The Rest of Our Trip

After the half, we went to eat some food at Perkins. We were pretty hungry. And we wanted more time to hang out with Jonathan and Kim before we had to head back to Miami :) When we arrived in Miami, we had dinner at Rico Pan - a delicious Colombian restaurant. Blaine and I shared a bandeja paisa - a very typical dish that is huge. We love how cheap and big the food is in Miami!

Exhausted at Perkins.

Monday, we basically woke up and packed our bags. We went to Dolphin Mall quickly to do some quick browsing and shopping. We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory too. Unfortunately, our trip had to come to an end. Mami and Damaris dropped us off at the airport. We were so sad to leave. We REALLY REALLY enjoyed the warm weather. It was gorgeous. Also, I didn't have enough time to visit friends or eat all of the yummy food that we wanted since we were in Orlando for the majority of our trip and I tried not to stuff my face before the race. 

We made it back to Utah around 1 AM and were exhausted. But it was well worth it! I'd like to thank all of our family and friends who made this trip possible and memorable! Since we didn't use our 4 day pass in its entirety this trip, we will be going back for sure during the summer! We can't get enough of Disney! Also, I got 3 pins when we went to Magic Kingdom. They asked if we were celebrating anything and we told them that this trip was our anniversary and my birthday gift. The workers made us feel special and wished us a "happy anniversary" all day! It was a great trip! Can't wait till we visit again!

Princess Half Marathon

So remember that part about attempting to get a good night's rest? Didn't happen... We tried to prepare everything as much as possible for race day. We had dinner the night before at Sweet Tomatoes and carbo-loaded. When the time came to go to bed, Blaine and Bruce were cracking jokes and we all fell into episodes of laughing hysteria. I think we were nervous. Who knows. But after a while, I became anxious because I have so much trouble going to sleep! Anyway, sleep finally came and so did 3:00 AM. Yup. We had to be at the race by 5:00 AM. With our costumes, breakfast, and traffic, we needed as much time as possible to get ready.

We met with Kim and Jonathan in the morning. Gosh I was so nervous. But at least we looked great! My mom did an awesome job with our costumes and Kim did amazing on hers all by herself!

Waiting to start!

With the best sister ever!

We started the race a little before 6 AM. It started at Magic Kingdom and ended in Epcot. This race was a lot of fun. Each mile marker was really pretty and they had Disney characters along the entire course. At one point, I became so excited because I saw a line for Aurora and Prince Philip. Next thing you know, they switched them out for Cinderella and Prince Charming. FAIL. I was so disappointed. Anyway, at times, I tried to run ahead to get a head start on the lines for the pictures. I wish I would've done this since the very beginning. It would've saved us some time. There's always next year. Around mile 8, we saw Blaine, my mom, Bruce, Jonathan, and Kim's parents in the crowd. It was so much fun to have them cheering for us! Definitely pumped me up for the next 5 miles!

A little over halfway

With the villains!

Belle found Gaston!

Damaris definitely had the most photo ops.
Beauty & the Beast characters were everywhere. 

It was crazy packed.

In front of Cinderella's castle.

Almost done! Only a 5k to go...

Crossing the finish line! No princess left behind!

So this was definitely a fun race. It was a great experience. BUT it wasn't like a serious half marathon. Obviously, you can decide to beat your time and do your best, but then what's the point of doing a Disney race and not experiencing the Disney part of it? Since I wasn't going at my usual pace and wasn't running constantly, I wasn't that sore at all the next day. It was also a lot easier to run at a lower elevation. I was so surprised at how much of a difference it makes. Blaine would call me while I was on the course and he said that it sounded like I wasn't even jogging! I sweat a lot when I run. But running in humid weather made me sweat a ton more than usual! Damaris said that I was soaked by mile 3! By the end of the race, it felt like I had dumped a ton of water on my hair. Yuck.

Surprisingly, I was a little disappointed with how crowded it was. The course was pretty narrow and it was so hard to run around people who weren't running. It got pretty annoying, real fast. But the magic of Disney made up for it. RunDisney did do a great job at having water and Powerade stations quite frequently. They also had a ton of medical stations with Biofreeze and Tylenol (which fortunately, we didn't need to use). But I have heard of big races running out of water before. So I was so grateful that they were really organized!

Do I recommend this race? Yes. Do I want to do it again? Probably...yes. For sure yes. Dressing up as a princess and running is always fun. And now that we know how it works a little bit better, we can plan accordingly. This is a great race to run with friends/family. That's what made it the most fun! Also, my costume was surprisingly comfortable. I saw people tossing tutus, tiaras, and sleeves to the side. Not this girl! I was worried about my sleeves the most, but they didn't bother me one bit! I told my mom that she should seriously consider making and selling race costumes on Etsy! I've seen some go for $190!

Damaris was a trooper and took all the pictures with her phone during the race. She had to take it out of her case/holder each time. I didn't have the patience for it. Thank you Damaris! Also, she paid for me to run this half as part of my birthday present. Best present anybody could ask for! Thank you! I look forward to running many more races together!

With the queen!

