A Fun Run.

So my friend Aimee and I have been training for the St. Louis half marathon for the past little while. We took advantage of doing all of our training runs together. It totally made the training go by fast and it was such fun to have her to talk to when we ran.
Luckily, Ruthie came into town for the previous week and she was able to end her trip in St. Louis. She watched Chloe in our luxurious hotel as we ran in pouring rain.
I don't think I've ever run more than 3 miles in the rain and here we rain 13. It was an experience. Brad finished in an amazing time of 1:34 (that's 7 minute miles folks!!) so he waited for us when we finished.

Here is the group. We were sad Aimee's husband couldn't run with us but it was fun to go out to eat together the night before and also meet up at Costco (gotta love Costco when it's not near you)

Here's to many more happy running adventures.

12 days of pure fun.

i GUESS i'LL BE DOING THIS POST AND PICTURES IN REVERSE ORDER.
aT THE END OF OUR TRIP WE WENT TO THE ZOO IN ST. LOUIS. MOM WAS ABLE TO TEND CHLOE WHILE BRAD AND I RAN IN THE ST. LOUIS HALF MARATHON. ST. LOUIS ZOO IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES. LOVE THE HIPPO (YOU JUST CAN'T LOOK AWAY!) LOVE THE PENGUINS. LOVE THE CHIMPS (HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THEM DO THIS?)
GRANDMA RUTHIE TREATED US TO A TRAIN RIDE. GUESS WHO LOVED LOVED LOVED IT?

IT WAS SO PRECIOUS TO HEAR GRANDMA TELL CHLOE ALL THE STORIES WITH ALL THE FUNNY VOICES THAT ONLY A GRANDMA KNOWS BY HEART. CHLOE GIGGLED AND ASKED FOR MORE.

NOW WE HAVE FRESH FROZEN STRAWBERRY JAM.

MY FRIENDS MADE THESE REALLY CUTE SUPERMAN/BATMAN CAPES FOR THEIR BOYS AND I WANTED CHLOE TO HAVE SOMETHING SO MOM AND EYE WENT TO WALMART AND COMBINED OUR CREATIVE BRAINS AND CAME UP WITH THIS "SUPERHERO" (AS CHLOE CALLS IT) CAPE.

GRANDMA BOUGHT CHLOE THESE CUTE GLASSES. SHE PRETTY MUCH WEARS THEM DAILY. WE CALL HER "HOLLYWOOD"

THE BACK OF THE CAPE.

WE SPENT A GORGEOUS DAY AT THE PARK.

I WILL REALLY MISS THOUSAND HILLS PARK. ITS SUCH A TRANQUIL PLACE.

SHE IS GROWING SO BIG. SHE LOVES TO PUT HER HANDS IN HER POCKETS. SHE SURE MIMICS EVERYTHING WE DO RIGHT NOW.

GRANDMA WAS A GOOD SPORT.

DOES LIFE GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

iN KANSAS CITY THEY HAD THIS RABBITS SET UP ALL OVER THE PLAZA FOR EASTER. WE STROLLED ALONG THE STREETS. ATE AT PF CHANGS. AND LET CHLOE PLAY PLAY PLAY.

WE WENT TO THE WIZARD OF OZ EXHIBIT AT THE CROWN CENTER. IT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY COOL. AFTER THE EXHIBIT WE ATE THE BEST FROZEN CUSTARD AT A PLACE CALLED SHERIDANS. GO THERE. IT'S A MUST ONE DAY. GET THE GRASSHOPPER.

MORE OF THE OZ EXHIBIT.

CRAYOLA STORE AND CAFE FOR LUNCH.

FIRST THINGS FIRST. GRANDMAS ALWAYS COME BEARING GIFTS...WELL ATLEAST THIS GRANDMA!! SHE SACRIFICED SUITCASE SPACE AND FILLED IT WILL SEVERAL GIFTS FOR CHLOE AND EASTER SURPRISES FOR ALL OF US.

lOVE YOU MOM. MISS YOU NANA ROOFIE.

Some Easter...

A little bit of this...
A little bit of this..

A whole lot of these...

Smiles...

...made for one great EASTER
We were so grateful to have Nana Roofie in town for Easter and other fun. I will post more pictures of her visit later. This bottom picture was one of our 2 year old photo shoot shots. It isn't the official one but a cute one. Right after this picture my mom, me, and Chloe had a run in with a grassy field covered with mud, a shed, and our car.

Some mud!

