going to get snow cones and ice cream. Boston decided he liked Avery's ice cream better than his snow cone so he followed her around with his tong hanging out of his mouth. He was lucky she was so nice and let him get a few lick in. It was great watching them get along so well. They truly are great little buddies.

mmm...mmm...mmm

This picture was taken by Genise at JoJo's. A famous snow cone shack. I can't thank her enough, I love this picture of these three!

Avery, Zoe and Josh

Look at these cute kids. Rarely did they fight. They just enjoyed being kids. It's amazing how many smiles kids have when they are with one another.

Cousins being cousins

Wyatt and Boston

Matt, Tim and Kevin decided to go on a helicopter ride.

The week we were there 2 helicopters went down and a total of eight people were killed. That's why I opted not to go. Yeah- I know you only live once and if I didn't have kids I would have definitely gone. Kevin didn't want to miss the experience and took the risk, as a result- they had an amazing time.

helicopter tour, please bring them home safe!

This was an amazing trip and we loved every minute of it. A big thanks to Tim and Pat, who made this vacation possible!

Boston turns 2!

TWO!

I can't believe my little buddy just turned two. He was so funny because he did NOT want his picture taken that day. I'm just lucky I got a few!

Make a wish!

Finally I got a smile, and believe me, it wasn't easy.

He just wanted to hang out and play!

Daddy Daughter dance

Daddy Daughter Dance 2007

Last year Kevin and Avery, Grandpa and Kaelie all went to the Daddy Daughter Dance. After that day Avery asked all the time "when is the Daddy Daughter Dance?" She gets so excited to go, I can't help but smile. She loves getting dressed "fancy" and going out with Daddy. Don't they all look so cute!

Best little buddies

Brayden and Boston

Our next door neighbor Brayden is such a fun little guy. Boston loves to hang out with the. It will be so fun to see these to kiddos grow up together! This is the first of many more memories of these to little guys!