City Museum and Circus Debut

Last November on our way to spend Thanksgiving with family in Illinois, we decided to spend a day in St Louis.    We went to the City Museum.   We had a blast.  If you are ever in the St Louis area and have some time to kill, you should check this place out.

It's hard to describe the City Museum because it's not like any museum I've ever been to.  It's more like a huge playhouse.   My kids absolutely loved it.   We went on a weekend night when it stays open until midnight.  After 9 or 10pm, they turn off the lights in many of the areas and you can explore the building with flashlights.   We stayed until probably 11pm.   Among many other things, the museum has a huge outdoor metal sculpture you can climb around on, a maze of caves indoors you can explore, a 10 story slide, a ferris wheel on the roof, an indoor skate park, an adult sized hamster wheel, the worlds largest pencil, the world's largest underwear, and an old pipe organ that you can play.

The maze of metal sculptures you can climb on.

Notice the bus on the roof?  Yeah, you could sit in the driver's seat.

On the hamster wheel.

Exploring!

The world's largest underwear.

The museum also had a small one-man circus in a theater with about 100 people.  The absolute highlight of our time at the museum was my son getting picked to go on stage with the performer.   This was the finale of the show.  Enjoy.

Heat Wave

Okay, it's not exactly a heat wave but weather forecasters predict it's going to get up to 70 degrees today.  In late January.   In the midwest.   I love it.  It was beautiful yesterday too and we took the family for about a 3 mile walk last night.   I also love that it's starting to stay lighter longer.  Woo-hoo.

I ran on  a treadmill in Arkansas twice in addition to running outside a couple of times this week.  Haven't run more than 3 miles at a time yet.   I really want to ease back into it.   I also have lost about 11 pounds in 3 weeks with the Biggest Winner weight loss challenge through work.  Feeling pretty good about that, but I have much more to lose.

Did anyone watch the Biggest Loser this week?   First, I didn't get why Gillian felt the need to make Dan/Don (whatever his name is) use curse words.  It was like that was her whole mission, to get him mad enough to swear , and when he did it, she felt better.  Like she accomplished something.  I think she tries to psychoanalyze things too much.    Second, did anyone else think it was extremely unfair when the two green team members were pitted against all the rest of the ranch competitors in the challenge?   It was like 2 against 8 or something.   Not fair at all, even though they almost won.

Enough rambling.   Everyone have a great start to the weekend.

Why Do You Run?

So....Why do YOU run??

Anyone ever done the Expedition Everest Disney race?

We are trying to plan a Disney World trip, and one of the weekends we're looking at has a 5K race called the Expedition Everest Challenge.

It's a little pricey, but I think it sounds really fun.   It's an 5K race in Animal Kingdom after the park closes that has obstacles along the way, and then at the end there is a treasure hunt.

I would love to do it with my 8 yr old son.  Has anyone done this race?  Do you think an 8 yr old can complete it and have fun?  Or should he stick with the kids' race?  Thoughts?

One Easy To Win Giveaway! CSN

If you want to win $45, keep reading.

CSN has literally TONS of items for sale and you can use the money for anything you want from any of their sites.   Among some of their 200+ stores are luggage stores, mirror stores, and fitness equipment stores.

I am going to make this very easy to win.

Visit CSN and leave me a comment below with what item you might use the $45 to buy.

Do that, and you've earned one entry.  It's that easy.  

However, if you do want a couple of extra entries you can (one extra entry for each) you can:

1.  follow my blog and let me know

2. post about this giveaway on your blog and let me know

Contest runs until the end of the month, and then I will pick a winner.

Happy blogging and good luck!

Little People blog....

I ran across a pretty creative blog.  It's called "Little People -a tiny street art project."   Check it out.  It's pretty interesting.   He takes tiny people and puts them into interesting photographs.   Here is one of my favorites, called "Life as we know it"

The Biggest Winner

We are doing a weight loss contest at work called The Biggest Winner.   I love the logo, and we all have different colored t-shirts with the logo on it.   There are over 250 employees participating.   We are broken up into teams of 4 and the prize goes to the team with the largest percentage weight loss over the 6 week contest.  My team lost 19 lbs in week number one.  My personal goal is to lose at least 20 lbs in the 6 weeks.  I've been doing well, eating lots of fresh veggies and whole grains, and exercising at least 5-6 days a week.   I lost 8 lbs in week one, and even though I know that you usually lose the most in the first week, I am proud that I am on my way to my goal.

My sweetie is joining me in the journey, which helps.  She has been really great with getting her workouts in and eating right, too.   And of course since we are both doing this, our kids are eating healthier now too.  The other day our 10 yr old, obviously ready to get back to eating hamburgers and fries,  said "how long is this healthy eating stuff going to last?"   Of course we said "for the rest of your life."

Is anyone else that is watching Biggest Loser getting tired of "the unknowns?"  I mean seriously, show us these new trainers faces already....

Hello Running, It's Me Again....

Dear Running,

I know you won't believe me, but two words have described these last 3 months for me --- BIZ-ZEE.....

I have been super busy with work and the holidays and life in general, and even though I know that is not a good excuse, the truth is that I have not been a runner in almost 3 months.   In fact, I've been pretty lazy and put on a few extra pounds.   The only positive to not running is that I've been able to let my nagging foot injuries have extra time to heal.  

With the new year, I have decided to reintroduce myself.   I've actually run 3 times in the last 10 days.  Not far.  Not fast.  But, it's felt good to get out there and run again.  I hope you can see that I'm trying.    And I hope you'll go easy on me.

Sincerely

Oz Runner