Color Me Happy

The Color Run - with Flying Colors Style

My brother's girlfriend, Kristine, invited me to run a race with her this summer.  Before she mentioned it, I had never heard of The Color Run, and after seeing the promotional videos online, I thought, "HOW COOL! Sign me up!"  It was to be Milwaukee's inaugural year.  We put together a team for the race which included: Kristine, her friend Jaime, my friend Shannon, and me. 
Last Friday night, the four of us met at Miller Park, donning white from head to toe, and impatiently waited in a crowd of 10,000 for the race to start.  I don't usually get that excited to run a race.  Anxious, yes, excited, no.  Let me tell you why:

1. It is not timed.  No timing chips or race clocks or shot gun starts.  Just a lot of music and fun.
2. It's the self-proclaimed "Happiest 5K on the Planet."  Who doesn't want to be happy?
3. It was at Miller Park.  oh yeah!
4. You start off with a white tee shirt (and a white tutu, if you like)...

...and finish looking like, um, well here, take a look for yourself:

Sportin' the Color Look

Our Color Run Team - Flying Colors

It really was one of the happiest runs I've done.  The Boulder Bolder would be right up there too.  We've already got our outfits picked out for next time.  Nope, not telling.  It wouldn't be fun to spoil the surprise, so you'll just have to check back in a year. 

The clean up took a bit of strategy and a lot of soap and water!  Shannon actually had a wedding to go to the next day.  I'm wondering if her pink nose matched her heels and handbag.  Kristine said her patients noticed her pink hairline and blue elbows the next day.  As for me, the color fits right in with my already crazy neon sneakers, so no worries.

Here are a few more shots from the night:

Kristine and I get one last picture before the clean-up begins

Visits

Behr Family visit to Green Lake

The weather has been so much cooler in the last week.  The mornings are not quite crisp like Fall, but I have already noticed some of the trees on our block have started changing color.  I now have to pack a light blanket and a hat for Max on our morning walks, but by the time we are on our way back home, we're peeling off layers.  This is the time of year when I don't know if I should be excited for Fall to come or sad to see Summer go.  Maybe both.
Max and I took an hour-long walk this morning and I couldn't help thinking of how much we've enjoyed our visits with friends and family in the last two weeks and how much there still is to do in the next two weeks before we leave here!

We were fortunate to have my friend Lindsey from Denver stay with us for a long weekend.  Lindsey is a dear friend of mine whom I met through Cooking Club.  She was generous enough to share her well-earned vacation time with us so we could show her around Milwaukee and introduce her to some of our favorite people and places.  We started off her visit with breakfast at Alterra (of course), a trip to the Milwaukee Art Museum to see the Posters of Paris exhibit, and a stop at the lakefront.  On Friday night, we got together with my family at Quit Qui Oc Golf Course in Elkhart Lake for a traditional Friday fish fry and birthday celebration for my brother, Biagio.  You can't find a real  Wisconsin fish fry anywhere but Wisconsin in my experience (although supposedly there is a Packer bar near Denver that claims to have one) so I've been taking advantage of these while we're here.  We spent Saturday and part of Sunday in Kiel enjoying some time with family.   It was so much fun to have all of my siblings back home at the same time.  I think Lindsey may have actually enjoyed all the commotion.   And I'm pretty sure she'll never forget the night-time mushroom hunt in the woods.  Yep, who doesn't love those?!  What, you think we only tip cows in Wisconsin?  Ha!

Happy Birthday, Biagio!

What is that?!

Giant Puffball mushroom

Great Great Aunty Jo with Max and Canaan

A walk down Millhome Lane

Last Wednesday, David's family started arriving for the Behr family visit.  David's brother, Steve, his wife, Julie, and kids flew in from Texas, David's Dad (we missed you, Mom!) arrived from Washington, and his sister, Laura, came in from Florida.  I was so excited to be able to share my home with David's family and show them where I grew up.  After spending a day in the city, we were able to find a last-minute cottage rental on Green Lake, so I forced everyone to pack up their things and we drove them out there for 2 nights so they could see why Green Lake is my favorite place on Earth.  The water had cooled off a bit since July 4th, but everyone got in at Norwegian Bay.  Even little Abby (19 months), who much prefers the warmer waters of the Texas pools.  Laura braved the cold after the rainstorm on Sunday and joined us for our traditional "jump in the middle of the lake" to end our lake season.  She took the crown for biggest splash with her Can Opener jump off the back of the boat and therefore gets an automatic invitation back next summer to defend her title.  Yeah, it's kind of like The Masters.

