A day at the park...

It seems we have a Disney Pin Trader in our ranks now.  She seems quite adept at suckering people into purchasing pins for her off Amazon.com (really, the best price going) so she has some to trade.  And further more, she's figured out every place in each of the Disney parks that has Extra Pin Boards, and who might have "rare" pins.  ANYWAYS, Ryan promised her a day at the park Just For Pin Trading, so we all headed over to the Magic Kingdom this morning for Trading.  You know, since there were no patients at the hospital and I got cancelled.  Really took one for the team there.

Here's her lanyard Pre-Trading.  Don't get excited.  We didn't take a picture afterwards.  Because we are clever like that.

When you go to Only Pin Trade, you end up in lots of shops.  And find things you didn't know Disney made.... HOW we didn't know is beyond me, they make just about everything.  Anyways, a Cheshire Cat candy apple, and also, a Goofy candy apple, which I think Ryan needs next week, after he completes the Goofy Challenge for the 5th year running.  Ha!  no pun intended.

This picture is for Jessica.  My BFF's Small Child.  She visited Disney in November and was entertained by the Dancing Warning People.

Oh, Cars Apple for Eli, Julean, and Matthias. 

And a fun pin trader we found outside Mickey's Circus (in case you need to know such things...)

Yup, made him pose for a picture.

We also wanted to check out the new addition to Fantasyland, which opened less than a month ago.  It's pretty cool, centered mostly on Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, for now... but they are putting in a Snow White ride for next year.  This is Beast's castle, and it kind of looks like a painting in this picture, but it's not.  It was kind of overcast here today!

 Inside Gaston's Tavern.  I'm pretty sure we will be eating here before too long.  Ryan could hardly resist a Pork Shank (yes, you read that correctly) or a glass of LeFrou's Brew, which is essentially frozen apple juice.  

Little shops... we were kind of disappointed there wasn't a Book Shop!  I'd think Belle's Provincial Town would feature a Book Shop!

And Ariel's ride... Lots of pictures here.  Because it was cool.  And because I only know one other person who's seen it.  And because Jessica didn't get to see it, and perhaps she would like to!

We were waiting for our Fast Pass Time.  Because the wait was 120 minutes, we opted for Fast Passes.  

Construction on the Snow White Ride.  It's going to be a roller coaster.

We are always impressed with the work the Disney Imagineers do making even the wait queue interesting.

You ride in Clamshells, that are similar to the Haunted Mansion Doom Buggies.

No Dancing on the ride, Jessica!

 I only mention this part because it was kind of cool and somewhat ingenious, if you want to know the truth of it... at the beginning of the ride your shell turns around and there are all these graphics of waves and freezing cold air blowing on you and it feels like you are running into the ocean and diving under the water... and then you are Under the Sea.  

Some good fun on that ride.  Pretty cute, particularly if you are a Little Mermaid fan.  Or a 7 year old girl.

Also, in the New Fantasyland there's the Be Our Guest restaurant which looks very very cool... we only saw the outside.  But you can eat in Beast's castle.  For a small fee.  Or the Legal Rights to your first born.  You can google that for fun pics.  It does look cool, and perhaps SOMEDAY, when we are tired of Ben, we will consider it.

OH!  And Carlita made many Pin Trades, including 2 Jack Skellington pins, and a Figureoa cat pin she's been looking for.  So, it was a successful day:)

Randomness in September. 2012.

I felt the need to put the year, seeing how I'm so behind in blogging.  Oh well... eventually I will be caught up, but probably not.  I'm ok with that.  Here are some random pictures from our month of September that might give some inkling of what we've been up to...

This is our cat.  Elfy.  She loves the brown blanket.  A lot.

This month, my sister forced me to join "Instagram".  Apparently, it's so I will be cool.  She then threatened me that if I didn't post pictures, she wasn't going to talk to me anymore, or something super sweet along those lines.  So, Elfy got her picture taken, AGAIN.  For the record, we were trying to sleep.  It was 9:15, and me and Elfy go to bed at 9:14.  She wasn't impressed.  Oh.  Follow me on Instagram.  

More Instagram fun... and our usual McGregor tradition for Labor Day.  Lunch at Dairy Queen.  This mess has been going on for about 17 years.  These 2 were only to happy to follow in Dad's Traditional Footsteps.  

Next up on our month... Ben's Big Fever Week.  His Stellar Nurse-for-a-Mother allowed the craziness to drag out for over a week before getting him to the dr.  Anyways, he did miss a day of school and I had to go in to work at 1pm, so he stayed home a couple of hours by himself until Ryan got home.  I'd like to remind everyone he's 13.5 years old.  ANYWAYS, that being said, I felt the need to jot down the phone numbers on the old dry erase board... and YES.  It was necessary to write "ask for 'Jennifer'"... he has Asperger's.  I'm certain he would have just asked for "mom".  Probably they would have figured out who it was, though... probably.

More Instagram fun.  Our new niece, Sydney.  Isn't she cute?  Her mom's a photographer.  Obviously.

Oh, right.  So, FINALLY got Ben to the dr.  Turns out his Week of Fever was pneumonia.  Probably should not have sent him to Swim Team all week.  Ha, kidding.  He only went on Tuesday.  So, breathing treatments for Ben.  Which he didn't seem to mind, thankfully, since he got extra tablet time.

