A Passport is a Girl's Best Friend

I wrote about my amazing husband turning 30 a little earlier this summer. I am a big fan of giving the gift an experience to share together rather than a material item. Memories last a lifetime and material items generally do not. For his birthday, we decided to become scuba certified! A couple of things went into this; 1) I was a fish in a previous life (no joke, I have been called a mermaid before... and it was amazing), 2) we went snorkeling in Belize and it was AMAZING, so amazing, we were sad we had to surface to breath. Lame. 3) what better way to celebrate a new decade of Duane than to have a new fun activity to do together?!?! Two Friday's ago we went to Anchor Shack in Pacheco to start the in-class and pool test portion of our course. Not only did I get 100% on my in-class test, but being a past competitive swimmer, rocked the swimming test too. Saturday and Sunday we were in the pool bright and early till about 5:30pm learning the equipment, diving skills, su...

We had a couple of special birthday's this summer. First was our Goddaughter Myka's 1st birthday down in Palmdale. This last weekend we celebrated Lizzy's 2nd birthday at Avlia Beach. Oh how time flies :)

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another.  Your mind can't know what's coming. " - Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic marathon gold medalist A few months ago, I was sitting around with all of the free extra time that was no longer being taken up by wedding planning, and I was struck my a brilliant, fantastic, marvelous idea! I should run a half marathon! For the 2nd time! Best idea ever! The 1st one didn't emotionally scare me (I have amnesia), so I promptly signed up for the San Francisco Nike Women's Half on October 19th. After a few days of sitting with it, I came to the realization that maybe this wasn't a good idea, but settled with the fact that I had very limited odds of actually getting in (about 75,000 apply and 25,000 run). Well, to my (not so delighted) surprise, I got in (helllloooooo rude awakening). Thus training started. I somehow then pulled a Katelyn Tayor (hehe) and roped in 2 of my good friends (including Katelyn) ...