The Color Run

July 14 was the Color Run! They claim it's the happiest 5K on the planet....and I agree!! It was so much fun!! I loved every minute of it!!

This is Matt and I before we raced! Nice and clean and ready to get full of color!!

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We were excited to be able to do it with some friends!! It's always more fun to do things as a group isn't it? Here are a few shots of us all nice and clean.

Katie, their friend, and Drew

Dwayne and Tara

Our friends (and some of their friends and family)- Katie, Drew, Tara, Dwayne, Amy, Ronnie, Keith, and Bell, Matt and I all got together and ran it. Missy and her crew were there too but we couldn't find them before the race. In a sea of people all dressed in white it's hard to find each other!!

See what I mean? That was the line ahead of us. There were that many or more people behind us!! It was CRAZY!! I hate crowds. HATE them...but for some reason races like these are so much fun and exciting they don't bother me at all!! This next picture isn't the greatest- but this is the line of people ahead of us. It looked like that behind us too. Crazy crowded- but amazingly enough it didn't feel cramped.

Tara, Bell, Amy and I all stuck together. We jogged some, walked some, went slowly through the paint areas. Needed to get SUPER colorful. It's the whole reason you are there right?!?! I may have even laid down in one paint area to make sure I was colorful enough. Tara made sure I didn't get trampled! :) And we even stopped along the way to ask a nice lady to take our picture! :) It was a blast!! I can't wait for us to do our next race next month and the month after! Again I have gone race crazy this year. I think by the end of the year I will have done 5 of them!! Considering I have only done 1 in my whole life up until now that is ah- mazing!

Me, Tara, Bell & Amy

 It was hot! But we made it and had a blast! Here are a few after pictures:

After the race you could gather in a crowd like this:

I am the one in a colorful white shirt standing next to Matt, Amy and Bell. :) Thanks to Dwayne for taking these pictures! Anyway you get in a crowd and they count down and you get to throw your own color paint pouch up in the air. Just to make sure you and your neighbors are EXTRA colorful!! Awesome good time!!




I would highly recommend it! It was a happy and fun and colorful time! You can't help but just smile the whole time and you totally forget you are exercising!!
















I really hope they come back next year!! Because I am TOTALLY in!!

More Summer Fun

Earlier this summer I wrote a post about what we had done so far this summer. This is what else we have been up to!

We had some cousins from Iowa come and visit us for the day! John and his two kids drove down for the day.

Josh, Erica, Zach V., Zach L., Alex

We all went to the zoo.  We started with the desert dome and then onto the kingdom of the night. We then headed over to see butterflies and bugs. Bugs are a favorite of Josh and Zach!!

Zach, Erica, Josh, Alex, Zach

And then went to see the baby giraffe! SO CUTE!! Not sure why I didn't take a picture of it. Hmmmm.....guess I was too busy looking at the cute guraffe, chatting with John or making sure I didn't loose one of my kids.

Erica & Zach

Alex & Erica

I think that the highlight of our zoo trip was the aquarium. We got to see the zookeepers cleaning out the shark tank. The zookeepers were really interactive with the kids! They waved hello, blew bubbles at them and showed them shark teeth they found on the ground! Erica thought the sharks were going to be rich after all the teeth the tooth fairy was going to collect that night!! I asked her what the sharks would buy with all the money and right away she said ICE CREAM! It was cute!!

Speaking of ice cream.....after the zoo John and I took the kids to get some! It was delicious after the warm day! At the time I thought it was hot. Little did I know that wasn't hot. It was only 90! It got WAY warmer a week or so later! Anyway, enough about the weather! Who am I my grandpa!?!? After the zoo, everyone came over to our house to hang out and eat dinner. This way Matt, Ronna and Larry could see everyone too.



It was a great day and we were so happy that they were able to come and visit!! We hope that they can come back again sometime!!

At the beginning of July, Meg came to town. We always love seeing her! Even if the circumstances she was here for weren't happy. We did get to celebrate the fourth of July with her. It was calm- well as calm as a mother and Tia Meg can be when you hand three 7.9 year olds a stick of fire and tell them to blow things up. **shudders** I'm a worry wort what can I say? Eric and his kids came over too!




Andy, Marcie, Mason and Jack also came to visit!! We had a great time- as always! Even if the weather was a million degrees here!! We got out the baby pool and "swam." We did other fun things too. But if you want to read about more of that visit click HERE.






I took the boys to Lincoln with some good friends and their kids. They all live in our neighborhood and we are all going to Spring Ridge together next year. It's really great to hang out with them!! We went out to lunch at a REALLY good sandwich place that I can't think of the name of. It was SO GOOD!! It reminded me of Potbelly. After lunch, we headed over to Morrill Hall.

