The Happiest 5K on the Planet

This past weekend we headed down to Maryland to visit our camping friends. The drive down on Friday was pretty easy and Rudy and Lily immediately jumped into playing well together.
On Saturday we met up with our other camping friends and went to a farm. There was so much to do at this farm, it kept 5 kids busy for hours (and I think they all would have been happy to stay longer).

There was the bounce pillow.

 

 

Even Kim got into the fun on it.

 

 

 

There was a fun slide.

 

 

 

 

 

A huge rooster.

 

There was water play (thankfully it wasn't particularly cold).

And a playground pirate ship (or at least that's what the kids called it), that at one point was entirely filled with Guatemalans.

 

 

There was hay to play in and jump off.

And a 'corn box' to play in.

There were goats to feed and pet.

Roosters...

and bunnies.

As Kim put it, Ashton is a man's man, given the choice he would have Paul or Olav walk with him.

A tube slide.

And lots of bikes to ride.

We even went on a hayride (but since none of us wanted to pick pumpkins, we just rode it down and back).

After the farm, Chris, Megan, Lily and Charlotte went home and the rest of us went back to Kim and Olav's. Some rested (pretty much the oldest and youngest in the group), and those of us in the middle ages watched TV or read. (I'll let everyone make their own assumptions about who did what.)

For dinner we headed to the downtown area. Fortunately it was a nice night because the restaurant could either seat us immediately outside, or we'd have to wait 45 minutes for inside. With 3 hungry kids, outside it was.

Even more fortunately, there was a band. So the kids that might have been cranky or hungry when the food took a while, were happy to dance and listen to the music. (All blurry shots are of people dancing.)

After dinner we walked back to our cars.

We made a stop outside the library with some statues.

Sunday morning we were all up and out before the sun rose. Our main reason for heading to Maryland for the weekend was The Color Run in National Harbor. The Color Run is a fun 5K run where every kilometer you are colored with a mixture of cornstarch and coloring as you run through the color station. It was a very family friendly event. We weren't sure how the kids were going to do, but they all made it - Ashton in the stroller and all the others walking and running. At the start, we stayed together, but Rudy quickly took off running so I ran with him. He may need to join cross country. I was able to get him to stop after the first color station until everyone caught up, but after that he didn't want to stop. He finally agreed to wait for Paul to catch up so that they could run together for the last few kilometers.

The start of the no pictures decree from Rudy.

The girls all ready to go.

Since Chris and Megan and the girls got there nice and early, we were able to be in the first wave of runners.

The last color station- blue.

Looking from blue to the finish line - where more color is rising.

At the finish line.

After the race there was music and frequent throwing of more color. The kids had a blast getting even more colored.

Since Paul was running with a kid on both sides of him, he barely got colored for the first few color stations. The kids remedied that at the finish line.

More dancing.

Trying to get as close to the color and the stage as possible.

We all had a great weekend and will be participating in the Color Run again, at least once, maybe more next year.

5 Year Anniversary

Five years ago on Saturday, Paul and I flew to Guatemala for the last time to finally bring our little boy home. That little boy is not so little any more - as he likes to constantly point out!
Continuing the tradition of going to The Rainforest Cafe, we headed out for dinner. We've been lucky; every time we got to the Rainforest Cafe, we are seated in a different area. This time we were by a little waterfall.


Our big boy.

He wanted a picture by the gorilla.

Serious as he waits for his food.

Best part of  the Rainforest- the volcano! (And having them yell it across the restaurant VOOLLLCAAANNOOO!!!!)

A family picture that turned out a little blurry.

It was a beautiful night so we walked down to the beach. Rudy ran ahead and managed to brush against a bush that left little stickers all over his pants.

Literally running ahead.

Me and my boy

Trying to take a family shot on our own- Rudy was there with us!

One more try.

Finally got it.

Someone had written this in the sand. Paul got creative with the camera and took a picture of it with the old convention hall in the background.

Getting as close to the water as he could without getting wet.

I wrote this. It seems so long ago that we waited for him and hard to believe there was ever a time he wasn't with us.

The beautiful night sky from the parking garage.

Haunted Golf

A new golf course opened on the boardwalk this summer - Haunted Golf- right up Rudy's alley.  We looked at the outside of it while we were on the boardwalk one night with friends and made plans to come back. We got lucky because as we were standing and looking, a woman came up to me and said they had just won a free game but were leaving to go home, so she gave it to us. So now we definitely had to go back. So one Saturday night we headed out. Rudy was so excited.

By about the 5th hole, Rudy lost all interest in golf and was just going through the motions of hitting the ball while being very distracted by everything around him. He loved the decorations and sounds and everything about it (except the golf).

This was my favorite room. Rudy is standing on the ground but the wall was made to look as if it was the floor. And of course the bride and groom were skeletons.

After a very quick game of golf, we walked on the boardwalk and Rudy got some ice cream.

A perfect end of summer night.

Rudyisms

~Sometimes I feel like we should be correcting the words he mispronounces, but it's such a part of him, that I don't want to.
Some current words:
cho-cho-wa-wa (for the small dog)- we recently had a conversation about this word when he asked if that was the right name. We told him no and how it really was pronounced, and he said it makes more sense to say both parts twice!
emeny (enemy) and sometimes aminal- I know this is a common mistake, but it's just so cute!

~Rudy was asking us about a scary demon guy that Paul had supposedly told him about. He kept saying it was around July 3 or 4. The guy was dressed up like a football player. Maybe it was the 8th or 9th. Finally I asked if he meant Friday the 13th and of course he did. When we pointed out that the guy wore a hockey mask, he said, "It's almost the same thing."

~Rudy showed me a football card that someone at school had given him. He was very excited to tell me the player was from the horses team. I knew right away that he meant the Cowboys. He again replied, "It's almost the same thing."
~We were talking to Rudy about his behavior in school and asking for specific details of a time when he wasn't doing something he was told to do. He told us that the teacher told him to sit criss-cross applesauce when he had his legs straight out and he did it for a few minutes but then he put his legs back out because "I wasn't comfortable". I told him that maybe -at some other time during the day- he could talk to the teacher and explain that it made him uncomfortable and maybe he and the teacher could come up with some other way he could sit. His response, "No, she's not that kind of lady."

~In the same conversation, Paul was talking to Rudy and Rudy was doing his best to not be involved int he discussion. Paul paused to let what he said sink in and see if Rudy had any response. Rudy turned to Paul and said, "Did I tell you we got a new kid today?" in such a casual, change-the-subject way it was quite comical. When Paul told him he wasn't finished talking,  Rudy's response was, "You stopped talking so I thought we were done." The teen years are going to be a mess!!!!