{the fourth}... finally

i just realized today i had never actually published the draft post i had been working on from july 4th.

so, here it is. just a little delayed... 

our fourth was laid back, but full of fun, family and food...

i started out the morning with a speedy 10K at the o'fallon firecracker 10K run, where i set my very own personal record.  afterwards, i met the family at the wentzville donut cafe for breakfast.  apparently, we were too hungry to have stopped and taken any pictures.  they were pretty busy, as they sat right on the parade route. 

prior to meeting for donuts, we set up a spot on the parade route. we walked down and got settled into our spot after breakfast. here is the fam... looking less than thrilled that i am bombarding them with photos.

brody really enjoyed the parade this year, and we all really enjoyed the mild weather.  at last year's parade it was nearing 100+ degrees.  after an appropriate amount of candy eating, bead grabbing, whining and snack eating, we headed back to the house to get ready for a family bbq/birthday party.  

the bbq included lots of food (again, no pictures), brody and daddy lighting fireworks, an a million snakes and snap pops with grandma.  

after it got dark, we sat in the driveway, played with some sparklers and watched the neighbors firework display.  they always do a great job, but this years may be the best.one.yet.  

hope you all had a great fourth!

{july 3...}

I started off my birthday morning with a quick 5k around my favorite little park.  We have been lucky to have had some beautiful weather this past week (of course it is 95 degrees now) so I felt obligated to get out to the park and away from the dread treadmill.   After my run, I booked it to the gym to squeeze in an hour long strength session.  One of my goals for the next year is to strength train consistently.  Body pump, 2 times a week will help accomplish that.  Plus… I am seeing noticeable results from just a month of classes twice a week.  Score.

After my sweat session, I went on a little shopping trip where I tried on everything, but bought pretty much nothing… enjoyed the sun for a bit, and then started prepping for our 4^th of july/birthday bbq on thursday.

  

Hubby made me a fantastic bday dinner of baked potatoes and filet mignon for dinner, followed up by a fantastic crème brule from Whole Foods.

{thanks again shaun...it was yummy!} 

After dinner, we headed out to the o’fallon heritage andfreedom fest for some carnival rides and fireworks.  Brody had a great time.  He rode on a few rides, won a stuffed fish (actually it was a joint effort by grandma & daddy), ate cotton candy, kettle corn and lemonade.  

we finished the night off with a great fireworks display.  

Overall, it was a pretty lovely birthday.  Of course, I wasn’t done celebrating yet.  I stretch my celebration over the entire holiday weekend whenever possible.  Do you blame me?!