Family Fitness Walk

Here on Guam, there is usually a 5k every single weekend. And a lot of the times they are on both Sat. & Sun. I usually do these by myself or with friends and neighbors. Never with Ben. Saturday is his only day to sleep in and since most of the races have a go time of 5:30 or 6:00 he doesn't want to get up that early. I also have never wanted to wake the kids up that early and than have to deal with them.

Last weekend however, there was a family walk that didn't start until 10:30. So we packed up the bikes, scooter and a stroller and headed down to Sumay Cove. Harm immediatley started whining ( this was the day after her camp out) because she didn't feel that the road was flat enough to scoot (er) on. Ben told me to just head off with Ivan and he would keep the other three. So Ivan and I kind of half jogged/half walked, when the next thing I know, here comes Ethan passing us on his bike. As soon as Ivan saw him he said, " go faster Mommy, go get my Ethan". So we tried to keep pace with Ethan the whole time. He did great. We passed the finish line together and than I went back to see if Ben needed any help. Connor had fallen off his bike, and got right back up and started running. Harmony eventually stopped complaining and she passed the finish line with a grin.

The kids were really hot so we headed over to Kids Day. They ran around and got prizes, bounced in bounce houses, got Harry Potter scars painted on their foreheads and more. We all came home and had a nap/quiet time and then ben took the older kids swimming. Ivan wasn't feeling well so he and I snuggled and watched Noggin.

It was a long day but we had fun!

sooo proud

My kids do things all the time that make me swell with pride. They also do a lot of things that make me cringe. But such is the life of a mother, am I right?

Well on Saturday I honestly do not think I could have been prouder of Harmony. We signed up to do the Girl Scout 5k. I had to wake her up at 5:30 ( after she had a pizza and movie night the previous night)and drag her out. She had slept in her "exercise clothes" so all she had to do was get out of bed. We get to the pavillion and it is still completely dark. Let the complaining begin. However, her friends started showing up and she was fine. So before the race she says she needs to go to the bathroom but they are all locked. Uh oh.

She started out telling me that there was no way she was running. At all. I let her use my ipod though and amazingly enough she ran a little bit. So the whole thing was 6 laps around this path. We did the first 3 and than the complaining started..." I need to go to the bathroom. I'm tired. I don't want to do this any more, etc etc) I didn't want to push her but didn't want her to quit either. We get to the 5th lap and she is barely holding on, when one of the Mom's offered her a port-a-potty. Which she happily agreed to use. When she was done, I told her she only had about a lap and a quarter left, did she want to finish and be done or go the last lap. She said, " I said I would do the whole 5k and that is what I am going to do. I want to finish what I started." We told the "official" that we would be finishing our last lap, so Harm's whole troop started cheering for her.

We finished the last lap easily and grabbed hands and ran to the end.We did uhm finish well...dead last but... I have never been more proud of that girl. And it turned out that she was the only from her troop to do all 6 laps.

I am just so proud of her. She could have chosen to sleep in that morning, not ran at all, given up but no. She pressed on. When the going got tough, the tough got going. So very proud. That's my girl!!!