Our second day of vacationing started very early for my sisters and I. A while back, Melanie looked into the possibity of there being an actual 5K run in California the week we (sisters) would all be together. And sure enough, she found one. Not only was it in California but it was even in the same town where my Grandparents live! Who would have thought, right? I mean,what are the odds?! So after talking about it, we (sisters) all decided to sign up for it. I think we signed up back in February or the beginning of March. Either way, this is how the "5K Color Run" in this post came to be.
Emily and I where preparing for it, really well too I might add. I was even following an app and everything working my way up to running 3 miles. But of course, that all came to an end at Easter time when I found out some unexpected news ... I was pregnant. (Sorry to those of you who might have not known yet. I did my best to let everyone know before this post. I will be making a post about being prego soon though, stay tuned!) I saw my doctor the week before we left for California and he said it wouldn't be good for me to start anything new and to just take it easy for the race. Come to find out, my smart sister Melanie put some puzzle pieces together, and found out by mistake that I was was pregnant, which to be honest was probably a blessing because she then was able to convince Emily to take it easy for this upcoming race. I told Melanie and Emily that they could totally run on ahead without me and that I wouldn't mind; I hated the fact that I would be slowing them down. But being the great sisters they are, they didn't want to leave me behind. Just finishing the race together was good enough for them. And to be honest, I thought it went pretty well. I did jog quite a bit of it, a slower pace type of jog, but a jog nonetheless.
I don't remember our exact finish time but I remember Emily was saying it was around 45 minutes total. Knowing my luck, I'm completely off about the time by an hour, but oh well who knows, but hey, we finished! Either way we got up at about 5:30 a.m. (I think) so we could get there early and be near the starting line since we had other things we needed to get to do that day with the rest of the family. It really was a fun experience and I'm glad the three of us got to do this race together. I look forward to the next race (someday ... not anytime soon) that we can do it again together, not pregnant! :)
We wanted to get a before and after picture of the three of us in the same spot . This is obviously the "before" picture! You'll see this same location farther down afterwards. Some nice color run participant snapped the picture for us.
I had to post this picture just so I never forget the discussion Melanie and I had right before the race, haha. Who ever knew or came up with the concept "Runner's trot"! Ha ha! This race could have been a lot worse if I didn't have this mild 5 min discussion with her, haha, thanx Melanie!
This picture kind of shows what I was thinking, "This is CRAZY!" I'm not much of a runner ... in fact I've decided I'd rather ride a bike than run. Either way I truly was happy to be there, for my sisters that is, haha.
There's the start line! The following quote is what I posted on my facebook about this picture:
"About to start our 5K color run. Oh yes, I have ALWAYS wanted to run a 5K while vacationing. Oh well, the point is I am glad to be here to share this 'lack of oxygen' and 'gasping for air' memory with them. I hope I make it. :S"
There was a bubble machine!! Possibly my favorite part of the race! (Just kidding)
As you can tell, Melanie sure looked happy in this picture, they were playing some "So Happy!" song too, haha.
And....... we're off!
After we went through the first color or powder, which was blue, Emily had to take a picture of us. They said I had really blue teeth, which I can see is more obvious in this picture. :)
Time for the color purple! I got it good, but Melanie and Emily had none on them so they ran back to the beginning of the color throwing to get re-splattered with purple. I was quite content with the amount I had and snapped a picture of them running out of it.
Now Yellow, Melanie went back for more color.
The end result of all the colors, Melanie and Emily kept laughing at me telling me I had a blue mustache. I guess I really did, never knew till looking at this picture. :)
The finish line!! Yeah!!
The after party that we hung out at for a little bit.
After going through the finish line, they handed us each individual color packets to throw at the after party. These are the pictures we took of that.
I'm surprised we didn't get bronchitis or something from all that colored powder! I was told it was cornstarch.
My sisters and I were quite fascinated with this mirror thing. You put your head in it and have your friend look in the other side of it to see multiples of the other person. We were all on a powder high and had to each get a picture of ourselves.
This picture has a funny story behind it as well. Emily held up her phone camera to take a picture of herself, when she put the phone down, she saw Melanie posing thinking Emily was taking a picture of her. We all had quite the laugh, Emily instantly was all over recapturing Melanie's pose she had the first time. :)
I guess I should have put my arms up too lol, oh well.
These where the cool tattoos that came in our bag that we picked up before the race. Melanie, being the runner that she is, knew all about the tattoos and told us where to put them.
