DL Half Marathon weekend-o-fun!
We pulled it off... we surprised the kids with a trip!
It wasn't really planned as a surprise for them... it was planned as hubby's first half marathon... but we just never told the kids about it.
And somewhere along the line we decided, we made it this far without them knowing, let's see what happens if we tell them on the way to the airport.
Ok, more on that in a minute... let's take a second to acknowledge why we are here....
This year is the 10th anniversary of the Disneyland half marathon. It is also the 60th anniversary of Disneyland. Together, these things were part of what pushed hubby to go for it with this race. Lots of other things came into play, but the extra specialness of the anniversaries.. helped.
He has run a 5k, 8k, 10k, 12k, 13k, 15k, and 10 miler.. but this is his first Half Marathon.
And I wasn't about to miss it. It's over a holiday weekend, so we decided to all come.. yes, it's another trip, awfully close to our big summer trip.
I have no excuses.. we are nuts.
The big event is Sunday at O'dark thirty. And will be followed by a day and a half in the assorted parks here in Sunny California, with a little bit of time to see family and friends, if we are lucky. And maybe even some time for our runner to rest and recover..... so he doesn't regret bringing his cheering section :)
Back to today.....
I mentioned to the kids earlier in the week that I would be picking them up from school at lunchtime on Friday. They asked why, and I replied... somewhere we have to be.... apparently they both assumed we had a therapy appointment or something like that (between PT, OT, etc... we have done them all). So I picked them up and we went home.
When we walked in the door our boy was questioning my choice in coming home. And then he noticed the suitcases. Hubby and I said very little.... "Well, Dad is running the half marathon on Sunday", wait for assorted looks and comments... "Hey, what do you need in your carry-on for the plane?", more looks and confusion... "What? you didn't want to go to Disneyland?".
There were no shrieks or tears of joy... but they were shocked and happy. The car ride to the airport was spent getting them up to speed.
We had a few delays along the way... low lying clouds in Seattle... um? is that fog?
And traffic in LA... but then, there is always traffic in LA, right?
We are staying at Paradise Pier and it's great... themeing is fun, beachy, surf-y with lots of hidden mickeys. Our room has a great park view.
We made it to Packet pickup and got all our stuff... race stuff for hubby and Cheer Squad stuff for the kids and I... yes, we take this stuff seriously ;)
Our big splurge this trip is staying club level (sometimes called concierge). The easy access to munchies and drinks was a bit of a draw, and as luck would have it the concierge host called hubby while we were walking to packet pick up. She was putting away the evening appetizers and wanted to see if we'd like any set aside for us, since she knew we had just checked in and maybe didn't have dinner worked out yet.
Soo nice!
So when we returned with all our gear, we popped into the Beachcombers Club (the concierge lounge) And as the kids and I picked out a few desserts from the selections that were now out, hubby picked up a HUGE tray of crackers, cheeses, veggies, and fruit. Huge. This was all hubby and I needed, but we ordered up some more substantial food for the kiddos.
After eating and some time to chill, we hit the hay. You can see World of Color from our room, we didn't add the soundtrack tonight, maybe tomorrow.