A Magical Trip

Many months ago, I floated an idea to my parents.  They should take the kids to DisneyWorld this summer.  What kid wouldn't love a trip to the most magical place on Earth?!?!  And what an opportunity for their grandparents to take them?!?! 

So a plan was formed, and that trip happened earlier this month.   James and I had zero interest in a trip like that, so it was perfect.  They got to spend a week with Nana, Papa and Annie...James and I got a restful, child free week.  Win-Win!

I probably shouldn't even be the one chronicling this trip, and I'm not going to even begin to try to do it justice in any detailed way.  The plan was simple...we gave them a week of our timeshare in Disney's Old Key West Resort, and paid for the kids' Park Hopper passes with our accumulated Disney Dollars.  Nana and Papa covered the rest, including airfare and the Disney Dining Plan.  They left on a Friday, and returned the following Thursday. 

From what we have heard, they were going non-stop!  They visited Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios.  They both went on their first upside down roller coaster, and a lot of other fun, fast rides.  This was Keely's first time away from us since she was very young, and she did fine - honestly, I had no question that she would do fine. 

A few of the many pictures taken show that a wonderful time was had by all.  Most definitely a magical trip, and one they will remember forever.  I know my parents won't always be able to do something like this, and I am glad they were able to have this opportunity. 

 

James and I had a nice time together, enjoying the break and celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary while they were gone.  We enjoyed spending time together as a couple again, instead of as a family.  I missed the kids, but I always cherish time spent with my soulmate, true love and best friend.  I will cover some of our activities in another post.

Running Update

I am now in marathon training.  I officially began after we returned from vacation on July 9th.  This marked 16 weeks until the marathon.  It's about an average length of time for marathon training, somewhere between 16 and 20 weeks.  I ran through June but didn't do any runs above 10 miles, and only one above 8 miles.  I concentrated on speed, trying to increase my 5K times.  I suspect I can run somewhere in the range of 27 minutes for a 5K depending on how flat the course.  It was a nice break, but now I am back in long run mode.  Each weekend, I do a long run and by Friday I'm planning when, where and how I will fit the long run into the weekend schedule.  I've been ramping back up, from 8 to 9 to 10 miles.  I will do a 12 miler next weekend and then take a breather before hitting the pavement for mileages in the teens to 20 mile range.  Typically, my long runs increase for 3 to 4 weeks then I get a rest (which still includes a 5-6 mile run).  I supplement the long runs with 2-3 runs throughout the week - mostly in the range of 3-6 miles.  It's not too rigorous of a training program.  The main thing is to get used to being on your feet for that long. 

Speaking of feet, that's where my main issue is with all this running.  So far, I have been mostly injury free.  I have only one nagging thing to speak of - my left knee has bothered me off and on for the last week or so.  I think I have pinpointed it to the treadmill.  It seems to hurt more after I run on the treadmill, but doesn't bother me on outdoor runs.  I wonder if there is something about being forced to run at a given pace causing my stride to be messed up.  It's a bummer though because I will absolutely need to train on the treadmill as an alternative to outdoors.  I'm going to try and figure it out so that I can continue to use the treadmill as an alternative.  So the main issue though is feet.  Warning - TMI - I have lost 3 toenails and am losing a 4th.  It's not fun, and not very convenient in summertime when toenails are fairly visible.  I have been using new shoes since before my half, that are a size bigger and have also gotten new socks (no more cotton) that seem to help.   But I still seem to have toe pain after my long runs.  It's definitely better but still not perfect.  I am not sure what else to try, but I'll keep working at this too.  I can only imagine how my toes will feel after 15, 20, and then 26.2 miles! 

So that's my running update.  Less than 90 days until the full marathon!  As the number of days gets smaller, I get more nervous.  I try not to think about it, and know that I am doing the training so I will be fine!

