Color Me Rad 2012

9 weeks ago a good friend of mine mentioned to me a 5K that she was interested in running called Color Me Rad. If you've never heard of it, it's a 3.12 mile run where everyone starts out wearing perfectly white shirts and throughout the race you pass through color stations where the "bomb squad" throws/shoots you with colored corn starch and water. By the end you're covered in color!  

Or as the website puts it "You'll start off with a shirt as pure and white as your grandpa's dentures and you'll soak up enough color while running to change your skin tone forever.  You'll wind up looking like a pack of skittles - just make sure not to "taste the rainbow."

So I decided to take on my very first 5K ever!  It's not timed so no pressure there, the benefits were to go to the Cal State Bakersfield Foundation and it sounded like a blast!  But of course it wouldn't be all that fun alone so seeing as my mom climbed Mt. Whitney with me a few years back she was my first obvious accomplice followed closely by my older sister, Nichole. Together we'd make it a fun Mother/Daughter run!  

  We signed up with the team name of "GOING THE DISTANCE" and set out to do just that. I immediately started the couch to 5K running program. I even ran over my time and did 3 full 5K's a week in order to get ready.  By the end of my training I had run over 70 miles and could run it in less than 30 minutes! It took lots of hard work, determination, encouragement and babysitting.  I couldn't have done any of it without the help of my very good friend, Bre who watched the kids every time I ran.  From the bottom of my heart I thank her.

Then came the day of the run.

Here's our Color Me Rad BEFORE picture.  Notice how perfectly white we are! 

Me, Nichole & Tammy (my mom)

 Waiting with the crowd at the starting line. We ran in the 3rd heap of the 8:20 time.

 Nichole and Mom at the starting line. Also notice the tutu behind them. There were lots of those.

Mom showing off her backwards running abilities. Have I mentioned she's awesome! :)

Meanwhile my dad and brother-in-law watched the kids at a park that was just along the route so they could watch, cheer us on, and even run with us a bit. A major highlight of my day was getting to run alongside my kids.

And we all made it across the finish line! 

Here's our Color Me Rad AFTER picture to prove it.

 Afterwards we took the color back to the park and color bombed all the kids.

 The kids all throwing color. I love the excitement in this picture!

Preston, my #2 child, looking as cute as ever. This boy is super photogenic!

Me with my 2 oldest, Evelyn & Preston. Evelyn's showing off our color packets.

My Dad, Mike, with 5 of his 7 grand kids. He was looking too clean afterwards so I did him a favor a gave him a nice big hug afterwards. He got me back pretty good with some water and gave my mom a big hug too. It was fun and sweet.

It was awesome and I LOVED every minute of it!  I would definitely do it again and might even consider letting the kids do it too. Thank you to everyone who supported and encouraged me during my training. Thanks for the numerous facebook "likes" and comments. Thank you so much Bre, my dad, and James for helping with the kids and most importantly thank you to my mom and sister for sharing this fun experience with me.  I'm looking forward to next years adventure... Half dome!

Evelyn's First Lost Tooth

June 2nd, 2011~
  After weeks of tooth wiggling and a lot of apprehension on Evelyn's part we finally decided it was time to pull Evelyn's first tooth. For fun we experimented with the classic doorknob technique but after a couple of unsuccessful attempts Andy had to just pull it out.  There were a few tears shed but for the most part she was all smiles :D

Evelyn after daddy pulled her very first tooth

There it is, here first lost tooth!  The bottom right incisor.

Such a beautiful smile :D

Our Little Shark

May 23rd, 2011~

  It's one of those well known facts that sharks' teeth grow in rows, well as it turns out Evelyn has that same ability!  I had no idea that was even possible until one night I was brushing her teeth and noticed something particularly odd... she had two EXTRA teeth growing behind her regular teeth.  Terrified I immediately scoured the internet to figure out what in the world was going on.  What I discovered is that it actually occurs in 1 out of every 10 kids and it's called lingually erupting mandibular incisors (say that 10 times fast), but it's more commonly known as "shark teeth".

So proud of her new teeth

 A close up of her "shark teeth"

Santa Monica Day Trip

May 10th, 2011~  SANTA MONICA PIER 

 

 During a recent trip down to the Los Angeles area the kids and I took a little detour to see the sights surrounding the Santa Monica Pier.  I had never been before so it was a great excuse to get out with the kids and just go exploring!

First up on our visit was a ride on the 1922 vintage Carousel.

Just outside the Playland Arcade I found an actual Zoltar fortune-telling machine just like the one in the movie "Big".

The kids took a good 10 minutes sitting on every moving toy outside the arcade.

Then we walked to the very end of the pier to enjoy the view.

And met this fisherman who had just caught a string full of fish as we got there. 

He threw one on the dock to entertain the kids but the poor thing just flopped around for a while.  When the kids started to question how long he could live without water I decided it was probably best not to stick around to find out.

Before heading back we took a few minutes looking back down the pier at Pacific Park and the kids took turns looking in the telescope. 

 
When we got back to the car to get our beach toys Preston entertained us with his interesting "robot" impression.  He got a good kick out of himself which was by far the funniest part.

Santa Monica Beach and Aquarium

May 10th, 2011~  SANTA MONICA BEACH

 After exploring the pier a while we headed down to the beach...

Preston went straight for the water

while Evelyn surveyed the beach and picked up every shell in sight.

At one point Preston got a little too comfortable with the water.  An unexpected wave knocked him off his feet and a second tried to pull him out to sea.  He was so brave though.  Almost immediately he was ready to go back out.

Collecting lots and lots of rocks and shells.  We went home with a good size bucket full and the next day the kids helped me clean them up and added them to their collections.

 Evelyn asked me to bury her in the sand.

Preston wanted to be buried also but he wasn't nearly as patient.

Evelyn and I worked on building a sandcastle.

Finally, a picture of the 3 of us!

Lastly, directly under the pier is the HEAL THE BAY'S MARINE SCIENCE CENTER.  It's more or less a large one room aquarium but admission is FREE for kids and only a couple bucks for adults.  The kids made little octopus hand puppets which were cute and afterwards enjoyed watching all the fish.

At the touch tank they got to experience a good amount of things from a squishy sea cucumber to the baby brittle star Preston's holding in the above picture.  

As always, we had such an incredible day of fun and exploration!

Decorating Eggs with the Family

April 23rd, 2011~

  Later, the same day as our egg hunt with Kim and Ricky, my family came over for a visit!  We went to the movies, cooked lunch on my brand new George Foreman grill, played Rock Band (I actually got everyone to sing!) and decorated Easter eggs...

My mom and dad decorating eggs with the kids.

 Preston looks like he drank the food coloring but I swear it's just from the candy.

Evelyn's eating an egg.

My little brother Scott and his wife Tiffany.  Scott just cut his hair for the first time in almost 8 years.  I REALLY like it!  He's a handsome guy.