We went down for the Marathon. But, there is the 5k, thus an opportunity.

Don’t click to read more if you are on a slow connection. I have a camera and I wasn’t afraid to use it!

My Daughter, Mary, had been training (on and off) for most of the fall to run a 5k. Once we fell past the November time frame due to various reasons, it was pretty much decided that we would do the Disney 5k as her first.

It’s expensive, but can you honestly imagine a better first race? Ok, she’s eight. Now can you imagine a better race?

I was having a hard time doing so.

I bring you to present (then).

3am

She’s awake. The race isn’t for another 3 and a half hours. But she’s awake and as a result, so am I. Oh well, it’s better to be early right? We were staying at the Shades of Green, an absolutely awesome resort on the Disneyworld park for the military and dependents. Heading upstairs to the main room of the hotel, we waited for the first bus.

Ready to go!

Being on the park property meant that we had bus service from the hotel to the start line. For the 5k, I believe the first bus was 4:30am. We were on it.

In retrospect, we really didn’t need to get on that bus. But we did.

OFF to the Start Line!

When we got there, there was NO ONE there. Well, there were some people there, but let me show you what the general scene looked like.

That’s not the sun coming up.

But, since we were there early, we were able to get in to see the Three Caballeros (including Donald Duck!) first thing (and it’s a good thing too, that line got huge, QUICK.)

(Yes, that’s a Breath Thermo shirt, and shorts. It’s Florida.)

Did I mention that it was cold? I had planned to wear throw aways for the marathon, but hadn’t really thought about the 5k. I didn’t figure I was really going to heat up much at the pace we would be running, so I wore the Mizunu breaththermo shirt. You have to be exercising for that to really work. Duh. And shorts. DUH!

We had some Hot Chocolate and Coffee while we waited for everyone to show up. But that didn’t last that long, and thankfully everyone else started make their way to the start line. I was a bit happier then… Body warmth and people to chat with!

8 thousand strong!

Did I mention that the start was 6:30am? When that picture was taken, we still had an hour to go. I must admit, the hurry up and wait is not one of my favorite things about Disney races, and I was really surprised at how well Mary dealt with it. We talked a lot, huddled together and generally had a good time waiting and thinking about how great the run was going to be.

Ready to GO!

At last, the start was upon us. Ordinarily, I’d be in the first wave, but I knew that we weren’t going to be running this one fast. We had a bit of fun with some of the other runners noticing all the people heading into the first starting wave (Honor system, sub 9 minute miles). Personally, I saw people who would be lucky to run 15 minute miles entering into this wave… but that’s ok. We weren’t worried about it. They missed out anyways. The first wave didn’t have fireworks.

The Race!

Second wave, GO!

Technical problem or not, the first wave didn’t have fireworks. We did. We went out about 12 minutes after the first wave. It’s on!

Mary went out strong

(and as typical of most first time runners, too fast). But fear not, because about a quarter of a mile into the race, the hot chocolate became a hindrance and had to be dealt with. Potty break number 1! (No picture)

But we picked it up again, and began the trek anew. I knew that she wasn’t going to be able to run the whole distance, and had planned on pacing her with walk breaks. I had also planned on her being able to run between character stops, but that didn’t work out quite as I had envisioned.

Mile 1.

Remember that we went out about 12 minutes after the first wave (and therefore the clock start). This matches up with my split time pretty well, about a 14 minute mile. Considering a potty break was in there, I was pretty happy with my little girl. Considering that she had a smile on her face the entire time, I was ecstatic with her. And the best was yet to come.

Entering Epcot, Disney had the torches going, as well as cast members everywhere, cheering.

Since Mary was taking walk breaks, I took picture breaks!

Soon enough, we came across our first character encounter – Mulan. We hopped in line and waited for our turn. Thankfully, we did so at just the right time, as shortly before we came to the head of the line, Mushu the Dragon also came out to make an appearance. This thrilled Mary to no end.

Crazy Dragon.

