To do this fall y'all!

Good Morning! Happy first day of fall!  If you have been reading my blog awhile, you have known that one of the things I missed over the past 4 years in Okinawa was the fall.  As much as I hate the cold weather, I love the changing season leading up to it.  The crisp air, cozy sweaters, changing leaves pumpkins, and of course cheap apples.  

When moving back to the east coast, I was very excited to once again see the beauty the changing seasons has to offer.  Last year I tried to make a fall to do list, but found that there was very little I could do on a tropical island.  Pumpkins were often almost sold out by mid october, and we spent our fall usually planning for christmas because of how fast things would sell out.  The air was never quite fall-like, and we had palm trees in our front yard, not a colorful oak or maple like I was used to.  

Virginia, like Connecticut gets some beautiful weather this time of year.  The feel of fall is almost identical, though nothing will beat Jones pumpkin patch, and apple picking up the road.  All the same, I've created a list of things to do this fall! I hope you all join me in doing some of these things.  Have a great fall!

American History Museum

After the excitement of the color run, our visitors had to part with us.  They were all headed up to the NY/CT area, so we decided to make a trip up to DC with them for a few hours.  We stopped at the American History Museum, my favorite museum on the National Mall.  

We only saw a short portion of the museum, as there is so much to see in it.  We spent about 2 hours walking around before having lunch and saying sayonara to my D Step's brother and his wife.  

Yep, that's Kermit.  and Dorothy's ruby slippers.  And a tax collector.  

They had a whole exhibit for the Little Golden Books.  And I loved this vintage mason jar.  It was next to an exhibit all about old fashioned homes.  

My Minions

Z Step being cheesy 

We then walked all over the Mall, looking at a few monuments and the Lincoln Memorial.  We then walked back to our car and parted ways with the other Steps.

The Color Run

 Ever since themed races have gotten big, we have been wanting to do one.  I have seen many of my friends post about their zombie run or mudder and lots of other fun kinds of races.  Unfortunately, not many made their way to Japan.  Luckily, "Virginia is for Runners."  There are tons of races in our area and all over the state.  So when we saw that a color run was coming to Richmond, we knew we had to do it.  It's kid friendly (it's just corn starch) and just a blast of a time!  We were even more excited when D Step's family wanted to join us.  We knew that the run would live up to it's name, "The happiest race on the planet!"

We learned that it was cheaper to register as a group, so we registered with the name "EZ Steps" and made our motto, "Steppin on Color!"  I had everyone buy white shirts that I was able to iron our names and team name onto.  I am very happy with how they turned out.  

I don't think a bunch of text is going to do this race justice, so I will let these photos speak for themselves.  

Before

At the Starting line!

The first color to be thrown on us was blue.  We all really wanted a lot of blue on us! 

Next was green, another that we wanted a lot of!

Next was orange.  Though I love orange, I tried to avoid this one because I noticed that it made the colors look really muddy together.  Unfortunately I still got pelted with quite a bit of it!

Yellow.  There was a really fun guy at this one screaming about how much he loved yellow!

The boys were both cranky during the race, but stayed content in the stroller.  They got a little color on their feet, but not too bad, as the sun shade was up the whole time. (It was SUNNY!)

After the race was over the after party began.  It basically consisted of a stage, free shirts, sweatshirts, shorts, glasses, and more powder.  Every 15 minutes there was a huge color throw, where everyone threw their colored powder in the air.  It was so cool to see the colors all at once.  This was my favorite part. E Step and I stood to the side of the stage for one throw and his bald little head got covered in orange and purple.  The purple ended up being our favorite color.  It was so vibrant and fun!  I literally was rolling in it at the end to get my shirt more saturated.  

Those shorts belonged to the "Runicorn" the mascot of the race.  I tried to get a photo with Z Step, but he was more interested in a bubble gun.  

The boys playing with the color.  Love E Step's head!  And Z Step was laughing while rolling around in it.  

Lots of fun during!

Our afters.  

My family and I stepped on some color alright!  

He had so much fun rolling in it!

Overall, this was a great run.  It was so much fun, and without a doubt was the happiest race on the planet.  The atmosphere of everyone was so fun and happy.  I cannot wait to do this again!