Flag Day Parade

Saturday we headed down to Appleton to see my Grandma (I'll do a separate posting of that tomorrow) and go to the Appleton Flag Day Parade (largest Flag Day parade in the country). A big thanks to my mom for reminding me this was happening this weekend and for the cute shirt she bought Jackson! Despite only having a 30 min nap before the parade Jackson did great and loved every second of the parade. There's nothing more satisfying as a parent than to watch your child have fun, be excited and full of wonder. It was awesome.

Including the time we arrived to get a spot for our chairs, we were there about 3 hours. We left a bit early when Jackson was close to nodding off on Chris' shoulders(priceless to watch). His favorite parade scenes were the horses, veteran service dogs and the firetrucks (of course). He managed not to freak out when the firetrucks turned on their sirens and honked their horns but did wince...I don't blame him, it was incredibly loud. It took Jackson all of 3 minutes to conk out on the way to my parents where he took a 2 hour nap.

While Jackson napped I fulfilled a promise to myself, running a 10K today. Today was the Bellin Run 10K (4th largest 10K in the US). Every year I run this and tell myself I'm not doing it next year. I'm one of those weird runners who don't like to run for time or distance, I do it for relaxation, enjoyment, stress relief, etc. I decided that instead of doing the Bellin this year I would run a 10K trial somewhere. I didn't get it done in the morning like I hoped as I'm nursing a strained hammy due to a 4.5 mi run on Thursday where I let my pace get away from me. By this afternoon it felt OK so I ran near my parent's house. While the trails I ran were not what I was hoping to run they did the trick and 54:17 later I was done...mission accomplished. Over 26 miles this week, injuries stay away!

Side note - our Kenmore vacuum crapped out on me last week. I finally splurged on a Dyson (see photo of Jackson on box). For those of you familiar with my scrooge-like mannerisms and my love-hate relationship with vacuuming and vacuums you understand how big a deal this is for me.