Part one of a crazy month!

Wow it's been a crazy month, if you asked me what was the most exciting thing that happened this month, I would have a hard time choosing. Is it that I became an American citizen?! Or the fact I ran the largest race in the nation, and 5th largest in the world (blame wikipedia if this is inaccurate) and did really well? Or my Mom's unexpected visit? Or my friends' unexpected visit? Or my brother's unexpected visit? Or one of the hundreds of other cool things that happened this month?

Don't get me wrong there's also been more than enough "less than exciting" things, and choosing a winner for the downer selection would be hard too, but let's focus on the good ones shall we?

So! As of May 13th I am officially an American Citizen. It does feel a little weird, thanks for asking :), but mostly I'm happy to be able to call mine a culture and people I have grown to love so much. (Please don't disown me, friends and family on the other side of the ocean, I am still and always will be French too).

Receiving my Certificate of Naturalization

Do I look American?

I did have to mentally pretend like it was no biggie to prevent myself from completely bawling in public (darn patriotic videos!) but I managed to contain the emotion, roughly.

Moving on to the big race! Did I mention I'm super proud of myself? I know, just rubbing it in...

For 3 years I resisted the Boulder running fever, but it finally caught me. I'm not sure why (therapy's my guess), but I'm sure I'm happy about it.

On the start line with 50 000 other people...

A few hundred meters before the arrival, attempting to give a high five to Josh and Sam who couldn't care less... Thank you Don for not letting me hanging!

I guess my bib number brought me luck, I finished the race in 59'58'' (059 was my bib number). No, I did not break any record (well, except my own) but I felt really good about the run and my result.

One of the coolest things about it is I got to share the moment with my Mom. She'd arrived in town 2 days before. She did not fly all the way here for the purpose of watching me run but it sure was nice to have her there cheering for me!

That same day was the Boulder Creek Festival, so after the race we all went to the festival for some more fun.

The boys jumped in the bouncy house:

Josh did some kayaking and loved it:

And William rode the little train:

After the rides we walked back home and stopped for a little while to play in the creek:

Later in the afternoon, William and I returned to the creek for the rubber duckie race. Along with several hundred people we cheered for the rubber ducks as they swam down the creek... only in Boulder will you see that kind of excitement over some rubber ducks!

We finished the day making pizzas for 2 families of friends who were getting ready to move that day. The boys' friends Raayan and Naveen came over to eat the pizza with us and play while their parents were finishing to load the truck and clean their apartment. It was a pretty memorial day if you ask any of us, hehe.