Mardi Gras!!!

Saturday was Mardi Gras in St. Louis... apparently, our celebration is the second biggest in the nation, right after New Orleans.

Let's go St. Louis!  Woo Woo!

Most people start drinkng/partying at 8:30 or 9 in the morning, but I had a group run scheduled, so I opted to run first and then catch up later on.

So I ran 9 miles with the Parkway training team... it was a beautiful morning, not too terribly cold.  I ended up running with an English teacher from the high school.  I was slightly intimidated to run with Michelle, because this girl is buff.  Not an ounch of body fat and super-dooper long legs.  Kind of on par with my sister-in-law Cher in terms of genreral bad-ass-ness (and if I didn't think Cher would mind, I would totally post a picture of her in her bikini to illustrate).

Anyway, I was scheduled to run 9 miles, but Michelle was scheduled to run 6...she said she would just try to do my 9 with me...but then I whopped her ass and she had to drop out after 6 miles.

(Insert picture of me running to the Rocky fight song here.)

I know it's a small victory...but I so seldom consider myself athletic that I have to take the victories as they come.

Anyway, I came home, showered, and headed down to Soulard to have fun. 

Parking was a nightmare, but I eventually made my way in...and promptly had to take a picture of this girl in her homemade wings.

She informed me that, yes, she did make them herself. 

I am totally making that for myself next year...but probably not with Miller Light.

The lines for the bathrooms were LONG,

...so most men ended up hiding behind dumpsters.

Gross!

I spent most of my time during Mardi Gras people watching...

and decided that I HAD to have a picture with this girl who was passed out.

I kind of felt bad for her friend, though.  He was in charge of propping her up.

We took some cute, normal pictures. 

Right after this, some guy informed me that my vest of obnoxious.

He was wearing a Cookie Monster outfit.

Steph threatened to punch him.  Gotta love Steph!

I was willfully refusing to touch this costume.

Doesn't it just look dirty??

So, it wasn't terribly cold on Saturday, but there was NO WAY you could get my outside without layers and gloves.  This girl must have been FREEZING.

On the way home, we decided it was time for pizza, but Martha couldn't wait for a picture...

...there, this one's better.  Yay pizza!

Nick and Austin insisted I take their picture.

Then, for some reason, all of these people jumped in it.

All in all, Mardi Gras was a lot of fun.  I'm too old to go as crazy as most people are, but it's good just to go people watch.  We ended up getting home by 5pm...planning to go back out later.  For some reason, I took a nap and then baked muffins instead.  I am a blast, huh?