The BlackLight Run + Other Weekend Happenings
This weekend was absolutely gorgeous and gave me every reason in the book to be elated for the warmer and sunnier days ahead. Please make sure you quote me on saying this when I’m 9 months pregnant and complaining of the sweltering 100+ degree weather in July.
Thoughts of the spring and summer months with my sweet girls made me so excited – in hopes that every weekend would turn out just this way.
Friday, daddy was at the fire station subbing in for another guy, so after almost 48 hours of not seeing him, the girls and I loaded up before lunch time and headed to the station for a visit. The girls are at an age now that when I give the slightest mention of something that seems of interest to them- it is nonstop chatter until we do what I say we are going to do. I made mention of fire trucks at breakfast that morning and ‘Daddy station wook.. big trucks‘ was put on repeat like a broken record (times two..) We arrive and they bee-line to the trucks to take a peek, like they have done every other time we’ve made a visit.
The best part: assisting to pull out the hose to shoot some water.
The inspection never looked so cute.
Parker is especially giddy about the entire idea of going to the fire station. Jolie gets a little uneasy about the sounds of huge engine, but Parker is all smiles, all the time.
In their daddy’s driver seat
These glasses basically kill me. I can’t help but giggle if either of them look at me in all seriousness while wearing them.
Mid-visit Jordan got called on a run (he was driving the ambulance that day), so we watched as he pulled out – lights and sirens – and then headed on our way back towards the house. By this point it was much later than normal for lunch time, but none of us had anything of substance since breakfast, so..what was originally a Sonic Happy Hour stop (we love some half-priced drinks!) turned into a late lunch on the patio with my girls. When Parker started demanding “fries!!”, I knew these girls were as hungry as I was.
An hour later of the most fun you could ever have on a Sonic lunch date we loaded up in attempt to finish a few more errands.
We totally skipped nap that day – and the girls were major troopers.
The evening was way quiet and they both were down early for bed. The intentions of our Friday was not to be gone all day the way we had – but it ended up being a really great time with my sweet girls.
I caught a glimpse of my 24 week belly as I was getting ready for bed and couldn’t help but think what 39 weeks will look like.
#huge
s a t u r d a y
Jordan works on Saturday next weekend, (Easter weekend) so I searched and searched for things going on in the community that we could do as a family (i.e. egg hunts/festivities) in place of what we will miss with daddy next weekend.
There was an egg hunt that started pretty early on Saturday morning at a nearby park – and we quickly realized that walking up 5 minutes late won’t cut it for egg hunting next year.
All the eggs were scooped up and the masses of kids running around had baskets filled with plastic color.
There were still other activities- face painting, bounce houses.. the Easter bunny (which I’m afraid is now in the same shunned boat as Santa, Chuck E Cheese, and the Chick-fil-A Cow). As we walked through there were a few older kids that ran up and filled Parker and Jolie’s empty baskets – I couldn’t believe it. It was the sweetest thing I had ever witnessed by strangers – young strangers. One boy in particular had to be maybe just 5 or 6 years old and kept tossing in his hunted eggs so Parker and Jolie would have something to ‘open’.
Regardless of missing the hunt – we literally had to peel them away from the bounce houses to make our way home for lunch and nap.
There was NO way we could miss nap time today – we had a late night ahead of us.
A couple months back I got an email notification that the time to register for The Color Run 2015 was quickly approaching – and after last year’s run being literally the time of their little lives (and ours, too!) I knew we had to do it again this year.
See The Color Run 2014 (HERE)
We said over and over the Color Run 2014 was the start of a yearly family tradition.
…some friends of ours mentioned The Blacklight Run they were doing – same concept, just at night – and I was intrigued. It happened to fall on the same weekend as our original plan for the day-time version of the run, so we had to make a decision.
The Blacklight Run 2015 it was.
After the morning activities- the girls came home for a 4 hour nap – we had to wake them for dinner before heading out to Texas Motor Speedway for the race.
Jolie was not impressed.
It took her just a bit to warm up.. but eventually we got a few smiles about the whole thing.
Uncle J was there (and the girls were ELATED to see him)
..and Auntie, too!
It had been too long since we had seen our people – busy lives and this last month’s work-travel schedule for both Ashley and myself have kept us from getting together longer than ever before.
But the ease of life just flowed right back to normal – like we’d seen them just the day before.
I also hadn’t seen this sweet little baby boy bump she’s got going.
25 week Baby Boy Dunaway
24 week Baby Girl Massey
If we play our cards right, we could have these ‘twins’ together come July.
Time to load up for the starting line!
With 8,000+ people participating in the race.. we waited for our turn to start for a solid half hour
Glow sticks saved the wait time from toddler demands of coming out of the stroller.
2 hours
2 toddlers
2 preggo bellies
2 hubbies to man the stroller
4 stations of glow powder
4 broken-up toddler cat-fights
..and we were done.
They were wiped out. I will say – probably not as fun as The Color Run we did last year.. only because you couldn’t see all the color and crazy of the other runners because it was pitch dark until you came upon random backlights that were set up along the course.
At the end of the race- the entire afterparty was under the largest display of backlights you have ever seen. It was pretty insane and I halfway wished I had the energy to stick around and dance and be silly – but those days are long gone.
We just about came straight home- showered off, and got those sleepy girls in bed.
s u n d a y
After a really late night on Saturday, we all slept in and stayed in our jammies while we watched church via podcast over the breakfast table.
We did have plans for a few errands after church- and these were your typical Costco/Sams run and then to Home Depot.
The girls came to love these tutus that I got as a gift at one of their baby showers and basically haven’t taken them off in three days.
So.. we let them dress themselves and went with it.
I have a feeling there will be many more days of dressing themselves in our future.
After our errands- we were all still wiped out from the night before, so I laid down with the girls when we got home while Jordan went outside to mow the lawn.
4 hours later he was waking us up to get ready for dinner.
The weather this weekend was amazing. We we headed outside to play while daddy grilled for dinner.
I’ve mentioned it before, but our neighbors behind us have a pair of donkeys, and the girls LOVE them.
They run as fast as their little legs will take them to the back corner of the fence just for the chance to see one or both.
We opted for dinner on the patio – the first of many this season.
grilled chicken sausage – rice – grainy mustard brussels sprouts
Jordan and I busied ourselves with a post-dinner clean up, while they opted for a tupperware mess.
I didn’t realize how much we had crammed in over this weekend until I put it all in writing. I am loving these memories with my girls.. just a few more months as a family of four.
Soak it in, mama.
March 30, 2015
I love this!!! They are soo cute and I love how much they love each other!! What a special bond they have
Your entire weekend sounds like fun, but I can understand why you all needed that Sunday nap! Being a fire wife myself I understand the need to find activities on different days instead of always the norm. But the smiles on those two little girls faces has to make up for any difficulty in planning! Love the pics of them at the station! Can't wait for our little one to be here in August and get to experience all of that with him/her.
Two 4 hour nap days in a row?! Amazing. It looks like such a fun weekend. And how great that you and Ashley are only a week apart. That will be so great once the babes arrive.
You're girls and that belly just make me smile
You and your family are so cute! Where did you get your headband thing that you wore in the color run pictures? Thank you!