The 4th

The 4th of July this years was a busy fun-filled day. It began with me and Julie running the LaPorte 5k. We had only began running in the mornings five days earlier, but figured we could make it 3.1 miles, even if we had to walk parts of it. We showed up to the run that morning expecting to find a huge group of runners of all ages and levels... Basically the local track team, the firefighters, the local hard-core runners, and a few kids were there. So we were kind of nervous. It ended up being fun though, in a torture-yourself-for-no-real-reason kind of fun. I HATED the last half mile of the race, but we were able to run the whole thing, no walking, in under 30 min. And it was a good rewarding feeling once it was all over. We even beat most of the firefighters :) I did, however, throw up in a garbage can at the end of the race, right in front of all the super-runners who finished in like 15 min. It was pretty humiliating, but oh well. We've kept up our little running group this summer - so maybe someday we'll try another 5k. New goal: finish without puking ;)

Don't mind the cheesy grin on my face here.. I was waving to Ava :)

After the 5k we watched the LaPorte parade. It consisted of police cars & firetrucks (probably every one in the county!), horses... more horses, and tractors. Oh and 2 floats. Quite the country parade. The kids loved it though and we did have a really good time. Cohen was fascinated by all the sirens.

Later that day, we went up to Chicago and me up with our hubbies to spend the evening there. We walked the pretty streets of the city for a while.

After seeing the sights, our whole office went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, yummm!