Hiking with Landon and McKinley

A few weeks ago my little brother was in town and wanted to know what we were up to. Landon just happened to not have school for the day, so I told him that all of us guys could do something while Brinley was in school. The weather had been so nice outside so the first thing that came to mind was to go for a hike at Raven Run. McKinley was excited for a little adventure so we headed out to the woods. Once we arrived I left it up to McKinley on whether we would go to the right to the overlook or to the left toward the creek. He chose the left so off we went. Right from the start Landon started to act like a crazy little boy. He refused to walk at all and said that he was tired even though he had just gotten up less than an hour ago and done nothing but ride in the car to Raven Run.

We were about a mile and a half into our hike when we came upon a little side trail that I had never taken before. At the end of the side trail was a small stream. McKinley stepped over the stream and I grabbed Landon's hand to help him jump across the little stream. Well, when he went to jump across his right shoe slipped off and fell right into the water. The whole thing happened so fast and I quickly went to grab it, but the water was pushing it down the stream and I couldn't grab it before it went off the little cliff down a small waterfall. I was just in disbelief! How could this have happened. 

The shoe got struck in between two rocks at the bottom of the waterfall. If you look closely you can see it in the middle of the picture. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but the place where the shoe was stuck was inaccessible. There was the waterfall and then a flat area that led to another dropoff with a second small waterfall. This flat place is where the shoe was located.

I was just ready to call it a loss and to head on back to the car. Landon didn't seem to be too upset about missing a shoe. I did have to take his sock off because he stepped into a little wet spot when I sat him down to go after the shoe in the stream.

My brother had other plans as he made it a mission to try and retrieve the shoe. He started collecting rocks from upstream and throwing them at the shoe in order to try and dislodge it from the waterfall. He was successful at getting it out from between the 2 rocks, but then it still just stuck on the flat area. So, McKinley kept chucking rocks at it trying to get it over the cliff.

He successfully moved it again and got it closer to the edge of the flat area, however it got stuck behind a stick.

Landon was just enjoying the show that Uncle McKinley was putting on while he was eating the snacks that I brought for him. 

I was looking all around to see if there was anyway possible to get down to that area. I couldn't find a place that seemed safe to try and get down. So, McKinley continued to chuck rocks at the shoe. McKinley was throwing the rocks from where he was standing and the shoe is in the bottom left hand corner of the picture.

McKinley finally decided he could get a little closer to try and throw the rocks.

After about 45 minutes he was finally able to get the rock off the flat part and it fell down to the bottom of the second waterfall.

McKinley went off trail and walked about a 100 yards just to be able to get down to a safe place to get down to the stream. He then made his way back down through all the water and mud in order to retrieve the shoe.

He was asking Landon, who was up on my shoulders, if he had lost anything. The shoe was completely waterlogged, so I carried it back out to the car instead of making Landon wear it.

As we began our hike back out we heard a little noise and looked down to spot this little guy slithering off the path. I was glad Landon wasn't walking ahead of us!

Uncle McKinley even took a turn carrying the 35 pounder on the walk out.

We had to hurry on the way out because we had to be sure and get to Brinley's school before it dismissed. We even stopped by the house real quick to get Landon another pair of shoes.

We didn't want Brinley to miss out on all the fun with Uncle McKinley, so we all decided to grab a bite to eat at a relatively new place in town called MOD, which is a thin crust pizza joint.

After lunch we stopped by Jacobson Park to play for a few minutes before Uncle McKinley had to leave. I spun the kids and McKinley on this merry-go-round and after it was finished spinning McKinley had to take a second to collect his bearings before he could get up.

I just think these swings are the coolest. You can swing and have your little one right there with you.

This picture makes me really happy. The kids always have a good time with their Uncle Kinley.

I probably don't tell my little brother enough, but I am really proud of him. He is finishing up his 4th year of medical school at Louisville. Today he will open an envelope that will have a card with the location that he will be living for the next 3-4 years while he completes his residency. I don't know where he will be going, but I do know for sure that the institution that gets him is going to be very lucky. I know that he is going to be a good doctor and I believe that if you ever happen to be a patient of his then you will be in very good hands. I love you little brother! Thanks for reading and God bless!