Ok, this REALLY meant alot to Ben... His friends Aaron and Jacob stopped over while we were out picking up more medicine (after the dr called to say his chest xray really looked much worse than he expected... lovely) to leave him a Get Well balloon, card and candy.  It REALLY made his day and he's still talking about it.  

The Running Season has begun.  Well, it's ALWAYS Running Season around here, but Marathon Training is in full swing.  This is a picture from one early morning 9 mile run.  I will say this, you get up and out this early, you get to see really beautiful sun rises.

Um,  a week later, and STILL getting treatments.  Couldn't seem to get those lungs clear!

Introducing our very Scary and Strict Patrol.  Her father is the Safety Officer at her school, but that in no way swayed him to give her the job.  She had to apply.  I don't think she lets anyone get away.  With anything.

Ok, funny story.  So, I joined up with our church's Worship Team.  My big plan was to talk Rochel into joining, too, on "My Week" so we could do it together, and ride over to Tuesday practice together, and get coffee on the way... bonding with the sister-in-law.  ANYWAYS,  I started in September, and she's starting in October.  Blah Blah Blah.  The week that Ben started getting sick, and then missed one day of school and I went into work late, well, that was Tuesday.  However, all day long I thought it was Monday.  I don't usually work Tuesday's, so seriously?  It's an honest assumption.  All day it's Monday.  I come home, we eat dinner, worry over Ben blah blah blah.  9:35pm I say something to Ryan about Monday's stink, I'm tired of Monday... he's like, "ok, it's Tuesday".  Well, I was supposed to be at practice on Tuesday at 7pm.  Whoops.  Well, I thought it was hilarious.  Anyways, Rodney was pretty forgiving and I made all kinds of alarms to go off on my phone now so I don't forget.  The next week, I was there.  I'm sure I won't forget when Rochel goes.  There will be coffee involved.

Another Long Run.  At Flatwoods.  This one was 11 miles. I signed up for the full marathon at Disney in January.  Full.  I really wanted to do one when I turned 40.  This is close enough.  I have to say, I really enjoy the training... I'm all about the long runs for some reason.  Anyways, there's plenty of flooding at Flatwoods still, and the road was washed out, so thankfully there's a cute little foot bridge...

I'm so Earthy Crunchy (ha), I'm going to make my own laundry soap.  I found this recipe on Pinterest and it seemed acceptable to me, so I'm going to give it a whirl.  I took a picture of the ingredients so I can refer to it when I shop for the items.  My sister-in-law Kristi made it and said it's a good one.  I will get back to you on it, I still have a big bottle of Whisk to use up...

Sent this picture to Ryan one day... this is Lunch at work.  On a busy day.  Probably at 4:15pm.  Nice.

That's right folks... 2.5 weeks later and we are still getting breathing treatments.  He went back to Swim Team practice after about a week and did amazingly well.  He even had a swim meet where he cut a full 2 seconds off his 50 Free race!  He's rockin' it at 26.12 now.  Seconds.

Yup, another long run.  This was my best time yet.  I mostly walk/run intervals, so this might seem slow to all you Real Runners out there, but it's pretty good for an Old Girl.

Awww, Elfy.  She's hugging the couch.

And last weekend... Ryan and I went to Orlando without the kiddos (thanks Uncle Steve!) to run in Disney's Tower of Terror 10 Miler.  Inaugural Race.  We had a really fun weekend... got to see (and touch!!) the marathon medal, which was on display...

... and Ryan got to meet his Running Idol, Jeff Galloway.  He wrote the book on running intervals that Ryan followed and talked me into following as well.  Ryan's been wanting to talk to him for years to tell him how much he appreciated his information.  I wish I had a picture of Jeff's face (and CHEER) when Ryan told him he cut 39 minutes off his marathon time using his methods.  It was pretty hilarious.  He was thrilled.  Anyways, it was cool to meet this guy.  I will also add that it took Ryan a full 3 minutes to realize who he was actually talking to!  Pretty funny.

Pretty sunset out side the Wide World of Sports

Waiting for the race to start... We kept seeing all these women (um, men?) named Jennifer... seriously Mom?  Think of another name for your girl!  Apparently you had to be named Jennifer to run this race.

Delightful text from my brother... thanks for the encouragement, Bro.

Start line... we didn't really love this race.  Started at 10pm and it turns out, we are old and tired at 10pm.  My bed time is 9:14pm.  It was insanely HOT and HUMID, so that didn't help.  The course stunk a little bit, with a dirt/gravel narrow path we had to run on for 1/2 a mile... the course was super crowded and I couldn't run nearly as much as I wanted to since I couldn't get around people all the time.  But in the end, I'm pretty thankful I was able to run it.  My friend stopped over today to pick up my crutches for her son to borrow and while I was waiting for her, I hopped around on them and suddenly remembered being so dependent on them last year.  It put everything into perspective for me, and I don't care how slow I am, at least I can run/walk and keep going.  I'm really thankful for that.  So turns out, it was a great race after all!!

After our weekend away, we came home for Leah's birthday party.  I didn't take any pictures of her, so you will have to take my word on it how crazy cute she is.  Her mother will blog about it, I'm sure.  

So there you have it... September.  At this rate, I can just do 12 posts a year and call it a blog.