Happy Easter

We wish all of you a very Happy Easter. Here are a few pictures of the kids today after church.

The Wheelers came over from Houston for the weekend and the kids all had a blast playing together. We also went to the Spurs 5K on Saturday, even though it was in the 30's and raining. Greg and Jessica did great, as usual. Jessica won her age group by more than 3 minutes and Greg placed 2nd in his. I did okay--26:30--just about the same as the last two races I've run in the past 3 weeks. I was even excited to have a relatively flat course after two races in the hills of San Antonio and New Braunfels, but hadn't accounted for the terrible weather and biting cold (the reading at race time was "36 degrees, feels lik 28"). Here is a link to the race results. For the previous races, go here and here. (On that last one, I was in the "Clydesdale" division, which I think is a nice way of saying the "fat guys" division).

Also, here's a quick story on the Kinderschuhe 5K in New Braunfels last month. Charles and Joey both ran the kids 1/2 K after my race. It was their first race and they even got new "real running shoes," as they call them. In fact, on the way home from Academy Sports, Charles kept saying "my shoes look FAST," while Joey kept saying "I LOVE my new running shoes" and hugging the box. They were counting down the days to the race all week, with Charles asking about all the relative ages of the 1/2 K runners to figure out who he might be able to beat, while Joey just kept saying "I'm going to run past EVERYONE and WIN!" When the time finally came and the gun went off, Joey took off with perfect form.

I was trying to stay somewhat between him and Charles, who was running well while enjoying the scenery.

As we were jogging, I noticed the "mascot" the race organizers decided to have for the kids, which from what I could tell, was a guy in a very scary bear mask and claw gloves. Seriously, whose idea was this?

Anyway, the Bear was jogging right in front of us and suddenly turned around to find some more kids to encourage (or terrorize). Joey was running hard with his head down and looked up at the last minute to see the bear standing there with outstretched arms. Of course, Joey stopped, stumbled back, and yelped all at the same time. I had just caught back up to him and tried to grab his arm and just as I was catching him he stumbled again. I grabbed him for a second, then lost his hand, and he fell backwards and knocked his head HARD on the pavement. The bear covered his mouth, then his ears, then shrugged and moved on to the other kids (thanks a lot, idiot). I picked Joey up, inspected him for damage, and then tried to talk him into running the rest of the race. He cried and cried and we walked most of the way while Charles jumped through the puddles on the course. Finally, with about 50 yards to go Joey said "I wanna run again!" So I put him down and he was off like a shot toward the very official looking finish line. Again faced with a gap between the boys I tried to encourage Charles to actually RUN, but when I saw Joey going faster and faster I decided to take off and catch up to him for the finish. As soon as I pulled away from Charles, I heard him yell "NO DADDYYYY I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH YOUUUUU!!!" I ran across the line with Joey, turned around to find Charles, and together with about 50 people watched him sulk across the finish line crying.

So in other words, it was a great first experience for the boys. Actually, despite it seeming like a disaster to Liz and I, the boys really did have fun and want to do it again, and we're not about to disagree with them.

P.S. The photos from the race are proofs from the photographer's website, where you can see all the pictures from the race and order them online. Here is the link.