Santa + Anna

As part of my Junior League of Richardson duties, I am required to work at least one shift at Santa's Village during the month of December. It is free to the public and we work in Santa's house taking pictures of all the little kids with Santa. It is usually freezing cold and the fake fireplace in the house doesn't do much to keep us warm. I am normally a popsicle when my 4 hour shift is over but it's so fun to see how excited and/or scared the kids are to see Santa. The village also has a Mrs. Claus house where you can get hot chocolate, Rudolph's house where you get candy canes, a stage with musical acts, a firetruck house where the kids get stickers, etc. The village opens each night at 7 pm with Santa riding on one of the Richardson Fire Department trucks. The lights are flashing and the sirens on full blast so Santa truly makes a grand entrance. So, for Christmas 2011, Keith brought Anna up to see Santa while I was working. Normally the spouses of the women working just pop into the house in front of the line but my sweet husband waited in line for 45 minutes because he didn't want to cut in front of anyone. Awww!! I would have totally cute in line :)

As a disclaimer, Keith dressed Anna for this evening. I was hoping he would put her in a cute red or green outfit to go along with the Christmas colors...BUT nope, she came dressed in a pink fleece jacket and colorful socks. At least she was warm!!!

We kept her up a little past her bedtime to see Santa and here is a shot of her sound asleep. She loves to sleep on her stomach which makes me a nervous wreck! I used to sneak into her room and put her on her back a few times a night but she kept turning back over onto her tummy. I sort of had a complex about it since the doctors/nurses tell you from day one to put your baby on their back to sleep. But since she could roll over by herself, I finally gave up and let her sleep however she wanted.

White Rock 2011

After I finished the White Rock Marathon in 2005, I vowed to NEVER run another one. Thankfully I crossed then finish line (in 4 hours and 39 minutes) but it was quite possibly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Giving birth to Anna was even easier! So when some of my girlfriends convinced me that it would be "fun" to run the White Rock Marathon Relay, I said yes. It was only 5 miles and I thought surely I could run that. My friend Summer and I ran a handful of times along the Katy Trail with Anna in her stroller for probably no more than 3-4 miles and we considered those few runs our training sessions. We all met at Jill's house at 6:45 in the morning on December 4 and her sweet dad dropped us off at Fair Park to begin the race. It was really cold outside and was threatening to rain. We grabbed some free ponchos and gloves and power bars and started to get ready for the race.

I was the lead off runner so after the other 4 girls boarded buses to get to their locations, I found my way to the starting line. There were tens of thousands of runners so trying to squeeze your way into the starting lineup was a little challenging. We were essentially starting on the DART railway so thousands of people were crammed into a lane that was no larger than 15 yards wide. I somehow got stuck in with the marathon pack that was training to run it in 3 hours and 15 minutes but there was no way I could fight my way back to the slower folks so once the horn sounded, off I went. We had been running for probably 15 minutes and the threatening rain became a torrential downpour. It was raining buckets and every inch of me was soaking wet. I had discarded the poncho right before the race since it wasn't raining yet = stupid move! All the runners were absolutely soaking wet and there was no use to avoid potholes that were small ponds since our shoes were soaking wet, our hair soaking wet and our clothes soaking wet. Thankfully I finished the five miles pretty quickly since I had to keep up with the fast runners and was SO thankful to "pass the baton" to the next relay person on our team.

I had Keith pick me up a few blocks away from where I finished and he had warm clothes for me which was quite a relief since at this point I was soaking wet. Off we headed so I could take a warm shower and a nap before meeting up with the rest of my team. It would have been a nightmare to meet up with the girls at the finish line so they got a picture without me. Poor things had been in the pouring rain for hours and hours waiting for each person to finish their leg. Summer said she's never been colder in her life and she was the last runner and miserable.

Hooray for us!

We met up for a celebratory margarita at Mi Cocina to celebrate finishing the race. Yes we even wore our medals into the restaurant. It was pretty tough to run those 5 miles but we did it. I was one day shy of 30 and already feeling my new age!!

While the parents are away...

Little Anna got to play with ALL her grandparents (sans Grandpa Jim since he was out working on a well). Vicki watched her Friday and Saturday, Hal and Janet watched her Saturday and Sunday and my mom and Mutti watched her Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. It truly takes a village and Anna was spoiled rotten with love then entire time Keith and I were in Costa Rica! It was the first time we were away from her in a foreign country so we couldn't talk to anyone on the phone to find out how she was doing. We got emails and texts from everyone assuring us that she was doing just great and didn't' seem to miss us at all. I, on the other hand, missed the little munchkin like crazy. Keith would catch me looking at pictures of Anna on my phone all the time. I just missed her little face so much!

Below are some of the pictures that were sent our way while we gone. It was a treat for the grandparents to keep us in the loop!

Costa Rican adventure

Woo to the hoo...we headed to Costa Rica to celebrate my big milestone birthday! We scored a really good deal and after weeks of deciding on where to spend 5 days on vacation, we boarded a plane bound for Guanacaste, CR. (First let me say, that our family is amazing and between my mom and Mutti, Nana, Grandma/Grandpa, Anna had many, many people to love on her while we went away for a quick vacation. It was a tearful goodbye...Who thought it would be so hard to leave my little munchkin for just a few days...)

The airport we flew into was one of the smallest I've ever seen and didn't have any of the modern conveniences of any American airports that we're used to. I love these low-key, thatched roof, no AC type airports because you know you're in for an adventure the moment you land. Keith and I got a kick out of this larger than life fan that circulated the hot air in the the open-air airport.

