IronKids!

I have to say, I have never been more proud of my oldest two sons than I was at the IronKids race last Sunday.  They did an awesome job, and just kept going when it would have been easier to quit.  I could learn a thing or two from them...

The pictures tell a pretty good story, so I'll let them do just that:

Nathan and Ben, after getting their swag before the race

Of course, you know that Ben had to put on his swim cap right away.  :-)

Then we went to get marked up for the race: race number on the arms, ages on the back of their calves.

Ryan was having none of it - we woke him up at 5-fricken-thirty, for goodness sake, and then we made him walk through dewy grass.  It was at this point that he decided it was time to clean his feet, regardless of the fact that there was a race going on right in front of him (the oldest kids went first, and the boys were watching that race and marveling at how fast the teenagers were).

Then it was time for Ben's race to begin.  Ben was in the Intermediate Division, for ages 9-11.  Swim 150 yards, bike 4 miles, run 1 mile. 

Here he is, waiting in line to start his race - the swimmers went one at a time in this ginormous pool - every three seconds a kid jumped into the water and swam. 

I don't think Ben had ever swum 150 meters at one time before this day.  (way to prep, Lathrops!). 

This was evident pretty quickly, so he switched to his backstroke, where he is much more comfortable, and just went along his way.  I was so proud of him for just continuing on.  He didn't worry that he was being passed.

Out of the pool!

And then it was time for the bike portion.  Ben got ready all on his own, and then he was off!

Nathan and Ryan enjoyed watching the bike ride

Ben made it back and started off on his run, and before we knew it, he crossed the finish line.  He ran the whole way!

Here he is, my proud triathlete!

Then it was time for Nathan's race.  Nathan was in the Junior division for ages 6-8.  Swim 50 yards, bike 2 miles, run 500 yards. 

Nathan was a bit more nervous than Ben, especially about the swim.

Ryan tried to cheer him up, but Nathan was having none of it.

But I was so proud of him.  When they called his race, he got in line, waited and jumped into the pool right when they told him to.  Here he is, waiting for his start.

He swam his heart out.

Once he was done, he was out of the pool so fast I only caught the back of his arm as he ran past toward the bike area.

He laced up his shoes, put on his shirt and hopped on his bike - and he was off on the bike ride!

And then it was running time.  He fell right before the picture above and scuffed up his knees, but he just kept going.  If you look closely at the next picture, you can see his knees are a bit bloodied.  We didn't see the fall, so we didn't even know it until after the race.  I am so proud of him for persevering, even in the face of pain!

500 yards is a pretty short race, so Stephen ran to get this pic - he was just in time to catch Nathan crossing the finish line.

Another triathlete!

I think you can tell that the theme of this post is how proud I am - they accomplished something I have never done, and inspired me.  Here they are again -

Afterwards, we went to Fuddruckers and had burgers and milkshakes.  Ryan took some time out of his hard day for some deer hunting.

All in all, a fabulous day.  My kids are awesome, if I do say so myself.

Random musings from the back seat

Ryan turns four today, and for his birthday we went to the dollar theater to see "How to Train Your Dragon".  Ryan wanted his best bud Whittaker to come along, and so we invited the whole Dallas family along.  Mom Liz ran into some computer trouble she needed to take care of immediately, so I volunteered to take all 7 boys to the movie.  (Yes, I know I'm insane)  Since we all made it back alive, I consider it a successful outing.  Just FYI, the Dallas boys consist of Jackson, 8, Iain, 7, Quincy, 5 and Whittaker, 3 1/2. 

Of course, I forgot the camera (the pics above are from a previous Dallas-Lathrop get together), but I thought you might enjoy some of the random snatches of conversation that I heard from the driver's seat.

Iain: "Zombies come from mummies.  When you die, if you get wrapped all up, and then you wait, like, 3000 years, then you'll come out as a mummy.  Then you turn into a zombie."
Ryan:  "Zombies go RAHHHH!"
Quincy: "And then mummies have scarab beetles that eat people."

Nathan: "God is in everything, even this chair in front of me.  So, I'm touching God right now"
Iain: (touching Nathan on the head)  "I'm touching God too"
Nathan: (banging Quincy on the head) "Me too!"
Me: "Okay, no hitting God, guys."

Quincy:  "God makes trees."
Nathan: "My dad says that there are trees that were alive when JESUS was alive!"
Iain: "That's not possible.  It was really hot and dry when Jesus was alive, so trees couldn't live"
Nathan: "My dad said so.  He said they are like 3 million, or maybe 300 feet tall.  Or maybe 2654 feet tall."
Jackson: "He's talking about redwoods"
Iain:  "But it was too hot when Jesus was alive so I bet they are younger than that."
Nathan:  "Maybe"

Whittaker: "Can Ryan come and play at our house after the movie?"
Me: "We'll have to see."
Whittaker:  "Ok.  I'll ask again.  Because when you say 'yes', it means 'yes', and when you say 'no', it means 'no'"
Jackson:  "Except when you change your mind."

