thanksgiving week '10

*gasp* what? three posts in three days?!? where did my life go?

anyway...we had a nice thanksgiving. we had our traditional feast potluck-style with some good friends on sunday. i made cranberry sauce, a brussels sprout salad (it was awesome. i'm tweaking it a bit and will post the recipe on that other blog of mine that i never do anything with...) and a chocolate-pumpkin trifle (same as salad. yum!). everything was delish and the company was excellent. monday was a regular day, tuesday was our road trip, wednesday we ended up at the grocery store (bad idea. duh.) to get ingredients for cranberry cheesecake (i did a graham cracker crust and baked it in an 8" spring-form pan) and cinnamon pear galette (i used whole wheat flour and "made" my own oat flour and almond flour). thursday morning we woke (way too early) and headed to the galleria:

for the turkey trot 10k (along with just about everyone else in houston):

including santa:

he did the 5k. grant asked hazel if she thought he was the real santa. she said yes. he was very authentic looking: real beard, quality suit, waving and chatting with all of the children. the kids were troopers while we waited for the race to begin:

most of the wait anyway:

lucy was doing fine until grant took away the pump to fill the tires and optimize his speed:

here we are before:

and after:

the race was . . . ok. grant hung back for the first mile (mostly because he couldn't get the stroller through the crowd very easily) but then i had to shoo him away. he was messin' with my pace. i made it to about 3 1/2 miles before my foot started hurting and from there on i split between walking and running. i have no idea of my time (at mile 5 someone yelled out "gun time: 68 minutes"). grant said he thought the clock said 1:07 when he crossed the finish line. we left after gorging ourselves on the danish pastries but before our times were posted. i figured they'd be posted online. no luck so far. oh well. 

lucy enjoyed herself. we limped back to the car and stopped at this bench:

i asked them to smile and that's what i got. stinkers. once home, i made the cheesecake, took a nap, then made the pear galette. we took those over to our friends' home, enjoyed more excellent company and games. when we left, mother nature had a wonderful gift in store: the weather was 30 degrees cooler. heaven! today i got to finally wear my new sweater and in just a minute we're heading to pick up grant and going to the zoo. maybe this blog-athon will extend into four posts in four days... 

ps. my foot feels 99% normal today so no damage done. my biggest issue stemmed from the fact that i hadn't run more than two miles at a time for the past three weeks. time to get back on track or come february, i'm in trouble.

we {heart} turkeys

especially these ones:

happy thanksgiving everyone!

roadtrippin'

we began our thanksgiving vacation early and went on a short road trip. it started out rainy but as we kept heading north we saw peeks of blue sky and sunshine. the best sight? fall colors: 

 finally! (that's a cardboard box, not a deer.) a bit further on we saw that we were close to our first stop:

we made it to the blue bell ice cream factory and had 30 minutes until the next tour. just enough time for pictures: 

headlocks are, of course, included.

after the tour finished (it was very cool [ha! no pun intended.] and interesting) and our scoop of ice cream consumed, we continued on our way:  

i found it somewhat ironic that we were listening to rocky mountain high wilst driving through hill country. still, i'd take hills over houston's flat or cement landscape:

a couple of hours later we made it to our final destination: mckinney falls state park (i saw some pictures on our friends' blog and decided it would make a  fun day trip):

we were greeted by several friendly ladybugs:

hazel managed to pick one up with a stick:

ms. bug quickly climbed her way up hazel's arm:

it then flew from her arm to her shirt and, sadly, from there to lucy's ear. lucy squealed and quickly swatted. the ladybug didn't make it. we walked around a little trying to find the falls and a nice place to wade in the water. unfortunately the water was really low:

so we wandered some more:

soon we headed for the upper falls with hopes that it would be more waterfall-y. we parked by the trail and were greeted by more ladybugs: 

if you look closely you can see half a dozen or so crawling around on the fence. a very short walk brought us to the water: 

which was, once again, low:

thinking we were in the wrong place, we headed up a pathway:

eventually we realized that we'd had it right the first time so we turned back. the girls chased some butterflies:  

then hurried back to the water  and took their shoes and socks off:

it was a crazy-hot day. the humidity was out of control but the water was lovely and cold:

both girls ended up sopping wet, riding home in their skivvies and happy (at least, as happy as you can be having skipped your nap...)

traveling in the world of [their] creation

pure imagination (yesterday morning):

dialogue:

hazel: hatch, lucy! hatch!

lucy: cheese! tweet, tweet. i wanna worm! i wanna worm!

hazel: okay. . . ouch. ouchie! i don't have any worms, baby bird.

lucy: awwww!

hazel: but i do have big worms! . . .

lucy: okay, your turn. . .

play hard:

sleep hard:

c'est la vie.

footy finale

october 30th was hazel's last soccer game and i'm pretty relieved to be honest. i was so excited to live vicariously through hazel when i signed her up(i played in high school and wish i'd tried out for college. *sigh*) that i didn't really consider her not enjoying it. come on! it's in her half-brit blood! anyway, you'll remember how it began well enough, quickly dissolved into a wet, boogery mess, and then hovered just around disappointing? i'm happy to say there is a fairy tale ending for you:

i mentioned in my halloween post that hazel earned pumpkins by playing the last 2 minutes or so of her 3rd to last game. these pictures are from the game after that. she was her usually whinny self, replying with a clipped, "no!" any time i suggested she play. then came half-time and she hustled over to claim her snack. while she was eating it i reminded her how much fun she had playing goalie the week before and how would she like to do that again? miraculously, she not only agreed, she did a jig:

 i can't remember if she let any goals in but she did get to do several goal kicks:

i was so proud of her and excited for her final game. she claimed she wouldn't play but warmed up anyway. first with a nice phalankasana:

look at that form! and, one of my personal favorites, adho mukha shvanasana:

she's even walking the dog. she makes such a great yogini. she finished her warm up just in time for half-time snacks:

and after a little convincing, took to the field. first as goalie:

but quickly switching to forward/mid-fielder/defense:

she showed off her throwing abilities:

and earned herself a trophy ("just like the piston cup!"):

lucy cheered:

here's a little clip for you. the opposite team had just scored and hazel had the honor of kicking off: