Color Run 2015

I ran the Color Run on Saturday with Molly and Avery. We created a team way back in the winter and had a few others from Piketon join in on the fun.

I had done the Color Run in 2012 with my brother, cousin and some friends. It was fun, so I was looking forward to doing it again this year. The route was completely different. It didn't take us through Victorian Village, but we did go thru Franklinton. Basically the same place, right? ha. 

Avery was adamant she was walking this 5K, but guess who ended up running the first mile and would have to stop, run backwards or run the opposite flow of traffic to meet back up with Molly and me? Our little Avery who wasn't going to run.  #thatgirl :) We might have all walked the majority of the rest of the run (it was very crowded) and then of course ran to the finish line. 

We had four color stations - orange, yellow, pink, and blue - and then the glitter station (our favorite). 

When you have just a few colors on you, it's pretty. But by the time you've done all the stations, then participate in the little color throw party at the end, you're just a mess of colors and kind of look (and feel!) dirty. But it's still a lot of fun. 

I took my phone, but never took it out of my sports bra (TMI?). Molly took all of the pictures.

Sister Before/Sister After

After Orange/After All the Colors

It was a little hot. I was a little sweaty. 

Obviously the color and my sweat created stains.

Car selfie to show off the glitter.

All of the Piketon peeps team. 

Post race with our littlest sister.

We sweat glitter.

Next time I want to volunteer to be the person who throws the color on the runners. I think that would be the most fun!

Not me. Stole in from the internets.

Traveling Fool

I've been in Ohio about three days total over the past two weeks. I've only slept in my own bed the same amount of time too. But I'm not complaining!

Two weeks ago I went to Myrtle Beach with Jill and Amy. It was a low key girls trip to celebrate our 30th birthdays. It worked out that Jill's grandma owns a condo in North Myrtle Beach and Spirit Airlines has really cheap fares to get from Cleveland to the Myrtle Beach area. All we had to do was split the rental car and pay for our own meals. It was a pretty cheap vacation.

We spent the days on the beach and the evenings walking around at one of the many tourist areas. We had at new (to me) restaurants and had too much ice cream.

My safari themed room - it matched my bathing suit!

Molly and I had planned to go visit Lauren in NYC over the weekend when I returned, but she had to work till noon on Saturday and it just wasn't going to be worth it for us to spend two days driving and only be in the city for 12 hours. So I decided we should reschedule for later in July.

Instead I got caught up on things from being gone all week and then we went to Zoombezi Bay on Sunday afternoon after I got home from church. And while it rained we walked around the zoo a little bit and saw a very large lioness.

My favorite pion.

Just a baby giraffe. 

I was at work for one day last week and then traveled to Texas for a work conference. It was my first trip to Texas and I experienced non Texas weather since it rained the entire time I was there. Tropical Depression Bill was coming thru.

The conference was good. Not exactly what I expected, but a great networking opportunity and even if a session wasn't what I expected it to be, I still always get a lot of brainstorming done during sessions like that because something sparks an idea, so I came home with a few pages of notes that I need to sort thru and put into action over the coming days, weeks, and months.

We got to see a lot of cool things while we were there. We had dinner one night at the George Bush Presidential Library. That was really cool. I could have spent so much more time walking through the museum. I also toured Kyle Field, which was disappointing because of construction and a not so great tour guide. I wish I'd gone on the Bonfire Memorial tour instead. And then for Spirit Night we went to their amazing equestrian facilities. Seriously, amazing!

Me and George

Me and Barbie

Wedding Dress

President Emily

Side note about this picture above me. It was a photo op, they had a bunch of them throughout the museum. We asked one "older-ish" (50's) if she wanted a picture and she responded by saying "No, I don't believe in women being president!" Say what? First of all, it's a photo op. Do you believe in children being vegetables or farm animals, because there are photo ops like that at every county fair across the country! And two, what a horrible thing to say to young girls (even though we're 30!) but just imagine what she's said on that subject to her granddaughters. I hope they know they can be whatever they want to be and not what 1950 American told them they had to be. Rant over.

I was so over hearing how great the SEC is.

Our last night there, after the conference was over, a group of us went to a bar called the Dixie Chicken. One thing they had that Ohio definitely does not have is a rattle snake in the wall!! After playing a game of pool, the A&M Yell Leaders, who we'd met a few nights earlier as they led some 'yells' for us at Spirit Night, showed up to play 42. They were nice boys and taught us to play too and I believe I have a seat for an A&M game next fall if I can make it to College Station!

Playing "42" with the college boys. #stillgotit

Yell Leader approved!

Molly and I went home for Father's Day weekend and Saturday night wound up on the other side of the county during one of our random road trips. We ventured to Seip Mound, an old historic Indian burial site, that we used to have family picnic's at when we were little (creepy?). It seemed so much bigger when we were little!

And then last night we had a really beautiful sunset, so I had to grab a quick pic on our way home!

Life Lately

While I've been busy, I haven't had a lot of things to blog about. 

My fundraising for Pelotonia is going soooo good! Much better than I anticipated it going before I started. I'm relieved to be doing so well with two months still to go. I just need about $500 more. So if anyone would like to donate, you can send a check for that amount my way! :) (Kidding) (But seriously, donate!) I rode 20 miles last weekend while training and another 10 for fun the following day. I need to get my bike serviced (the chain squeaks) and hammer down time to ride every night (or morning).

A few weekends ago Erica was in town for the long weekend and we celebrated the upcoming arrival of baby Charlotte. (She had the named picked way before Kate and William named the princess!) It was great to visit with her a little bit at the shower and then the following night at a graduation party. Can't wait to go see Baby Charlie Sue in Florida this fall.

