May Days the Burton Way

Whew... We are looking forward to some lazy summer days around here! None of us have had the chance to "sleep in" for over 1 month! It's just the time of year when sports are wrapping up, school events take precedence, recitals, family comes from the other coast to find SoCal warmth, and these are just the predictable events! We've even had a few unpredictable happenings as well.

Taylor's Girl Scout Troop (me included since I'm the "Camping Mom") took a trip to San Fransisco to bridge from Juniors to Cadette's by walking over the Golden Gate Bridge. This adventure happened over Mother's Day weekend, and ended with 11 happy kids and 5 exhausted Mom's! All told the kids did fantastic and relished the Ft. Mason Youth Hostel we slept in, loved the cable cars and busses for transportation, really loved the airplane ride (Virgin America rocks!) and logged more than 14 miles on their tennis shoes. Upon getting home I slept for nearly 2 hours before getting up to a GREAT Mother's Day dinner provided by Eric and the girls.

Eric kept Sammie going all weekend while we were gone by taking her to Disneyland for a little Father/Daughter adventure. He got her to ride the BIG rides too - this was a true feat! They had a picture taken with Chip and Dale at a "Character Dinner" there, and I love it. How do you like Sammie's Goofy hat with ears? That's our Sammie :) Sammie also finished up our soccer season that weekend by competing in a team tournament. 3 games in one day - YIKES! Our little warriors finished in 3rd! Lastly, they surprised our neice (from Tennessee) with Balloons for her birthday.

The next weekend Taylor's soccer team competed in a Tournament in Temecula. It was HOT and windy! Two games were played each day, and they ended up in 3rd place. Another fantastic part of this weekend was staying with Eric's brother Jeff & Michelle - we call them MICK & SLICK. Michelle hooked us up with great meals all weekend long... this really helped us out tremendously since we were all tired from the heat on the soccer fields.

In between we met the Burton side of the family down in Oceanside for a beach bonfire. This was a "school-night" adventure for us, which resulted in exhausted kids the next morning. But it was worth it! There's nothing like a fire - roasted hot dogs, smores and friendly faces to make you feel good inside.

Lastly, one of Taylor's past teachers nominated her for a youth service award with the "Savannah's Organic Ranch" non-profit organization. She wrote a very nice essay nominating Taylor by depicting the ways Taylor has helped others locally, nationally and internationally. The result... we were invited to their annual charity dinner and she received a prize for 2nd place. She spoke at this dinner in front of nearly 200 adults about her civic service. Can you tell I'm proud of her? Then, her 5th grade teacher honored her in front of the whole school this morning with an award that said "Consistently Exemplifies a Scholar." The smile in her picture says it all! You should see the smiles on her parents...

No big deal - just did a 1/2 marathon...

It was pitch black when we left the comfort of home on Sunday morning at 4:30 am to pick-up my co-racer Kellyann. Arriving at the OC Fair Grounds in plenty of time, we (Eric, Craig, Kellyann & I) rode the 5am shuttle to the race start. As we milled about, making sure to use the porta-potty before the lines formed, the reality of the day set it... 13.1 miles is a LONG way to go!

Kellyann and I have been walking together since our oldest girls were in Kindergarten, but this was the first time we took on a big challenge. Yes, we'd walked 3 times a week for years, averaging about 5 miles each day... but 13.1 was a daunting task! We listened to Eric's advice and had proper shoes, socks, inserts for the shoes, hydration, and protein. We'd also timed ourselves individually to make sure that we could do the course in the 3.5 hours limit. At last check I was 15 minutes over, and this was NOT acceptable! So we settled on a strategy of walking for 9 minutes and running for 1 minute, bringing a stopwatch with us to make sure we didn't over do it. We also took advantage of hills and ran down them, even if that meant running before we got to 9 minutes.

How'd we do? Well, our strategy paid off! We finished the course in 2 hours and 57 minutes and we each have a medal to prove it! Eric finished the course in just over 2hours as did our friend Craig.

Soreness set in almost immediately and peeling ourselves out of the car was a bit of a challenge. But today is Wednesday and I've already played softball, done a 3-mile walk, and I'm ready for the final practice Coaching my little soccer team tonight. Life is good! But the best part is the elation at knowing the 1/2 marathon was more than possible, it's DONE! My knee's survived with plenty of icing and I'll live to walk another race... maybe the Rock 'n Roll 1/2 in Phoenix in January... it could happen!

This weekend I'm traveling with Taylor's Girl Scout Troop to San Fransisco to "bridge them to Cadette's" by walking over the Golden Gate Bridge! Sammie and Eric will have a blast together too as they're going to Disneyland and Sammie will compete in her first soccer tournament. Go Soccer Stars!!!