Oh, did I mention I ran a half marathon on last Monday, Memorial Day?! Yeah, you can go ahead and say it, I’m amazing! hehehe.

You can see proof here and here.

Because Miles and I ran the race together, neither of us were able to take pictures. A few good friends/spectators got some shots of us though. As soon as I can round up some pictures I’ll post them here. So stay tuned to see pictures of a couple of very sweaty, tired, and feeling-very-accomplished Michelle and Miles!

Official time: 2:05:36—We were trilled!

The past week has been incredibly eventful and fun!

It started when my sister and her family arrived last Sunday night. She, her husband, and three girls came to celebrate her two oldest daughters’ birthdays. On Monday we spent the day at the beach. Laguna Beach. My favorite beach. Parking usually stinks at Laguna, but this time of year it’s not too bad.

And of course they spent the mandatory two days at Disneyland. Miles and I devoted an entire day to Disney (using our beloved annual passes). The second day, I sent my sister with her husband and two oldest girls and I offered to watch their youngest (almost 3-year-old). Watching two little ones wore me out more than spending the entire day at Disneyland! I don’t know how mothers with more than one do it! By the end, I was counting the minutes until they walked through the door!

On Pirates of the Caribbean. Link freaked out on this ride and clung to mommy the whole time!

Link enjoys the carousel.

Waiting in line for the Pinocchio ride. Link didn’t dig this one either!

We found that using the backpack was much easier than a stroller. Link enjoyed just hanging out.

10-year-old Kiarah was brave and went on Space Mountain with me and her mom.

The birthday girls!

The girls’ favorite part was meeting the Disney Princesses: Ariel, Jasmine, and Belle.

Bell was their favorite.

My try-out pose for becoming a Disney Princess.

And this is Nate’s pose.

And here are the girls showing off their new princess merchandise. Notice Avery posing in her new Belle flipflops.

Here she is again.

And again

It was so much fun to see my sister and her family. I love my nieces to death. Nate is a stud and is so easy to be around. Their visit flew by. I miss them. Good thing I’m planning a trip to St. George in June!

So my sister’s family and my parents basically passed each other on the freeway. My sister left of Thursday for home, and my parents drove in to California Thursday night. My mom and dad were kind enough to watch Lincoln while Miles and I went on an overnighter (our first night away from Link) for our fourth anniversary. It was perfect! Link was an angel which made it so much easier to be away.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We stayed in the Hyatt on the Back Bay in Newport. We ate at an amazing seafood restaurant (The Cannery) which is right on the bay. You can literally drive your boat up and park (if we had a boat that is). I had the crusted halibut with these purple sweet potatoes and champagne sauce, and Miles had the swordfish that had a nummy mustard sauce. Both dishes were incredible. We had two desserts that night. Decadent Chocolate Molten Cake from the restaurant and a Reese’s Chocolate Peanutbutter Carmel Apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. We had the left overs for breakfast in the hotel room!

Then, because we didn’t have our normal 7:00 pm curfew (Link’s bedtime) we went to a late showing of Star Trek. Miles loved it. And it was just alright for me. Just not my kind of movie I guess. But good for what it was.

We didn’t get to sleep until 2:00 in the morning! Then, we got to sleep in, but couldn’t sleep later than 9:00am. I guess that’s what happens when you get up at 6:00ish every morning (including weekends) for the past year. We were meaning to go for a run around the Back Bay loop trail right from our hotel room, but Miles forgot his shoes. Luckily we were close enough to home where we could swing by and pick them up. We finally got on the trail at about 1:30 in the afternoon. The run was hot, muggy, long (10.5 miles) and there wasn’t much water along the trail so we were miserably thirsty. I seemed like the worst run of my life! We did it though and afterwords we went straight to the closest gas station and bought 2 gallons of liquid (water and gatorade). Then we went and relaxed in the hotel hot tub and took a refreshing poolside nap. Ahhhh. Perfect!

So these pictures already look dated. Does that mean we are getting old? The world was in that limbo stage between digital and film when we hired our photographer. We went with film because the photographer was cheaper. We were happy with how the photos turned out but some quality was lost when we had them scanned.

Aren’t we hot?!? No wonder Link is such a cutie

Anywhoo. Yes, we have been married for four years. Phew. Can’t believe we made it! tehehe. No really, it’s been a blast. I remember thinking soon after we had gotten hitched, that marriage was just so much more FUN than I had expected.

Another thing I remember was something our sealer told us after the wedding ceremony (one of the two things I remember about the sealing. It’s all a big blur now) was something to the effect of “if you think you love each other now, just wait.” That profound statement is proving true. I love Miles more now, though I didn’t think it was possible then. Love must be exponential. I know it’s eternal. It just gets bigger and better.

This past Saturday I ran my first 10K race ever! We raced with 5,000 other people in the Seal Beach 5K/10K. It was such a blast! I was on a high all day!  I felt like I could conquer the world. I ran with my friend Hope, who’s been training with me from the beginning, and my husband who just picked up running again this past month. He ran cross-country in high school and hadn’t run 6 miles since. And he kept up with me the whole time! Grrrrr. Guys bug!

Anyway, we ran it in under 1 hour, which was our goal. I think I could have pushed a little bit more. I still had some in me at the end. My official time was 58:40. Miles’ time was 58:41. I beat him! Ha! Actually, we held hands across the finish line. How sweet! Hope came in less than a minute after us. So pretty much what I’m saying is, we’re amazing! Never in a million years did I think I would run a 10K, let alone train for a half marathon and possibly a full marathon. *shudder*

We are still on track for running the Half Marathon in Laguna Hills on Memorial Day, May 25th. We’re doing 8 miles again on Saturday. Yay for us!

Don’t you think this picture is funny? It looks like I’m balancing the pier on my head!