Independence Day fell on a Wednesday this year, which threw scheduling into something of a tizzy. Our usual plan is to head to Hannibal for Tom Sawyer Days, but they separated events between the surrounding weekends, so we were actually home with the kids on July 4th for once. Marshall has a fireworks display and I picked up a new grill (oooooooo, it’s so nice…), so Mom and Dad came in from Columbia for some BBQ and Fourth of July festivities.
Marshall moved the fireworks display to the old Habilitation Center about a half mile from our house, so we took the wagon and set up shop for the evening. We watched the Marshall Municipal Band play a patriotic set before the fireworks were set off, so we were up there for a few hours. Not a bad way to spend the Fourth!
The rest of the week went as normal and we left for Hannibal on Friday, when the Tom Sawyer Days events were going to kick off. We watched some mud volleyball Friday night, as Rachel and Jimmy were playing again. Diana and I ran the Hannibal Cannibal the next morning and, shockingly, the temperature was 61 F on July 7th, so I ran far better than I had been for the week prior. My goal for this 15K was 1:20, as that should keep me on track for the half-marathon I’m running in October, and I beat that by a few minutes. The 15K is where the marathon runners live, so my competition was substantially greater than it was when I ran the 10K last year, but hey…whatchoo gonna do…
We spent quite a bit of time downtown for mud volleyball during the weekend, went swimming back at the house, and shot off some fireworks for good measure. It was a fun weekend, as always! The kids stayed in Hannibal with Mimi and Poppy for the week, so Brooke and I have some time here to catch up on things (read: work).
Summer’s half over…