David, his Dad, and Laura at Big Bay Park

A Behr Family Picnic at the Lakefront

Laura, Julie and Abby

Reflecting

Max and Opa clowning around

Jack takes a swimming break

Baaaaaalllllll

Julie, Abby, Jack, me, Max and Opa

Has it been 30 minutes yet?

David and Max practice crawling

Behr Family with Rita

A very serious game of Bocce

A Wisconsin skyline - see the rainbow?

All summer, I've appreciated how wonderful it feels to be in such a familiar spot.  I love feeling really comfortable with the area, the people, the culture.  I've taken in the beauty of our surroundings and slowly stored it away in my memory bank, and carefully packed it away in my heart.  Such a blessing to be here for the entire summer!  It can be exciting to see new places, meet new people, and try new things too, but it sure has been special to be home, sweet home.

We're looking forward to our last weekend in Wisconsin, which includes the Color Run on Friday night.  More to come on that.  On Monday, it's back to packing!

Going, going...

Gosh, we're getting close to summer's end!  It's August already!  We've had such a great time here so it's hard to think that we'll be leaving in a few short weeks, but it's true.  Why does it seem like our stay in Milwaukee will be so much shorter than other cities?  David keeps reminding me that we will have been here 2 weeks longer than Omaha.  I'm really thankful that I got to spend a full summer in my home state, just a few short miles from friends and family.  Makes me want to make the most of every last day we have before we leave...


This last weekend, my friends Steph and Jon, with their son Jack, hosted a pool party for our friends and kiddos that are here.  Sarah and her two little ones, Isaac and Audrey, were in town from St. Louis.  Jackie courageously ventured out of the house with her toddler, Charlotte, and newborn girl, Grace, on her own!  And Shannon finally introduced her beau, Ben, to the group!  Sadly, we missed out on seeing the Condons and the Weyenbergs.  The Condons just welcomed their second son, Andrew, only 2 short weeks ago.  And of course, I have to give a shout out to the Mazurs, who recently had their new baby girl, Addison Grace, and who live in Arizona, so couldn't be here.  As long as I'm listing non-attendees, our dear friends, the Scullys, are residing in Denver weren't able to make it either.  So it was a smaller group than expected, but we had such a great time playing in the water!  Thank you, Anackers, for putting on such an awesome day.  We hope this does become an annual event.  Too bad I don't have any pictures to share.  Maybe I can snag some from Stephy and post another time.


Max is on the move!  We've seen him set his sights on an object and go for it.  We rubbed our eyes and pinched our arms to make sure it was real.  Ouch.  Yep!  Sometimes he does the caterpillar and other times he can coordinate getting his knees under his body to actually crawl.  Either way, it's really fun to watch.  It won't be much longer until he gets it down pat.  This will be an adjustment for both of us.  I'm ready, but I'm not.  Better find some baby-proofing gear soon!
Max tries his new skill:

http://youtu.be/sIMtToa4gco
I can't figure out how to cut out the long middle...bear with us here.

We are really enjoying watching the Olympics.  I'll have to catch up on my sleep after the closing ceremony though.  I stay up way too long each night trying to watch all my favorite athletes compete.  Max is getting into it as well.  I think we may submit these pictures to the Olympic Committee to see if they will accept our cute little flag-bearer for 2016.  He'll certainly be more mobile then.  GO TEAM USA!

Max cheers for another USA gold medal!

Stats Update

Max's 6 month wellness visit was last week.  The pediatrician said he is right on track for growth and development.  He gave me the green light to run with Max in the stroller, despite the new guidelines saying to wait until 8 months.  He believes this restriction is based on injuries that occur from parents who run with infants in non-running strollers.  As long as the surface is smooth, we're good to go!  Also, he encouraged us to drop our late-evening feeding cold turkey.  We tried it that night, and now the little guy is sleeping a full 12 hours and hasn't looked back!  Way to go, Maximilian! We all love our sleep!

Here are Max's stats at 6 months:
Head Circumference: 16.7 inches (25%)
Length: 27 inches (75%)
Weight: 16 pounds, 15.5 ounces (50%)

After a rough day of napping challenges followed by his 6-month shots, Max calls it quits on the way home.