Drew = runner

A few months ago I took Drew shoe shopping.  Like all the rest of him, his feet keep on growing and he's been outgrowing his shoes.  As we were shopping, Drew's eyes lit up when he saw a pair of running shoes.  "Running shoes . . . just like mom's!!!" he said.  After quickly determining that he greatly desired running shoes for his next pair, we got them.  Why else did Drew want them?  "I want to go running with mom!"  I knew when he said that, Jana would also be on board with running shoes.

After getting the shoes home, the "running with mom" soon evolved into a desire to "run a race with mom."  We were very supportive of Drew's idea and have been keeping an eye out for a race for Drew to run.  Drew's so committed to the idea that a little after he got his new shoes, we got Jana new running shoes for Mother's Day.

Finally, race day arrived in the form of a 1 mile kid's run at our local zoo, the Potter Park Zoo.  It's part of racing series put on by our local specialty running store and it is fairly popular.  There were HUNDREDS of kids at the race.  We showed up early and got Drew registered.  He was quite proud of his number bib and having it fastened to his shirt.  Before the race he hardly sat still as he showed off how fast he was going to run.

Then the race started (with MANY kids . . . it was insane) and Drew got very overwhelmed by it all.  Also, his shoelace came untied.  Here he and Jana are about 100 yards in and Drew was ready to be done (Jana is in pink, Drew's in white in the middle of the picture).  Well, Jana got his shoelace tied, they walked for a bit, and eventually Drew got going off and on.

It was by no means a "fun" experience though while we were running.  Drew had a wide number of supposed ailments as the race went on.  His feet were too hot to continue, his leg hurt, finally he claimed a sore knee and said, "I think I just need a knee brace."  It was quite the impressive litany of excuses.  After all the buildup though, we pushed him on to at least walk and finish.  About a quarter mile in, I joined Jana and Drew and we did the last part of the race together.

Drew has the classic runner's look in this picture doesn't he?  Pretty good form, slightly pained expression on the face.  Throughout the race, he did not seem to be enjoying it.

Then we finished (in about 16 minutes total, walks and all).  Drew put on a burst of speed at the end and upon crossing the finishing line he received a finisher's medal.  Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sue came to watch the big race and Drew proudly showed off his medal to everyone after the race.  Suddenly, his version of the race began to change and looking back it was actually kind of fun :)

Drew's tune changed to "it was pretty hard, but it was pretty fun too."  He was so excited about his finisher's medal that in the afternoon when I took him and Kate to run errands, he wore his medal to all the stores.  The next morning, he wore his medal to church.  He's now asking when we can run another race!!

We'll keep an eye out for other races in the future so that our budding runner can get some more races under his belt.  For now, we're happy that the memory of Drew's first race has miraculously changed into a positive one and that he's so interested in doing another one. 

After checking out the zoo a little bit, Drew and Kate put their heads in this tiger cutout and gave some mighty roars.

No blog post is complete without a little Kate in it, so I have to include this picture from Father's Day.  The highlight of my day was sitting on the couch with Drew and Kate and watching the U.S. Open golf tournament with them.  For a while, Kate sat on my lap and chatted with me.  I loved it!

Another recent event for us is that our good friends Jeremy and Kristin had a baby boy, Jonah.  He was born in the hospital across the street from our house and several hours after he was born, we had the opportunity to walk across the street to visit Jeremy and Kristin and their new boy.  Drew and Kate had been clamoring to go over to see him and they were thrilled about seeing baby Jonah.  Here they are checking him out.