Glittery shoelaces and crown charms were a must!

Yes, I made him wear that shirt :)

With our princes who put up with all our craziness leading up to the race and
 who slept nothing at all and waited for us to finish forever.

My first medal!

Love these girls!

P.S. That blob on my right arm isn't a bruise or birthmark. It was a princess tattoo that came with our race packets :) 

P.S.S. My sister and I registered for the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon in April right after graduation. So we will be able to actually run and see what our real time is! I'm so excited! I think running is such a great tradition to have in families. I loved seeing grandmothers run with their daughters and granddaughters in this half. What a legacy of health and fitness! I really hope we can make running a tradition in our families!

P.S.S.S. (Last one I promise) I've decided that I want to run a full marathon by the time I'm 26. Yes. Call me crazy. But it is going to happen. I've grown to love running! It's amazing what you can train your body to do!

A Day in Magic Kingdom

The next day, we went to Magic Kingdom to check out their New Fantasyland. We waited in a long line to see Belle tell stories and for the new Little Mermaid ride. It was all very well done. They're still working on a roller coaster and some other things in this section. I can't wait till it's all finished!

Maurice's cottage

Prince Eric's castle

We were able to meet up with the Hoffmanns and Kim's parents and ride Space Mountain together. Splash Mountain was closed and, although we got fast passes for Thunder Railroad Mountain, it started having technical difficulties! We also went to Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. And of course, Bruce got chosen to participate. He always attracts people at these kinds of things. Damaris and I were dragged into it too.

Us on the screen. We had to act like aliens...

While we were waiting for the rest of the family to catch up with us (they had gone to the distribution center at the temple that morning), we had some smoothies and ice cream. The janitor in our area drew this cool Mickey with his broom and water. Even the janitors in Disney are magical! 

When the rest of the family arrived, we met them at the new Be Our Guest French restaurant. It was so pretty and the food was much better quality that you would expect from most Disney restaurants. The restaurant had 3 different rooms to dine in - the ballroom, forbidden west wing and the library. 

After lunch, we rode the new and improved Dumbo ride - mainly because Ivan wanted to. The wait was pretty long, but part of the "new and improved" part is that while you wait, the kids can play in a play area so that it doesn't really feel like you're waiting and standing in line. I think it's a brilliant idea! 

These 2 guys were too cool for the ride. 

We didn't do all of Magic Kingdom how we usually would, but we had to attempt to get a good night's sleep for the half marathon the next day! But it was a great day in Magic Kingdom! 

Love them!

Blaine finally started to feel much better.
Doesn't he look so skinny in these pictures?

She's the best sister! Tia bought us matching Minnie Ears. 

Miami & Disney Trip Part I

We left for Florida Wednesday early in the morning. We were so excited to take a break from school, work and the cold weather. It was weird packing short-sleeved shirts and shorts. We had a layover at Dulles airport in DC. There, we tasted Potbelly's for the first time. We've heard of them before from our friends and family who live in Texas. It was so good! The best part was their ice cream cookie sandwich. It was huge. I'm a sucker for ice cream sandwiches (or anything with ice cream, really)!

On our 2nd flight, Blaine ended up sitting next to this super nice businessman. They talked the entire way. I slept and read without speaking a word to Blaine the entire flight. This guy was a Harvard MBA graduate, Iron Man finisher (he has ran several), and was just the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He had a lot of advice to give to Blaine regarding the finance world, maintaining a work-life-family balance and his career. They did not stop talking about all this finance stuff that I barely understood. It was one of the most pleasant airplane rides we've ever had. I love it when you meet random strangers that remind you that nice, decent people exist in the world!

We were greeted at the airport by my tia, Ulises, Uli and Yuyo. It was so nice to get hugs and kisses from them. I can't ever get enough it. At their place, Georgina had cooked up a real Cuban feast for us - with extra yuca made especially for Blaine. She is so sweet to us.

The next day, Blaine woke up feeling pretty sick. He ended up having a stomach virus for the next 2 days or so. He was in bed all day while he watched me eat yummy Cuban food. Poor guy. While Blaine was sick, my mom worked on our costumes for the half marathon. She worked on it all day until 3:30 am. Needless to say, they turned out awesome. I was so petrified of getting Blaine's virus since I had to run on Sunday, but thank goodness a miracle occurred and I'm still healthy today!

She didn't want me to take a picture of her :)

We left for Disney on Friday, a little bit later than expected. We were all exhausted and we weren't planning on going to a park anymore since Blaine was sick. We made it to Orlando around 6:30 pm, right in time to go to the Fit for a Princess Expo at the Coronado Springs Resort. We couldn't really enjoy the expo a ton, but we picked up our packets, bought princess charms for our shoes and Kim bought me a headband that I needed for the race.

That night, we had dinner at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney. Kim and Jonathan also joined us. The food was pretty good and Blaine was able to eat a tiny bit and keep it down. My family surprised me and ordered dessert to sing happy birthday to me. My name also came up on their big screen. It was really nice to "celebrate" my birthday with them :) I have the best family.

Everybody at our table ordered fried lasagna.