Bowie and I celebrated 3 years as a family of two at the end of May. Doesn't she look thrilled to be my 'child'?

Get me out of this place! I want a new house!

If she was only this cute again!

I visited some shops in Worthington last week and stopped for a cookie at Sassafras Bakery. The cookie was delicious but their free glass of milk (for happy hour) was skim and that was like white water to me. Not good! I want my 2%!

Trying to be artsy with the instagram.

 Earlier this week our work hosted a fitness bootcamp with Eddie George. It was fun and I definitely got a workout. My butt and arms were very sore the next day. I need to keep doing that more often.

He wasn't very friendly.

So that's the exciting things in my life. Cheers.

Pelotonia

A few years ago a friend of mine rode in Pelotonia and until then, I really had no idea what it was. But hearing more from her, and doing a few long bike rides together while she was training, I started wishing I had signed up too. But by that point it was way too late in the game to a) train and b) raise the money that is required of participants. So I didn't do it that year. Or the next. But this year I am!

Three months from today I will be riding 100 miles from Columbus to Gambier. Am I crazy? Probably so! Am I excited? Definitely!

This summer I have a feeling I will be on my bike A LOT, which is not a bad thing by any means. I grew up riding my bike every evening and all evening around town with my friend Erin, so I'm looking forward to that past time again this summer. I just have to make sure Molly gets a bike to ride with me!

Because the ride is to raise awareness and funds for cancer research, there is a fundraising component to it. For the length I chose to ride, 100 miles, I am responsible for raising $1,800! If I don't raise that much, they withdrawal it from the checking account I had to provide during registration. They get their pledged amount one way or another and that's a lot of money that I just don't have sitting in the bank. So far in the 28 days that I've been registered I have already raised $874.50! I'm floored at the support I've received from friends and family. I'm so happy to already be at 48% of my goal with five months of fundraising still to go! You can help support cancer research and my ride by donating on my Pelotonia page.

I doubt there is anyone in the world who has not known someone who has been affected by cancer. This year I am riding in honor of my great- Grandma Primer and her twin sister, my Aunt Annie, who were both survivors of breast cancer at age 90. Cancer research and treatment allowed them to live an additional 10 healthy years. I am also riding in memory of Millie Dunham, a childhood neighbor and grandmother of my close friend Erin. She passed away in 2004 after a courageous battle with cancer. So many people have been affected by this horrible disease and I'm so honored that I can be a part of the fight to end it.

Let's go to Canada!

Saturday morning I woke up to my sister saying "Hey, let's go to Canada today." While I could have made a list of 20,492 things I had to do (and believe me, the list was that long), I got up at 7:30am and packed a bag and we left for Canada. Specifically Niagara Falls.

Molly had gotten her passport in early April and had been saying she was going to Canada the day she got it. With busy work schedules, it didn't really happen like that.

So this past weekend a few of my plans I had made (like running in the Cap City Half-Marathon) hadn't really worked out (for reasons like I haven't ran in weeks and weeks) and I didn't have anything on my calendar. After briefly talking about it while out and about on Friday night celebrating a few friends before they moved away the next day, Molly woke me up and was adamant we go, so we did.

The drive there wasn't too bad. I slept for the first two hours. One late night means I'm worthless the next day. Somewhere in New York we switched and I took over driving until we got to the falls and got to Clevleand again on the drive home.

We had a great time at the actual falls. They are beautiful. There is still giant chunks of ice - like ginormous icebergs still hanging out from the winter - at the bottom of the falls and on the rocks. On the American side you can see the falls to an extentent, but not as well as you can see them from Canada. So of course we had to go see both sides. And we saw them in the afternoon, close to dusk, at midnight, and then got up early to see them in the morning too! Just beautiful.

All that white stuff is snow and ice.

While still in America, we went on the Maid of the Mist ride out into the falls. It was awesome. It was only $17 which I think was a total bargain. We were almost in the middle of the Horseshoe Falls and we got soaked, but it was great.

Prior to being in the middle of the falls.

And right smack dab in the middle of them. Well, on a boat in the middle of them.

After we were done with the boat tour, we went to the island that is in between the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. It was pretty cool to be standing so close next to them and looking down at the water.

We went out on that ledge.

A little video to see how we were in between the two falls.

Finally we made our way into Canada. The first time on Canadian soil for both of us and Molly's first time in a foreign country. Niagara Falls, Ontario is kind of trashy. It's a total party city. We saw more bachelorette parties than I want to recall. There are two casinos and multiple locations of every chain restaurant there ever was. Except McDonald's, we didn't see one of those.

Selife with the Horseshoe Falls in the background.

We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant that had amazing lasagna but was just a strange set up and drove back down to see the falls. We were both so tired from driving (and being up late the night before) that we went back to the hotel and crashed around 11. We had plans to go to the casino and gamble a little bit in order to park for free, but we just decided to pay the $10 to get out of the garage because it took less time! ha.

On our way back to the hotel we saw the gas prices there!  (Being totally sarcastic with the #thanksobama. I hate when people blame one person for high gas prices!)

Midnight selfie with the falls.

All lit up at night. In blue and gold....boooo!!!

Hey casino that we didn't actually go to.

Sunday morning we got up and saw the falls in the morning. I dropped Molly off at one end to get pictures and picked her up at the other end. Parking was expensive ($18) and I couldn't find anywhere to park for free. I'm all about free parking!

Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls (See that little boat, we were on one of those!)

Horseshoe Falls.

The drive home was good. We didn't stop anywhere except to get a McDonald's Flurry somewhere in Pennsylvania and to switch drivers in Cleveland.

All in all it was a good road trip. Despite the many "sleeping sister snaps" that we both apparently were sending out when the other was napping in the passenger seat. Oops!