You know it's really summer, when you've got watermelon in the house. I bought a giant one about two weeks ago...and we're still trying to finish the thing off. Sage has watermelon almost daily. And it's about the messiest thing you could give an almost-three-year-old. The juice from his slice will roll down his chin, down his belly, and all the way to his toes. I make him stand in one spot in the kitchen to eat it. Otherwise he'll leave a trail of sticky juice everywhere he goes.
This past weekend, I crossed off a bucket list item. I did a color run! I've wanted to do one ever since I ran into a woman in line at Panera who was covered head to toe in rainbow color. That was two years ago. The final motivating push was having my brother in town. Out of all of us, he's the runner. He does races all the time. So we talked about it, formed a team of four (lovingly called "I Pooped!" after Sage's habit of announcing his waste elimination), and signed up.
I had an amazing time. I think we all did!
We were worried about rain, but ended up with the best weather possible.
The pre-party was super fun. They had a big stage, and a couple DJs bumping fun and familiar songs. The crowd did a couple color throws (which is when you shake a bag of colored powder all over yourself and your neighbors) and then the run began.
Almost 7000 people were in attendance. It was a family friendly event. I saw babies in strollers and babies in backpacks. Mine were with their grandparents. Grandma Susan, Grandpa Bill, and Uncle Jack came all the way from Kansas to watch the little boys so Matt and I could have some child-free adult fun. They stood by the finish line and waited for us to complete the 5k.
There were four color zones placed along the race route, where you'd get blasted with more powdered color. By the end of it, we were all very colorful.
We decided to grab Sage and take him up front for some more color throws and dancing at the after party. Boy did he enjoy that! He got really into it. I think I might need to drag him along next year. He'll be almost-four at that time, and there's no reason he couldn't walk 3.1 miles at that age.
Immediately after the run we headed to Austins for lunch and Bloody Mary's. What a way to end the morning! We got a lot of looks from people. But I'm thinking the race bibs were enough of an explanation for them.
All of us were pooped after the eventful morning... including both my little boys.
We stuck around the house the rest of the evening, spending most of it in the backyard.
Sage has been working on his pitching skills. He'll bat every once in a while, but he much prefers to throw. He's good! I think Little League is most certainly in our future. (And I'm nervous about the time commitment. Seems to be a big one from what I hear.)
Two nights in a row we built a fire, sat under the stars, drank an assortment of cocktails, and told stories. I said to my parents at one point, "If you could bottle up moments to re-live later on in life, this would be one of them." And I meant it. Those were special times.
On Sunday we all met up at Coopersmith's for an early lunch.
Once again, Bloody Mary's made an appearance.
After all, this was vacation time!
Kale is starting to get tough to manage at restaurants. That sweet spot of innocence is almost gone. He requires lots of attention now. I gave him anything I could think of to entertain him....like straws.
On Monday, Matt, Sam, and Alison, headed back to work, so our group shrunk by quite a bit. The little boys, Jack, Grandma, Grandpa, and I headed to Fossil Creek Park for some playground time.
Sage tried out every riding toy in the park....
And he did a good deal of climbing.
My dad flew out Monday night. My mom stuck around for a couple more days. She kept both the boys home all by herself on Tuesday and Wednesday. She wanted the full "Grandma Experience." What would life be like if she lived in town and could provide free childcare for me? She found out quickly, it would be a lot of work!
I told her to make sure she had wine in the house, because she would want a drink by noon. Those boys gave her a run for her money. I think she forgot how tough it can be to have a fully-mobile toddler and an almost-mobile infant demanding every possible minute of her time. It's exhausting!!
Kale is now officially nine months. He still has no teeth, and he's still not crawling. But he is so so close to becoming mobile. He can now get himself to a sitting position whenever he wants. He can scootch himself backwards on his bottom. And he can get himself onto all fours. But he cannot propel forward.
Soon though. I know it's soon.
