Teresa and I signed up for a 5K and we entered the stroller division.  The race was on Sunday so I made it a mini vacation for the family.  On Saturday afternoon, we drove down to Santa Cruz, which is only about an 80 minutes from SF.  I booked a motel located near the beach and the race start and it was good enough for the night.  After we checked in and unpacked, we walked down to the beach.  I knew it was close to the beach but we were still surprised at how close it really was.

It was fortuitous that Isla’s party favor was a beach set complete with bucket and three tools.  So, we put on Kumquat’s swim diaper and rash guard and headed out.  I was curious to see how she would respond to the waves this time and I was so proud of how calm she was this time around!  She happily walked down toward the water with me and sat down to play in the sand.  She loves sand but usually once she sees or hears the ocean waves, she becomes a hot mess of tears and crying.  She was even willing to walk down to the water with me until she saw the water roll in toward her.  She never made it to the water but she was able to just say “no” or call out to me without crying.  It sounds silly but I was so proud.

After playing in the sand, we walked down to the famous boardwalk and it was super cheesy.  So, we walked back to the nearest bar and sat down for a couple drinks and a snack.

Ah…it was a nice little getaway moment.

For dinner, we picked up Mexican food from the taco stand on the way back to the motel and we spent the rest of the evening in the room.  We watched cable tv and just hung out.  Unfortunately, Kumquat was not in the mood to sleep and once she fell asleep, it didn’t last long.  She woke up coughing and coughing to the point of almost throwing up.  Poor thing had a hard time falling back asleep and I ended up having to put her in the stroller.  At 3am, she woke up again and luckily it didn’t last as long as the first time.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get much sleep and I almost overslept this morning.  I thought I set my alarm but it didn’t go off and the only reason I woke up was because Kumquat started to cry again at 7am.

Well, we both got ready and let Jes sleep in.  It was chilly outside but the view was so nice on the walk up!

We met up with Teresa and her family at the lighthouse and then headed up to the start.  The race started out really slow because they didn’t separate the walkers from the runners.

Pushing the stroller was harder than usual because I was busy weaving, braking, speeding up, and fighting for space to run for the first 2 miles.  In fact, my arms are pretty sore from all the maneuvering.  T-Rex got a pretty big workout today.  Kumquat did a good job behaving throughout the race and afterward.

She even warmed up to Teresa’s dad pretty quickly.  Henry slept through the whole thing and he looked so content in the stroller.  What a cutie.

This was such a fun event and hanging out with T is always fun.

Rawr!  Yay Team Tiger!

We had brunch before heading home and lucked out on a smooth drive back.  Unfortunately I was feeling pretty crappy and I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking lots of fluids.  Jes also made some Italian wedding soup, which really hit the spot.  I guess I caught Kumquat’s cold.  Bummer.