Color Run and family fun

The weekend after Philadelphia, Dustin brought Alexandra back up to us.   He also left Austin and Mason with us for a visit.  We were planning on leaving right after church on Sunday to go spend the week with Mima and Pop-Pop.  Sunday ended up being a very long and interesting day.  We did eventually make it to Mima's and Pop-pops but it was much later than planned.  We had gotten a call late in the week asking Jared and I to meet with Stake Leaders early on Sunday at the church.  Jared was given a call to serve as 1st Counselor in the Bishopric.  The kids and I have been travelling so much this summer that we really haven't noticed the impact of the change to his schedule.  The stake president offered to take group pictures.  He said someone took one of the first Bishopric he was in and he's enjoyed looking back at the picture.
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with the wives

 

We did end up making it to Ohio in time to stop by the farewell party for some friends of ours that were moving to Colorado.  And yes, I am the mean mom/aunt that had the kids doing workbook pages over the summer.

 

 The temperatures were not really warm enough for swimming the week we were in Ohio, but that did not stop the kids from swimming nonstop 24/7.

 We also went to a park about everyday.  Austin got tired of it and asked if we were on "somekind of a park tour or something".  Alexandra's friend, Abby came over after the park one day and swam for awhile.  They had identical swimsuits by coincidence.

We also took the kids to a nature center in Avon.  I had never been to it before but I think it is called Miller Nature Center.  The kids loved the carnivorous plant display they had.

 

One of the main reasons for our trip to Ohio was for The Color Run.  The girls had begged to do one and the nearest one at that time was Columbus or Cleveland.  Here we are nice and clean in our white shirts.

 

 

Katy took off running and left us in her dust.  She eventually found the older sisters of her friend Brooke and ran with them.  I stayed with the girls.  We all had a blast.  Bella's attitude was night and day different from the Superhero Run.  She was super excited and pumped but color and music are her "thing" .  It was funny because every time a color chute was approaching she would take off in a sprint.  We tried to get Jacob to run with us since under 5 was free but there were so many people there he was overwhelmed.  He choose to cling to Mima instead and cheer for us near the first color chute.  Pop-Pop took the Mason and Austin and went farther on the course to cheer us on. 
We did take Jacob into the color bomb at the end.  Although he wasn't fond of all the color dust that made it difficult to breathe and see.  The girls on the other hand couldn't get enough color and joined the color bombs a few times.

We did end up running into our friends the Franklins and the Chattertons after the race.  We knew they were running also but I didn't hold out much hope that we'd see them because there were so many people there.

(we sprayed our shirts with vinegar per instructions to set the color but were disappointed that the majority of the color washed out)

While we were in Ohio we inducted the girls into the Buchkovich Dairy Treat run.  Pop-Pop and I always run when we are going there and try to rope as many others into it as we can.  For many years it was the only ice cream place in Avon.  But in the last few years that has changed but we have remained loyal customers.  However, the girls were not amused that we passed at least 4 other ice cream places on the way.  Mima and the boys drove and met us there.  There wasn't room for all of us in the car going home so I volunteered to run back.  Austin decided to join me.  It was uh....interesting.  Pop-Pop ended up having to pick him up so we wouldn't run out of daylight.  He had no interest in running the 3 miles back.  He was more interested in a slow stroll stopping to look at this and at that.  He cracks me up!