The Big Race

No, this time it's not political. PJ ran in his first 10K on Saturday May 31. We drove into South Bend the day before, packing in the morning and leaving at 9 to get there to lunch with an old friend and co worker of his. After that we went over to the Jensens where the kids were greeted with such love! Betsey was there with the Hammer, and she fell in love with Ava a little bit. The wife of the couple who bought our house was even gracious enough to let me see inside! I was a bit nostalgic, the entryway wallpaper with the peonies and robins was gone, and she said they painted over the western mural, (I didn't go upstairs) and the carpet was gone from the stairs. But everything else was pretty much the same. Same light fixtures in the dining room and breakfast nook, and the cork in the kitchen looked in good shape. I didn't want to look at the rest of the kitchen (I just peeked a tiny bit thru the entry from the dining room) because I didn't want to be tempted to knock her out and take the stove. Just kidding. Kinda. There was some water damage from the upstairs bathroom that made its way through the dining room ceiling, and she said there was trouble with both bathroom faucets, but I guess that is to be expected for original fixtures in a 50+ year old house. They really like it there, and are happy with the house. I am really glad for them, they seem so very nice. I even got to see Nancy's kitchen post remodel- we left right before she had it done. AND the Hammer welcomed a baby sister just 2 weeks before and we got to meet her as well!
After that we took the kids to the hotel for a nap, and PJ went back downtown to pick up his and Ben's race packet (Ben and Katie weren't due in town till later that night) and go visit more co workers at the City/County Building. He came back, and we woke the kids and went back over to the Jensens and we caravaned to the Emporium with them for some dinner. The kids were great, and dinner was great. It was really nice to be able to spend the time with them. They planned to come back to the hotel to visit more while the kids swam, but it began to rain cats and dogs and they decided to head home. I certainly didn't blame them. It was really coming down hard. Plus it worked out because when we got down to the pool, there were quite a few people there and it was very noisy. (A lot of people at the hotel seemed to be in town either for the race or for a graduation.)
Sleeping was an issue I don't want to relive. Suffice it to say we brought sleeping bags for the kids and there was a king sized bed, and somehow Ava took up a bunch of the bed and PJ ended up in the sleeping bag. Nobody was terribly well rested, but enough. Let's just say it could have been sooooo much worse!
The kids and I dropped the boys off downtown before the race and went back to the hotel to get Katie and Marybeth. We drove down to the stadium, and as I am trying to get my camera out of my bag and wrangle James off the seats that are wet and prevent him from tumbling down 4 flights of chairs, Katie says, "Look! Here comes PJ!". So I didn't get a picture of him coming in. But they had a photographer who did and we can go to the website and order pictures. Expensive, but I think for the first 10K we might just have to do it!
PJ made great time, his best yet I think, and looked healthy coming in. That is to say he did not look as though he needed immediate medical attention. He said he felt good during the run, and that there was a gnarly hill, but the scenery was nice and it was a good run. We were all really proud of him, as shown by our homemade shirts showing the race and date, with "Team Thuringer" and each persons name on the back. He did great and is looking forward to another race here in the next month or so!
After the race we split with Ben and Katie (they were off to the outlet stores) and headed back for a shower for PJ at the hotel. After that we went to Meijer and purchased some flowers for Dad and DJ and Hon's graves. The site looked nice, although Dad's is sinking a bit. There could stand to be a little tending to the general area, but all in all it looks good. We visited for a little bit, and the children picked clover flowers and placed them on the graves. After that we stopped by the Jensens to say goodbye and hit the road. The boy was at this point SuperFuss, so we wanted to get home asap. We stopped at Burger King and took lunch for the road, and hustled home. It wasn't a bad drive. We got home and all took a well needed nap.
It was a nice little vacation, and although we had some trouble with the kids and sleeping, I think if we would have been gone any longer we could have tweaked it a bit and been successful. It was great to see everyone, the only thing missing was more time with Betsey and we didn't see her folks, but other than that it was pretty great. And we are all so proud of PJ, all the work he put into getting ready for this race, and how well he ran it. He has certainly come a long way, and is in yet another way an inspiration to me!