I briefly mentioned our 4th of July weekend in my last Friday Favorites, but I’m going to dedicate an entire blog post to sharing about it! It was a HOT one here in SW Ohio and we had spent most of the prior week in the pool or trying to keep our animals cool!
Friday afternoon we headed off to our local small town’s 4th of July parade. This parade is quintessential small town- it’s about 25 minutes long, very lovely but nothing hugely exciting. The kids walked up and down the street before the parade started selling some of their homemade mulberry lemonade popsicles, while I snagged a nice spot in the shade. Once the parade got started we smiled and cheered and the kids collected lots of candy. My favorite part was the flyover!
Did I mention that it was HOT? We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home. Nobody cared if it ruined our dinner, we had sweated our weight in sweat and needed something cold and sweet! We headed home and watched a World Cup game while eating dinner inside. We opted to not go to the Lebanon fireworks as we were so hot and tired and needed to be up early the next morning. In hindsight, I wish we had gone to the Lebanon fireworks.
I got up at 5:30 on Saturday, the 4th of July! I woke Tera and Kiah up, made them some toast, and we headed out of the house by 6am. Tera and Kiah were so excited to run their very first 5k! We got to the high school stadium, got our bibs and shirts and then still had about 40 minutes before the race started. We ran into a couple people we knew and chatted with them while waiting for the run to start. It was so fun to talk the kids through all of the race details.
One thing that I was kind of nervous about was what pace to run with the kids. Should we all stick together, and just plan to finish, or should we all just run our own pace and pick a good meeting spot once we crossed the finish line. It’s always a little nerve-wracking (especially as a former cop’s wife) to let my kids “go” in a crowded environment, so we always have a little discussion about what to do if ______. This particular 5k was an out and back, so we looked up on the map where to turn around (I knew it would be pretty obvious, but listen- people get lost or take the wrong turn during obvious races all. the. time.). Anyways, we decided to run at our own paces and I’m really proud of my kids for being brave enough to do that!
We waited for the gun to go off, and then we were on our way! The route was very simple- down a street, around the corner, then turn around and run back. I love out and back races because even as a slow runner, I get to see the first runners coming back down the street toward me! It’s so fun to cheer them on! Running really is an individual sport, but it’s also a group sport and I love how I always feel like people are cheering me on, even if I’m not winning.
It was HOT! The run back the sun was fully in my face and I was just dripping with sweat by the end haha. I vaguely knew that Kiah was in front of me, and Tera was behind me and I did see both of them sometime during the turn around. But, boy, is it mind bending to cross the finish line and have my 9 year old boy waiting for me on the other side because he had already finished before me hahaha. And then to turn around and have my 11 year old girl cross her first ever 5k finish line!! She loves running and is so excited to be on the XC team this fall!
While we grabbed waters, I scanned the QR code to check out our actual times – and saw that Kiah placed 3rd for his age group! Now…his age group was 0-9, so I would hope that he can beat most of the 0-6 year olds out there haha. I think I was even more surprised to see that I placed 11th in my age group! Maybe my goal next year should be top ten? Tera did an amazing job in her first 5k and I pointed out that she is in the young section of her age bracket.
Once we found out that Kiah got a medal, he wanted to stick around to receive it. That meant that we had to wait for the 5k to finish before he could get his award. Which meant that we really didn’t have time to drive home, shower, and make it back in time for the parade. I texted Theo and told him we would just stay there and he could come meet us with the younger two kids.
We parked our car in a friends driveway and headed over to the parade area. This parade is HUGE and the crowds are even bigger. People literally put out their lawn chairs to save spots about 3-4 WEEKS in advance. No, I’m not kidding. It’s a whole thing. Anyways, I found a shady spot to stand and we waited for Theo to get there. Unfortunately, as the sun moved into the sky our shady spot was no longer shady (rookie mistake). We were in the blazing hot sun for the whole parade- which is like 2 hours long, guys. After running a 5k in the hot sun. These were not my best choices. I’m thankful for some iced chai/smoothie drinks to at least slightly cool us down. I was a sweaty mess!
After the parade we headed home and the kids swam in the pool all afternoon. I just could not recover from being so hot! I had a splitting headache and didn’t feel great for the rest of the day. We had promised the kids we would do fireworks that night, so I rallied as much as I could and we headed over to Springboro to watch their fireworks. Of course, right when we got there, there was a quick downpour with thunder and lightning, so everyone went to their cars. The rain stopped and the fireworks started, but we just watched from the parking lot. These fireworks were sub-par, not gonna lie. It was a 13 minute show from start to finish and then the traffic was insane to get out of the parking lot. Next year we are sticking with the Lebanon fireworks!
The next day, we got up early and headed to “Camp Creek”, my brother in law and sister in law’s off-grid property. They have a beautiful property that they have worked really hard to make “livable”- well, off-grid livable. No electric, no running water, wayyyy out in the country so there is no cell service, either. They have built their own cabin by hand and made 4 wheeler trails all throughout the property. They rent out some of the acreage to farmers for corn fields, and they even have a contract with the government for wild flower fields. It’s a beautiful property and we had a great day out there!
I know this post is already long, but I just wanted to add a couple thoughts here about spending time with this family. They are super unconventional- 8 kids, living the homestead life, and building an entire off grid cabin by themselves. And I just wish that everyone could have a family like that in their lives. A family that makes you think a little bit outside of the box, even if you don’t want to fully embrace that lifestyle. A family that makes you think “well, if they can do THAT, what can I do?” A family that makes you laugh and tell some wild stories and kind of makes you shake your head, but in a super fond way, you know? Do you know a family like that? I hope that we all can. In fact, maybe our family is that family for someone else!
It was another late night getting back home around 10pm, but we are so glad we got to spend some time with cousins and just enjoy this beautiful July summer!