Rock Climbing

We are on summer break from regular Boy Scout den and pack meetings, but the Pack plans several fun summer outings.  The first was the summer campout which we attended back in June.  I may as well write about it now since I didn't when it happened.  I'm getting so bad at this blogging thing :(  We camped for one night at a Boy Scout camp just outside of Manassas, Virginia.  The theme was rocket night...the boys launched rockets that they built, flew model airplanes, and learned about stars and telescopes with an astronomer.  It was an action packed day and night!  The sleeping arrangements were platform tents, with many spiders.  They were mostly daddy long legs, but the boys were also finding what they claimed to be wolf spiders and black widows.  Many of the boys, Quinn included, enjoyed searching the tents during the daylight hours to find and confiscate the spiders.  What was fun in the daylight turned frightening in the night.  Quinn and two of his fellow Scouts were to sleep in a tent together.  After a few minutes, they turned on their flashlight and saw several black widow spiders.  Quinn was at our tent asking to sleep with us not too long after.  I'll never forget Quinn peeking his head into our tent saying 'widows!' in a low scared voice.  Anyways, we all made it through the night unharmed, enjoyed a nice camp breakfast and headed home to spider-less sleeping arrangements.  I can't say that this experience made me want to camp in Virginia very often - there are just so many more bugs than out West.  Both Quinn and I were lucky enough to come home with ticks!  I'm sure we will still go camping, but we'll see how future trips go.

The next event was on Friday night...rock climbing with pretty much the same group of people we camped with in June.  We've been a member of this Pack since September but it took the camping trip to cement our friendliness with the other parents, scouts and siblings.  It was nice to see everyone again.  Quinn, Keely and I all participated in rock climbing and James took photos.  I have to say it was pretty fun, tiring and strenuous - my upper body was sore the rest of the weekend! 

The last summer event is ice skating (indoors obviously) in late August, then it will be back to the regular den and pack meetings.  Keely is excited about skating, Quinn is not.  Hopefully he will try it out again, but if six years of living in Utah didn't make him an ice skater I'm not sure what will :)

Bay Breeze Redux

  Three summers ago, we spent a week in Emerald Isle on the back end of quite possibly the best two week vacation ever.  Actually, it was my only two week vacation so it's not hard to be at the top of the list.  All of that vacation was chronicled on this blog.  The week spent on the beach was hard to plan again for the Donovan family, mostly because we were still living in Utah.  With the move back East, I knew it would be much more of a possibility and sure enough we were able to make it a reality this summer.  The idea was first discussed way back at Christmas, because I knew we had to book a house in February or March it order to get the best selection.  We decided to stick to Emerald Isle again, because it's a fairly central location and it gives the North Carolina Donovans the flexibility if they need to travel back and forth to home/work.  After looking at way too many houses for the one with all the needs, correct bedding configurations, swimming pool, beach proximity and so forth...we kept ending up back to the house we stayed at 3 years ago, Bay Breeze.  So we booked it for the first week of July, and that was that.

The week we chose ended up being perfectly timed because we had some more weather woes just prior to leaving.  In our first year living here, we've had an earthquake, hurricane, tropical storm with flooding...and now a derecho.  I had never heard of it, and never even suspected it would be so damaging.  We were very lucky, but others were not.  We only had some branches down, but others had trees crush their houses.  We didn't end up so lucky on the power outages this time though.  It went out on Friday night, and didn't come back on until Tuesday.  That's why the timing of our beach week was so perfect - we only had to endure a little over a day of no power and then we headed to the beach to a house with electricity.  Before we left though, our biggest concern was Rudy. We were hesitant to leave him home without power, but the other options were far from ideal so we did.  Luckily, we can monitor our thermostat remotely so we knew when the power came back on, and that it was only 84 degrees in the house when power was restored.  Rudy survived the week and we needn't have worried.  

