Goodbye Summer 2010

Heading back to work tomorrow. I'm a little bit sad about this because it has been such a relaxing and laid back summer. Two full months of pretending to be a stay-at-home-mom has been really nice. I know that I have it really good (two months off of work is AMAZING! I know that most of the work world doesn't get this and I am truly grateful to have the awesome job that I have) but I am sad that I'm heading back to reality tomorrow. I will miss the slow pace we have had at our house and the flexibility of everything. I do not look forward to our school mornings starting up again tomorrow. That hour or so in the morning of trying to myself (and Ezra) ready, get out the door, get Ezra to daycare, and to make it to work on time always has my stress level super high. If you happen to see me in the morning between 8:30-9:00 you know what I'm talking about. That's the time that I'm always booking it. Hopefully we'll do better this year though. Preparation is key and tonight I have everything ready!

On a happy note though here are a few pictures from a couple weeks ago of Ezra James. One of his new things this summer has been baseball. We pretty much skipped right over t-ball after a day or two of the T and have been strictly baseball now for the past two months. I can't believe we waited this long to play. Yes, our Idaho cousins would be disappointed in us for starting this late. I will always remember how Topher was pounding the balls down the street at his 2nd birthday party many years ago. And I just know that one day I will be sitting in a major league park watching my nephew play ball! His Uncle Logan will be his agent of course. :0) Ezra loves baseball! We have played it many, many, many mornings this summer. Looking forward to starting him in a t-ball league. I think it will be spring?

And one last note about summer -- I have been super dooper productive this week. Why does it always work out this way. Wish I was like this all the time. AND today I put the last finishing touches on our dining room makeover. Pictures coming in the next day or two. I just need to find a "before" picture to share. The transformation is amazing!

Week Two : 60 Miles

I've now logged 60 miles of my goal of 100 for August. Run 60 miles in 13 days and you'll feel pretty darn good about yourself. I do! This summer marks my 8th year of consistently working out. For 8 years now I've been doing some form of running, weights, or yoga. And a lot of that time I've had a combination of all three. (Love it when that happens!) It all started the summer that my husband was studying for the bar. Exercise has been a big part of his life ever since he lost 60 pounds (crazy, right!) Pretty much the only breaks he took from studying that summer were for working out so if I was going to see him it had to be working out with him at the gym. That's when it started. And it's just kind evolved since then. Sure I've had moments where I've taken a week or two off but besides those few times exercise has been a consistent part of my life and for that I feel great! So if you are reading this and don't exercise then you should start. It will change your life. And back to my 60 miles this month.... still feeling good but more tired this week. My legs are definitely feeling it. I can only imagine what this could do for me if I could do this all the time. I wish I could. It's a big push for me though so one month is a good goal for me now. I'm heading back to work on Monday. Back to the real world. I've definitely been spoiled this summer. :0)

A few shots from our recent trip to our sweet little neighborhood park. We were there about 7:30 a.m. and it was already crazy hot. It didn't bother Ezra in the least though. He always wants to be outside. :0)

30 miles this week

I feel GREAT! 70 more to go. And yes, I realize I picked the hottest month of the year to do this. Four of my runs were done at 6:00 a.m. and two were done on the treadmill. I loathe the treadmill but a girls got to do what a girls got to do.

100 Miles in August

As I was running this morning I decided I need a new goal. So here it is: this month I'm going to run 100 miles. Not in one day like my husband but spread out over 4 weeks. 25 miles a week sounds doable. I've had weeks with high mileage before. And now that El Scorcho is finished I need something to try. Marathons are out for me.....too much involved in training for four months when you've got a family, full time job, part time photography business, and chasing around an almost 3 year old. So I'll try this one and see if I can do it. 6 miles down, 94 to go.

And since this post is about running, here's a shot of me and my sister Francie at El Scorcho Quatro. My first (and probably last) El Scorcho to run. A very tough race for this girl.
It looks like I'm going fast in my finish line shot. I wasn't. :0)

July 4, 2010

Can you see this next one? I LOVE so many things in this picture.

p.s. - Can you see Logan's belt buckle in the golf shots? It's HUGE! But if you run 100 miles you need to show off your bling every once in a while. I like it!

The Valdez Men

Father's Day - June 2010

Three generations of Valdez men. This picture cracks me up by the way. I don't think they were expecting me to come around the corner with my camera. But it is real. Any guesses as to what they were doing? I'm sure it will only take one.