Melanie has this very expensive running watch that she got on sale and she didn't want to get it ruined by all the flying powder so she wrapped it up in plastic before the race and was still able to use it.
Our hair!
Melanie (left) Emily (right), me (bottom)
Our after pose at the same spot from up above.
My dad snapping some pictures for us once we got back to our grandparent's house.
My dad blowing us off with my Grandpa's air blower.
My Grandpa Hawkins (my dad's dad) turned 80 years old this past December. We would have loved to do something then but because December is such a hectic time for everyone, we all got to talking and planned a trip for the end of May. It's been awhile since us four kids have all been together and it has been even longer since we have been to California to see our dad's side of the family so we decided it was about time for another family get together in California!
All of my dad's siblings, except for one, live in California. (My Aunt May lives in Louisiana.) So once our family was able to come up with a time we could all make it to California, we coordinated with our California family and made plans for a "Surprise 80th Birthday Party" for Grandpa! It was a lot of fun and my Aunt Jenny did a great job in planning it! So much yummy food was brought and many, many people where able to attend his birthday party. My Grandpa thought he was going to a "family reunion" type of celebration at the park ... he had no idea we were all there to celebrate him! It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we where able to go.
My aunt Jenny arranged it to be held outside of a church house with a pavilion. This was the picture I snapped of Braxton watching a show on the way there. It was the movie "Frozen" and he loves the part and laughs every time when Anna and Elsa talk about the smell of chocolate.
My Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins
A couple of my cousins that live in California in the picture below.
Mom with Melanie's kiddos.
(They live in Washington so we don't get to see them as often!)
My cousin Courtney's daughter, who was a baby the last time I saw her which was when Jackson and I got married!
Cousin Gabby playing with Braxton.
Picture time! My siblings and I got the "picture taking" started.
My dad and mom.
My siblings.
We did whatever the photographer told us to do lol
My sister Melanie and her family.
My brother Wade and his family.
Us!
My sister Emily.
Everyone!
All of my parent's grandchildren!
My Aunt Anita showing Braxton some of the pictures.
Someone got warn out!
Time for pictures with my grandparents.
All of my Grandparents grandchildren that were there! (10 out of 15)
Add in the Great Grandchildren!
Taking pictures is not a lot of fun for kids. During the party there were a lot of fun games set up for the kids to play and one of them was a sucker board. All day the kids had wanted to actually "eat" the suckers. So when the kids started getting fussy during the picture taking, my dad went and got the board and bribed them that if they let us take a few more pictures they could have the suckers. It worked!! Here is the picture of them finally getting their suckers!!
Braxton LOVES suckers! It was so cute to watch him. In fact, my dad picked up the board and walked away to see what he would do. Sure enough Braxton just followed him in the circles he was walking. It was funny.
My Grandparents with their children.
Another silly pose.
My grandpa and his brothers Dick and Jack. Their sister Bernice has passed away.
The wives (Grandma, Sandra and Kathy)
All of my Grandpa's family except two granddaughters attending college, two granddaughters serving missions, and one granddaughter and her husband that were out of town.
Now a picture of everyone that attended Grandpa's party.
As my sister would put it, what a popular fellow my Grandpa must be. :)
Grandpa and his cake.
Grandpa doing his famous finger trick with the cake that I mentioned a couple posts back.
As mentioned a little earlier, my aunt Jenny had a ton of activities set up for all the kiddos. She did a great job at keeping them occupied. These boxes were an "angry bird" set up where the kids can shoot angry birds at the pigs like the real angry bird game. Such a clever idea.
Sorry for the butt shot Uncle John ... Braxton sure loved ya and thought you were quite funny though!
Just hanging around after eating cake.
Braxton found the sucker board again!
The adults had different games going on at every table. The Hawkins folk are into playing lots of games. That's one of the things I loved about going to Grandpa's house or them visiting us ... always a game of cards!
Back home and getting all showered so we would would be ready for Church the next day.
Ella and Kadie sitting with Jackson.
Mom with Braxton and Aimbree
It was such a fun day, we got some great pictures too that I was very happy with. I'm also thankful for my husband's photoshop skills that helped a bit. Happy Birthday Grandpa, I'm so glad we where able to spend the day with you and Grandma! Love you both!
(Just a reminder, now that you have read the post, you can go back and click on a picture and it will display all the pictures larger so they are a little easier to see!)
(Just a reminder, now that you have read the post, you can go back and click on a picture and it will display all the pictures larger so they are a little easier to see!)
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