I had problems with my original plan for taking pictures, but looking back, I made absolutely the right decision. I ran (slower than usual for me) with my Canon 5d Mark II, fitted with a 50mm prime. It’s not as heavy as my normal setup, and has the advantage of a very open aperture for low light (the last two pictures are about 5 minutes apart.) I had thought that I’d buy race photo’s from Brightroom, but they were nowhere to be seen for the character visits. So, having the heavier, but much more awesome camera paid off, big time. Disney had cast members at every stop, and they were more than willing to take pictures, thankfully.

Mary was happy as can be at this point, having her picture with Mulan (and more importantly, the Crazy Dragon), plus Daddy wasn’t pushing her hard to keep running… I wanted her to enjoy it. We can always work on speed later.

There’s that golf ball…

Watching the sun rise in Epcot was truly a beautiful thing. I ended up stopping her whenever she wanted to take a walk break and made her pose for me.

It’s going to crush me (the mind of an 8-year-old)!

Yes, we’re yelling for effect.

Right before this round of pictures, she needed to use the bathroom again, and this time, it wasn’t a porta potty! Real, live bathrooms, thanks to us being in the park! She was much happier at this development. Even happier when she realized the next characters were just ahead on the trail!

Jasmine, Aladdin and some monkey(s).

Another character stop, and a beaming little girl.

Mile 2: Still smiling.

Yes that clock is 12 minutes faster than our start, and yes, we’ve had multiple photo stops, 2 character stops, and another bathroom break. Clearly, we’re burning up the road.

But, thankfully, the water stop was coming.

I never understood how important and awesome a water stop was to her.

And the water was FREE! In DISNEY! Something is Free! It’s a Miracle! (oh wait, HOW much was this 5k?) I made a joke as we passed about this, and I honestly don’t remember ever getting as large of a response before. Everyone was having a great time.

Posing before the Golf ball.

We were entering the home stretch, and the magic of Disney was keeping Mary going. She’d been to Epcot once before, and remembered it fondly. Had the Geodesic been open, I’m certain she would have tried to detour into it.

Gotta involve Bambi.

Still Running strong!

Throughout training, I had to fight with Mary to run after we had passed about a mile and a half. There weren’t any problems for her to focus on today.

Doing the Hula.

My little goofball had dutifully posed and smiled and did a great job with photo opportunities, but she likes to cut up, and wants her silly pictures as well. Here is the last frame of her Hula impression, right before we reached the 3 mile mark. You can tell the race is taking a lot out of her.

Mile 3: We’re almost DONE!

She honestly could have gone for quite a while longer, given the pace and stops we were doing. Subtract 12 minutes and you are pretty close to our finish time. We’ll work on making sure the next one is sub 1 hour.

Finish!

I don’t know WHO is more excited.

Ok, I guess I do.

She’s done her first 5k, had a great time, and has a medal to show for it. It wasn’t an incredibly fast time, but it’s a PR, and those must always be celebrated!

Showing off to the Family

Heading to the Park to Celebrate!

This was a great start to the running weekend, but it wasn’t the end. We still had two more events to do. My son had to run for his Medal, and it’s a good thing Mary had energy left over, because she wasn’t done either.

I still had the marathon on Sunday, but that’s another post.

Jeffie was able to get Friday off from work, I was able to find cheapish hotel tickets, and the Puppy dog had all of his shots up to date. It was the perfect storm coming together.

It’s Friday morning, 7 am. Jeffie’s Uncle Greg was in Mobile, AL prepping, and would be wearing his arm out in 12 hours for Mardi Gras. We intended to see that.

(warning… Don’t read anymore if you don’t have high speed. More pictures than any post prior….)

So… Kids up, get dressed, and kindly be civilized about getting into your car seats! Jack, out of the Kennel, into the van! Throw the last bits of packing around the camera and computer gear already loaded into the van, and we are on the way! Oh yeah, sorry Jack, but your trip is considerably shorter than ours. 7:30am, Jack was introduced to the several young ladies that would be his escort for the weekend at the Franklin Kennels.

