Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Challenge Nation Tampa

Things I learned this weekend:

1 - I have really fun friends. And they are awesome in that they encourage me to think outside the box. From a mental and spiritual stand point I have always known this, they challenge me in new ways on a regular basis. But this weekend the challenge was physical.

2 - Scavenger hunts are like adventures for yuppies. Fun, creative, learning new information and a sense of accomplishment without the risk and expense that real adventure seekers have. Like a mini-vacation from responsibilities.

3 - I am out of shape. And I don't want to be. So for the 124,464,887,934th time I am going to attempt to start running. (I do have two sweet labs visiting who are making me get off my tush so that seems like a good segue into the great return to exercise.)

4 - Random Tampa facts.

PhotobucketTampa is Native American for sticks of fire. There are not one, but two statues in Tampa that could pass as sculptoral representations of this. And we can make a human pyramid.

PhotobucketTebow is now a FL legend. And if you ask a random stranger on the street who happens to be wearing an out-of-state sports team to post in a football pose and you follow that with "Let's Tebow" they will automatically lunge for this prayerful position.

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Rosalind was the lead female role in As You Like It. Her statue forms the center of a bench at the Plant Museum located at the University of Tampa. And posing like her is ridiculous. But fun.

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12 clues, 11 locations, all over the streets of Tampa and we proved that not only could we complete it...we didn't do half bad. 9th out of 52! Next stop for the "Pink Ninjas" Great Urban Race...3.24.2012.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Postview?!

I love when you go to watch your favorite show and you're pretty positive you missed an episode but it doesn't matter because they give you that awesome flash of "here's what you missed" so you know exactly what is going on. Well consider this the "here's what you missed"...because I have been TERRIBLE at blogging this month.

- Because of Tori's spooktacular tournament Halloween weekend we had to squeeze in our usual traditions. But we got it done. Tori and Tristan carved their own pumpkins this year (werewolf by Tori, vampire by Tristan) and not to be out done Todd worked with his tiny pumpkin to make a silly toothed pumpkin. I snapped pictures, tortured kids with pumpkin goo and was excited about my spray painted pinterest inspired candlebra.

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- We sent October packing with some Halloween fun. Both kids were mesmerized with the idea of having fangs and so we left the Halloween store with no costumes but two packages of fangs. After much discussion they decided to go trick or treating as what we call "Disney style" teen vamps. You know spiked hair, overdone makeup, knee socks with mini skirt for Tori and Rock On t-shirt for Tristan.

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- November has meant lots of work for both Todd and I, tons of exams and projects for Tori, and the end of baseball season for Tristan.

-Todd took a quick trip to Colorado for his birthday to hang out with his brother Trent and to see his mom and the area he grew up in. After seeing his pics I was reminded why I hold the camera on family vacations. Lots of pics of random things...a computer they eventually used for shooting practice, airport terminals, his brothers house in detail, etc. No mountains or even a picture of he and his brother. So here are the two good ones - him with his mamacita and on a mountain where they went shooting.

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- Meanwhile Tori headed off to the Florida Church of God State Youth Convention with 100+ other middle & high school students from our church. They listened to speakers, went to classes, completed scavenger hunts, ate junk food and rocked out to Sidewalk Prophets live.

-Back at home Tristan and I had a crazy weekend. Tristan's baseball tournament FINALLY finished, he spent the night at his grandparents while I headed to Peter Pan at the Straz center, and then we checked out LegoLand Florida. Honestly you can get more bang for your buck at a million other places in Florida - but we can now say been there, done that. And Tristan had a friend with him so that made the whole experience better for him!

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Still alive!

We are still alive but SO busy. And I swear I have taken pics of life in general. So I will be back...tomorrow night with some updates and some photos! In the meantime Happy Friday!!!