The Color Run: The Happiest 5K on the Planet

It felt like my best friend, Sairy, and I were waiting over a year for The Color Run to make it's way to the Queen City. We are both suckers for 5K's  and when we discovered The Happiest 5K on the Planet, there was no going back. We were in love with the concept and couldn't wait to sign up!

If you're wondering what The Color Run is all about, you simply wear a white t-shirt and at each kilometer, you have volunteers that splash you in specific colors. By the end of the race,  you have your own custom tie-dye Color Run T-shirt! The run is mainly towards the experience and not speed. I would say 90% of participants walked. Sairy and I were able to weave in and out as we decided to jog through the course as we listened to the roaring sound of NASCAR practice at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

When they label The Color Run as "The Happiest 5K on the Planet", they aren't kidding. There wasn't a single runner (or walker) out there who wasn't in the best of moods. It was impossible to walk around without a smile on your face. Jeremy was nice enough to come along (in the wind and cold) and snap pictures of Sairy and I at the race. I must say, he has become quite the photographer!

The Color Run had DJ's at the beginning and end of the race along with amazing color- throwing volunteers that kept you pumped up and full of energy...even in the freezing cold. As we were running, my favorite Color Kilometer to run through was YELLOW. The volunteers there were covered from head to toe and doing their job well while dousing us in color. As we finished, we headed over to the Color Festival where all participants pile together and do one giant Color Throw that paints the sky. Make sure to watch the video at the end of the blog so you can witness the awesomeness!

We danced and jumped without a care in the world (we have a video to prove it). We weren't even aware of the purple teeth and face we were sporting until it was time to leave. Jeremy could only laugh and take pictures to show us the outcome.

             

Sleeping In

We haven't slept in on the weekend since October 6th. This Saturday, however, was different. We slept. We slept in until our hearts desired. All the way up until 8am, haha. It's sad that that's sleeping in for us, but hey, it was waking up with nothing on our schedule and that was quite lovely.

This weekend was spent with family; both the Little's and Singleton's. We got to spend precious time with our favorite nephew and sister along with my parents who treated us to some delicious BBQ.

Sunday was reserved for the Singleton parents as we created a Chili Bar and watched the Panthers sadly lose (again). The Chili Bar made up for it in my book but not so much Jeremy's. The loss still put him in a damper mood.

It was the first relaxing weekend in a while and it was much needed before the craziness of the holiday's take over. Next weekend I'm looking forward to The Color Run and a photo shoot with Sunny! I. CAN'T. WAIT.

Climbing Mountains

Long story short, Jeremy and I had planned a little getaway vacation with our church LifeGroup this past weekend. We rented a cabin along with 7 other couples and had looked forward to the weekend with friends! Unfortunately, we found out just days before that we had been scammed and there was no way to book another cabin so close to our departing date. On a positive note, we will be getting our money back (yay!) and we had an awesome weekend with our friends from group anyways. Nothing was going to stop us :)

We awoke Saturday morning and got breakfast at what is turning out to be a local spot for us, Poppyseeds Bagels. With a yummy blueberry bagel satisfying my taste buds, we were off to meet the three other couples in our group to hike up Crowders Mountain.

Three days later and my poor little hammies (hamstrings) are still feeling the effects of Crowders Mountain. The hike wasn't too hard, however, we did take the strenuous trail, so it wasn't that easy either...it was juuuuust right...the perfect workout for a Saturday morning. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and was too good to be true for a morning hike. The strenuous parts uphill were worth it in the end and the view from atop was a reminder of how lucky we were to witness the autumn beauty of the North Carolina mountains.

Although we were bummed to not spend a weekend in the mountains, we still had a great time hanging out with the group. Later that evening, we met up for Game Night and it was filled with lots of laughter, great food and some amazing memories. We'll have our cabin trip eventually and I'm sure it will be... wait for it... LEGENDARY. This group is pretty amazing and Jeremy and I are super happy that they actually like us  :)

Photo A Day October

It's officially Fall...well, I think it is. October gave North Carolina a mix of Summer, Fall, and Winter. One week it's 80º and then the next it's 40º, so I guess the best thing to do is just roll with it and wear boots either way :). I'm pretty sure that's my favorite thing about Fall. Boots...and scarves. I officially broke out the winter coats, scarves and hot apple cider to keep warm!