It’s about 6.5 hours to Mobile from Franklin. We didn’t make it in that. About Cullman, AL, we realized that the dresses for Mommy and Mary were still in the Kitchen. Outside of Montgomery, we did the Lunch stop as well as a bit of shopping to replace the articles that we weren’t going back for. But we did make it down in plenty of time.

I managed to get reservations at the Holiday Inn on Government street. It’s DIRECTLY on the parade route. The parades start on it’s back property, loop past the front of the hotel about half way through the route, and then runs along the side of the property at the end. It’s hard to find a better stop. Additionally, we were on the tenth floor, almost directly looking down on Government street.

Evidence A:

Our aunt Janie was planning on using room to get changed after the Parade, so that she could attend the Ball. We’ll have to do that one year, but this time was a bit rushed, and kids would need attending to. She brought a bag of Mardi Gras beads and treats from Uncle Greg for the Kids – Just in case. I can’t describe how much we appreciated it. It set the mood of the Kids absolutely perfectly, and really energized them for the Parade to come.

William was so excited he was going to crawl straight through the window. Some more of the Family started to appear, including the second newest arrival – Colin. (The newest arrival – Sean, was the second reason we made this trip. His Baptism was on Saturday – That will probably be the next post.)

Everyone was gearing up. It was a great temp outside, but down on the street, the wind knocked that temp right out of the park, so jackets and bundling were the order for the night.

Christian ready to grab anything coming his way!

Mary Vic… Not sure what’s really going on yet, but having a blast none the less.

Jim and the newest member… bundled and ready to go. Kid was undoubtably the warmest person on the street!

Great Grandma, Mary and Jeff – Great grandma was quite displeased that she didn’t know we were coming… telling everyone she did not like that she was ‘always the last one to know’. We responded simply by stating that it was hard for it to be a surprise when you knew what was going on. I don’t think she appreciated that.

No one knows what’s going on…. But we’re waiting and ready for what ever it might be! It’s out first Mardi Gras, first Parade, everything. I marched in a New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade, but had never been on the other side of the barriers, so it was a great night of firsts for our entire family.

We had a bit of an issue during the parade – Mary did her best to get the treats in the only way she knew how. Holding the bag open for them to put the stuff in. Needless to say, that simply didn’t work. There were tears, there was crying. Then, around the 3rd float, some stuff came back her way, Daddy was able to scoop up two roses for her, and the mood improved significantly.

Shortly afterwards, Mommy and Mary worked as a team to get (Mommy gesturing frantically and catching) the prize of the night! One BIG stuffed Dora the Explorer doll. The Conde who threw that doll made my daughters night and our trip was a fantastic success. See below.

We had a few more issues… One VERY large bag of beads (as in the original shipping bag… probably about 5-10 lbs) was hurled at us… And by us, I mean William and Great Grandma. Thankfully, I was able to snag it right before impact, but man that was scary. Brian took a few beads directly in the face, and Aunt Susan has a black eye from a bag of hershey kisses. I had things bouncing off my head, but I’m guessing some were aiming directly at the camera.  You have to be on your toes, and even that isn’t enough sometimes.

Now, there were a large number of great floats, and this post is long enough as it is. I’ll put up a gallery, or another post just about some of that. But, I would be remiss without this:

Uncle Greg’s Pirate Float! It was the last float of the parade, and frankly, that just made it the highlight of parade in our opinion!

Here’s the man himself. The Stuffed animal in front of him was especially for Christian, and it was delivered in style.

Success!

Unfortunately, the Rose for his wife was NOT delivered quite as well…. But we have proof that it was intended to be!

Collecting the aftermath. Uncle Robert grabbed William and they had a great time (William especially) collecting Doubloons that we had scooped to the area, but couldn’t grab until the barriers were removed. MV and Mommy grabbed half a billion Moon pies.

