RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

RAGNAR. Where to begin? Back in JUNE, I befriended a former teacher from my children's school. She invited me to come running with her and some of her gym friends (and then she didn't even show up until the very end). But friendships were quickly established and I became one of the pack. We did a few trail runs during the summer, where it was mentioned that I should join their Ragnar team as a pacer. So I did. Then, just a couple of weeks shy of the race itself, one of the teammates sustained an injury that prevented her from running in the race. I was moved from the role of a pacer to an actual teammate and, oh what a ride it was! The eight teammates ran a total of 124 miles in just under 27 hours. Day and night, we had someone out running in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains. I ran at 2pm, 11pm, and 8am. I felt so many emotions in the 30 hours we were there: excitement, nervousness, exhaustion, elation, pride, frustration. It was an amazing experience and I cannot wait to go again next year! Bonus moment: running into a college friend whom I haven't seen in about 15 years. I'm so grateful that I had this bucket list opportunity with some of the greatest people that I know.

A WIZARD'S HALLOWEEN

I'm not quite sure how I succeeded in doing it, but I was able to convince ALL SIX that we should continue the Halloween tradition of a family theme and attempt a Harry Potter Halloween. Not wanting to spend a fortune, I ordered robes from AliExpress (thank you, China) and hit several Goodwills in order to piece together our costumes. I had even planned to dress up myself (Professor Trelawney, if you may), BUT an accidental color and cut to my hair ultimately resulted in me just wearing a themed shirt. We have: a Hufflepuff student, Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, a Slytherin quidditch player, Newt Scamander, and a Ravenclaw student. We had such a great Halloween and are already brainstorming ideas for next year...

BEYOND BELATED

Oh snap. I have failed at blogging for the past several months, which means I never gave a proper shout-out to my oldest two. Both are in double digits now, with the oldest turning 11 (at the beginning of October) shortly after my second turned 10 (at the end of September). J is a man of many trades. He's into sports, acting, and games. Plays the french horn, is in choir, and is on student council. He's talented, intelligent, and ambitious. He loves science and, last I checked, wants to be a chemist when he grows up. L is the underdog. Often in J's shadow, he is just as talented, intelligent, and ambitious as his brother - though sometimes in different ways. He is fascinated with how things work, building things, and learning about reptiles. He sees things in a different way and gives our family a different perspective. Both are great kids and add so much personality to our family.

SUNNY SAN DIEGO

I'm the type of person where you never really know what you're going to get. I can be calm and calculated. Or I can be spunky and spontaneous. Our October break brought out the latter in me. About two and a half weeks ago, I decided to book a family vacation on a whim. I have known for a few years that San Diego offers quite a few attractions FREE to kids during the month of October (with a purchasing adult). But when I found out that the San Diego Zoo offered TEN FREE KIDS per paying adult, our trip was booked within 24 hours. We were able to get 2 adult zoo tickets and 2 rooms for two nights at a nearby hotel for about $400 (for my family of EIGHT). It was a pretty incredible deal. Since we currently have a 4th grader, we also decided to take advantage of the Every Kid in a Park program put on by the National Park Foundation and hit Joshua Tree National Park on our way to San Diego. We quickly realized that Joshua Tree is the type of place best explored over multiple days - camping and hiking around the park. Regardless, we had fun walking through the cholla cactus garden, climbing around on some of the rock formations, and, of course, spotting the ever peculiar looking joshua tree. Day two, a Monday, was the San Diego Zoo. We arrived right before the park opened. This was definitely a bonus because we spent a better majority of the morning feeling as if we had the zoo mostly to ourselves. We spotted grizzlies and gibbons, gorillas and gators. Sadly, the pandas returned back to China in April, but this didn't stop me from getting a picture with a map of China for my little Chinese students. After six hours and about 5 miles on foot, we were all feeling a little over it. We stuck it out one hour longer and rode the bus tour, but were ready to leave well before closing. We returned back to our hotel with treats in hand and spent the late afternoon at the pool. Day three, and our last day there, we made a last minute decision to visit the USS Midway and it did not disappoint! In fact, the Midway was probably the favorite to most. We, again, took advantage of kids being free in October and got onto the Midway after purchasing 2 adult tickets for $21 a piece. We spent a few hours touring the decommissioned aircraft carrier. We went in jets and helicopters. We went up in the island and down below decks. We chatted with some of the sweetest docents and the kids even earned their wings. It was awesome. Once we had had our fill, we hit the road and headed home. It was a great little trip!