4th of July festivities

I took tons and tons of pictures and videos of the fireworks last night - both the big professional display in town and the ones that we set off with the kids. I'm going to post some of the pictures here now, and if the videos are done uploading by then I'll post them too. However, with as slow as my computer is being right now...............

Typical boys, trying to burn stuff on the ground.

We set off some of the smaller stuff that we bought, and then we headed in town for the big fireworks show. It was a decent display, and I got some video of that too, but it'll take a while to upload any of that. So here are a few pictures.

After the big show was over, we came back home to set off the rest of the stuff that we bought. We had a blast and really made a mess out of the front yard (which I still have to clean up) and actually didn't even use everything that we bought - so we'll have to find a safe place to stash the rest of it until next year.

Best fountain firework ever. Lasted at least a full minute and
only cost a couple of bucks.

Yeah, we set them off in the street in front of the house.

Lighting the Chinese lantern.

Launching the lantern. These things were sailing all
over the night sky. It was an amazing sight.

And it appears that the videos are done uploading! Woohoo!

So we blew up some stuff...

One of the good things about living where we live is that the rules about fireworks around the 4th of July are pretty lenient, compared to some other areas. The fireworks tents get set up and opened for business by June 30 and we can get a ton of fireworks for not a whole lot of money.

The boys have been driving me insane, asking when we could go and get some, so after we got done looking at houses today, we took a walk to one of the tents in town.

Wait.....what?

Burning off some energy

Under $50. We didn't get a lot of the big stuff this year - it's
just too dry and too risky to mess with it.

Shopping.  Although they seemed fascinated by the
table covering.

OK, we had a small fire.

Yes. I need to mow. I know.

The smoke bombs were not as potent this year.

The parachute landed in the tree.
Oops.

Oooohhhhh!!!
Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!

He'll hold them, but he won't swing them around just yet.

We only blew up and/or burned a few things tonight, and saved the bigger ones for later. Tomorrow I have to work during the day, and then the girls have 4 (yes, 4) basketball games so we probably won't do any more until Thursday night - which is fine with me.

Glow Run 5K

So I did it. Last night was the Glow Run 5K in Wichita. After not running AT ALL for well over 3 months, I went out and did it. It was hard, and I felt like I was going to die a few times, but I did it. And I'm looking at this as my kick start, because once the kids are back in school I'm going to be out running for real again.

So anyway, here are a few pictures....

Getting my bling on...

I got these funky flower things that are actually supposed to be used to decorate flip flops, pulled them apart, and put them all through my hair - and in a few of my teammates' hair too. OK, actually The Dude put them in my hair - he was having fun getting all of the glow-bling in place.

Pre-race potty break. You know, peeing while wearing a tutu is NOT easy. For the record, I did remove my fingers for that.

Getting ready to run...and yes, I am holding a glowing axe.

It was a bit crowded. Those are all of the runners who were ahead of me.

And all of the ones who were behind me. 3387 runners total, according to the official results.

I did it! I crossed the finish line!

We were even treated to a huge fireworks display. OK, it might have actually been from the baseball game that was across the street, but still, the timing and location were perfect.

I couldn't have done it without him. The Dude encouraged me, got me there, cheered me on, and acted as the official photographer for our team, not to mention that his mother watched the boys so that we could go kid-free. Thanks, babe!
So, how did I do?

The race itself was fun. It seemed a bit more disorganized than most, but I think it's also one of the biggest ones that I've even been in - and with that many people it's hard to stay organized. The course was nice - it was flat and other than a set of railroad tracks there weren't any really tricky spots. They had glow stations set up along the way where you could stop and take your picture under blacklights, but I skipped those. I was a little annoyed at the people who were cheating, but I was only competing against myself - they were just morons. And thanks to my playlist that included Dropkick Murphys, Pam Tillis, Black Eyed Peas, Survivor, Kernkraft 400, and Rodney Atkins, I was able to pretty much tune everyone out and focus on what I needed to do.

My final official time was 44:26.6. Not my best, but far from my worst. And considering that I literally have not run a bit since the half-marathon, I'm ok with it. I placed 2825th out of 3387 runners, so I beat about 16.6% of them. Out of my age group (40-45 females), I was 184th out of 222, so faster than about 17.1%.

Today, I hurt. Not quite as bad as I thought that I would, but I can definitely feel it. It's definitely a sign that I have to do more to prepare for the next one!

More of the day.....

We got some rain..... and it's been so long since we've seen any that I let the boys play in the puddles. And I might have joined in at one point....

Friends and neighbors came over for a cookout.... and some fireworks..... and firepit time. Everyone had a great time. The kids finally got to bed around midnight, and now a few of us are hanging out by the firepit, sharing stories while our hosts play guitar.

I have so many more pictures but my phone died and so I was using my camera - I might get those posted tomorrow. There might even be a video or two. ;)

And yes, I will be "introducing" our hosts tomorrow when I get some better pictures....