Bikram Yoga

I found this great article about our local yoga studio.

Fear

We have now been home for three days and I think my children have finally recovered from the trip.

We all had a wonderful time. So much was seen and and experienced, including some super fun rides at the amusement parks. I should clarify... I thought they were super fun rides. Both Connor and Elissa said they wanted to do the Hollywood Tower of Terror at California Adventure. We told them it was kind of scary and they may not like itl The line was super short and they seemed really keen. Well, once we got in there, buckled up and the first "drop" happened they were so freaked out. By the time we got out of there, both the kids were crying and shaking. Their trust in us seemd gone. We then proceeded to do Souring Over California, which is an amazing ride, but neither of the kids wanted to do it. We told them it wasn't scary at all. Elissa was good with it, but Connor again, cried through the whole thing.

I cannot seem to wrap my mind around where this fear comes from. Do they not know that Joel and I would never put them in danger? Don't they trust us as parents to take care of them? Doesn't Conor realize he is in more danger swimming in the big pool than on one of these rides? He doesn't. I know. I guess those kind of things have never scared me, so I don't understand.

Anyway, they did love Disneyland and California Adventure. Their favourite rides were the Tea Cups, Dumbo, the swings, and the Gadget roller coaster. Connor seemed to do really well on all the rides he could see from the outside. Perhaps he has a strong fear of the unknown... don't we all?

L

Here's Connor and I about to go on Peter Pan...even this one he shed a tear.

Day 6 in San Diego

Well our trip is now half over. It has been so good so far, although I honestly haven't been feeling very well. Today was my first day of feeling "normal" until I ended up with sun stroke! I had a killer headache and really felt like puking, but I do feel better now. The meds I am on warn me that I will be sensitive to sun. Aaaaaanyway...

The zoo was so great. I have no desire to go back to the vancouver zoo after this. The animals are so well cared for, they have a ton of room to roam around and everything was so clean! It truly was amazing.

Sea World was also fabulous. We watched a "pet show" that had cats, dogs and pigs doing funny things and then waited 30 mins. For the Shamu whale show. Which was good, but the. Kids both said they like the pets better. Elissa and i went on a super cool roller coaster ride, similar To splash mountain at. Disneyland. I think she was kid of freaked out.

And today... Today we did Disneyland. It was so neat watching the kids take everything in. I think they both found it overwhelming. The lines were super long and it was really hot. We only got in about 6 or 7 rides, but the kids seemed to like them.

Tomorrow we're taking it easy and then for Connor's birthday on friday we'll do Legoland.

I apologize for the spelling and grammar, the iPad only has a touch keyboard and seems to be sensitive to every little touch.

San Diego day 3

I can't believe we've been here for three days already. Well technically just two, but we did arrive friday night. Flight down was great, the kids were awesome. Although we had parked at yvr and taken the shuttle to the airport with 15 mins to spare before we needed to check in, when joel realized we had forgotten the car seats in the car. We had looked into renting them with the rental car, but we were told it would cost us an additional $70 each! Are you kidding me? The car seats aren't even worth that much together! So i waited with the kids as Joel went back to the car to get them. Thankfully he made it back just in time.

Yesterday we lounged by the beautiful pool just steps from the front door of our condo. The pool was empty and the sun was hot. We did some shopping in the afternoon since I forgot to pack connor pjs...ooops.

Okay, the fam is heading out the door to pf changs so I will finish this later!


Much love
Lara

141 and 304

Those numbers probably mean nothing to you, but I just noticed this was my 141st blog post on this blog and I have now run 304 miles so far this year. I am honestly not really a numbers girl, but I do like keeping track of trivial things such as these.

So tomorrow we are leaving for our big trip to San Diego! We are all so excited, especially the kid's. Although holidays are meant be relaxing, I have to say preparing for them is a lot of work! The lists, the packing, the laundry and the cleaning can really tire you out! I've also been working like crazy to get all my work done, e-mails replied to and blogs blogged.

With that said, it should be an amazing holiday with lots of activity and also some down time by the pool and on the beach. Our condo is within walking distnace to a most fabulous mall that we had checked out when we were down in January as well a beautiful pool just our our patio door!

