With Dad's birthday in July, (the 21st to be exact), we usually end up with some kind of outdoor dining extravaganza to celebrate.

Being the official BBQ- and grill-master of the family, Dad - sometimes referred to as Daddio or Daddy-o - ends up on the back deck or patio an awful lot for summertime dinners.  Hence, Daddio on the Patio!

Two years ago, I commemorated his skills with a very masculine grillin' apron - that I of course can't find a photo of, for the life of me... Think: Black apron with "Daddio on the Patio" stamped on the front of it in fire-esque letters.  

ANYWAY!  This year I decided to continue the tradition with some custom-made towels that he can hang out by the grill!

I picked up some black kitchen towels, a little flame fabric, random patchwork letters, etc. added in some fabric I already had, a little Heat 'n' Bond, and my affinity for applique and voila:

I wasn't really sure what to expect, so I just dove right in and they turned out great!  

Rob and I went over to the house and we had a big birthday dinner with Mom, Dad, and a bunch of my parents' friends.  Delicious, per usual!  :)

Please tell me someone picked up on the Psych reference?  Hmm... well I bet Dan did!!

Anyways!  I'm wayyyyy behind on posting so please forgive me as I try to catch up...

Friday, July 27th was College Day at the Saratoga Race Track!  Katie and I decided to take a half day and spend the afternoon enjoying the horses, some good food, and the beautiful summer day.  Added bonus?  College Day means free t-shirts, free admission, and scholarships and prizes between each race - um, OK!

(Unfortunately, we did not win any scholarships... But I won $15 on a horse!)

As you can see, the track was really muddy.  We'd gotten a TON of rain the night before... It was actually looking like it might rain that day, too but we lucked out.

Rob ended up getting out of work early, too and was able to join us, too!

I just really liked this guy... :)

I didn't really take any kind of "vacation" this summer so it was nice to just take a day off, escape the lab, and enjoy the summer...

Rob and I went to down to NYC for the Color Run!  What is the Color Run, you might ask?  According to them, it's the "happiest 5K on the planet!"

Basically?  You wear white, you run 5K, and at the end of ever kilometer, they shower you with colored powder!  (I'm pretty sure it's dyed cornstarch?)  Each kilometer is a different color so by the end, your a pretty little rainbow mess!  And then to top it all off, there is a color celebration at the end!  They have a stage with a DJ and then every 15 minutes they toss out color packets (they gave you each one at the beginning but you could buy/catch/beg for more) and then you all cut lose at once - my all time favorite part for sure. :)

There was over 25,000 runners that day - so many people!!!  They sent you out in groups of a couple hundred - we lucked out and were in the 3rd group so we didn't have to wait around the entire day!

Here are a few photos from the day!