Nathan:  "I hit a hornet's nets and was stung by 3 hundred and 10 hornets!  Or maybe just 4 hornets stung me, but I think there must have been at least 300 of them in the nest"

Iain: "Piranhas have marbles for eyes...[disbelief from the other kids] What I mean is, when they die, you dry them and then pop our their eyeballs and put in marbles.  I don't know why."


Needless to say, I turned down the radio and listened to them. 

I love the Dallases.  :-)

Happy Birthday Ben!

Ben, the dance master

Words cannot describe what you will see here. I... oh, just watch:




I love my son, but a dancer he is not.

Wagon Sledding

Ben has invented a new game for our front yard. He calls it "wagon sledding". I think the term may be self- explanatory, but he'd like to explain himself:
And, because it's Ben, it took two videos to get the whole "speech" in. :-)


Stephen and Nathan watching from safety: Ben and Ryan before one of their "death defying" rides down Ben's own Mount Everest. :-)

Dear Blog

Dear LathropLand,
I'm so sorry that I've been such a slacker.  Since April, life has just simply been too much.  And, I will say, you're not making it any easier since I can't find a way to upload videos to you anymore.  But really, it's not you - it's me.  I promise I'll try harder this summer. 
Lots of love,
Jen

Ouch

So we're at a stop sign, just minding our own business, on the way home from the Atlanta Botantical Gardens, when out of nowhere...

First off, we are all okay. Stephen was driving, and Gramma was in the passenger seat in the front. I was in the back with the boys. We're all a bit sore and shaken up, but we are safe and well and I am humbly grateful to God, and the mechanical engineers at Toyota who designed my Toyota Sienna.

Here's what happened. Another minivan was waiting to turn left across a major road in front of us while we were stopped. It was late rush hour in Atlanta. A sedan going the opposite direction was just driving along at a good speed when the minivan decided to go for it and turn across the oncoming traffic. He didn't even see her. Anyways, the sedan hit the minivan, which spun and slammed into us about 5-10 feet away. Both airbags deployed and the whole car was knocked back a few feet. It was a physics exercise in kinetic energy - like pool balls hitting eachother and transferring all their energy until the last ball is hit. That last ball was us. You can see where he hit us is totally flat:

Well, after the accident, we all got out of the car because there was smoke in the car (probably from the airbags). The kids were really scared, of course. You can see here that Nathan has his "flat face" on, and Ryan is clutching his "purple blanket" and sucking on his fingers like there's no tomorrow. Ben looks okay, but is trying to distract himself with a maze game - this is what he does when he wants to avoid what's happening.

Gramma was complaning of chest pains, and hoping they were from from the seatbelt. She got checked out on the side of the road. Stephen got a huge gash on his arm from the airbag exploding, but he was totally fine other than that. (He's taking the pictures here, so you don't see that)

The firefighters were AWESOME. They showed the kids Gramma's EKG and her heart rate, and they were so kind to all three boys. And, I must say, they were very patient with me.

Gramma had to get transported to the hospital because of the chest pains, where they checked her out and determined that it was a bruised sternum. Thankfully, no cracked ribs, and no heart issues. Thank God for that!

Stephen went to the emergency room with his mom in the ambulance. The car was clearly undriveable and so the firefighters drove me and the boys to the fire station to await a ride. Again the firefighters earned my undying gratefulness with the kindness they showed the boys while I was on the phone trying to find a ride for us home. They showed the kids around the fire station, and even showed them how the fire poles worked (not as simple as you would think). They even changed the channel from the baseball game over to Phineas and Ferb so that the boys could watch TV. Now, THAT is dedication to my kids! Our neighbor, Marc, was able to come get me and the boys and bring us home, and then again came over to watch the boys so I could go pick up Stephen and Gramma at the hospital later that night. Thank yo uso much, Marc - and Roger, too, for lending us Marc and certainly impacting your evening!

In the aftermath, I now feel nothing but immensely grateful: for the safety of my children, the relative lack of hurt to our whole family, the amazing kindness of our neighbors, the performance beyond the call of duty of the firefighters, who made my kids feel safe after such a scary accident. And even more than anything else, I am grateful that my husband, who was in the path of an oncoming minivan with nowhere to go, was saved by a safe car with good airbags.

I think we'll be buying another Toyota Sienna soon. :-)

P.S. The driver of the sedan is also totally fine. Unfortunately, the driver of the minivan that caused the accident was not so lucky. I think he will be okay in the end, but he hit his head pretty hard and had to also be transported to the hospital. He was very disoriented after the accident, and we will keep his health in our prayers.