I think I will have WiFi and I'm brining my iPad so hopefully I'll be able to blog a bit while down there, but if not, I will when I return!

Enjoy the sun!

much love,

lara

loves

Okay first of all I just have to say after reading my post from last night I am sure my mind was still a bit fuzzy after such a horribly hot run and I certainly didn't seem to be thinking straight, seeing as how my post really made no sense at all. So I apologize... I do love very much where we live, it is a gret neighbourhood and I feel like in some kind of way we are all "family." Well maybe family is a little close, but definitely a close community willing to help out neighbours at any moment. It's great.

Okay onto my other rambling thoughts for the night.

My loves (or things that make my life nice)
-my new retro orange fan. I really need to take a picture of this. Love. It.
-reeeeal ice tea. No sugar. Just tea bags and fresh lemon (and of course water) so uber refreshing!
-my Toms. Sorry, just had to throw that in again... they are sooo comfy!
-Shootsac. Yep I got one, Actually it was a "birthday gift" that has been on order for months and finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. Can't wait to use it at the wedding this weekend!
-new fabric. went to the States to pick it up today. They are super yummy patterns and it was on sale!! So many ideas as to what to do with it... iPad cover, quilts, maybe even a Shootsac cover!

Okay, need to get back to editing.

much love

lara

Randomness

I am sitting here on my front porch trying to cool off a bit from a run I did in way too much heat. I was convinced I was either going to die or puke... Fortunately neither occurred.
So here i am, sitting with my ice cold Gatorade thinking "what an odd neighbourhood we live in." Not odd bad, but odd different. I know you are probably thinking "she's just figuring tis out now?"
As I am sitting here, I am listening to adults laughing, children crying and dogs barking. There are probably numerous couples sitting on their back porch together enjoying a glass of wine and casually discussing their days. There is a couple walking their two dogs at the park, the same two dogs and the same couple do the same walk at the same time every day. I suppose we are creatures of habit.
Every morning we all get into our cars and head off in different directions. We go on to lead a life that doesn't necessarily involve anyone else in our community. Then at five o clock, we all get into our cars again, this time perhaps stopping at the grocery store to pick some last minute dinner items or to pick up our children from daycare. The "gates" have opened and we are all back where we started.
So what makes us different than other suburban communities? I suppose this is where my thoughts originated. As I was looking around, I felt surrounded by houses and then mountains blanketed in trees. Absolutely beautiful really. The thought of them ever building up on those mountains terrifies me. I literally feel like we've been dropped in this bowl on a random mountain and left to fend for ourselves. Of ourselves i am being extremely dramatic, but really, what happened to our developers? What happened to our supposed community centre, and the stores and the middle school?
Anyway, just the ramblings of a sweaty, dehydrated runner.
Enjoy the heat and the sun.
Much love
Lara





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Toms

Now they may not be the most beautiful shoe you've ever laid eyes on, but thy are so super comfy and knowing that a child who would normally go without any shoes is receiving a pair makes them pretty darn attractive.

I purchased my first pair last week and they have barely left my feet. After my lame foot injury from running, they sit below the painful pressure point so that makes me love them even more.

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When Blake Mycoskie went to visit Argentina he discovered the typical soft shoe calledAlpargata (similar to the Spanish Espadrilles) but also that a lot of children don't have shoes which leads to major health issues. Blake saw an opportunity for a business idea that 'makes life more comfortable' and returned home with exactly that: TOMS Shoes was born.

It's simple: with each pair of TOMS you buy ($38), a pair of shoes is donated to a child in Argentina on your behalf. And what's also comfortable to know is that the shoes are produced in Argentina under strict 'no sweatshop' criterias, made from local materials such as canvas and leather. Women, men and 'tiny' shoes are available (online as well as in stores across the US) in all sorts of colours and patterns as well as a limited hand painted graffiti edition by Tyler Ramsen. For the full TOMS Shoe story check out Blake Mycoskie's video clip here. ::via Springwise ::TOMS Shoes