Spring In January?

We had a lot of rain in December for San Diego and now we have a lot of beautiful sunshine.

It felt like summer at the beach this week.

My daffodils started poking up through the ground right after I took Christmas down.

This is the earliest I can remember them blooming?

Their sunny happy faces make me smile.

I hope they make you smile too.

Happy Day!

Drink Up!

With so many of us re-focusing on our health after the Holidays, one of the best things we can do for our bodies is drink enough water. We have all heard "drink 6-8, 8 oz. glasses of water a day," but for many of us that doesn't begin to meet even half of our daily water requirements.

Maybe you are walking around in chronic dehydration? Are you tired, is your skin dry, do your joints ache, do you get headaches, are you having trouble losing those few extra pounds you put on over the Holidays?

You might be dehydrated?
Did you know you have a 20% higher chance of sustaining an injury during exercise when you are dehydrated?

A better gage for daily water requirements is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water. More if you exercise. (not all at once).

I found a great website to calculate your exact water needs, it factors in your climate, exercise times, and other factors to give you a daily water intake goal. To find out how much you should be drinking click Here.

I love these 24 oz. Contigo autoseal BPA free water bottles. I strive to drink at least three of these water bottles every day, four when I do a hard workout. I carry one of these pretty much wherever I go and sip water throughout the day. I bought the three pack at Costco several years ago for under $20. They are easy to use (just squeeze the top around the neck), they never leak, I can measure how much water I drink, the kids love them, they're hard to break (we have managed to crack them on the tile floor). I can't find them on the Costco website, but I just bought another 3 pack right before Christmas, so I think they still have them?
As always, consult with your doctor if you have a preexisting health condition. If you aren't a huge water drinker, it's a little difficult at first to adjust to this much water intake. You might want to start on a day when you have easy bathroom access. Don't worry your body will adjust quickly.

Happy Sloshing!

The Kid's Ocean, I Mean Bathroom

I have many projects planned for 2011. When we first moved into our track home ten years ago I painted the kid's bathroom to look like an ocean. The girls were one and four when we moved in. I know the day is coming when they will have outgrown their Ocean Bathroom and want a different look. Redoing this bathroom might be one of my 2011 projects. It's only paint and I don't get too sentimental about my mural projects.

The movie Finding Nemo was big around the time I painted this. The ocean theme works for both boys and girls. I didn't know how long we would be in this house so I played it safe with a gender neutral theme. If you want to create an "Ocean" in your kid's bathroom, I'll take you through the steps. I started by taping plastic over everything I didn't want paint on, tile floor, molding, doors, sinks, counters, lights, etc. I used a paint sprayer to achieve the background and didn't stop at the walls. The entire ceiling is painted too.

I used two different colors of a lavender blue (the same as their bedroom at the time) to tie the two rooms together. Their bedrooms were re-painted awhile back. The prep. work took about an hour to cover everything in plastic. The actual painting took all of five minutes. I bought the cheapest paint sprayer and used my dad's air compressor. The paint sprayer died a long time ago.

Click here to see Casey's room.

This created my ocean back drop for the coral and animals.

I painted the animals using basic acrylic paint and used pictures from sea life books as my inspiration.

I added painted jellyfish

and coral.

I painted a seal silhouette on the ceiling above the sinks.

and a shark in the shower area.

The shark caused some problems.

It took me awhile to figure out the reason Cami didn't like bath time? She was afraid of the shark. I explained to her he was a nice shark and the friendly dolphins would protect her. I even offered to paint a smiley face on the shark, but she didn't like that idea either. For years she used our bathtub and shower.

Mommy and baby dolphin.

The octopus.


My sea turtle.

Okay, I might miss the sea turtle.

Take It Outside

I am very fortunate to live in such a beautiful city.

Today I took my workout outside to Torrey Pines State Park.
I like to change my workout up because I am easily bored and the body responds better when you do cross training. To learn more about Torrey Pines State Park click HERE.
It was a sunny, gorgeous day, perfect for a walk at the beach.
If you go, try to park in the free parking along the 101 Highway. It cost $8 to park inside the park. I like free and the added walking only helps the workout. Here is the view from my car as I was going South on the 101 to park.

I met my friend Beth for the workout.

You can see the Coaster going by.

Just past the white water we spotted a stand up paddle boarder being surrounded by a pod of dolphins. I was only able to snap these two fins, but there where many more swimming around him and even some babies. We play volleyball just a couple of miles North of this spot and frequently see dolphins.

When the tide is low enough we start the walk on the beach. Do you remember the final scene in Planet of The Apes when Charleston Heston is riding down the beach to the Statue of Liberty? The cliffs at Torrey Pines always remind me of that movie. I'm dating myself.

They recently built new stairs up the side of the cliffs. This used to be a little treacherous coming down if it was wet. The stairs and railroad steps are much better.

We were rewarded with this view when we got to the top.

The water visibility was really clear this week.

The rest of the walk is through the coastal sage brush. Still beautiful.

Then back down a paved road. If the tide is high we start the walk by coming up this road. It takes about an hour and 10 minutes, but the time flies when you are with a friend. This is a great place to bring family and friends who live out of town because of the beauty and incredible views.

Have a good workout!

Fun Things We did On Vacation

The kids went back to school today. We had a very nice winter break enjoying our home town of San Diego for the Holidays.

Santa brought me some new volleyballs so I played when our games didn't get rained out.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house this year.

We spent time with family. Here are the girls with their cousins Jake and Sam. They are all getting so big.

The girls got ipads for Christmas.


Thank you Grammy and Bucky!

We enjoyed the local food at one of our favorite breakfast places,

Hash House A Go Go.

If you go, be prepared to wait. It's a pretty popular place.

The portions are huge!

This is there house special Eggs Benedict with red pepper cream sauce.

Come hungry.

The wait is more fun when you come with friends.

Cami and Ellie are best buddies.

We spent New Year's Eve at the Mendler's house and we all did a

"Polar Bear Plunge" into their freezing pool at midnight to celebrate the New Year!

Go Maddie!

It was in the low 40's that night and the pool was not heated. The Spa was, so we had a warm place to go after our "ice bath."

Kristy and Don made a delicious meal as always.

To see the amazing dessert Kristy made click here

I took the girls ice skating.

Here's Casey zooming around the ice.

Maddie and Cami.

They always have fun together.

The girls took there last horseback riding lesson last week. They have been riding for about a year and a half. Unfortunately the fees will triple for 2011 and it's not in our budget anymore.
Here is Casey with her favorite horse Duck. Not his real name, but they nicknamed him "Duck" because he is so tall you have to duck when he goes under a tree.

Casey will miss his sweet, gentle nature.

Here is Cami's favorite horse Possum. He looks like someone splattered paint all over him. It's called a bird catcher pattern. When I first saw him I asked Cami who painted him? It was a sad day when we had to quit.

Casey's club team won two tournaments during December and they are preparing for State Cup. Our first game isn't in Lancaster for a change, yeah!

NADO GU13

No soccer for for Cami right now. She is recovering from Osgood Schlatter's. It's a knee injury to the growth plate that is a result of rapid growth. She grew three inches in three months and is still growing. Right know we have her swimming and hopefully she will be back on the soccer field soon.

Soccer games are a family affair.

We make them family outings and we love going to the kid's games.

Looking back at our break I see a re-occurring theme, eating and playing!

I like it!

I hope you and your family had a great winter break too!