Alex, Sam, Charlotte, Josh, Reid & Zach

It was SO much fun!! I hadn't been there since I was a kid. Honestly, I remember it bigger- but it was still a great time!! Plus I may have grown some since I was 10! So that makes my perspective a tad different. The kids all had fun looking at bones, watching videos of mating flies, looking at cool rocks, and they even put on a play for us!! It was great!!




I love hanging out with these guys!!



And I love how all our kids get along!! We have done tons of things this summer with them!! They have helped make our summer tons of fun!!


Josh is still busy cooking! He will cook any chance I let him!! He has even done 3 cooking camps this summer! Here he is making home made granola bars. They are delicious!!



We spent more time with Meg. We got to spend a relaxing day at the lake with her! It was wonderful!!




Zach even brought us ladies all a flower!



Josh is "cooking" salsa sandwiches.



Last week Joe and Kassie were up for the weekend. Joe was taking pictures for a wedding so I got to hang out with Kassie!! Which I love!!


We got Starbucks and painted pottery and chatted the afternoon away. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon!




Lately, we have been trying to find ways to stay cool!! It has been SO HOT!! 100 or over. Too hot to be outside. We went to see Brave with some friends, went bowling, and swimming a few times. I have to admit its almost too hot to go swimming. Weird but true!

Josh and Zach

There are only a couple weeks left in the summer. I am still a tad sad about it- I LOVE having the boys around!! No worries- I have a couple more weeks to cram in the fun!! :)

Look Who Turned 8!!!

On JULY 7 the boys turned 8!! EIGHT!! Wow- time is really flying!! They have really turned into some terrific boys!! I am so proud of each of them!!

Since I seem to do things in THREE (HA!) This year they had three birthday parties. One with my side of the family, a small friend one, and one with Matt's side of the family. Splitting up the family party was so much easier on me! Totally doing that from now on!!

For my side of the family it was nice. We had my parents, my aunt and uncle and some cousins over. We hung out, I had a taco bar for us to eat,

then we opened presents (as we stuffed ourselves silly with delicious tacos!)  The boys were even nice enough to let Sarah help them open a few.

After the food had settled, we ate cake! For this party, I made each of the boys a cake to their liking.  Josh wanted a Lego cake. He designed and built the Lego cake toppers. I think his 8 is quite creative and I love how he used mostly orange Legos! It's a very Josh cake! :)

Josh's Birthday Cake

Zach wanted a money cake. We found some gigantic paper coins and Zach designed how they were going to go on the cake. It turned out AWESOME!!

Zach's Birthday Cake

Alex wanted a Muppet cake. And he wanted ALL the Muppets. So this is what we came up with. Lucky for me, HyVee sold me the toppers without having to by the cake too!

Alex's Birthday Cake

I loved all the cakes and they totally represented each of my kids and what they are into right now! They each made a wish and we gobbled them down!!

Josh, Alex, & Zach

We had a great time!! Here is one last picture of all the cousins- well all the ones in town anyway.

Zach, Sarah, Alex, Mitchell, Josh & Liam

A couple of days later, the boys had their small friend party. They chose Bounce U again. They did this last year as well. It's kind of a task to agree on one place that all three will be happy with. Lucky for all of us- Bounce U they all enjoy and agree on. Thank goodness!!

I think that everyone had a great time. We even did the cosmic bounce this time. This is where they turn out the lights, give the kids glow necklaces and let them bounce.

After wearing everyone out (YEAH RIGHT!! There is no wearing out a bunch of boys!!) We ate more cake. Choosing one cake design was another hard choice- but they all agreed on Phinneas and Ferb.

Zach, Alex, Josh

A few days later we were ready for the next party!! We were excited because Andy, Marcie, Mason and Jack came to town!! We always have a great time with them!!  They spent a few days with us and we did lots of fun things! Like eat some ice cream

Mason, Zach, Alex, Josh

We hung out, went to a park, got family pictures taken, and went to a swim park. The next few pictures were taken by Andy.

Mason, Zach, Alex & Josh

My boys love the water slides!!

Zach

Zach gives the thumbs up approval!

Josh & Zach

And we may have worn out Mason!!





We had a great time!!




Of course, no birthday party is complete without a cake. I feel like this blog is turning into a blog all about what cake we ate. This one is from Cold stone. And it was delicious!!

Alex, Zach, Josh

So I think that about sums up how we celebrated the boys EIGHTH birthday!! Boy- time sure does fly by!! I feel so lucky to have these 3 really great kids in my life!!