BK5K 2015

When we crawled in to bed Friday night, I told Sam the forecast said there might be rain and thunder at start time.  "Awwwwww," he said "I want to run the 5K.  Will they still have the race if there is rain?"  I told him rain, yes, but thunderstorms no.

And when I got up early to eat some breakfast and drink a little coffee before waking Sam, the rain was coming down pretty hard.  The radar showed rain continuing to move in for several hours, but the race website said the race was still on and volunteers were waiting for runners to pick up their race packets.  TT and her sisters started milling around drinking coffee and laughing about what body parts hurt, and as Sam got his shoes on I explained to Grandma where the race was and how to get there.   The rain was coming down in sheets as Sam and I pulled out of the garage and headed north in to town and I really didn't expect the race would go as scheduled.

Within a few miles of our drive the rain stopped, and as we maneuvered through the roundabout near the cemetery, Sam spotted a patch of blue sky to the west.  I texted Mom that the skies in town were clear and we parked within walking distance of the finish line before heading over to the start.  We stepped around large deep puddles everywhere and Sam was excited and nervous as the Star Spangled Banner broadcast near Lake Lodge. But as soon as he saw Scott and fistbumped him at the starting line, Sam calmed a little and told me he wanted to run by himself, told me he didn't need me to stay by him.  They announced that only the fastest runners should be up near the start so we meandered back a ways and lined up near some old neighbors from Trempealeau before the starting gun exploded and Sam was off in to the crowd and running on his own.  I had intentionally dressed him in a bright unique color so I could find him in the crowd, and I watched him fighting to pace himself (as we had practiced) rather than sprinting, and by about mile 2 I was sure I'd never catch him.  When he turned to look around behind him just before the route crossed Huff again, I waved and he was already starting to walk.  From Huff we ran/walked together, me giving him short goals... just thirty steps then you can walk again, just to that big tree, just to that sign...  We had passed Lake Lodge and were circling around near the finish when we saw TT and Aunt Nancy and Aunt Judy (and Eva, who jumped in and started running with me) standing in the grass alongside the race path, and Sam kicked it in to high gear and finished strong.  His first full 5K.  Followed by much celebration and fistbumping and highfiving with Scott and TT and the aunts.

45 minutes later he lined up to do the kids race while I stood with Eva in the 4-year-old staging area.  Sam had asked me if he could walk the whole thing and still get a medal, and I told him yes.  So I shouldn't have been surprised when I was standing there after all the other 7-year-olds had finished the kids race watching for Sam to stumble across the finish for his medal.

Eva and I lined up and she insisted she wanted me to run with her right up until the Ready-Set-Go.  And she was off in a flash and didn't look back.  She was confident and proud and determined to win, and I cut across the grass to see her come in at the finish, her smile big and proud as TT and the aunts high-fived her and cheered her on.

What a beautiful morning filled with sunshine and laughter and family and friends.  Sam didn't understand why he didn't get a medal for being the 2nd 7-year-old to finish the full 5K but he got a medal for finishing the kids race last.  I told him that races don't always make sense and it's not about the medals and the place you finish anyway.  It's about getting out there doing it, setting a goal and finishing.  I told him I was very proud of him.

"When can we do it again?!"  he smiled.

Before the start of the 5K

5K finishers, Sam doused with water by his adoring fans

 Eva before her race

 Eva closing in on the finish

 My racers

 Sam's proud grandma

The racers and their adoring fans

Trinona 2015 - Mother and Son

 

SWIM.  BIKE.  RUN.  FINISH.  CELEBRATE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Much Like Auntie Annie

She would not even let Jamie help her

When Ann and I were old enough to care, we would look through old photos that were scotch-taped into those sticky clear film photo albums and look back at the adventures we had as kids.  And inevitably it would come up that there were more pictures of me.  Where was the picture of Mom when she was pregnant with Ann?  Where was a picture of Ann riding a trike?  Why weren’t there any pictures of Ann with her face smeared with dirt in the backyard in Michigan?  The two pictures I recall of Ann’s childhood are one where she’s trying to guzzle from a capped beer bottle in the kitchen in Portage and another where she is holding up Aunt Judy’s pregnancy underwear when Julie was a few weeks away from entering our lives.  Ann didn’t even have her own baby book.  The seldom recorded statistics of her toddlerhood were scribbled in the margins of my baby book that had been filled out 2 years earlier.

It’s true.  Second kids get the short end of the stick.  And so it’s been with Eva.  She’s starting soccer and dance class and learning to ride a bike without training wheels and rapidly turning into a “big girl” right before my eyes, but none of those things have resulted in a blog post to celebrate the event.  None of these resulted in Mommy sitting down to reflect on how grateful and blessed she is to have this child and this life. 

