The COLOR RUN!!!!!

First of all, this was the most ridiculously fun thing I have ever done in my entire life.  Period.

We woke up way too early, but it worked out alright.  The girls had breakfast and got dressed and then Grandpa Bob started helping them get their tattoos and headbands on.  Auntie Jules met us as we were finishing getting ready.  Here we are ready for some FUN!

 

We had a long wait to get ourselves parked and missed the exact start of the race, but since it's not timed and they release the racers in waves, it didn't matter.  We were also lucky that it was nice and overcast.  We went potty one more time and made our way to the starting point.  We ended up at the front of the wave that was next to leave.  They had a scaffold with a DJ and music at the start line.  The girls each ended up getting back packs and beach balls.  We also saw the 'Runicorn' mascot.  Then we were off!

 

 

Liz and Miriam wanted to run at first, so Auntie Jules went with them.  We made Rachel walk to the first color station (blue) instead of riding in the stroller.  There was lots of room and it was just chill and relaxed.  Rachel had a blast running through the blue.  The volunteers squirted us with color, gave us high fives and cheered us on.  Rachel thought she was running through an audience until she realized they were 'getting' her!  But she loved it.

After blue, we told Liz she could run to the yellow station and then wait for us there so we could go through the color together.  As we were walking, we caught up with Aimee and her family!!!  It was so fun to see them!

Yellow was super fun.  This time I had to hold Rachel's hand and pull her through.  She wanted to run through with her head down and miss all the fun! But we twirled and danced our way through.

By the time we got to orange, Miriam's energy was flagging.  Grandma B helped her find her second wind by doing 'color angels' on the ground after orange!!!  Then they realized that Grandma had a perfect orange heart on her shirt.  After that she was good to go.

We stopped after pink for a photo op and then Aimee and her crew caught up to us again.  Rachel became obsessed with cleaning everyone off.  She even found a clump of grass like a broom and was trying to brush us all clean.

 

After the finish line, they have a huge color throw every 15 minutes.  We saw the end of one as we got there.  It was crazy.  So we got our packets of color out to get ready for the next one.  Rachel promptly began spreading her color on everyone around her!  She gave me a good measure right at waist height and made sure that everyone's shoes got a dose of purple too.  Liz shared some hers with others and then dumped the rest of her packet on her head!  As the count down got closer they threw out more packets of color and then some cute color run hair bands.  I scooped up enough for everyone! 

 

 

 

 

We pushed in close for the final countdown and tossed our color with everyone else.  The music was so loud you couldn't hear anything else and there was so much color in the air you couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of you.  It was surreal and crazy and so much fun!

Afterwards, we tried to clean up a bit.  We snagged some free granola bars and then headed for the exit.  Before you leave, they have volunteers with leaf blowers.  They blow the front of you and then you turn around and they blow off the back of you.  You're still pretty colorful, but it gets a lot of the dust off.

We stopped and picked up McDonald's for lunch and then headed home.  After we ate, I spent over an hour and a half cleaning these girls up.  I started with Liz (who looked like an anime character with her purple hair and funky pigtails).  She soaked in a bath first and then I drained the water and scrubbed and rinsed with shampoo, conditioner and soap.  Had to do the same for all of them.

In the end, it was a great day.  A super fun thing to do Mother's Day weekend with my mom, my sister and my girls.  We can't wait to do it again in our hometown this fall!!!