What a great weekend! Daniel learned how to ride a bike, the kids each participated in the fabulous Body First School Fitness Challenge, and Will and I each did the 25K trail race Konquer the Konza with our church friends.
Friday evening, the kids had a run-through of the course for the next day with their cross country club, and we then returned home to work on bike riding. Daniel was so close - we have been using the method where you remove the kids' pedals and get them used to balancing. D was ready to have his pedals reattached!
Annika was so assured of Daniel's future success that she preemptively drew him a celebratory chalk picture.
And - Daniel can now ride a bike!! We went to practice at the hill by Bergman and he rocked it. Great job, Daniel!
Video with my excited commentary. This was the farthest he had gone at this point.
Way to go, Daniel! His bike had 12-inch wheels and was way too small, and we had promised him a new bike that actually fit him once he learned to ride without training wheels, so off to Wal-Mart we went late on a Friday night (which was surprisingly calm) to procure a 16-inch wheel bike. So excited to be a family of bike riders!
Saturday morning was the bike event for the town of Manhattan....The Body First School Fitness Challenge! I cannot say enough good things about this event. There are a series of fun runs, ranging from 1/4 mile to 2 miles dependent upon age, that kids can run in. Local schools earn money based on the number and percentage of students participating. It is all run by the fabulous Manhattan Cross Country Club, which our kids are (somewhat reluctantly ;) ) part of this year and is open to all K-8 graders. Here is our crew with the Sutliff Sanders kiddos!
Bryn (blue shirt), in the kindergarten 1/4 mile. She told me after the race, "I was tired but I kept running and did not walk at all!" I was so proud of her - great job, Bryn!
Daniel, waiting to start in the 1st grade 1/4 mile.
Off they go!
Thanks to the race photographer for this awesome picture of D. Love how laid back he looks, probably because he takes after his Mom and prefers to take it nice and easy during races. ;)
Finishing!
Annika, lining up for the 5th grade 1/2 mile. She has run the 1 mile in cross country for time trails and such, but decided that morning, "I have had enough mile" and opted for the shorter distance.
Annika and Sage, crossing the finish line together! Another way my child is like me - races are so much fun when you do them with running buddies. ;)
So proud of some of our friends' kids who ran the 1 mile race. Great job, Emma!
Great job, Brady!
Saturday Lunch was our inaugural "Spaghetti Lunch," which we are hoping to implement a few times a month so that we can spend more time with more friends, and get to know others better in community. Thanks to my friend on a running board who posted this article (click here) and to another friend who implemented this first, we had an open invitation for anyone in the area who wanted to come over to lunch in our messy house. ;) We had 5 wonderful families come with about 25 people total - so much fun and cannot wait to do it again in 2 weeks!
Some of the children's play while the adults hung out - Annika and Grace set up an entire Little Animal Village.
Something magical happened Saturday night....Annika spent the night with Rachael, and Daniel was invited to spend the night with Greg at Aunt Julie and Uncle Charlie's house. Somehow this meant that Will and I had a completely kid-free night?! Here are the crazy boys getting ready for the sleepover. Julie reported that Greg thinks that D is the coolest, and they had tons of fun running around and acting crazy together. Huge thanks to everyone who watched our kids - made it so much easier for the race the next morning!
Sunday morning was another big event, this time for Will and me....The Konquer the Konza 25k trail race at the Konza Prairie! Will and a lot of other church guys ran this last year at the inaugural race and some of them, like Will and Andy, were stubborn enough to try it again. ;) Thanks to Andy and Jenny for driving a big caravan of CAUMC runners over - here are the 7 of us (minus our friend Chad who was volunteering) ready for the race!
The race itself was absolutely gorgeous. It is on the Konza Prairie - you do two loops of the "big loop" that is part of the regular walking trail, but also get to go over a large part of the trail that is normally closed to the public. The weather was perfect for the first half of the race and then got rapidly warmer - Will thought it was hotter overall than last year. I walked with the "Jenny and the Amys" church group and we had so much fun seeing the speedy runners pass us on the first loop. One of them was our fellow runner friend Erika who ended up as the overall female winner - great job, Erika!!
Julie corralled the boys and came out to the finish, where she got to see Will cross the finish line (in the blue shirt below). Will finished 1 minute slower than last year but was thrilled with his time given all of the Achilles tendon and foot problems he has been having - great job, Will!!
Our awesome BIL Charlie ran a great race - this was his first time running at Konza and he did wonderfully. Sadly, I have no photos for him...Great job, Charlie!!
Our church friends Andy and Eric ran together. This was Eric's longest race he had done and he did awesome. Great job, Andy and Eric!!
Jenny and the Amys! I am having the best time training and doing races with these two amazing girls. We were planning on walking the whole race, but did end up running on any downhills, which actually made it easier. After walking the marathon, we thought this would be a piece of cake, but the last 2 miles in particular were still pretty rough.
Finishing!! I was so happy near the finish that I thought we should all skip toward the finish line, but thankfully my sane friends vetoed this idea and we ran the last bit instead. ;)
Great job, Jenny and Amy!! Love you two!
The whole CAUMC Herd and Herd-ettes after the race.
We had church night meetings later in the afternoon and all I could think about the whole time was, I AM SO HUNGRY. We ended up going to the All-Chinese Buffet (which I don't think has been called that for at least 10 years, but I can't remember the new name....), where I proceeded to negate all of the health benefits of exercise but eating a plate full of fried and greasy food. This was the first time that I tried frog legs, which have the distinct characteristic of having the texture of chicken but tasting like fish.
We hope that you all had a wonderful weekend, too!
Jenny and the Amys! I am having the best time training and doing races with these two amazing girls. We were planning on walking the whole race, but did end up running on any downhills, which actually made it easier. After walking the marathon, we thought this would be a piece of cake, but the last 2 miles in particular were still pretty rough.
Finishing!! I was so happy near the finish that I thought we should all skip toward the finish line, but thankfully my sane friends vetoed this idea and we ran the last bit instead. ;)
Great job, Jenny and Amy!! Love you two!
The whole CAUMC Herd and Herd-ettes after the race.
We had church night meetings later in the afternoon and all I could think about the whole time was, I AM SO HUNGRY. We ended up going to the All-Chinese Buffet (which I don't think has been called that for at least 10 years, but I can't remember the new name....), where I proceeded to negate all of the health benefits of exercise but eating a plate full of fried and greasy food. This was the first time that I tried frog legs, which have the distinct characteristic of having the texture of chicken but tasting like fish.
We hope that you all had a wonderful weekend, too!
