Week 4: Terrific Thursday!!!

Today was a great day. I enjoyed myself so very much. It started with Savvy making sure I got up and out of bed, because I didn't want to wake up this morning. Then, while I was eating breakfast of Oatmeal Square cereal with unsweetened almond milk and a slice banana, Penny and her mommy, Jessica, arrived. Jess and I chatted a bit then Savvy texted and needed her school ID. Jess was about to leave and was kind enough to drive up to the school and deliver it for me. As she was leaving she told me that there was a card in Penny's bag for me, but she wanted me to read it later.

this made me giggle

The card was a very very sweet thank you card for doing things that were done for me at times when my kids were little and I needed help. I'm just paying it forward. And I so LOVE LOVE Penny and Jess and her sister Carrie too as if they were my family, they are my family. The card was so sweet it made me cry a little, but then I cry over everything these days. I should be thanking Jess for letting me spend time with her precious little one and for letting us be in their lives. Thank you Jess!

So after reading the card and drying my eyes and putting Lexi out back with food and water, I loaded Penny and all of her stuff and my camelbak into the van and we headed off to meet Cuppy and her nephews, Skyler and Vince, and her niece, Dixie, at the canal downtown.  I thought Penny and I were going to be late because of traffic but we got there on time and Cuppy and the kids showed up just a couple minutes after us. They are the cutest kids and boy can those boys talk! We got all the bags loaded into Penny's stroller and her strapped in, Cuppy grabbed the kids hands and we crossed the road to the trails and off we went. I had such a blast! We saw ducks everywhere. And every time we saw them at least one of the kids would yell "Look there's some duckies!!!"

Duckies!!!!!!!

Sheesh she's getting skinny! So Pretty!

We walked along the trails and went under a bridge and, I think it was Skyler, one of the kids said "the cars are driving on our heads!" We walked the trail like Cuppy and I always did minus some stairs because of Penny in the stroller. Every time we came to a circle in the trail we'd walk all the way around the circle before we'd move on. The kids thought we were crazy. LOL but it was fun.

Vince

Cuppy and Skyler

We knew this would be a slow walk since the kids are 2, 6, and 8 so we just wandered around. If the kids wanted to stop and look at something, we did. They checked out the statues that are along the trail. I'm not sure Dixie knew what to think of them and Penny, well she was just trying to figure out who the little people were. LOL I don't usually get to have her around other kids.

We saw more duckies and Vince wanted his picture taken with them. LOL

Skyler and Vince

We found a statue of a buffalo and of course we had to take a picture of all the kiddos.

Then we found the waterfall and the kids wanted their picture taken in front of it too. I think they were enjoying the attention of getting their pictures taken.

As we were walking and taking pictures Skyler was talking talking talking. He reminds me of my son Andrew with how much he can talk and how much energy he has. Vince can talk too, but during the walk he didn't talk to me as much as Skyler did and Dixie didn't talk to me at all until we were almost done with our walk and I'm still not sure what she said. And Penny well she just cooed and squealed the whole time. We met this nice lady that was feeding the ducks some bread and she gave the kids a slice to feed the ducks. I think they really enjoyed that. I know I loved watching them.

I think the duckies enjoyed it too. While the older kids through bread AT the ducks Penny fed herself. She's finally figured out how to drink her bottle sitting up, thanks to her Auntie Carrie.

It was a beautiful sunny morning and the weather was so nice compared to what it had been. And the sun shone down prettily on the canal. I just loved being outside today!

Cuppy and I had forgotten that there was one set of stairs that we couldn't avoid. LOL and I think it was the longest stairs on the whole canal. Cuppy helped me carry the stroller to the top of the stairs where the kids discovered there was a playground that we had forgotten about. So we took a break and played. And Penny went down her first slide that I'm aware of. I held her and slide her down it. She didn't seem to know what to think of it. Then I put Penny and Dixie on Cuppy's lap and she slide down a slide with the girls. It was so cute. Next Penny sat on her first seesaw and seemed to really enjoy it with all the giggling and smiling she did. I had a huge grin on my face I'm sure. It's been a long time since my kids were so little and had all these firsts. I'm so glad I get to be there for some of Penny's firsts.

As we continued our walk we were hoping that they'd have the water shooting up out of the ground at that spot by the train bridge but the water was turned off. We don't know if it's only on on certain days or at a certain time. It was still kind of early. So we continued on and saw more duckies and Skyler and Vince talked more and we all giggled. Then we found the man with the "boulder" as Skyler called it (although Cuppy thought he said folder, weird). Skyler and Dixie tried pushing on the "boulder". They pushed and grunted but I don't think it moved at all. 

While we walked there were some restaurants that had music playing outside and Cuppy started to dance as we walked. It was quite funny. I wish I had a video of it but alas I do not so we will have to settle for the pictures.