Dopey Challenge Part 1 (5K, 10K, and half marathon)

Last year Jennifer wanted to try and get healthier and begin getting more physically in shape. She gets more motivation when she has a goal in mind. Well, at some point she started running in virtual races with the Hogwarts Run Club! She mentioned to me that she wanted to run a half marathon and she heard that Disney races were some of the most fun that she had read about online. Since we had the Disney season passes it seemed like a great idea to me. However, when we got online to book the race she wanted to run we found out that it was sold out. The only thing that we could find available was a full marathon. Since we were looking far enough in advance we could still get in a workout plan for a full before the actual race. After mulling it over for a few days we made the decision that we were going to do it! The only problem that I had was that while researching Disney races I discovered something called the Dopey Challenge. This consisted of 4 races over 4 days where you run a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and a full marathon. I just didn't want to complete the marathon and then see all these other people walking around the parks afterwards with all their medals and I be full of regret that I should have done it. So, as you can imagine with me not wanting to be outdone, I signed up for the Dopey because I may never have the opportunity to do something like this again. Things looked grim about our trip even happening when my father unexpectedly got sick a little bit before Christmas. I called and asked if we could postpone until next year or if I could get a refund. They were only going to give me 25% of my cost of the race, but we put it on the back burner and knew we had to make a decision at least within 5 days of the race.

With my father being sick and I was spending most of my time back home in Western Kentucky I didn't run for about 3 weeks prior to the races. Thankfully my father started to progress in the right direction and I felt comfortable going to Florida for our races. We did decide to cut our trip a little short and not stay the extra days we had planned for afterwards. Another dilemma that we had was that my parents were who we had been planning on to watch our kids. Thankfully, I had a cousin who was gracious enough to watch our kids for a few days so that Jennifer and I could make the trip. So, maybe a little under prepared and with my heart and mind still thinking about my father, we headed out on our kid free trip to Disney!

Heading out on our trip. We had just dropped the kids off at my cousins and stopped by the hospital one last time to say goodbye to my parents. In our typical approach we decided to drive through the night so that we wouldn't get stuck in any traffic.

We made it to Disney and after checking into the hotel we made our first stop at the runners expo to pick up our gear and racing bibs. This was the first time we got a taste of just how many people were going to be present for the races and at the parks, too! 

After the expo we decided to head over and ride a few rides. Jennifer kept telling me that she just wanted to go back to the hotel and just relax, but I don't know the meaning of relaxing while at Disney! As you can see I even got Jennifer to ride the Tower of Terror for the first time and according to her it was the last time. Later that night we even went to see a movie that Jennifer had been wanting to see, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Then it was time to get to bed so that I could get up for my early start time for race number 1!

This was the latest start time of all the races, which was still at 6 am. That meant that I had to be up and at least on a bus over to Epcot by 4:30. For a night shifter, this was the worst part of the experience and it was only day 1! For this race I just re-purposed my Halloween costume from last year and ran as Fix it Felix from the movie Wreck it Ralph. For the first mile and a half I was running just like I had been training and trying to keep a good pace. I was darting in and out of people who were walking or stopping for pictures with characters or mile markers. It took me until half way through the race that I wasn't experiencing the best part of Disney races, which is to have fun and enjoy yourself. Up until this point I was super concerned about my time and not about all the things to see around the course. So, I stopped to get a picture with Goofy before finishing out the race. Afterwards I waited about 30 minutes to meet Dopey and get a picture. Now, I had gotten a feel for how Disney races work so that I could take advantage of everything and enjoy the experience. 

After the race and getting cleaned up, I talked Jennifer into heading out to Epcot to ride a few rides. Here we were enjoying a ride on the new Frozen attraction that usually has about a 2 hour wait, but thanks to fast passes we didn't have to wait at all. We also tried a little treat called a cronut, which is a combination of doughnut and croissant. We called it an early night and headed out to get something to eat and since I was the one running I got to choose. I picked my all time favorite food, Girodano's Chicago deep dish pizza!

Race number 2 started even earlier at 5:30 am, which then meant I had to be on a bus by 4 am. Today I was dressed as Sully from Monsters, Inc and I decided early on that I was going to embrace the Disney magic and just go out and have fun. There were tons of photographers along the course taking action pictures of you running and I smiled at half of them and roared at the other half! The center picture is of me crossing the finish line with a big roar! Again I had a hard time with worrying about my time especially when I was waiting for 20 minutes in order to get my picture made with colonial Mickey, Goofy, and Donald. Right after meeting them was the line to meet Genie, which was about another 10 minute wait.

More pictures from my 10K race around Epcot. The top 2 pictures were taken before the start. The technique that I learned watching other people while I was standing in line to meet characters was to take a selfie and just get the character in the background. This allowed me to get a picture with all the characters without having to wait in line. Then for the characters that I really wanted a picture with I could wait in line for an actual picture.