Oh, I almost forgot to share some news! The creator of Photo A Day *LIKED* one of my photos!!!! I was so happy, I tweeted about it. That tweet then led to a reply from her! Ahhhh! Even better!  Oh how I love twitter. And instagram.  I was so excited I took a picture. Please keep your snickers to a minimum, haha. I know I'm a dork :)

I can't believe the year is ending with only two months to go! It's still not too late to jump on the Photo A Day bandwagon :) Just grab the list and go! Below are my image captures for October. Some are better than others but I hope you enjoy either way!

1. where you stood. On a walk with my beloved beast, Apollo.
2. lunchtime. A hot pocket and edamame, my new favorite food. And guess what! The creator of Photo A Day LIKED and COMMENTED on my photo!!! I was pretty stoked but I have to admit a little sad because I wasn't a huge fan of that particular photo. Hey, maybe she's a fan of edamame, too.
3. this happened today. I found a dollar on the ground. #win!
4. what you read. A sweet thank you card from a dear friend of ours.
5. shadow. By the time I got home that day, the sun had already gone down and sadly I worked indoors all day. Luckily Jeremy was willing to help me out :)
6. i'm thankful for...days with great friends!
7. light. I snapped this during an evening walk with Apollo. It felt like the first cold night of Fall!
8. angle. The acrobat at the Renaissance Festival was able to to turn and twist her body into all sorts of angles.
9. red. The cap to a delicious Cherry soda.
10. emotion. Yosef carries a lot of emotion in his face. Go App!
11. something close-up. Ha, I love his gap-toothed smile oh so much. This magnifying glass helped do the trick for something close-up!
12. on the table. We were order #3 and ready for our food!
13. landscape. The Charlotte skyline. That counts as a landscape, right?
14. makes you laugh. The tv show, How I Met Your Mother, never fails to make me laugh.
15. dinnertime. I was too hungry to snap a picture of my food. This was the result.
16. something you wrote. I happened to publish a blog entry that day on our upcoming trip to NYC!
17. fruit. I struggled on this one. We usually have apples in the fridge but of course on the day that is assigned to fruit, we have none, whatsoever! All we had were cucumbers which I'm pretty sure is a vegetable. It's all I had. Please forgive me.
18. made you smile today. I came across these photos of people getting scared while in a haunted house. Not only did it bring a smile to my face, it made my afternoon.
19. letters. These 7 letters make up a word. A pretty important word that everyone should do. RECYCLE!
20. 4 o'clock. After a busy Saturday running around, I finally made it home by 4pm to find Apollo sunbathing in our bedroom. What a hard life he has.
21. calm. The color of the trees and the white and blue of the sky did nothing but calm me.
22. in your town. In my town, the leaves are starting to change.
23. the view from here. My nose was stuck in a book all day. I was determined to finish as this one didn't hold my attention. It took me 7 months to finish! Seven!
24. weather. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Just the sun warming me up as I took an afternoon walk. It was perfect.
25. people. Jeremy and I leave this post card on our fridge as a reminder of the good ol day's at App. That image of all the people carrying the field goal brings back great memories.
26. listening to. I was supposed to see Tristan Prettyman live in Charlotte that night but she got offered to tour with The Script and had to cancel her show. Bummer.  I think I'd opt to tour with The Script as well, so I can't stay mad at her. I listened to her album instead.
27. morning. I took the time that morning to vote early! My first time ever. I was very proud of myself.
28. looking back. That morning I was looking back on all of the Halloween shenanigans Jeremy and I got into the night before. And yes, I was pretending to do some sort of rain dance. It was Pocahontas appropriate!
29. moon. Mr. Moon, Mr. Moon, you're out too soon. The sun is still in the sky. (a song I will probably sing to our future kids).
30. clothes. Hurricane Sandy came along and brought cold weather with her. Time to bundle up!
31. whatever you please. Happy Halloween. I decided that this photo summed up October.

Here's the list for November. You should join in on the fun!