AFTER A MUDDY RACE

 I am second guessing myself all the time these days. Am I taking enough time to get genuinely and gut wrenchingly inspired? And then just sitting with it to let it germinate? And then honing my vision so hard and not caring about what other people think? 

Let's think on this some more and in the meanwhile can I tell you about how my sisters and their men came down to Richmond one weekend and we all ran an obstacle race together? There was so much mud involved; also, fire, walls, slides, tunnels, barbed wires, hills, running and more mud. There was a brief moment in the beginning of 'wait..why am I doing this again?' and then I was covered in mud running up a hill and having a blast and my husband and sisters and Paul and Val were cheering each other all on and all the other runners were so into it and helpful and nice to each other.  These kinds of bonding activities, you know, the kind that involve helping each other climb over walls and giving each other high fives, really make you feel like you are achieving something together. It feels good. It also makes ice cream taste extra tasty. 

After various modes of showering, napping, and patching up cuts and bruises, we headed out to dinner at peter chang's, but before that we made a quick stop in carytown to grab a board game (bohnanza!) to play together later that night with everyone. While waiting for Ken to make the purchase, Sloane and I spotted the King of Pops stand and made a beeline for it. It's hard not be a fan of a Popsicle but a really really delicious Popsicle made with all-natural ingredients and ecologically responsibility mindset? I'm soo on board. In fact, I think one of my goals this summer will be to have as many of these as possible. Who's with me?? It was Sloane's first taste of a Popsicle and she made sure she stayed extra close to get any more bites I would be willing to share of mine. 

After a delicious dinner of bubble pancakes and spicy eggplants and such, we decided more ice cream was in order. On we marched to Gelati Celasti. I brought a plain Greek yogurt for sloane to eat while we were eating our ice creams, because hey! it looks pretty much the same! and she was really into it, but then I think there was a moment where it slowly dawned on her what was going on. She didn't complain though and worked her way through and into and all around that yogurt. The picture of her staring extra hard at my sister's mango ice cream (pictures below) might have been a moment when she was pondering about whether her yogurt was different than that orange mound.  But also, seeing my sisters walking hand in hand with my baby? The best. 

Do you like how I turned this post from a rumination about my insides to a muddy obstacle race and then to ice cream? No? Here are some more pictures to make it up to you.