This race costume was actually inspired by the kids Halloween costume that both Brinley and Landon had worn over the past 3 years when playing dress up. The hat I am wearing is actually the top of the kid's costume glued to a hat. The kids didn't know that Jennifer cut up their costume, but they also haven't missed it at all! In fact my talented wife made all of my race outfits and they were part of my Christmas gift from her and the kids! I am so glad she did it because I would have probably just worn a regular shirt and shorts. I got so many positive reactions from all of my outfits and I owe them all to her, I was just her model.

After the 10K we cleaned up and headed out to the Magic Kingdom for a few treats and rides. Jennifer enjoyed a Mickey pretzel and I had my all-time favorite treat, a Dole Whip float, which is a pineapple ice cream float with pineapple juice. 

We must have both been exhausted because we fell asleep on the bus ride back to the hotel. This picture was taken right after we woke up and realized that we were headed back to the theme park. Yep, we slept right thru our stop!

During the day we had been watching the weather forecast for the next day and it was saying that there was high chance of rain, thunder, and lightning. I called the runDisney offices and asked them about what would happen in the event of cancellation. The representative informed me that they might delay it until the weather passed, but Disney had never cancelled a race before. Well, while I was relaxing out in the pool Jennifer came over and informed me that they had in fact cancelled the race for the next day. This picture summed up my initial thoughts about the race being cancelled, but then I decided that I wasn't going to let this break my spirit. I came here to run 48.6 miles and I was going to do it in the correct order so that I could wear my Dopey Challenge medal with pride and knowing that I actually earned it. I knew the weather was going to be bad and I didn't want to wait until things cleared in the afternoon in order to run because I knew that I had the full marathon the next day. So, I called around to some local gyms to see if anybody had an indoor track and I couldn't find one, so I settled for a treadmill half marathon.

At first I couldn't decide if I should wear my costume or not. Then I decided that I would never see any of these people again, so I proudly walked into Gold's Gym Orlando with my Olaf costume on. I completed 13.1 miles on a treadmill which was awful, but I again tried to make the best of it. Jennifer had snapped some pictures of Disney characters from the internet on her phone and I took it with me and took selfies with a different character about every mile. This broke up the boring aspect of treadmill running and gave me something to look forward to. I did receive quite a few funny looks, but there were a few other dopey challengers there with costumes on so I didn't feel too weird. I chose this location because it was the earliest to open so I actually started around the same time I would have been running the real race. I am glad that they did cancel the race because on my drive to the gym the sky was lit up with lightning and I would have been standing out in my corral if they hadn't called it off.

It just so happened that at the race expo where we picked up our bibs and shirts that they also gave me this luggage tag which was a replica of the half marathon medal. I took it with me and asked someone to take my picture right after I crossed the "finish" line.

After cleaning up and replenishing all my burnt calories with a big Cracker Barrel breakfast we headed out to the Animal Kingdom for a little safari ride. I had wanted to ride the roller coaster together, but it unfortunately was broken down for the day. So, again Jennifer really wanted to go back to the hotel in order to rest up for the race the next day. I didn't have any real reason to stay out any later and I didn't want to wear her out before her big race the next day. I also didn't complain because I wanted to get back so that I could watch the Kentucky Wildcats game. I ended up staying up until about midnight watching the game while Jennifer slept. Getting up around 3:45 was not the ideal wake up call, but it was the last step of my journey! At this point in my Dopey Challenge I had still not even completed half of the 48.6 miles and that my friends was a devastating way to think about it. I have a separate post that I am going to write just about that experience. Thanks for reading and God bless! 

Mickey's Christmas Party

After Thanksgiving this past year we headed down to Disney World for another one of our adventures. This one was gonna be extra special because we were going to the Christmas Party and we also had a few people that we knew who were going to be down at the same time as us. The 12 hour drive always seems to go by so much quicker on the way down than on the way home. It might be because the kids sleep for most of it so there isn't as much whining. Or it might be that we very rarely have encountered any traffic issues. 

Road trip ready! 

Our first stop was the Animal Kingdom. We were first greeted by this massive Christmas tree that was decorated with all kinds of animals.

We all rode Kali River Rapids, but Jennifer was the lucky one that got to ride it a second time with Landon. Brinley and I wanted to stay dry, so we opted to be the picture takers.

Our hotel, the All-Star Movies Resort, had some pretty awesome statues between their buildings. We stayed in the Mighty Ducks rooms, but did some exploring and the Toy Story statues were our favorite!

The pool was themed after Fantasia and the water was actually a decent temperature. We all took a couple dips in the pool during our stay.

Epcot had been one of our least favorite parks, but once Brinley could start riding more rides we were able to enjoy it a little more. The kids love going to the big "golf ball".

During our visit at Epcot we were able to get some pretty awesome seats to see the Candlelight Processional with guest host Neil Patrick Harris. This was a program where the real Christmas Story was read and church hymns were sung by a large choir. It was really a neat experience. 

