An Apple a Day!

Saturday was Onalaska’s annual Apple Harvest Festival which we have made into a family tradition. It is a new event and very small, but our boys can’t really handle much more than they had, so it works out great. I am writing this spell binding recap at the dentist’s office while Peyton is knocked out and getting 6 cavities taken care of (I know bad Momma!) so if it is a little scattered, that’s why.

 

 In case you don’t want to read the whole post, I will do a quick summary that pinpoints the day’s highlights. Let’s start with the bad, to get it out of the way…

 

 The Bad- 

• Jesse did not repeat as the Apple 8k champ.
•  We only made it one of our two miles in the walk.
•  I locked Riley in the car (super scary.)
•  We have more dinky candy (including the ever puzzling dubba bubba gum) then we know what to do with. 

The Good-

• Jesse got 1st in his age group and 3rd overall.
• I made it 1 mile with all 3 kids, and none of them ended up in the mill pond.
•  I got Riley out of the car unharmed.
• The boys, especially Peyton seemed to enjoy the parade.
• No one got ran over in the parade, though my nephew really tried!
• We won a dinner to a local restaurant that we got to use that evening at our gym’s parent’s night out.

 

Well, that really does sum it up, but there are definitely some gaps to fill in. The best place to start would be the beginning…

 

The Race-
I always love waking the kids up for a race day, ok it can be a pain and that was totally sarcastic, but this time P was already awake, so it wasn’t too busy or hectic. Jesse was sure the race started at 8, so we aimed to be there by 7:40. Well, we were there by 7:40, but the race didn’t start till 8:30! Trying to keep 3 kids happy while waiting in the misty rain is no easy task. Peyton kept wanting to take off and Brady was tired of being in the stroller, even Riley wasn’t happy in the pack because I wasn’t moving. A looooong time later, after we had greeted all the racers we knew, it was time to head to the start line.

Jesse, Cody, and Cody's dad (Ron)

Racer Brady

Racer Peyton

Jesse had already sized up the competition, and another asst. track coach, and former cross country star was there. He knew his chances of winning were gone, but he hoped to keep Cody in his sights. By the time they yelled go (yep, super official) the rain had stopped and my boys were ready to take off. When we heard the word, Jesse took off in one direction and the kids and I headed the other. Peyton immediately fell behind and it wasn’t long before we were pulling up the rear solo. I decided not to push it, and just tried to enjoy a walk with the kids, knowing we would probably just do a lap around the mill pond and then call it good so I could see Jesse finish. Somehow, I managed to keep P from throwing rocks in the lake and from going over the edge of the trail. Even Brady seemed to enjoy himself when we went down hills. Finally, Peyton just sat on the tire cover and rode the last half mile like that. We made it back to the finish in about 25 mins which meant over 10 min of waiting for Jesse. It didn’t take long for the kiddos to get restless and I could no longer contain them so we went back to the car and I let them play around in there while Riley and I went to the finish to try and catch Jesse, but we missed him.

 

He had run a great race, and said the weather was perfect and the course was better than last year. Cody did end up beating him, as did another older man, but no girls! Actually, he was only about 30 sec back from Cody and finished in 36:51 a more than 4 min pr from last year! That alone made him very happy, and he seemed quite pleased with himself (my big headed, big haired man).

 

Post Race Craziness-
The boys were not going to make it to the awards and prizes, so I decided to leave Jesse behind and take the boys over to my parent’s house. Since it is like 1 min away, I let the boys sit by me and on my lap (mistake #1) and when we arrived at the house, I didn’t check to see what they had done to the car when they were in there alone (mistake #2.) I had taken them in and was going back to get Riley, I closed the front door to pass by it and reached for her door, when I was met with resistance. Panic over came me quickly, after I checked all the doors and was met with the same response. I could physically see both sets of keys inside the car and we have no spares, so I knew I was not unlocking these doors. I made some panicked phone calls and finally came to conclusion that I was going to have to break a window to get in. With hammer in hand, I went for the tiny one in the back, and after several tries (I didn’t want to cover her in glass, so I was trying to hit it as lightly as possible, it’s not because I am a wimp, which may be true) my tiny hammer went through.

 

She had been crying for a while, and I felt so bad that during all this, she couldn’t even see or hear me. With fresh tears on my cheeks, I took her inside and tried to calm us both down. Soon, I was back to myself and I don’t think she will remember a thing! But it was scary nonetheless. Jesse saw the broken glass and had a flash back to when our car got broken into by the Arena in Spokane and thought someone had broken into our car again. He was much happier to find out it was just me! Then he shared the good news about the dinner gift certificate. It worked out perfectly because we had already planned on eating there that night!

 

Parade-
We got the boys fed and Brady strapped into a different stroller and headed up the alley to our main street, well basically the only street in Onalaska, to watch the parade. I picked us out the same spot as last year, near the start of the parade. It works great, because the candy throwers always dole out too much in the beginning, but just like last year, none of the kids got the concept of stocking up on the candy. They would just grab a few and then were done. All of us parents had to do a lot of coaching and pointing! We ended up with quite the haul, which Jesse has already made a good dent in. Since Brady was contained we didn’t have any runners, but my nephew did keep trying to go into the road to TOUCH the classic cars. After that, we took them quickly through the petting zoo (nothing really held their attention) and to get some caramel corn. By then, we were all exhausted and ready to head home. But it was a good morning all in all. I think it will be a fun family tradition!

 

Ready for candy!