IPhone Summer Pics

Ezra James -- almost 3 years old

Fort Worth Zoo

Golf at Ridglea

Our backyard. Notice the circles? I think it's a sign of genius of course. :0)

Fort Worth Science Museum

Sweet little park in our neighborhood.

Swimming at Ridglea

Afternoon naps at our house are a BIG struggle these days. Ezra will only go to sleep for me now on the floor with me laying right beside him. And that doesn't guarantee a nap. Sometimes it doesn't happen. I'm going to be one sad woman when they are gone completely. I feel like it's coming soon. :0(

Our neighborhood 4th of July parade.

Ezra's "Handy Manny Smoothie." Our breakfast smoothie every day for the past 7 months now….1 cup spinach, 1 cup carrots, banana, 1 cup frozen raspberries/blueberries/strawberries, protein, chia, ½ cup orange juice, and lots of water. Still having to sneak veggies in but at least we get a few in every morning to start the day. Ezra drinks a cup of this and I get the rest. And Logan makes one too. Good deal for everyone!

Trying so hard not to eat these cupcakes for Logan's birthday.

And for Logan's birthday we went to see Better Than Ezra while Ezra stayed with Nanna & Pop for the night. Good stuff!

I just blinked and summer is almost over. It’s amazing how quickly time flies. Life has been pretty darn good these days. We have had the most laid back summer. Love it! Here are a few things that we have had going on….

Ezra finished his swimming lessons last week. It’s amazing what six lessons will do for a toddler. He loves the big pool and won't have anything to do with the baby pool anymore. I have a feeling next summer he’ll be out there swimming across the pool all by himself. For now he can swim a few strokes (mostly doggie paddling but it’s a start), hold his breath under water, swim down to the bottom to grab toys, go all over the pool on a noodle, and he LOVES to jump off the diving board and go down the giant slide.

We wrapped up our TCU music lessons last week. This was our third summer to do those. This year Ezra was the oldest child in the class. He can do so much now at these classes. All three of us enjoyed it quite a bit.

Let’s see…what else….we've had lots of trips to the science museum, the zoo, Ezra’s first omni movie. We’ve also been playing a lot of golf this summer. Ezra digs it! He plays with us and also with Nanna & Pop when he goes to their house.

Speaking of Nanna & Pop….I have AWESOME in-laws. Ezra spends the night at their house 2-3 Saturday nights each month. It rocks! He loves it and we do too.

Ezra has been going to school part time this summer so that’s been nice. On my days home alone I’ve been doing lots of house projects and lots and lots of editing. Lindsey and I have shot 5 weddings together this summer so that’s definitely kept me busy. It’s amazing how much time goes into editing a wedding. Now I know why photographers charge so much. Time. It’s all about your time. And when you have a toddler your time is very, very, very valuable.

El Scorcho Quatro was this past Saturday night. My incredible husband did an amazing job as always running the show. (Shout out to JBalls too!) This was my first ever El Scorcho to run. I’m usually photographing all the crazy runners but this year I decided to try it myself. 15.5 miles in the middle of the night, in July, in Texas is not an easy run. It was definitely a challenge for me and I have a new appreciation for people who can run in the middle of the night. Normally that distance isn’t too big of a deal for me. I’ve run much further many times and it’s been fine. But the time of day was what got me on this one. I finished though. It wasn’t pretty but I finished and then headed home a little after 3:00 a.m. to crawl into bed. It might be my one and only El Scorcho to ever run. :0)

We’re starting to get geared up for fall. Logan plans to run another 100 mile race so he’s started training for that. Ever wonder what mileage you start training at for a 100 mile run? This weekend he’ll do a 19 mile run. And that’s at the beginning of his training. Pretty amazing, right? I think so. I have a pretty amazing husband.

And since blog posts are much better with pictures here are a few more that go along with my last blog post almost two months ago. We took these pictures on our wedding anniversary, June 7th. Every year we always take a picture on our anniversary. This was our seventh one to take. It's amazing how many different looks I've had over this short amount of time. Logan always looks the same to me but I definitely change. Anyway, it's a fun little thing we have going in the back of our wedding album that we add a new picture to every year. Thank you for the idea of doing this six years ago Mary Bess! And thank you to Jason for snapping these for us this year!
In our attempts to take a picture of just me and Logan we gave Ezra one of his favorite treats, an Otterpop. Such a simple little thing but man he loves them! We also told him that we needed him to be good so we could take a picture. So as Logan and I sat down for our shot he plopped himself down in the grass just a few feet away and happily enjoyed his treat. What a good kid. He cracks me up sometimes! :0)

More summer pics to come....hopefully...