IMT (Half) Marathon

I'm such a proud wife! Matt ran his first half marathon last weekend and he did awesome! Becky and Stacey ran it with him and they did great too but this wasn't their first. It was fun but a bit chaotic trying to figure out where to cheer them on. We missed seeing them cross the finish line but got to see them at the start and at mile 9 and 11.

Aunt Peggy flew in from New Jersey and it was so great spending the weekend with her too. On Sunday after the race, Mike & Kathy and Courtney all came over for a holiday-like dinner (lunch). Both Kathy and Peggy turn 60 this fall so we celebrated their special birthday. And Mike got a little shout out too since his 62nd bday happened last week. It was a bummer that Conley and Kelly weren't able to come but it was still a really great celebration.

Deer Sticks and Home Furnishings

So you may be wondering what can deer sticks and home furnishings possibly have to do with one another? The answer: Minneapolis.

A little over a week ago Matt and I took a road trip up to Minneapolis to pick up our finished batch of maple deer sticks. Yum!!! To make the road trip even more fun we stopped at Ikea. We didn't really have a list going in - although I had in mind a few things that we should check into in case we found something we liked. But really why I love Ikea is because of the showroom. It's hard for me to visualize how fun (or lame) or how big (or small) something will look when incorporated into a room so Ikea is able to take a lot of those doubts away. I feel more comfortable that I can make it work in my house and thus have more fun during the shopping process.

We easily dropped two grand... just kidding - it was only two hundred, on some cool new items. I think Matt's favorite is a new kitchen pot with a strainer insert. (We used it right away to make some pasta.) And my favorite is a new comforter and duvet cover. It is amazing how much difference a new comforter can make. Not only does it completely change the look of a room but it feels like I'm sleeping in a brand new bed!

And I'm pretty sure Gable loves it too!

Color Run Fun!

It seems like ages ago when we first heard that the Color Run - the world's happiest 5k was coming to Des Moines. So when the much anticipated event finally arrived on Saturday it had some pretty high expectations to meet. Unfortunately it was the coldest day of the fall so far - the high was only 45 degrees. But 27,000 people got all bundled up (well some were dumb and didn't) in as much white clothing as possible and headed down to the Capital to spend the afternoon going crazy!

Since there were so many people there plus because it was so cold, I was a little bit miserable waiting to get started. They were only releasing 1000 participants at a time onto the course and by they time we made it to the front of the line we were group 14 or 15. So yeah... we had to wait awhile. Once we got onto the course there were 4 stations spread out over the 3 miles and each station was a different color. Volunteers squirted a colored corn starch substance at the participants as they passed through each area.

We decided it would be more fun to walk the 5k and we also decided to make a small stop on the final stretch at Capital Pub and Hot Dogs. We were really hoping we could all get hot dogs but apparently they were out so we purchased a beer instead. We eventually made it to the finish line where they were through a huge color party.

And this is where it really got fun....When we picked up our race packets everyone was given a packet of color. They promised it was well worth it to hold on the packet until the end. It was a little difficult to be so patient (especially when we were just standing in the cold waiting to start) but it did end up being worth it. Everyone was standing in a big crowd and every 5-10 minutes they did a count down to release your color into the air. We all got completely drenched in color! It was great! Definitely the best part. We danced and went crazy and even did a conga line. Our group consensus is that instead of a 5k it would be more fun as a 1 mile fun run. That way it would be a constant color explosion. But overall we had a great time and can't wait for next year!

Here are my amateur photos from the event. Once the professional ones are posted I can share those too.



BEFORE...



Final few days of warm weather

I am so behind on posts. I'm trying to catch up but am just going to have to back date them so that a year from now it makes sense. But instead of worrying about catching up, I'm going to try and continue forward...


Goodbye warm summer days! Yesterday we were in the 80's, today the high is in the low 60's. Kind of a bummer. But I took advantage of the last few days of warmth. Last night Matt and I went on a bike ride (first one we've ever taken in Huxley together), Monday night we went walking out on the High Trestle Trail near Madrid, last Sunday I tagged along with Jess, Chris and Carter to finally check out Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge, and on Saturday, Gable and I went on a long walk at Saylorville Lake with Mary and Callen.