Stampede!!!

This year for the very first time we went to the Rodeo Stampede, the official opening of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. A herd of longhorn cattle trotted down Houston Street and ended at the Alamo, and that was pretty much it. Oh, wait, there was also a slightly alarming group of elderly samba dancers that started the whole thing off, banging and stomping down the street. One particularly androgynous hoofer had us giggling for hours. It was a simple event but also really fun. How often do you get to see a herd of cattle walk down the street, with plenty of cowboys on horses close by?

Greg took this great shot of the herd.

After the herd had passed, Natalie said, "MO!" As in, "More cows, please!"

It was a cold, clear day in San Antonio. Ella found it necessary to wear her nose warmer from Grandma Hawkie, which she actually wears pretty regularly. It cracks people up, and she doesn't understand why.

Crazy Lady

So, Natalie is part girl child, part Tasmanian Devil, and some days the devil portion really takes over. Mondays tend to be especially action-packed because that's the day I clean the house and she trails not far behind me, making more messes. Yesterday I was getting Ella an after-school snack while also doing laundry in the laundry room-cum-pantry when suddenly I noticed that Natalie was dangerously quiet. I entered the pantry and found this:

Apparently she was in the mood for some Rice Chex mixed with floor dust. Notice that her binkie ("Bee") and fuzzy ("Fuh") were both within arms reach, as always. Another day, I came downstairs after my shower and found her very happily sitting and watching Elmo like this:

Binkie and Fuzzy, together again! I removed her and five minutes later she was back in the drawer. Another day her BFF Tyler came to play. It's a good thing he's a solidly built little dude because she really rolls him around. She decided he needed a little help with his Cheerios, whether he liked it or not:

Did you notice the cute little ponies she was sporting in her hair in the last picture? It's her latest look--they look like two pompoms stuck to her head. Here's what her hair looks like at the end of the day when her dad removes the rubber bands and brushes her hair:

She saw the camera coming and said, "Chee!" and made that lovely face. There appears to be something lodged in her hair--not an uncommon occurrence.

And tomorrow I get to clean up the pile of rice and chicken bits that she threw on the floor at dinner time. (She likes to throw food on the floor and then shake her finger at me, saying, "No! No! No!") I've learned by experience that rice is much easier to sweep up when dry and crunchy. Oh, the things that this kid is teaching me!

Photos By Ella

Jake and Lora got Ella what she most wanted for Christmas: a camera of her own. It's a High School Musical one, too--nice touch! Following are some of the (few) pictures rfom our trip to the zoo that were actually in focus. I am particularly fond of "Still Life with Pumpkins and Old Christmas Trees".

Bundle Up, It's Zoo Time

The day after Christmas we, including my Aunt Kris and Uncle Bill, wrapped ourselves up in many layers and headed to the Oakland Zoo. Due to the cold, we pretty much had the zoo to ourselves, which is always nice. The elephants roamed happily, the gibbons swung from the treetops, the tortoises had lunch, and the crocodile floated alarmingly close to the window.

For the first time ever Livy was tall enough to go on more rides than just the carousel. Despite the fact that we call her Midge, she does appear to be growing!

Aunt Kris, Ella, and I shared a sky basket. Ella and I coached Aunt Kris on how to sit down on the thing, and Kris won the prize for spotting the elusive bison from the air.

Ella took some marvelous pictures with her new High School Musical camera. (Photos to follow in next post.)

The Hottest PJs in Town

Seriously, so hot. So hot that no normal adult could possibly sleep comfortably in them anywhere outside Siberia. However, since the point of the matching PJs was not so much to sleep in them as to take pictures in them, they were a roaring success. Doesn't Grandpa Ricky looked thrilled to be a part of the whole hoohah? We like that he wore PJs and boots.




That's Rick and Kathie; Jake, Lora, Oscar, and Olivia; and Greg, Katie, Ella, and Natalie

Worth 1000 Words

I was going to get a picture of just Nat with Santa. THAT didn't happen! (She recovered quickly, don't worry.)

Willdens and Browns, Together Again!

While we were in California for the holidays, we were able to spend some time playing with our good friends the Browns. We had a lot of fun touring the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. The "seasoning" area was the coolest--stacks and stacks of trays filled with every color bean imaginable. We got to taste beans from each stage of production, from just the jelly center to the shiny, delicious finished product, and I think it is safe to say that the samples were the kids' favorite part. Oh, and the keen hats!

We spent an entire afternoon at the park without even one incident of hair-pulling or head-locking! (Ella and Scott have a long and storied history together.)

Ella and Scott took an adventurous hike up the hill together, and it was so sweet to see these old pals in action again.

