Color Me

My third race of this year... The Reno Color Me Rad. 

I like having something to keep me motivated in the exercise department, but this was way more for the fun and awesome crowd energy then anything else.

I didn't bring my camera, but man, there was some good shots wanting to be made...I wouldn't have wanted to carry it for the entire 5K, and I would have been too worried about it's safety with all that cornstarch flying around.
That said,  ere are few fun photos from the finish line...

I met up with three friends from work and my best friend this morning after some chaos up at the starting line Finding anyone, including yourself in the sea of white t-shirts and sunglasses was hard! 

After some mad texting, I finally found my crew.

I totally forgot how hilly the UNR campus is, good thing I have been running up big hills with my coworkers the past couple of weeks, made it a lot easier. I have no idea what my time was, and really, it doesn't matter. Just the fact that I have Rainbow Brite boogers and a giant (temporary) tattoo on my arm that says, "RAD" is enough for me.

Party!

Spider-man showed up around 9 this morning... 

I highly underestimaged the amount of space and tangle that 25 balloons would need and make.

there were presents (THANK YOU!)

and best friends

And cousins

and a whole heck of a lot of bouncing around by big and small. 

I think everyone is going to sleep well tonight!

Almanor

Camping, for the second weekend in a row. It means a lot of laundry, a lot of dusty dirty kids. But it also means family fun and good memories for the O and Fifi in the making. I can see why I our friends make a week out of going up to Lake Almanor, a weekend really isn't long enough.

We rolled in on Friday night and got set up and settled in to camp. The kids were hungry and tired from the week so we didn't' make it long at the camp fire.

 

Saturday morning we rolled out of the sleeping bag early and got coffee and eggs cooking and slapped the kids in their swim suits and sun screen.

The mud play started early. How could it not when the water is only knee high for well over 25 yards out? I try hard to let the kids just be 'in it' when we are camping. Not worrying too much about how dirty they are getting. It's a lot easier when the lake is there to rinse off in when it's time.

The dads took turns on the kayaks. Andy was so proud of his silly dog tricks.

The kids floated around in about 2 feet of water and had the best time squirting each other and dumping buckets of water off the side of the 'boat'.

There was a lunch time complete with a  dance party, complete with cherry juice.

Shot through the heart and your to blame...

 

And then I put my camera away because I needed some float time and cooling off.

I brought it back out again after dinner.

These are some priceless shots, if you ask me.

What a great crew of kids there was. Everyone got along really well and had so much fun.

The ride home was hot and more hot.

Good think for the Polka Dot stop in Quincy, CA.

soft serve, baby. soft serve.

 

someone is tiiiiiired.

I got an ice-cream headache I ate this so fast. I had to, it was melting so fast it wasn't even funny!

One weekend I want to take a drive on my own so I can stop and snap photos of all these great barns and abandoned buildings...

Until I get that figured out and organized... these are the shots your gonna get.

I didn't really want to go camping this weekend. I have had a nasty cough and we haven't been home for one weekend yet this month. But Andy talked me into it. I caved and really, once we are out there, I am okay with it all. Or have to be or I will be miserable. I am glad we have such great friends and that we are getting the kids out camping so much. They love it. It's a crazy full summer,

Face Painting

The week before we headed up to the cabin for the pre-Fourth weekend, my Dad-in-law went over an itinerary he had in his head for Saturday.

He had it all planned out, down to the hour, what we would be up to and what the kids would be doing.

 

I giggled to myself at his ambition. Had he forgotten that there was going to be 6 kids (actually 7 with the addition of a cousin from my bro-in-law's family) under the age of six, plus 8 adults and 4 dogs wandering around the joint?
Keeping everyone on track can be a chore in and of itself. But I nodded along with his ideas.

I totally loved that he had so many fun plans smashed in for the one full day we would all be there. 

One of the things he had on his "bucket list" for the day was, "Face paining, I really want face painting.Would you mind doing that again this year?"

 

Needless to say, Grandpa Mike was the first in line when I pulled out the paints.

The rest just snowballed from there.

I was pretty bummed out when I opend my new fancy face paint kit to find that someone had stole the 6 stencils and one of the brushes from the box, but I made due with what I had.

 

Despite this sleep boy look on the boy's face here, O has asked to have his face painted nearly every day since last Saturday.

Face paint is officially a part of summer 2012!

To the pool!!!

#vacationwasfun
#arizonawashot
#takemeback

More of our vacation, soonish.

insta-love

For Christmas I got A. an ipod touch. I took it over the other day.

I have been sneaking in a photo with it almost daily since. Still trying to find the post processing I like the best with it, I think I like early bird. How about you, do you insta??