Mary and her loot! Her getting the Dora was absolutely awesome, even though William has attached onto it very much at this point.

I’ll post more, even if they are just captioned photos… We’ll see how well that goes. I took over 2000 pictures and it’s taking quite a time to work through them. There is the story of the after parade Photo shoot – Aunt Janie had the audacity to tell me that she wasn’t Photogenic. Oh, I have soo much proof otherwise. Plus we have the Baptism, and the parades Saturday Night. I sense a series of posts!

Mary woke up in the morning wanting to go back for a Volcano… It’s obviously going to be a challenge to keep this a special treat.

Today has been a good day. A cold day, but good none the less.

You’ve heard of the Dog days of summer?

These are the dog days of Winter. It’s a bit different than yesterday.

It’s off to the dog park in Franklin! Jack having no clue, the kids little more… Oh, and it’s 30 fricking degrees outside.

This is MY ball. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

I want to play with everyone. Socialization is good for Dogs, and Jack is definitely working that one through. We stayed for about an hour, and during that time, Jack attacked, was attacked, and generally made a mess of everyone and everything. Needless to say, he had a blast. Until the Bath.

Look at those Paws! He’s gaining weight all the time, and it’s ALL in the paws and ankles! Oh yeah.. and the ears. Radar dishes.

William was not pleased at the decision to leave BEFORE everyone turned to ice. But leave we did. Things to do, Puppies to bathe. Oh, there will HAVE to be pictures of the puppy being bathed, but not this time. We aren’t exactly pleased at the concept of water being poured all over us when it’s freezing outside. Of course, you have to pull the dog away from the pond continuously, but that’s irrelevant to the bathing thing.

Bath over with, Puppy dried. Kids in quiet time (William asleep, Mary.. yeah, right). But the day is not over. Dad set up the studio stobe upstairs, and it was time to goof off a bit before bed.

I had to try out the new camera body with some controlled (sorta) situations. Lots of light, fast sharp lenses… And a daughter and puppy ready to go after a bit of rest. I’m pretty impressed with the resolving power. Anyone want a 40 inch picture of a Puppy where you can see individual hairs?

The remainder of the album is here:

We’ve been twice in the last week, which is surprising to me. But then again, it’s a large playground to them… It’s not like they are going to actually spoil the fun learning anything.

Part of the attraction of the Science museum for me was obviously trying to get the kids interested in Science. That actually wasn’t very difficult. William isn’t showing preferences.. It’s all good. Mary is 5, so therefore EVERYTHING must be answered. If we can get the scientific method involved there, we’ll be ahead of the game.

So, we went for the Winter wonderland exhibit… Which, frankly, was an artificial snow machine (soap suds). Joy. And a Planetarium movie on Ice Worlds.

Color me unimpressed.

MV and W, however, were thrilled. 2 hours later, as we were leaving that afternoon (New Years Eve), it was decided that we would come back.

That turned out to be Saturday. Quicker than anticipated.

At this point, Daddy is reeling from a Camera body that he’s been waiting months for…. and it doesn’t focus. At all. The motors don’t click, nada. Disappointing is not really the word. So we’re taking the old one (which, truth be told, is still a good body. It’s just not … ), because the only place I could get stock on this was from a shop out of New York that I’ve done business with before. So there wasn’t going to be any resolution to this problem this weekend.

I’ve decided to limit myself even more, using a single 50mm prime lens.

Good news, it’s cheap.

Better news, it’s fast, which helps since there isn’t any LIGHT in this place.

Best news, it’s sharp, light, and makes a camera package that I can weave around the center without worry.

The Center of the Adventure Science Museum is a multi-story tower filled with various activities. It’s actually one of my biggest gripes, because it simply hasn’t changed since we first went there several years ago. A refresh would not hurt it one bit.

The kids didn’t care, so long as they could climb to the top!

The other area that seems to be static in time is the Body Quest exhibit. For William, the slide out of the lower intestine, complete with bodily noises was the best ever…

Unless you count the Ambulance.

