A Run, Aliens, the Weekend and Vacation Plans.

A Run.
It's still a recovery week, but today was a 30 minute run doing 4/1's.  It was great! I did about 2.5 miles in the 30 minutes and loved every minute of it.  I think my body has been missing being in movement.  When I started running, I felt TALL.  Not sure what that was about, but I really did feel taller than usual.  As I ran along, my left leg was not really happy.  It's the nerve pain from my back that decided to return after the 70.3 was over.  I'm glad it held off until now, and I have a chiropractor's appointment tomorrow afternoon so I'm sure things will be back to normal in no time.  What a happy 30 minutes though.  My right leg and the rest of me felt great, I was happy to be running and loved to be out there.  I sweat like a pig, but I do live in Florida.

Aliens.
The aliens have invaded, though... and that is because I was really enjoying my run.  They have absconded with the old me and replaced me with someone who likes to run!  I guess that is a pretty good thing since I'm training for the Disney Princess Half Marathon, and Coach wants me to run the 15K at Gasparilla in Tampa this year.  Fun is to be had!

Tomorrow is a 45 minute swim, which I am looking forward to... I love to be in the pool!  Coach has another run, another swim, and a 1 hour easy bike on my schedule for the week too.  I am not sure I will get them done because we leave on Wednesday for our trip out to the Seattle area.  We're staying only a few days in hotels and a few days with family.  So, we'll have to see what we can do.  I'm not thinking that the bike is going to happen since I won't have a bike with me, but I'll pack the clothes for it anyway.  Plus, I'm putting the family first on this vacation so while I don't want to lose my endurance, etc.  We're still going to be doing a lot of walking and perhaps a little bit of hiking... while carrying the little ladies. So, it's not like we'll just be sitting all the time either. 

The Weekend and Vacation Plans.
Besides after the weekend of clinging children, I think they need some dedicated Mommy time.  Saturday the girls had a soccer game.  Angelfish was on the field for an entire 3 minutes.  Long enough for a play or two and to run around in order to score the post game treats (Capri Sun, gummy fruit, pretzels, and grapes).  Ladybug on the other hand decided she wanted to play, but only if Mommy would hold her hand.  So I ran up and down the field holding her hand and encouraging her for .... an entire quarter! (Keep in mind these games are a whopping 40 minutes long at this age.)  But, during that time, she scored a goal, assisted with 2 other goals, and was really good about kicking the ball, trying to get the ball from other kids and running around following the ball.  And even better was the fact that when I asked her if she was having fun, she said "Yes!" and wanted to keep playing!  It was great!  She did every so often ask if she could have the post-game treats now, but was perfectly okay with me telling her that we had to wait until the game was over.  So now we know, the way to get them to play is to tell them NO POST GAME TREATS unless you play!

The best part of the weekend though was when the little ladies told us they wanted to play "Swoopsie, Whoopsie, and Bob."  We're a little on the creative side in our house and so when we tell the girls the story of the 3 Little Pigs we spice it up a little.  Some of that "spice" is that Mr. Darcy decided to name the pigs... Swoopsie (youngest pig), Whoopsie (middle brother pig), and Bob (eldest pig) ... and it stuck.  The girls now refer to the story of the 3 Little Pigs as "Swoopsie, Whoopsie, and Bob."  The other thing the girls like to do is play with Q-tips to use them to "draw" pictures on the floor by using the Q-tips as lines.  They decided (on their own) to combine the 2 things.  We helped them draw the 3 houses for the 3 little pigs, and then they had us all act it out.  They took turns appointing each of us to different roles among Swoopsie, Whoopsie, Bob, and the Big Bad Wolf (who they deemed we're not allowed to name because "he's not very nice.")  We did this over and over for more than an hour.  It was so much fun and we all laughed and laughed!  At one point Ladybug tried to be a creative Big Bad Wolf and ask for water or snacks to get let into the little pigs' houses.  Another time, Angelfish changed the story and let the Big Bad Wolf have the ability to knock down the brick house and pretended to eat us all up.  Nothing short of hysterical.

Mr. Darcy got some of it on film, so I'll try to figure out how to insert the movies for your amusement (if I have time in between packing and getting us out the door for school and our trip...).

Other than that we had lots of errands where the little ladies wanted to be right on top of me, especially Ladybug.  So lots of snuggle time while we were home and a lot of reassuring that yes, we were "staying all together" today.

Of course that made this morning tough on Ladybug.  She wanted to stay home with Mommy and tried pulling the "I have a headache." "My tummy hurts." routine.  At least I hope it was a routine... she's at daycare and they haven't called yet, so here's hoping.  I don't think it helped things that Mr. Darcy is on a business trip to Ft. Bragg and won't be home until late tonight after they're in bed (and I'm asleep too).  But we made it with not too many tears.  Angelfish announced that school was her work and she was ready to go.  On the ride to school, we talked about what we would do on Wednesday to get to the airport, to fly to Dallas and then to Seattle, etc. Ladybug in particular can be funny about new things so I tried to go into as much detail as I could - even explaining that the "gate" wasn't like a normal gate but had chairs all around, etc.

They're pretty excited about the trip and once I finish packing, I think I'll be just as excited as they are.  I'm looking forward to seeing someplace new and experiencing things with the girls and Mr. Darcy.  I'm also looking forward to seeing my Aunts and Uncles and introducing them to our little ladies.  The last time I saw these 2 sets of Aunts and Uncles, I was pregnant with Angelfish and Ladybug.  So that should be pretty cool.  Not to mention we're going to Canada!  Even if it is for 1 day, it will be cool (and not just temperature wise either).  We're going to Victoria, which is supposed to be very pretty, and we're going to see the Buschart Gardens as well as the town... unfortunately, it's also the weekend of the Royal Victoria Marathon so it will be a busy place that weekend.  We're going to take a ferry, so that should be fun experience with the girls too.  And it will be nice to be "all together."