Black Hammock

We love to go to Black Hammock Fish camp. We try to get over and eat there about once a month. It's a great little hole in the wall off beat kind of place in Oviedo. Marek also loves it because he gets to visit the aligators. His favorite is Hammy, which is a big 16 ft gator.

Christmas Weekend

Our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. :) We all had a blast getting to see Marek open his presents. He was thrilled! It was such a fun Christmas for him. I just love this age.

Peeking through his little tree presents that we open on Christmas Eve.

Watching his monorail go round and round.

Reading the Night Before Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa

This was my little tricycle I had as a little girl. He just loves it. It is probably his most favorite present. He calls it his trike-a-bike-a-cycle.

Digging in deep into that stocking. He loved opening his stocking this year.

Hanging in the frog tent. :)

Kids Christmas Party at the Office

Every year our office throws a party for all of the employee's kids. This event is my big event that I put together every year. It's such a special event to me, and I always enjoy doing it. The kids have an absolute blast every year. This year my theme was "Candy and Gingerbread." So of course we all decorated gingerbread houses. The kids love eating the candies and having their parents help them constuct the cool little houses. I figured that the architects could handle it. :)


Frank our office lizard got festive for the holidays. :) Marek always has to visit Frank when he comes to visit at the office.


Marek and daddy were hard at work. It turned out so pretty.

This was the first year that Marek sat and waited for Santa to call his name, so that he could receive his present. I was so proud of him sitting there like a big boy. He was so exicited!

Here he is sitting next to his buddy Zyel.

Once Santa called his name, he went up and sat next to him. He didn't want to sit on his lap. He wasn't really scared of him, just unsure.

Afterwards he was really happy! :) It was a wonderful party, and Marek still talks about it.

Reindeer RDV 5K

A few of us ran a 5K on Saturday. Actually we ran 10 miles. 3+ miles to the race, then the race, and then ran back to our team leaders house for pancakes. It was a lot of fun. Here's a picture of some of the people from my group.

Marek had a Vacation

Marek got to stay with his sitter while we were out. She was his very first teacher at the JCC, and has had him since he was 12 weeks old. They are such great pals. She is now a fulltime and live in nanny and watches a 4 year old boy that also goes to the same school. Mateo and Marek had such a good time hanging out. So much fun actually that Marek did not even mention his mommy or daddy the entire time we were gone. She said he never cried once, and went to bed at night just perfectly. Even told them when he was ready. I'm so proud of him!!

He had so much fun getting to play with his new friend, and all of his toys. He is still talking about going to Ms. Nitas house and playing with all the cars. Here are a few pictures that she sent to us.

VEGAS

Kevin and I went to Vegas last week. Actually I tagged along. Kevin had a conference during the week, and I flew up for just a couple days. I don't do well at all with leaving Marek. Two and a half days were already too long for me. I will explain Marek's vacation in my next blog..

The Autodesk conference was at the Venetian, and we stayed across the street in the Mirage. It had been recently renovated, and everything was nice and new in the rooms. During our stay we ate lots and lots of yummy foods, and did a lot of fun shopping. We also went on a gondola ride in the Venetian. The guy sang the most beautiful songs to us in italian. It was lovely.

While Kevin was in his classes I went and visited the beautiful white lions and tigers at the Secret Garden at the Mirage, and walked around for hours.. Which was a must after all of our fabulous eating. I was thrilled when I got home, and didn't actually gain any weight. All that walking paid off. :)

We also went and saw "O" a Cirque show. It was awesome! Simply amazing. We had a wonderful and short little vacation. Here's some pictures we took while we roamed the strip.

Marathon Weekend

SPACE COAST MARATHON NOVEMBER 30, 2008

I did it! I completed my 4th Marathon on Sunday. Honestly it was my hardest one yet. Even though I'm so much more well trained this time around. It just wasn't my day to run. The first half of the race was wonderful. I felt really good, had my typical stride, was running with all of my friends.. and then my body said nope.. you're done.. :( I had been sick with that really nasty bug going around for over a week and a half. The morning of the race was the very first day I felt like I could breathe clearly. I guess my body wasn't quite ready for that long 26.2 mile hual..
Oh-well.. I still had an absolutely incredible time.
I was so happy to round the very last bend before the finish line, and see my boys cheering for me. Marek was waving and yelling YAY MOMMY!! GO MOMMY! Brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. I am so very fortunant to have such an awesome family that supports me.
No matter how hard the distance is.. it still all seems worth it. And I'll be doing it all over again at Disney in January. Hopefully I'll beat my time, and get to my goal I've been working on.

Much needed stretching after a long long morning... Marek always likes to do the stretching too.
Below is a picture of my two fabulous group leaders from my Track Shack group. They are wonderful!! My back looks broken in this picture.. and it feels that way today. :( We had serious winds against us most of the way..

Turkey Day Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving from our little sicky.

We had a nice low key Thanksgiving at our house this year. We had a bunch going on this week with my marathon that weekend, and Kevin having to pack for Vegas. So we decided to have just our typical Thanksgiving fixins for the 3 of us. Fortunantly we didn't make plans to go out because Marek woke up in the middle of the night with a nasty stomach bug. Luckily it only lasted about 8 hours or so, and he was back to his old self. Though you can see from his picture he looks pretty wiped out. Marek made this picture at school for the holiday. As you can tell... he got a head start on us... nothing was stopping him.

Family Fun Fest with the Purps

Marek has been best buds with these 3 gals since he started at the JCC at 12 weeks. And now they are all 2 1/2! Where the time goes, I'll never know. But boy are we all having a fun time. They all got together this weekend for Family Fun Fest at Lake Lily. They got to ride a little train, elephants, carousal, and jump in lots of bounce houses. It was a blast.

Carson, Marek, Annabelle and Charlotte

Marek was actually too scared to go down the slide. He went up it.. and then camped out at the top for 10 minutes or so.. and then slid down the steps.. What a silly boy..

Chilly Ride

I had to take some pictures of him in this big coat. Too funny.

Last night we all went out for our regular family Tuesday run. Though last night it was in the 40's, so Marek had to get all bundled up. But when we got home, he was super toasty warm, thanks Josiah for the warm cozy jacket!

Daddy Day at the J

Sunday, Daddy and Marek went to a fun little event at the JCC. It was called "Man in my Life". They got to watch how a volcano erupts, and got to dig for fossils, and experiment with air. Marek thought the air was a little questionable when it blew up his air, but then got the hang of it. The lady running the event, snapped all of these pictures of Marek, she thought he was just too funny with his thin wispy hair blowing straight up.