Sam invited a friend from the Y over this weekend, and when the new mom, a mom I didn’t really know yet, saw Eva she kept saying “she’s adorable.  She’s adorable.”  And I thought, yah, I guess she is.  I’ve been so busy trying to balance the needs of two children while working full time that I rarely slow down and appreciate this adorable creature who is growing up right before my eyes.  I listen to the endless mom-mom-moms every day and hear myself constantly sighing and saying “just a second” more than I ever imagined I would, and when Eva wants to talk and talk and talk in the car I often just want a few moments peace without any noise.  But yesterday when I pulled up to the daycare and Eva wanted to show me how she could now ride a big girl bike without training wheels, I saw it.  I stopped and saw my daughter and her incredible determination and persistence and expressive joy.  And yes, she is adorable.

As was Annie. ( Even if we have very little photographic evidence of it.)

 

 Tiny Tots Soccer

 

 Creative Movement Dance Class

 Helping Mommy Plant the Spring Garden

 Fearlessly Loving Every Slide (big and small) at Great Wolf Lodge

 Doing Girlie Stuff with Brooklynn

 "I can do it myself!" is something she says often.

 Painting Her Own Bedroom Mural

 Skating with Harmony

 Hanging in the Tree House in Winter

 

Beachin' It

It is not possible to contain everything about our Florida trip in to one post, so we're going to have to do this in stages... starting with the day we headed to Nokomis Beach.  Before Sam and Eva entered my life beaches used to mean hot sun and cool drinks and laying on a clean, sand-free towel for long stretches of time that were broken up with a quick dip in the water to cool off.  Now beach trips are filled with running and shell collecting and lots and lots of sand.  Sarah came along and helped with kid watching and kid burying, and TT walked the sand to look for shark's teeth and interesting shells while the kids ran circles in and out of the water.  Eva is a master shark tooth hunter already, and sam still loves to run as far away from me as he can, and all three of us love the space and the wind in our hair and the time spent with family.  We oohed and ahhed over shells and coral and feathers, and we all laughed when Eva insisted that her sand mermaid have boobies and a long tail, and we only finally trekked back to the car when we started to get hungry.  Beach time has changed for sure, but it's never been so fun and magical, and as I told TT when the kids were ready to leave, I could spend all day there. 

 

A Diamond Sword and Torchlights

 

A week ago I started texting my new neighbors to find out how things work in our neighborhood.  Our old neighborhood was mostly flat terrain with homes spread wide apart on large lots, and many of the families loaded their kids into minivans or SUVs and chauffeured their children from house to house while our family walked the streets (mostly alone) with a wagon, experiencing just enough of the spooky dark and the chill in the air to make me feel like we were doing Halloween the way it was supposed to be done.  We would head out just as the designated hours started and watch for porch lights and hit almost every house.  But after searching the local papers and coming up empty handed on any sort of designated trick-or-treat hours for our new neighborhood, I checked with the neighbors and decided we didn't need to go anywhere else, there would be plenty of candy and Halloween spook within walking distance of our house.

 

In the car on the way home from the Y Sam was dressed in his skeleton from last year, and he talked about wanting to wear it under his Minecraft costume when we got home.  Eva whined that she wanted HER costume and when did she get to put on her costume I want to have my costume it's not fair that Sammy has his costume and where is mine.  I reminded them both that we were going to have dinner first, that trick-or-treating didn't generally start until dark. 

 

"That's forever," Sammy said and Eva immediately repeated. 

 

I told them it was only an hour.  Six o'clock.  We would go out at 6.  "That's forever," they both whined again.

 

They inhaled their midtown broasted chicken and pineapple and raspberries, asking with every bite if they could have some of the candy they'd brought home from school and whether or not it was six o'clock yet.

 

We bundled up in warm clothes with costumes layered over the top, and I threw a medium-sized tantrum over the fact that I bought Sam 4 pairs (4 pairs!) of black fleece gloves this fall so it wouldn't matter if he lost one here or there and here it was only October 31st and we could only locate one glove.  One glove.  Not even a full pair.

 

We stumbled out on to the back porch where Sam complained that he couldn't see because his cardboard enderman head kept falling forward and he couldn't carry his skeleton trick-or-treat candy bag because it was too heavy and he needed both hands for other things like his enderman head and his Minecraft diamond sword.  And Eva stopped in her tracks and crossed her arms across her chest and pouted because her witch's hat would not stop blowing off in the wind.  And I put away my gloves and my camera and started carrying everything except the kids themselves and we made our away down the yard and over the creek and up the cul-de-sac.  They argued over who got to ring doorbells and whether or not to go to the house with the scary dog and whether they were called "torch lights" or "porch lights."  And Eva refused to say trick or treat or thank you and sam mostly worried about where were all his friends from the neighborhood.  But in between all the parental challenge moments, we had the delight of being greeted by witches and skeleton pirates, the pure joy of running through bright yellow crunching leaves, and the laughter of children enjoying another spooky chilly Halloween night with their Mom, who by the way, wore a costume herself this year.

 

My own little Minecraft Enderman

 

 Eva's little witch tutu costume was cuter before she insisted that she wear one of Mommy's black jackets because her big brother was wearing one and it was only fair that she be allowed to also.