Color Me Rad!

Since having Bryson, I have struggled with getting the baby weight off. I wanted to lose a little bit before I got pregnant, but we were fortunate enough to get pregnant quickly so I didn't get to lose as much as I wanted to before getting pregnant. I gained around 65 pounds while I was pregnant with Bryson. I just knew that it would come off easily, boy was I wrong! After almost 3 years I had not lost a pound of that baby weight. I was frustrated. I didn't have as much time to work out as I would like to and no matter how good I ate, I never lost weight. It was frustrating. I have had a few friends get weekly b-12 shots to help with weight loss so I decided to give it a try. I began at the beginning of January and as of today I am down 48 pounds! I have met my first goal which was to be my pre-pregnancy weight and I am about 5 pounds down from being at the weight I was when I got married. Once I meet that goal, I would love to be the weight I was when I met Robert, but that was 10 years ago,and before I had a child so I'm not really counting on that; but it's nice to have small goals to work toward. Since I have lost all that weight, I wanted to run a 5k. Robert and his friends run them quite a bit and always seem to enjoy them. It's something that Robert has enjoyed since losing around 100 pounds a few years ago. When I heard about Color Me Rad, I thought it sounded like fun, but I wanted to make sure if I ran a 5k it supported a good charity. This one supported the Ronald McDonald house. I knew that Robert would do it with me but once I heard the charity, I thought it would be something fun to do with my mom and Martha. I'm so glad they did it with us because we had a ton of fun! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Right when we started we got blasted with pink color bombs! Then had to run up a big hill. That hill about killed me! But after that, it was easy. I didn't run as much as I would have liked because I wanted to run more at the end. They didn't have markers to let you know how far you were so I had no idea how many miles we had run/walked. I thought we were getting close to the end so we started running a little then next thing we knew, we were at the end! If I would have known how close we were to the end, I would have ran more. I was pretty bummed. Hopefully the next one I do will be marked so I know how much longer I have. This 5k was a blast! We wore all white because throughout the race, you got color bombs thrown on you. It was crazy to see how much color we had by the end of the race. I was scrubbing that color off of me for days! I plan to run another sometime when it's a little cooler but I think I will be more prepared and be able to run. I am very happy and proud that I did complete it. It feels good to have worked so hard to lose all that weight and be able to enjoy something like that! Here are a ton of great pictures from our fun morning!

 Before the race, all nice and clean.

 Before the race started, they were throwing color bombs at the crowd of over 5,000 people.

Memorial Day Weekend!

Bryson has been talking about going to the Aquarium (or the clarium as he calls it) for a while now. We took him to the one in Atlanta on his first birthday, but there is no way he remembers that. Lola had the idea to load up on a Saturday and take him to the one in Chattanooga. We thought Memorial Day weekend would be good since we had the extra day off. Lisa and Paul decided they wanted to join us, which made Bryson very happy. Of course Bryson did good on the car ride there. We kept him busy with his Leap Pad, snacks and a nap. I am so thankful is does good in the car on long trips. We got to Chattanooga around lunch time. We knew the food in the aquarium would be expensive so we decided to go to one of the local restaurants. The past few times we have been to Chattanooga, we have eaten at the Big River Brewery and it was so good, so we decided to eat there again. I love their pizza and Robert and Paul tried one of their beers. After lunch, we walked to the aquarium. There was a little market set up outside that had a ton of vendors selling all types of homemade items. It was really neat to look at all the stuff. The Chattanooga Aquarium is in two separate buildings. One for river life, and the other for ocean life. We went to the river one first. It was fun at first, but I forgot just how big it was and how many of the same looking fish there were. It got a little boring, and Bryson was done.

 Riding the big elevator up to the aquarium.

 He loved looking down on the river. 

 Watching the ducks.

Acting silly!

 He loved the sea otters!

Looking at the fish with Lisa. 

After we finished the river journey aquarium, we let Bryson play outside in the water before getting ice cream. The main thing I love about Chattanooga is all the water and how they have it set up for the kids to play in. He loved it and didn't want to leave. The only way to get him out was to get him ice cream (which we were doing anyway). He loved the Dippin' Dots and the giant pretzels!

After our little break, we headed to the ocean aquarium. Bryson loved getting to touch a stingray and hold a butterfly! He also loved the crabs, jellyfish and octopus. Sadly, this aquarium was not as big as I remember it being. I think the next time we go back to an aquarium it will be to the one in Atlanta or the one in Gatlinburg. Bryson loved this one, but I think he would like one of the other two more!

 Touching the stingrays.

 Bryson, Robert and Lola.

 Before heading into the butterfly garden.

 

Holding a butterfly!

 Being silly with daddy!

 Penguins!

 Playing in shark cage.

It's blurry, but he loved the crabs!

Jellyfish!

 

When we finished with the aquarium, it was still too early for dinner so we let Bryson play in the water some more before heading to dinner. We went to a BBQ place called Sticky Fingers. It was so good! After dinner, we headed home. It didn't take Bryson long to fall asleep in the car and he slept the whole way home. He stayed with Lisa and Lola that night since we got back early enough to go over to our friends house. Sadly for them, he slept the whole way because he was still up at 1am! He had such a fun day! I'm so glad he was able to spend this fun day with all of us.

 More fun in the water.

 He loved his penguin balloon from Lola!

 Robert's giant beer!

Tired boy!