The week in terms of descriptions was very similar to the last visit.  The weather was great...typical beach weather but perhaps a bit more humid and windy than we would have liked.  No rainy days though, aside from a set of thunderstorms the first night.  We went to the beach almost every day.  We swam in the pool every day, sometimes multiple times a day.  I got in a few short runs (3-4 miles) in very humid, windy conditions.  The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins, and there was a new addition to run around with them this time.  Adelia still lights up at the sight of Quinn, and he helps take care of her.  Keely is a great help as well.  The other big kids would stay in bed late but not Keely - when she heard Adelia up, she headed upstairs to play and take care of her.  She is most definitely going to make a great babysitter in a few years!  We rented kayaks again, and had fun in the sound and visiting 'our island'.  The big kids went out for a night on the town with Uncle Ryan - complete with seeing 'Brave' in the movie theater, wading in the ocean and mini-golf.  We went to the beach to watch the local fireworks show, and also saw lots of amateur shows up and down the beach. 

The week was made a little more interesting by the celebration of Tom & Judith's 10 year anniversary at the end of the week.  We got to meet Judith's two sisters and their families, enjoy some traditional Jamaican meals, and be a part of their vow renewal.  We weren't at their wedding so it was nice to be a part of this special day. 

We all had a fun week.  It didn't go too fast, or too slow - I think it was just right.  I love beach vacations, living in my bathing suit and just relaxing.  The kids are happy with with low-key aspect of it, and I think we'll get a few more years of that before they want more.  Mostly, they are happy playing with their cousins.  I love that we can give them these memories, and it's yet again another reinforcement of the decision to move closer to our family.  There was already talk of where to go next.  Speaking for myself, I am done with Emerald Isle for a bit.  I think we need a change of pace...I'd love to go back to Outer Banks, or Hilton Head.  We're also talking about a mountain getaway too.  I don't know where it will be, but I know I'm looking forward to the next time we're all together :)

The End of an Era

Since I've become a mother, I have only been called one thing by both children....Mama.  Keely sometimes calls me Mommy but for the most part, I am Mama and James is Dada.  That's what I'm used to hearing from the kids when they want me, sometimes many many times a day and it's all I've been responding to since Quinn started talking, over 10 years ago.  I guess I always knew that it would end, but I didn't think it would be so dramatic to me when it did.  Just in the last couple of weeks, and seemingly overnight Quinn has started to call us Mom and Dad.  I first noticed it on vacation in Emerald Isle when he called to James in a store...Dad, come look at this!  Now, when he calls me Mom it sounds like an incomplete word.  It just doesn't sound right.  He occasionally slips back into Mama, but the majority of the time he calls me Mom.  Keely still calls me Mama or Mommy, so nothing has changed there.  After hearing your child call you something for 10 years, it's hard to get used to something else.  It's also another sign that he's growing up.  Sigh.

On another Quinn related note, I no longer have to pine for the days of his buzz cut.  No amount of bribery was enough, but a case of head lice convinced him to let James buzz it again after three years.  It only took one thorough and painful combing of his head for him to reconsider his stalwart position.  Keely's version is that he first went to look at a picture of himself with a shaved head, decided he liked how he looked, and told James to buzz it.  It's like looking at a different child.  He looks a tad younger to me, but it's nice for him to have a fresh start and to get all of that thick hair off his head.  I'm sure he won't let it happen again anytime soon, but for now it's light, easy and cool on these hot, hot summer days.

The pictures are before and  (sort of) after - with the swim cap on for his baby oil lice treatment, and the after is actually way before when he last had his hair this short 3 years ago.  Trust me, there's not much difference :)

Perfectionist

Virginia has state standard tests that begin in 3rd grade.  As part of the 4th grade curriculum, Quinn prepared and took three SOL (Standards of Learning) tests.  The preliminary results arrived in yesterday's mail.  Quinn did very well, with advanced proficiency scores in all areas.

Reading - 600 out of 600
Mathematics - 469 out of 600
Virginia Studies - 546 out of 600 (and they took the 5th grade level test)

When I got home from work, I saw the scores and went to see him in his room where he was building with Legos.

Mama: Quinn, did you see your SOL scores?
Quinn: Yes.
Mama: You did very well, I am proud of you.
Quinn:  Except in math!

