It Finally Feels Like a Vacation

This vacation has been a little on the sucky side. I wasn't feeling well for the first half (okay, that might be an understatement) and I didn't get a daycare check I was counting on before my vacation started so we were too broke to do anything or go anywhere. My allergies and sinus pressure kept me from doing the yard work I had envisioned getting done and Jeremy and the kids spent half of our vacation watching Star Wars. All six of them. This only adds to the sucky list because I have already seen Star Wars and have no desire to sit through them again. (Yes, I liked them just not that much.) Originally, I had planned on hiking or hanging out by the river as a family and spending a day at the beach but Sami's foot and half of her leg is in a cast so those ideas didn't seem practical or enjoyable anymore. 

not the best of Jer,
but I look cute :o)

On the plus side, I was able to get back into my running and bodypump routine. I had taken over a week off from running thanks to illness so I was slow getting started again. We were really fortunate to have such beautiful weather this week so my runs were really nice. At leased before that wind came into town. Thursday was so windy I didn't even run. My head felt like it was going to explode and I didn't think leaving that mess for someone else to clean up was very neighborly so stayed home and wallowed in self pity.

Jer had a lot of fun trying to
get Sam to wet hr pants

We decided to spend a day in Monterey at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We all love it there and I knew the aquarium had wheelchairs so that would solve the broken foot issue. We decided to blow some cash we had in savings and get a membership so for $175 we all get unlimited trips to the aquarium for a year. We figured out it would pay for itself in just over one and a half visits. 

The sardines were hungry 

All four of us were looking forward to our day trip and the money spent and time in the car was definitely worth it! We were at the aquarium for about six hours and none of us got bored. We saw all of our favorite exhibits and saw a couple of their fifteen minute educational films. We all love those. We saw the feeding of the sardines in the big open ocean tank (Jeremy's favorite tank), we saw the feeding in the kelp forest (my favorite tank) and the feeding of the penguins. That's always fun to watch. They like to show off. I think of them as the monkey's of the aquarium.

We were checking out the otters
in the wild

I love so many marine animals but sea otters are my all time favorite and they have an eight week old otter pup on exhibit right now named Kit. She was two weeks old when she was rescued. They believe her mother was attacked and eaten by a great white shark. Kit had an injury to her shoulder that led the aquarium staff to that conclusion. She's doing very well and is absolutely adorable. I really wanted to take her home.

Kit and her serrogate
mom, Joy plaing

Bat rays are on my list of favorites too and every time I go to the aquarium I end up with at least one soaking wet sleeve from trying to pet them in the touch pool and Friday's visit was no exception. I got to pet the flounder fish that was there but the rays were keeping their distance from the crowd of wiggling fingers. Sami got to touch both the flounder and a ray. It was really hard not to elbow my own daughter out of the way so I could touch it but I pulled myself together. Nevyn didn't get to touch either of them. The touch pool is deeper than it looks and his reach was just a few inches shy of a ray. I wanted to lift him up so he could touch it but he looked at me like I was a complete idot and declined my help.

All of us love the ocean. It was a wonderful day. I can't remember the last time we spent six hours together and the kids didn't fight, not even once. It was probably last summer on one of our days at the beach. We all get along when we're on the coast.

On Saturday I got up, had some coffee and then went to my bodypump class. My favorite instructor wasn't teaching this Saturday but she was teaching the turbo kick class that was before my pump class. This woman is amazing. She's insanely fit, super sweet and a lot of fun to watch. I don't know how she teaches that class. She does everything with the class and talks at the same time. I know that doesn't sound hard but they are constantly moving and jumping around and she's doing it with a microphone strapped to her head and she sounds like she's just standing there. 

After class Sami and I went to Roseville to pick up my race packet for the Getty Owl 5K/10K. The Getty Owl Foundation put this race together to help spread awareness and raise money for reaching Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). The people who stated the foundation have a daughter, Getty, who was diagnosed with SMA when she was four month old. I have included a little bit of information about SMA below. I copied it from the Getty Owl web site. www.gettyowl.org

What is SMA?
Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is an inherited disease that causes progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. Infants, like Getty, with SMA Type 1, the most severe type of SMA, are born with very little muscle tone and weak muscles. They develop feeding and breathing problems as the weakness gets worse over time. The weakness eventually becomes severe.
There is no cure or treatment for SMA. The lifespan with SMA is seldom longer than 2 years.

• SMA is the #1 genetic killer of young children.

• SMA occurs in nearly 1 in 6,000 births.

• 1 in 40 people, or nearly 10 million Americans, UNKNOWINGLY carries the gene responsible for SMA. Few have any known family history.

• SMA is a pan-ethnic disease and does not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, or gender.

• There is currently no treatment and no cure, but the National Institutes of Health (NIH) selected SMA as the disease closest to treatment of more than 600 neurological disorders.

• Researchers estimate that a viable treatment and/or cure is attainable IF provided adequate resources.

• The American College of Medical Genetics recommends that SMA carrier testing be made available to ALL couples planning a family, regardless of ethnicity or family history.

• SMA does not affect the mind.

      

I ran the race today (Sunday) and even though it was a great race and a great race day, it was not a great race for me. I woke up really congested. I actually went through half a pack of tissue while I was on the course. In addition to that, my breathing was much more shallow than normal. I'm an asthmatic so I pay close attention to my breathing. When it's shallow like that I get fatigued earlier and it's harder to "push through it". If that wasn't enough, It was really cold out there. I wore my jacket the entire time and when I finished I was still feeling a little chili. I rarely perform well when I'm cold. I had expected to warm up during the race so I didn't bring any of my "winter gear" with me other than my jacket. Now I wish I had brought my headband/ear warmer thing, gloves, a hat and worn a second shit under my jacket. Oh well. There's always another race.

Even though I was even slower than I normally am, it was a beautiful race course. Since I knew I wasn't going to make my goal time I slowed down even more to take some pictures. Jeremy and I keep playing with the idea of moving but I really love Sacramento. We have two nice rivers, a beautiful sky line, lakes, interesting bridges (I love bridges), great city history, a great running community, and both of our parents and siblings live here. I'm not sure I could leave this place. Even if it does make my skin, allergies and lungs miserable.