We stayed at the RIU Guanacaste which was an all-inclusive resort on the Pacific Ocean side of Costa Rica. This towel swan greeted us when we walked into our ocean view room and of course I made Keith take a picture. You can barely see his face or the fact that he is holding a Milwaukee's Best beer in his hand...ewww!

Gorgeous view from our balcony.

Keith thinks this is such a cliche' picture, but I love it!

It was fun being at a beach resort in December and it was decorated with Christmas trees, lights, gingerbread houses, etc. all throughout the property. 

Pura Vida is the country saying for Costa Rica. The locals say it ALL the time and if someone is running late, if there is a wreck on the side of the road, if there is a huge thunderstorm, their motto is Pura Vida. The literal translation is "pure life" but in context it means full of life.

Some of our good friends were in Costa Rica for their honeymoon in October and told us about one excursion that we couldn't pass up...we hopped in a van and were driven about an hour up the coast to board the "Lazy Lizard" catamaran for an afternoon/evening of sun/beer/snorkeling/fun!

We walked in the water to a small skiff that took us out the catamaran about 100 yards off shore. The sun was shining, there was a cool breeze and we were excited for the next few hours. 

Keith has a fear of anything under the sea which I think stems from a family trip to Hawaii when he was younger where his brother and sister (probably mainly Blake) threw fish food underwater right where Keith was snorkeling and he was harassed by loads of fish wanting the eat the food right near him. Ever since then, the thought of swimming in the ocean or diving with all sorts of fish is not his idea of a good time. I lured him on this excursion with the idea that he didn't have to snorkel if he didn't want to and it was all-you-can-drink on the Lazy Lizard.

We had an awesome time on the catamaran and saw a beautiful sunset on the water. The boat had 20 people in all onboard. If you ask Keith, this was his favorite part of our trip.

You can't go to Costa Rica without finding some type of adventure to get yourself into so after doing research, we settled on an all day trip that included zip lining, horseback riding, tubing down a river and playing in some hot springs. The best zip lining courses are about 5 hours from where we stayed and we didn't want to be stuck in the car for 10 in a single day so even though the courses we went to weren't as insane as the ones near the central mountains of CR, we still had a great time zipping over small canyons. We even had to climb a vertical wall from the bottom of one of the canyons. Our arms (or at least mine were burning like crazy after that!) The horses we rode all pretty much followed each other fairly well but Keith's horse was dead set on being the leader of the pack while mine was happy being slower. We went through a couple rivers (thankfully we didn't fall off) and climbed some pretty steep hills on the horses and I was laughing quite a bit to see my hubby on a horse since it was my first time to see him on one. :)

Our tubing adventure lasted about an hour and we went through some really fun rapids. I kept getting stuck in eddies and the guide had to rescue me a few times since we weren't supposed to get out of our tubes. I had bought a waterproof disposable camera to take with us and it actually took some pretty decent pictures. 

Our last stop for the fun-filled adventure day was at some local hot springs. The water was 102+ degrees and I loved every minute of it. Keith...well, I had to make him stay in the water for 30 minutes and he felt tortured! We even got to make ourselves look silly in a mud bath. We had to put the mud on first, let it dry for 10 minutes and then rinse off in a COLD COLD COLD shower before we could hop into the hot springs. If I had known about the cold shower, I probably would have skipped the mud part to spare myself those freezing minutes and jumped right into the hot water. 

Pura Vida, Costa Rica...we'll see you again soon I hope!

Over the hill?!

I've officially reached a huge milestone...yes, I am THIRTY years old. AAHHHHH!! The first time I had to write my new age on a piece of paper was bitter sweet. Wait, it wasn't sweet, it was 100% bitter. :)

Luckily I was able to spend the entire day with one of my most favorite people on the planet, Anna. It was a work day for Keith so Anna and I met him at Village Burger Bar in Plano for a patio lunch. It was actually nice enough to sit outside in early December.

My sweet angel on the morning of December 5. Notice my pretty new ring...thanks mom, I love it!

Lunchtime with my favorite people: Anna & Keith

Afternoon nap...where's Anna?!

Later that evening, Keith handed me one of the sweetest presents he has ever given me. He bought really pretty stationary and wrote 30 reasons why he loved me. Each reason was on a different card so I got to open 30 cards in all. I think I made it through the first 2 or 3 cards before the tears started streaming down my cheek. I love you Keith...thanks for making the big 3-0 so special and memorable. 

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Since I'm uber cheap/frugal/penny pincher (you get the idea), I opted to try to take Anna's Christmas card photos myself. In hindsight, I probably should have forked over a little money to get some professional photos, but they turned out fairly decent in the end. I am a huge fan of sending out Christmas cards and luckily for Keith, Christmas 2011 got to be all about Anna and he didn't have to pose for any pictures.

 We used this photo on the back of the Christmas cards...her little round face is just adorable!

 I made the red bow and we bought the tutu at Gymboree 

(Keith hates tutu's but they just look so cute on little girls!)

My favorite photo!

I was trying to be artsy with the Christmas lights, but my little Canon Elf camera doesn't take the greatest photos so these were all out-takes and weren't used in the card. Once Anna tried to eat the lights, I quickly unplugged them and put them away. Choking hazard indeed!

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas cards...I can't wait to make them for this year!