The Marathon Part I

Last Saturday, Adam and I both ran all 26.2 miles of the St. George Marathon.  Since we had to travel down there anyway, we decided to make a vacation out of it!  So this Part I post will be about the vacation, and Part II will be about the marathon itself.  We left Rapid City last Tuesday, Sept. 28 and headed for Colorado Springs.  We stayed the night with our friends the Dunns and their adorable baby boy! We always have a good time with them, playing board games and eating yummy food :). 

 We left Colorado Springs Wednesday morning and headed for Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. 

 The name of the park was very appropriate:

 The sand was so hot.  We decided we'll have to go back and visit when the creek isn't all dried up.  

 Thursday morning we made our way to Mesa Verde National Park.  I'd have to say that it was my favorite of all the parks we visited this trip.

 Here we are by the cliff dwellings created by the Ancestral Pueblo who made it their home from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300.

 We were able to hike down to the actual dwelling and look around. It was sooo cool.

 Adam and I got to go down into one of the Kivas, rooms used for religious rituals.

 I couldn't resist posting Adam's Gilligan picture - he decided to wear Luke's sunhat.

 Thursday evening we made it to the Grand Canyon, where we met up with Adam's mom and dad. 

We stayed in a really fun, little cabin right outside the North Rim of the canyon.  Here is the view from our front porch and our cabin:

 Family pictures!

 Finally, we made our way on Friday through Zion National Park to reach St. George.

 Luke and I played in the pool that evening.  I couldn't resist using his new swim float that I picked up for 50 cents from a yard sale:

 I'm glad we were able to relax and have some fun before our big race!