The next day at the Magic Kingdom we were able to meet up with some of Brinley's preschool friends. As it turned out 4 of the 14 students were absent from class this week because they were all going to Disney. Brinley really thought it was cool to see some of her friends.

One of my absolute favorite things is that Landon can't read yet, but he tries so hard to figure out what things are from pictures. He says when we get on a ride that you have to keep your hands and feet inside and you have to hold daddy's hands. I don't want to correct him!

Waiting on Main Street for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Brinley with her favorite Disney treat, the Mickey ice cream bar.

We met up with the other kid in Brinley's class, Jonathan and his older sister. We had ran into his family the night before at Epcot. The kids all decided to get a picture in before the parade started.

Pretty awesome rainbow that appeared after a little Florida rain shower. If you look closely you can see a second rainbow too!

Family picture with Cinderella's Castle all lit up.

Getting in a ride on the kids favorite ride, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

The next day we slept in and then enjoyed some time by the pool. In the afternoon we headed over to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas. This is the reason why Aunt Andrea came down to visit with us. As soon as we got in the gates, Jennifer went to stand in line for what we thought was going to be the busiest character meet and greet lines. So, that meant that Aunt Andrea, me and the kids were trying to run around and ride as many rides as possible. Aunt Andrea had no idea what she was getting into!

The kids showed Aunt Andrea their favorite ride, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It is a great picture, except that Aunt Andrea's hand covered up Landon's face.

Brinley even showed Aunt Andrea the best way to ride Splash Mountain, which is with a poncho! Andrea forgot to put up the hood part and she ended up getting soaked! Brinley couldn't stop talking about how all the water splashed up in Aunt Andrea's face.

While Brinley and Andrea were riding Splash Mountain, Landon had a little photo op and even met up with Olaf!

Once the characters finally came out to start meeting people we headed over to meet Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps from the movie Zootopia. They are relatively new characters so we knew that they would be popular. We heard that the lines later in the night got close to 2 hours long. Jennifer was the second person in line, but had to wait about and hour and a half before the characters started coming out to meet people. There is no way that the kids would have survived waiting in line that long!

Next Jennifer went to stand in line for someone else and Andrea and I took the kids again. We did bring Jennifer some of the treats and drinks while she was waiting in line. We got to meet Goofy dressed up as Santa in between rides on the barnstormer and Dumbo.

Next the kids got to go meet Jack Skellington dressed up as Sandy Claws. The kids really enjoyed this because they had recently seen the movie Nightmare Before Christmas and they both like it. It is also always a little more fun when the characters actually talk to you too!

After this we caught the Christmas parade, but we didn't really have that great of a view because it was so crowded. We had planned on seeing the second parade, but I got too busy trying to see as many characters and ride as many rides as possible that we totally missed it.

We rode the Barnstormer as a group.

We even had a chance to meet the Seven Dwarfs! The kids thankfully woke up from a short little nap and cooperated for this picture opportunity.

Aunt Andrea and Brinley even waited in line to meet Minnie and Daisy.

Landon and Aunt Andrea riding Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.

I got into line right before midnight to meet a couple of the princesses and their princes. The only problem is that Jennifer, Landon, and Andrea were on the other side of the park. I let everyone in front of me while waiting for them to arrive and they never got there. I called them and they said nobody would let them in the doors. So, what did my sister do? She just kept opening doors until she found Brinley and me. It worked, except that Jennifer decided to stay out front because she didn't want to do anything illegal. Andrea didn't really mind breaking in. Either way we got the pictures we wanted with Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder.

We also got to meet Tiana and Naveen. They carried on a full conversation with the kids about Tiana's lasagna recipe and told the kids that next time they came down to New Orleans that they would have to stop by her restaurant. 

We made our way around to the front of the castle to get some pictures with the beautiful castle. Here was our crew for the night. 

Family picture with a little Disney magic adding in the mistletoe.

The kids with the castle!

Unfortunately, I made another mistake and didn't realize that the gift shops on main street were going to close before everyone got out of the park. So, we were unable to get any souvenirs of our night at Mickey's Christmas party.  We did think ahead and we brought a Tupperware along with us to collect all of the cookies that they were handing out that we couldn't eat during the party. They ended up being a nice little treat on the drive back home the next day. We did have to get up the next morning and headed to Disney Springs to try and get a souvenir that we missed out on the night before. Then after dropping Andrea off at the airport we made the drive back home to Kentucky! Overall, we had a pretty great week and I would highly recommend the Christmas party to anyone wanting to go to Disney in November or December.