Apparently, he wasn't happy with that score despite his near perfect scores in the other subject areas.  I wonder where he gets that perfectionism from?!?! 

Oh, and he also got a haircut finally.  It's nice to see his eyes again.  How I long for the days when he would let James give him a buzz cut!

End of School

I feel like the kids were just starting their new school year, and I was so nervous for them as they entered a new school in a new state knowing virtually no one.  Well, as time does tend to do it flew by and this past Friday was their last day.  Looking back, I can say that they adjusted well and ended up loving their first year at Beech Tree.


An update on some of the last few events at school.  We attended their Spring Fling, a dance party in the school gym with a DJ.  They had a blast, but we thought the music was too loud :(  They had Field Day the Monday before school ended.  I wasn't there but from what I hear and the pictures I saw, it was the "wettest" and tons of fun. 

We also attended Quinn's Book Expo, which was the culmination of their last project in 4th grade.  Think a book report in presentation form, complete with a tri-fold poster board, brochures, games, and prizes.  Each child picked a book of the fantasy theme...Quinn chose Starfinder by John Marcos, a book he had read in Florida (another great Uncle Ryan pick).  All of the other classes came in to the expo, and the kids had to explain their book to each attendee...you can imagine how tired they were at the end of the day! 

Quinn did very well on his report card.  He got all As and one B.  He really excelled in Ms. Ta's class, pretty much from the day he entered back in October.  It was really where he was meant to be.  I'm not sure if I mentioned, but he is now officially in the AAP program instead of being a guest like this year.  This means that he is in this program until 8th grade, and will be in the AAP class in 5th grade with most of the same children.  Another good thing about being officially in the program is that he can choose to attend our neighborhood middle school or our "center" school where he will have even more opportunities for advancement.  I'm not sure which he will choose, but he has another year to figure that out.  On a side note, Quinn has just finished re-reading the HP series of books...this time, in just over 2 weeks.  Pretty impressive considering he was in school most of that time.  He read the series the first time in a little over a month, but he was out of school that whole time.  It's crazy and ambitious, and he says he is going to read them a 3rd time.  From someone who does not read a book twice, I am slightly jealous and very impressed that he has the stamina and interest to read something again, and learn more about it.  We are very proud of him, he is such a smart boy and I love watching him turn into a young man.  I'm not crazy about the fact that he's on the cusp of his last year of elementary school and turning 11, but it is fun watching him learn and grow.


Keely did very well also.  She got all Os and Gs.  Next year, she will get letter grades.  Along with her report card were the results of her Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA).  She got a 38 out of 40, putting her in the at or above grade level category for reading.  This is great for her, because reading is not her favorite thing to do.  She does it, and she shows some aptitude for it but it's just not her first choice.  She has many other passions though, and we just try to continue to cultivate a love of reading.  It's catching on a bit, and we will continue encouraging her.  She didn't test well enough to enter the AAP program, and frankly we feel that 3rd grade is a little too young to judge that type of skill.  We'd like a recommendation to come from a teacher, whereas most parents fight the test scores and get their children in as guests.  She understands that she needs to try her best, and ask lots of how/why questions if she wants to get into that program.  Frankly, I think her desire to be in it comes from two of her best friends entering that class in 3rd grade.  She must have some of my competitiveness, because she wants to be there too.  We are very proud of her, she is doing really well in school, she made a lot of new friends this year and I think she's finally gotten over her sadness of leaving Utah.  It still creeps in there from time to time, but she is very happy in her school and with her new friends.

They will return to Beech Tree for another year.  Our area was subject to a boundary adjustment this year, but Quinn was grandfathered in because he is a rising 5th grader.  Due to that, Keely was allowed to stay as a sibling.  What happens for Keely in 4th grade is still a bit of an unknown...she may be allowed to stay at Beech Tree if there isn't overcrowding but she may have to transfer to the new school (which is a bit closer to our house anyways).