Today, the little one and I decided to go for a walk around the block. It's quite commical to see us. She carries her purse and her waterbottle and I struggle with the dog. The Block takes us about 15 minutes. Today, we were picking up rocks and sticks and noticing lots of mud. There is this one road that has no sidewalk and Miss Independent doesn't like to hold my hand so I have to usually force her in the grass so the dog and I are not in the road. Well, today the grass was muddy so I told her to walk higher up on the lawn with the mud seperating the two of us and I was on the edge of the road and grass. This plan worked fine until she spotted the big trucks up ahead and started to gleeful run towards them. She got down to the road and walked pretty close to me and the mud. In between her enthusiasm for reaching the trucks, she took moments to look at the mud. She'd say, "mommy, whaas that?" I would say, "it's mud". We'd walk some more. Then she'd say, "mommy, whaas that?" I'd say, "it's mud". We'd continue walking. Then she said, "mommy, whaas that?" Ah...the persistance of a 2 years old, I turned to say, "it's mu...? This time she had completly stepped in it. Her entire shoe went from pretty pink to barfy brown in seconds. At this point we were about 10 feet in front of the 3 city workers taking a smoke break standing in front of the big trucks. I told Chloe to keep walking with the mud. But seriously, folks, it was like 2 inches high off her shoe. It kind of resembled a little mud pom-pom on her toe and it extended back to her pants and socks. Well, of course, she wasn't about to go one more step so I knelt down and calmy wiped the mud of her shoe and onto the road. It wasn't until this time that I noticed that the mud on the side of the road was very brown and the "mud" on her shoe was not so dark brown. I was halfway through the cleaning, with the laughs of the workers behind me, when the thought occured to me that this mud may just be something other than mud. We were standing up wind so I didn't get a whiff of anything strange but that doesn't mean anything because my smellers aren't what they used to be. I just kept wiping till little Chloe Blue was satisfied and then we went on our way. i got to the next block before I dared sniff sniff my little finger and much to my relief...it was just some mud!

In the warm California sun...

Here are some pictures of our Disneyland trip. The whole Chambers family went to California for the whole week. We had warm sun, 3 great days at Disneyland, a day at the beach, and many wonderful memories. Lots and lots of pictures below, just so you know before you commit:)
Chloe's first ride. Dumbo.
Frozen banana on Balboa island. The place claimed to be the original frozen banana shop.

The Balboa Ferry.

Strolling along on Balboa island. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

Here is the whole Chambers family except for Robert and Courtney. How lucky we were to all be able to go vacation together. Good thing the colleges had similar spring breaks. We missed Robert and Courtney for the last part of the week because they had to get back on Tuesday.

Grandma Nancy with her grand daughters. Madeline, Chloe, and Isabelle. Chloe immediatly idolized Maddy and couldn't get enough of "Ee-za-belle". So fun to have girl cousins.

3 girls in front of the cars. Leah, Mel, and Holli. Love these girls.

The girls were so happy together and just happy period. Chloe woke up at 615 daily and we went to the park and stayed till 830-9 and got to bed by 10 and then started over again. They were all such troopers.

Our little Chloe loved the teacups. This ride is one of my first memories of Disneyland when I was a kid, so we had to do it with her.

We struck it lucky when Chloe and I wandered into Mickey's playhouse and found Mickey at the end. Darn it, I just deleted the cute mini mouse picture. We dressed Chloe in her Minnie shirt and she loved when she saw the Minnie in person. She hugged her and smiled and squealed.

Look at Chloe's happy face. She loved the whole Disney experience.

This is Chloe's uncle Robert. He adores her and she adores him.

California Screamer. That is the best roller-coaster. This is a true action shot of Brad and some of his family.

We were there on St. Patrick's Day. Here we are sporting some green.

Days at the beach. Like dad like daughter.

Chloe loved the ocean. She wasn't a bit afraid as she ran in the cold water and let the waves splash her little legs. She's an adventure girl that's for sure.

Gotta do the family picture at the beach.Brad is never afraid of the cold water.

Thanks Steve and Nancy for an unforgettable trip. We had the greatest time.

She had a birthday, shout horray!

Chloe turned 2 today! What a fun day we had spoiling her and making her feel like our special little girl. Here is a play by play of the day for those of you who couldn't be with us.
8:15 am We had to wake Chloe (yep, she usually rises much earlier than that but she must've realized today was gonna be a special day so she should get extra sleep) We sang Happy Birthday and then told her we had presents for her. Oh, she was very into these presents.
Here she is getting right to it.

Here she is opening Thomas the train. She really loves trains.Here she is discovering her Mickey spinning light toy. We respect you Disneyland.This is her new birthday outfit. Gotta love spring green. For breakfast she got choclate milk and her fav oatmeal. For lunch she got pizza. And for dinner I made her favorite potatoes and ham and pea casserole. Then we went to the park for about 10 minutes and did some high underdogs and fast swining. Apparantly too fast because right when we drove in the driveway she threw up all over. It was sure a delight to clean it up super fast before we had some of her friends over for cake. So below she is in her jammies.
6:30 pm. Getting ready to make a wish. Actually, she's getting ready to make a wish in this picture. Dad had to help her get the candles out.

We had M and M cookies. I will post our fun Disney pictures tomorrow.

And...this last couple of weeks she's discovered everyone's favorite Shrek. So, I made this Shrek cake. The cutest thing about this cake is how impressed my Brad was with it. He really couldn't stop raving about the cake and that made me happy. I think Chloe liked it, too.

Here she is during the day just chillin' with her legs crossed while she ate an enormous Micky cookie.

She's started to love strawberries and she's back to really wanting a straw to drink out of. She likes string cheese and raizzies and grapes. She talks a ton. When she threw up she cried and cried and said, "my shirt ruined". She's discovered she can said "yeah" instead of "no" to things. She loves "book" and "cuddle you" time. She has started to manipulate the bed time routine in full force. oh, I could just keep going on and on about our little super star. I'm sure all you moms feel that way. A special love to my mom on this day.

We love you Chloe Blue.