We just had a wonderful, eventful weekend – starting with Saturday morning, the aptly-named Wondergirl 5K Race, put on by the fantastic Girls on The Run organization. I was walking over to the start line, with the kids all packed up in the double jogger (I was already registered to race it) when my 6 1/2 year-old Sophie decided she’d like to have a go at it, too. A little history on this…months ago, we agreed that she would be able to get herself a pet if she could run a 5K and finish it. We figured we’d have a couple years until she could actually cash in on that, considering her first couple laps around the track didn’t go that well. I think the official sum up was, “ugh, this is too far.” She said she wanted to try on Saturday morning, though, and I reassured her that if she did, indeed, finish, we would go to the pet store after the race and pick out her pet. Lo and behold, the child did indeed run the race, and as we rounded the last turn and started to head for the finish line, she spotted her dad, whose jaw dropped in total disbelief that his little girl had actually finished 3 miles and was about to complete her first 5K race. We both welled up with tears when she zoomed to that finish line with such total, beautiful determination. There’s a lot more back story on why this is a particularly impressive achievement for our Sophie, but wow, what an experience. Lisa, our Studio Director, happened to see us me scooping up my daughter at the finish (with heart-bursting pride!!!) and she was awesome enough to snap these images, which I’m so grateful for 🙂
Not to be outdone, sweet Caleb raced the kids’ 200 Meter race and earned himself his very own blue ribbon!!! Considering the fact that he’s not a huge fan of tons of noise and activity, this was quite an achievement for him 🙂
At the finish – this is Caleb’s current “smile” face (thanks for capturing this, too, Lisa) …
And then the big call on Sophie’s pet. (Her daddy sent us off to the pet store with such overwhelming happiness and the formal declaration that she could bring home an elephant for all he cared, she’d earned it!). Well, she took her time with this big decision – she examined the ferrets, the rabbits, the hamsters, the birds, the fish…and, finally, she went with the mouse. Well, actually, there were three different colored mice, so she went with three mice! I’ve only had an opportunity to photograph one, though…. Meet Chocolate The Mouse:
After settling in with our new family members (they actually are terribly cute), we decided to take advantage of the Farm Tour, and we went to check out Organic Valley’s dairy farm. Sunday was a quirky day, with a big storm rolling in to Snow Camp, North Carolina This was the view in front of us on our drive to the farm….
And this was the view behind us:
We actually had a good half hour at the farm before that storm found us. It was actually pretty fascinating to learn about organic farming techniques versus conventional – interesting details like the fact that the cows are calmer, gentler, the milk is cleaner, and the soil more forgiving. The feeling is that organic farming must be our future…and yet it is also our past. Caleb was less interested in the talk and more excited about the wide, open spaces…
And, lastly, this is Petunia. It’s a little known secret that all cows smile at vegetarians with a camera 🙂