Little Willdens and Browns: Natalie, Ella, Tali, Scott, and Ada

Rock On

In December Greg's parents Gary and Joan came for a visit, to see the new house and spoil the grandkids. We drove out to Enchanted Rock State Park to go for a hike. You can see the rock behind us in the picture, and if you look really close you can see the little ant-people wending their way to the top. When we arrived, Natalie was asleep, so I stayed behind while everyone else began the hike. 10 minutes later she was WIDE awake and I was stuck in a van with a toddler and no cell phone reception. Rats! So I threw on the baby backpack, which I had previously not had any intention of using because I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it to the edge of the parking lot, much less up that hunk of granite. Oh, and when I say I "threw on the baby backpack" in oh-so cavalier a fashion, I mean I set it up on the ground, stuck Natalie in it, spent several minutes figuring out the intricate system of straps and buckles, then sat down in front of it, strapped myself to it, and somehow managed to stand up with all these pounds of kid on my back. Long story short (WAY too late, I know) Natalie and I made it to the top, a little sore in the calves but no worse for wear. By the time we got there, though, the rest of our group was nowhere to be seen. Rats! No witnesses to my awesomeness, and no camera to Kodak the moment. So we made our way back down the rock, only getting slightly lost along the way, and took some pictures when we all met up at the bottom. Good times!

P.S. Enchanted Rock is 425 feet high, and the hike to the top is around half a mile, so my awesomeness is all relative.

My First Ultra-marathon (Bandera 50k)

So last Saturday I ran my first Ultra-marathon, any race longer than 26.2 miles. In this case it was a 50 kilometer race, or about 31 miles. It was at the Bandera 100k/50k/25k. The last two years I have run the 25k option and the fun just ended too quickly. This year I almost decided to do the 25k again because I was having a little nagging pain in my feet, but I ultimately decided to go for it.

I've been reading about ultra-running for quite a while now and I've wanted to give it a try. The last link there is the blog for Sean Meissner. He lives in Oregon and posted that he would be coming down to run Bandera. I talked to him briefly just before the start and again after I finished. He was really nice and appreciated that I've been reading about all of his adventures. It was cool to meet someone I've been reading about online and in magazines.

As you are probably aware, the country has just gone through a pretty good cold snap. Texas was not immune either. On the morning of race day I got up at 4:30am and made the hour drive out to the Hill Country State Natural Area. It was a balmy 9 degrees Fahrenheit when I got there. I think it had warmed up to 10 or 11 by 7:30am when a race official yelled out, "5 seconds, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!" I had agonized over what to wear for this race. I generate a lot of body heat when I run. It has to be in the 30s or low 40s before it makes sense for me to even wear a long sleeve shirt and I had never run in temps below 20 degrees so I didn't know what to wear. On the bottom I wore a pair of compression shorts to avoid chafing and two pairs of tights. On top I overestimated the cold and so I wore a short sleeve shirt, for when it would warm up later in the day, two thin long sleeve shirts and a very thin rain shell type jacket plus a hat and gloves. Within the first mile I had to start stripping off the layers. I took off the hat and just left my Buff as a headband and to cover the ears when needed. The thick gloves came off, replaced by very thin ones. The jacket and one long sleeve shirt came off too. All of this I now had to schlep around with me until the midway point aid station (at Chapas) when I put them in a drop bag.

The trail out there is really brutal. Big rocks, small rocks, and steep trails that go straight up the hills (they don't believe in switchbacks in Texas). It really beats you up and forces you to walk up the hills and try not to crash on the way down. Coming up on the first main aid station at 10 miles, I heard this music coming out of the trees. When I rolled into the aid station it was blaring. I picked up a paper cup of water, tipped it back to drink and nothing happened. I had to crush it to break up the ice before I could drink it. At the halfway point I dropped off most of the clothes I was carrying and stripped off the other long sleeve shirt and just went with my short sleeve shirt with gloves. This aid station was wild for a different reason. They were cooking waffles, grilled cheese sandwiches and a bunch of other stuff. I refilled my hydration pack, grabbed some pretzels and kept moving. It was hard to start running again after walking or standing for a while. Gotta keep moving.

The next section to the Crossroads aid station was relatively flat. Then came a rocky 5 mile loop with a few hills before coming back into Crossroads at a little over 26 miles. At this point I was hurting pretty badly so I pulled out my mp3 player, cranked up the rock and put the hammer down for the rest of the run. I knew what to expect and I ran it hard. I passed a lot of people and I just suffered through the pain. I finished in 5:50:28.

I was really sore for the rest of the day but I recovered remarkably quickly. By the next day I was basically fine, walking down stairs, lifting my leg up high. It was great! I'm really happy with how my training got me ready for this race and I'm especially happy with how I ran that last 5 miles or so. Awesome!