Mary, who apparently maintains that a flower in the hair is perfectly sanitary in an OR, was intent on surgery. With Ketchup as the main tool, obviously. Apply directly to the retina.

Scattered around the center are various activities, including the ever popular coin eating spiral of death! Every aquarium, museum, and shopping center was one of these, and we have to hit it each time. The Adventure Science center was no different.

Or was it?

Yes, they plugged the hole at the bottom, so you could repeat the coin rolls over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. With Sister’s help, William was quite enthusiastic to do exactly that.

The newest exhibits were relating to the Sudekum Planetarium. The Kids really enjoyed this. 2 liter air pressure Bottle rockets, planet displays, stars, and weightlessness displays were all fun.

If they would only let Mary do them.

She’s big enough! Look!

No, NOT at the feet! Maybe in the summer.

And to close it out…. Jack stayed at home. Doing this.

(taken with the new body, manually focused, but in the dark! 2 stops better than the best the old could do! The replacement should be here this week.)

Laserjack from Greg Nicholson on Vimeo.

(No realtime imagery this time)

Early Christmas gifts, rare collectable Cabbage patch dolls, remote controlled cars, and who knows what else… are nothing besides the allure of a brown paper bag with holes cut out.

(Originally the bag was a Christmas gift bag without holes… Until Supergirl fell backwards through the temporary ice chest.)

ANYWAYS…. And then Jeffie comes driving up. 10ish. That’s not right.

Is everything ok?

Well, not really……

And in she comes with an 11 pound ball of fur and teeth. And Droopy eartips. She’s been given an 8 week old male German Shepard dog.

We had an incredible dog, that was with us practically our entire relationship. Jeffie came into my house AROUND THIS TIME of the year 15 some odd years ago, carrying Kosh. And we loved her dearly. She was the absolutely best friend and dog we could have ever asked for. She was the maid of honor at our wedding. (don’t ask me… Maybe Jeff will actually explain with a post. She hasn’t posted in a while. ) and she became super protector for both of the kids. But time and a spinal disease finally caused her to have to leave us, and it’s been a very different year without her. Some of the reduction in ‘hassle’ and certainly DOG HAIR (Kosh could shed more hair in an hour than some dogs do in a life) has been nice. But it’s also been much lonelier without that constant greeting at the door when we came home.

This GUY! is not Kosh. Oh, he reminds. (And you can actually see a picture of MV and Kosh IN his pictures) And oh boy, he’s cute and playful.

And 8 weeks old. Which is most definitely not house broken.

By a LONG shot.

Make that a light year WIDE long shot.

And my, those little puppy teeth are sharp. And Active. Cat 5 cables don’t stand a chance. Power cords should at least prove entertaining.

And HE’s definitely a boy, and he’s got a dominating personality. He did NOT like the Vet doing the physical. There was some snapping at hands during that. Ms. Kosh was as gentle as possible with the kids, and frankly, unless they or Jeff was in danger, would hurt anything more than a Fly. Flies were actually fair game to her. Rabbits too, but she never came close to actually getting those.

Puppy here… Oh, not at all like what we were used to. I can see the 3 year old Human boy grabbing the puppy, and fur and kid skin mixing with blood and flying. And I can definitely see the hugs and kisses immediately afterwards, from both sides. Too Protective?

I took him back this afternoon, after getting his shots and physical, leash, collar and food, before the Kids could see him. I’ve got to think about this, We have to talk about this as a family. I’m not saying ‘No’, but I want to be so sure before I say ‘Yes’, and introduce him to Mary and William. It’s a long commitment, and I want the best for both us, and him. I asked for a few days to discuss and think.

(And until we make up our minds he’s not touching the d0gz.net domain. Kids might see.)

I am so incredibly conflicted.

William isn’t potty trained yet. This guy doesn’t even know when he’s even peeing at this point. It would be a ton of work, and disruption. And Hair.

