When I was originally planning my marathon, I wanted to do the one in Kingman, Texas. It is flat on a greenbelt and has the biggest medals in the country. (Figures it's from Texas!) It's on New Year's Day. So I decided to run the Joshua Tree half marathon in the beginning of November as part of my training.
When I changed my goal marathon to St. George in early October, I knew doing a half a month later was a terrible idea. So I asked Brandon if he wanted to take the bib. We figured Joshua Tree was a national park we could cross off our list without going there for no reason (neither of us REALLY cared about seeing it, so this was perfect!). Plus, never a bad thing to have a half marathon to train for!
The day before we drove down to Joshua Tree, James was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Remember how just six MONTHS ago we were finally done with the ear infection from you know where with Cora? Yep, whoopee.
We made it down to Joshua Tree fairly uneventfully, minus a giant meltdown from James halfway through.
Since Joshua Tree half marathon is a night race, we drove down that morning. Brandon had been training
Luis and two of his sisters also ran the half, so Ashlee and Charlotte came down to cheer them on. James tried to step on Charlotte a few times, which is a nice cousin thing to do.
When we went to Del Taco for dinner, the irritation in James's throat was too much and he projectile vomited all over the table a few times. Which led to cleaning up the table and running to Dollar General to get him some pajamas before meeting Brandon at the finish line.
Brandon said that was the hardest race he's ever done. It was in the middle of NOWHERE, in sand, in pitch black. Anything beyond what your headlamp could see was black. And since he didn't accept the bib transfer in time (we didn't know he had to "accept it", so while I transferred it in May he accepted it on the way to the race), his shirt was still my size. So I got a good shirt out of the race!
The next morning was Daylight Savings, so the kids were up at like 6. So I guess it could have been worse!
We decided to go check out the park before church. Joshua Tree is... the WEIRDEST most HIPPIE town we have ever seen. We've been a lot of places, but this was something else. So many van living people. So many crazy mountain climbers. After the beauty of Bryce Canyon and Yosemite this year, it was a little bit underwhelming. BUT, I can see how if someone is super into rock climbing and the desert aesthetic they would love it.
Cora loved climbing on the big rocks. She looked so cute in her new dress that I just let her (and hoped her balance was good!)
National Park 13!
This is a cholla cactus, or a jumping cactus. It is very sensitive, so we made sure the kids got nowhere near it.
OBVIOUSLY I had to take a picture. WORLD FAMOUS!
Since James's favorite stuffed animal right now is "Dine" the dino, we had to stop when we saw the big dinosaurs.
Run away!
Crazy 24 hour trip to Joshua Tree. Fun to explore, we'll see if we return!
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