I do love my CuppyCake!
The boys got in trouble along the way. We got on to them a few times for running or getting to close to the edge but this time they had to do a short time out. I think one of them hit the other I'm not sure I missed what happened. But Dixie decided to join them. I think she needed the break and I kinda think the boys did too.

I think I found video evidence as to what happened but not sure why it happened.
I have this weird thing about taking pictures of Benches. I even have an album on Facebook called "My Benches. So I had Cuppy and all 4 kiddos sit on a bench so I could get their picture.

Penny reached out and grabbed Skyler's hand!

We saw some pretty cactus as we were heading to our vehicles. Penny was so happy and just a pleasure to take with us on our walk. I thought she might fall asleep during it but I guess there was just to much going on and to many new things to see.

 Penny played with her bottle on the way home, at least until she dropped it with a loud thud. Then she fussed for like two minutes and passed out. I think she slept for another 30 minutes or so after we got home. I just left her in the carseat. I didn't want to wake her and she seemed comfortable.

 Our walk was 2.04 miles and it took us an hour and 16 minutes. ALOT slower than we normally do it, but then we don't normally have 3 kids walking along with us. I don't think Dixie was carried much of it at all. 2 miles is a long way for a 2 year old to walk.
After Penny and I got home I was still wanting to workout so I pulled out the Wii Fit. I weighed myself and it said I had lost 3.5 pounds since I had weighed last week. Hmmm...I wonder did I really? I hope so!

I don't know why my Mii is black with blonde hair and glasses but it is LOL

I spent 32 minutes playing on the Wii Fit. I did things like rhythm parade, and the basic run and basic and advanced step and the free step and a few of the balance games on it. The Wii said I burned 167 calories. Not alot, but every calorie burned is just that much closer to losing a pound.

After Penny and her mommy went home around 130pm I changed into my swim suit and put on a cover up and headed to Cuppy's house to swim some laps. Well I had planned on swimming a mile, which in Cuppy's pool is 88 laps (her and her dad figured it out and a lap is down and back). We were in the pool for about 2 hours, but I only got in half a mile. I'd swim 10 laps and then stop and do 25 of wall push ups, some leg exercises (not sure what to call them but there were two of them I did), shoulder presses, tricep curls and bicep curls, and I think a couple of other things with half gallon milk jugs. Then I'd swim 10 more laps and do it again. I ended up swimming 44 laps. And then we ran in place for 10 minutes in the pool and treaded water for 5 minutes. Plus there was all the playing we did with the boys and Dixie. I may not have swam as much as I had planned but I completely enjoyed myself and got to see mom and dad Green and my friend Kevin as well. So a great afternoon.

I left Cuppy's and drove home. What normally takes me 20-30 minutes took me almost an hour today due to traffic. I ended up getting off the highway when it came to a standstill and just took the surface streets.
I got home and hung out with Savvy and played on the computer and talked to my husband on Skype. Then after a dinner of a veggie burger with turkey bacon and 3 slices of swiss cheese. I decided to take Lexi for a walk. Now this was only supposed to be a 2 mile walk, but .25 miles into the walk I decided I wanted to jog some. I'm not ever going to get to the point of running a mile if I don't work on it. When I jogged yesterday I only did about .15 at a time. I figured today would be the same, but I guess since it wasn't as hot today I was able to go father. The first to jogging sessions were .25 miles. So there is a half mile that I jogged. The third time it was .5 miles. Now the third time was at a slower pace than the first two, but still I jogged a total of a mile! I'm so proud of myself. I can't wait until I can do a mile non-stop. I just have to keep at it and do it in increments. My left shin was killing me after the half mile.  So I'll have to be careful and just listen to what my body tells me.
It was a nice night out. Not to hot or muggy at all. I walked at the Veteran's Memorial Park in Moore tonight. I don't walk there often because the trail isn't quite a mile. So I keep walking to get the even number and always end up walking further than I plan, like tonight. My 2 mile walked turned into. 4.03 miles. It was kind of spooky in some sections once the sun was down. But there were alot of people there and I had Lexi and my pepper spray so I wasn't really scared. I took pictures but alot of them were blurry since I was walking while taking them and I might have been a little shaky too.

Today was a terrific day! One of my favorites this week. It would have only been the very best if Gregg and our 4 kids had been able to join me in this day full of fun and laughs and exercise. Cuppy thank you and Skyler and Vince and Dixie for walking and swimming with me. I enjoyed your company as always and loved meeting your nephews and niece, even though you told them to call me Muffin and they did all day lol....well except for Dixie, she kept calling me Wuffin. I love it.
I know that this is long and maybe it is to long, but I wanted to share my day and the pictures with everyone. So to those of you who read the whole thing THANK YOU! I can sometimes be long winded.
Now it is off to bed for me, because my new day starts in about 5 hours.