But then again, I have ALWAYS said that Mary was going to have a BIG Male German Shepard Dog, that was HERs. Not mine, not Jeff’s. Mary’s. So that when she’s Ten and playing outside, anyone that looks at her funny would have a curious feeling of being separated from their trachea. His name would be Guard.

I’m asking for advice. ANYONE. Do we take the puppy?

Do we wait for a little more age on the children? (William being my major concern. Mary is big enough and grown enough to begin to understand. She obviously wouldn’t take care completely of him, but I don’t worry about her jamming her fingers in his Eyes and having the ensuing battle of teeth.)

I don’t think he’s a bad dog. I think he could EASILY be the protector for both of them. He’s 11 pounds at 8 weeks, and looks to me like he’s going quite a long ways to grow. He’ll very obviously be a great dog. But I do so worry about that dominate personality and the different dog that He would be from Kosh. Both kids remember Kosh, and they played well with her. She put up with a LOT from them, and the worse she ever gave back was a licking (which ALWAYS actually did the trick in making them stop. She was a smart dog). I don’t see him being as laid back as her, and I worry about the initial learning curve from the children.

In a lot of ways, this is just for me to get some of my feelings and doubts out there. But I’ll still ask. Any suggestions?

In summary, before edit 1 there were nearly 6,000 frames.

With the initial cut, I deleted the frames that weren’t QUITE there. This included strobes that didn’t fire, focus points being wrong, or not seeing anything worthwhile at all.

That left me with over 4,000 frames.

You wondered why nothing was posted. Choosing from that selection isn’t easy. Tagging that many isn’t easy. And then, once you’ve done that, and you think you have your selections, you actually can start to WORK on them.

Historically, I’ve put these up chronologically. This year, we’ll try grouping them by subject.

Sunrise: As I’ve said earlier, it’s a miracle that these even were taken.

Sunset: What’s stranger, in most cases, I have frames from BOTH sunrise and sunset.

McGuires: Chronicled here, some of these you’ve already seen.

Fudpuckers: Fishing for Alligators. Need I say more?

Crabs: Mary still declares this to be one of her favorite activities. I think the idea of pulling a live crab from the ocean, and putting it in a bucket is her idea of heaven. The child IS weird.

Bird Feeding: The idea is to feed to Gulls so they come closer. THEN, you chase them down. One of these days they are going to get one, and then it’s going to get REAL interesting.

Beach: Yeah, we were at the beach. If it’s not in one of the above catagories, chances are, it’s here.

Everything else: Ok, there were some that didn’t fit. The experiment with the REALLY CHEAP and BAD underwater camera. William telling Papa exactly HOW he needed to make the ice cream. These went into the root folder.

We got back from Destin to find an order form for the Community Fall Festival… 4 days later. It seems EVERYTHING is moving quicker than it used to. Aren’t these things supposed to be closer to Halloween?

The Organizers of the festival included a parade, complete with a fire truck from the local station to lead. That was a great hit.

Mary decided on (or was forced into) her old standby… The Pumpkin. Complete with integrated treat pouch, this crowd pleaser is filled with cuteness.

That treat pouch caused Jeff significant gray hairs. It seems that Mary had taken one of our fridge magnets and placed it in the pouch.

It was conveniently shaped as a wine bottle.

She spent the majority of the parade in the following pose:

Personally, I found it funny enough to take the picture. Jeff was less than amused with her doing it, and exclaiming to any one that would listen:

I’m just having a few sips of some PRETEND wine.

Followed by her twisting a pretend cap on, and putting it back in the pouch. Repeat every 10 feet.

My only complaint is the screw top. I mean, come on. There aren’t many bottles in our house that aren’t cork.

The Festival itself was pretty standard fare, Bouncies, games, and catered by Famous Dave’s BBQ. Oh, and the firetruck stayed.

Ignore pretty much everything else, the kids enjoyed this more than anything.

The remainder of the pictures, are at the gallery page below: