California: Disneyland Marathon {Post 1 of 2}

At the beginning of September we got to go on a vacation to California for a week with most of my side of the family. {We missed you Tim, Megan & Emerie!} Some of us drove & we were the lucky ones because we got to see my Grandma & Grandpa in St.George and stay a night with them. I drove my younger siblings and it was quite fun! We had to stop along the way to get a picture by this sign---

{Chase, Devanee, Micah, Karli}

{Dev, Me & Karli}

{Dev & Karli happy to be headed to Cali}

We ended up getting there before the other's flights arrived, so we checked into our hotel in Anaheim and then headed to The Block (an outdoor mall like the gateway). There we shopped around and then ate at TuTu Tango. While we were there a lady made us balloon characters...

{Dev holding all of our balloons: Buzz Lightyear, Goofy, a monkey, ladybug, & flower}

The next morning was the Disneyland 5K which 3 out of the group participated in.

{Micah, Meghann & Dev at the starting line}

{Dev had to get her picture taken with this guy before the race}

{This isn't a very good picture they were just running TOO fast! :) Micah you can see plain as day but Dev is a little bit hidden behind that lady..}

{Meghann at the finish line}

They all did great!

We then spent the rest of the day hanging out at Newport Beach

{Dev got buried alive}

{I was enjoying reading all the advertisements being written in the sky above us}

{It was Porter's first time ever at the beach and seeing the ocean- he absolutely loved it!}

{Tyler & I}

The next day was the day of our race, the Disneyland 1/2 marathon!

We woke up around 4am to eat and drive over to the starting line. There were about 13,000 runners and we were lucky enough to qualify for Corral A which meant we got to start first- this was awesome because we didn't have to deal with much congestion at all during the whole race! Karli & I ran together almost the entire 13.1 miles but towards the end I lost her & soon found out she was only about 500 feet behind me when we finished. Tyler started to have knee problems at around mile 8 which was a total bummer but he, being the determined person he is, still finished! My oldest brother Aaron smoked us all finishing in 1 hr 48 min. I had a goal time of 2 hours and I hit it right down to the very second! I was super satisfied with my time & everyone was so happy when we found each other at the finish.

{Meghann took this picture of me running through Angel Stadium at about mile 10}

It was a great race, we had fun running through California Adventures & Disneyland and also running through Angel Stadium was WAY cool! You could see yourself up on the huge screen and there were so many people in the stands cheering us on. One thing that I thought was particularly cool about this race was that on our bibs they put our first names so that as we were running people would call out your name and cheer you on! It was a great idea for some extra motivation.

After the race we all decided to swim in the pool or hot tub at the hotel to help our muscles relax- we then all took a nice long nap!

This was only part of our adventures in Cali.. next post is all about Disneyland, Santa Monica & Corona Del Mar!