That's Better!

We had a great Memorial Day weekend around here.  It's one of the most fun weekends to live in Boulder, I think.  There's so much going on and the weather is almost always beautiful so although we are going, going, going all weekend it's all good stuff so totally worth it.  I found myself thinking, during a family bike ride (headed home from the Boulder Creek Festival) that it's a shame more people don't come to visit us.  Honestly, you people are really missing out!  ;-)

We did up the Creek Festival on Sunday during the day as a family and exhausted ourselves.  Then after the kids went to bed, Nathan and I hopped on our bikes and went back to check out the nighttime scene (relax, our friend Gretchen came to sit with the kids).  It wasn't what we'd hoped but we still had fun being out and about after dark with all the riff raff (anyone who can step out at night without planning way in advance to get as drunk as they want and stay out as late as they want now deserves this title in our eyes).

This is the kind of thing you stumble upon around here:  Zen stone towers.  I always love finding them, but this was a particularly impressive collection.

The highlight of the festival for Owen.  He didn't stop talking all day about how he rode a train with Zoe.  Please notice the ketchup stains around Zoe's mouth.  A sure sign of a good day at the festival.

The next morning, I finally got to run the Bolder Boulder!  The experience was everything I'd hoped it would be.  I had a smile plastered on my face the whole time as I took it all in:  the Elvis impersonator claiming to be Michael Jackson, the cutie pie kids handing out marshmallows to runners, the crazy costumed spectators blasting music and dancing, the muddy slip and slide (I didn't do it, but loved that I could have if I'd wanted to), the college students offering free keg stands and spraying us with hoses, the college kids' bands setting up and playing for us in their totally unkempt front lawns, the banner around mile 4 that read "Course Summit 5,391 ft.  Sea Level is for Sissies!", running through downtown Boulder through a growing crowd and fun bands and finally finishing up by taking a little lap in the packed football stadium.  It was so much fun!  The only bummer was that I somehow missed Nathan and the kids who were carefully watching for me with cowbells and outstretched high fives in the spot we'd agreed upon.  I was searching for them too and could have sworn I didn't see any people in that spot but they were there and have pictures to prove it.  I blame the group of crayons I was running near. I was with them the whole time and was actually becoming fond of all the cheering going on for them, but then they had to go and steal my family's attention for a split second which must have been when I slipped on by them.  Oh well! 

Later that day, we went BACK to the Creek Festival to watch the annual EXPAND Duck Race.  In the days leading up to the last day of the festival you can buy a duck for the race (all proceeds go to our local Parks & Rec) and if your duck is the first one of the thousands to make it down the creek to the big net where they catch them all on that last day, you win an AWESOME prize.  This year, the grand prize was an all expense paid trip to Cancun!  Alas, we didn't win but it was really fun to watch.  We buy at least one duck every year but have never made it to the actual race and we were so glad we did this year.  Tons of people crowd the banks of the creek to wait and watch.  Just before the launch, we heard people cheering up the creek a bit and a few seconds later we saw a real duck swimming down the creek, fast as could be.  It was like one of those crazy dudes who take their clothes off at baseball games and run as quickly as they can around the field before they get tackled by security.  So funny!

Waiting...

Togetherness!

I couldn't believe how many people turned out for this event!

To top it all off, since I last posted about all of my unfinished business, I managed to get a bunch of that stuff done.  I thank all of you for that because telling you made me finally get my ass in gear...here are a couple of the results!

Princess bed out of cheap fabric, yarn and an embroidery hoop!

Finally making the tin can wind chimes.  So easy!  We used keys on the end of the string to make the sound but you can use anything.  I think it could even work to just thread the string through the hole you make on the bottom of the can and tie a knot to secure it.  If you hang them close together they bang around just fine without something on the inside too.

Thanks for the inspiration, eHow home and Red Tent Art!

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend too!