Summertime and Run for Liberty

The kids got prizes for earning summer bucks and chose some pirate gear!

We had some cute pirates running around the house all Friday

 

We had the Run for Liberty this morning. We got up super early to be loaded and at the race site around 6am. Then we had several hours of setup and early registration before the race started. The kids loved finding frogs and crickets and even a moth in the early morning dew.

 

The boys had "pet" crickets that for some reason (perhaps because they only had one leg thanks to the boys enthusiasm in catching them) stayed on their shirts for hours. They ran all over the enormous field where we hold the start of the race. And somehow, when we got home, the kids had several frogs. So somehow they put them in the car, ran the race, and came all the way home with their stowaways without me or Jim knowing!

 

The weather was very humid, but overcast and in the 70s with a nice cool breeze. I enjoyed meeting several of Jim's patients, there were more of them that attended this year. We were concerned about getting enough runners but probably ran just about the same number of runners. Since we didn't advertise much at all due to the baby and moving, we are happy with that and have great plans for next year. 

 

The boys had their grasshoppers crawling all over them! They walked around to random people showing off their treasures.

 

Jim directing the start of the 1 Mile. Since I was running it, he was holding Katy. She was passed around to a lot of the nurses and physical therapists that were volunteers from the local big hospital where our last four kids were born.

 

Start of the 1 Mile! Diana and I raced together. Diana made it a quarter mile then wanted to be held. So I gave her a piggyback ride the rest of the way. I haven't worked out at all since having Katy and this fun run really showed me how far I have to go. A long, long way! But I still really enjoyed it. The course going into the woods on a nice wide running trail so it helps to be surrounded by such beauty as you are gasping your last breath carrying a two year old :)

 

Michael took off like a shot. He has such HEART. When things got tough and you could tell he just wanted to quit, he kept going and got second place! He also earned his swim necklace at the pool last week which is a huge deal. Jim said that it was tough for Mike but, again, just pushed through his fear and finished swimming the lap required (it allows them to swim by themselves in the deep end and dive of the diving board). I love how Mike has an inner drive to do hard things. Jake was the star of the show today. He went around trying to give people drinks and in the mile run he ran with me until he saw Mike coming back the other direction so he cut his run short and went after Mike. Then he couldn't keep up with Mike so he sat down a little ways from the finish. Some runners were trying to encourage him to keep going but he was DONE and wouldn't go another step!

 

The start of the 5k! If you look closely you will see what we missed. I was feeding Katy in the van. I heard Jim call the start of the race, the runners started, and then several hundred yards into the race Jim calls into the microphone "Jake get back here you can't run the race!" Jake had positioned himself in the front of the runners and was totally going for it. It was hilarious and everyone just loved Jake. His t-shirt was enormous on him so as he ran his shirt was billowing out over his tiny frame. When Jim called for him to stop he was crying for at least 15 minutes just so sad that he couldn't run the 5k. Of course I'm guessing he probably wouldn't have made it too far but Jim was operating the race and couldn't chase after him!

Right before the start of the race Jim asked me "Do you know where the medals are?" Yep, we'd left the medals at his Apex office! Thankfully one of his employees was able to drive down there, find them (they were in the computer server closet we were so lucky he actually found them!) and bring them back just in time for the medal ceremony. Quite exciting!

 

Nicole with a good friend of ours! Nicole got to hand out the medals and she felt on top of the world.

 

So on top of the world that she gave herself one of the leftover medals and posed in the shot with all the medalists. And Jake of course.