A Cyclo Cross Adventure...

A love of bicycling runs in the family--my Dad rides, my brother rides and races and Rory loves his bike and wants to ride all the time!  Rory has a Strider bike--it has no pedals--I get comments on it all the time when we are out.  Yes it looks a bit strange but this kid can move--fast--while balancing.

We ventured out to watch Seth compete in a Cyclo Cross event and we had a blast!  There was also a kids race and Rory was so happy to get in the action--he kept asking about a trophy. His race was at the very end of the day but when the Juniors group was lining up I had to put my foot on Rory's wheel because he was so anxious to get out there with the big kids.  I have no doubt that some day he will.

Due to some crazy traffic we missed seeing Seth start but got there in time to watch him do a few laps.  Rory could not stop smiling at all the bikes-and especially Uncle Seth in his bike gear.

This will forever be one of my favorite life moments!

In my unknowing mom brain I thought the kids race would be a quick 50 yard dash down a straight path and that was it--I was quickly schooled--that is not how it is at all.  Cyclo Cross is not just bicycling--it's turns, twists, barriers, stairs, hills and climbs.  The kids were not exempt.  I inwardly panicked--I had already promised Rory he could do the race but we had not practiced for this. Yikes!

Dad took him over to practice--Rory was a champ!  The hill the kids went down would have made some adults, including me, nervous.  He had one spill at the bottom while practicing but it didn't seem to bother him.  They did lots of practicing getting over the barriers.  

To put it into perspective here is what the adult race looked like--it is hard to tell in pictures but these Cyclo Crossers were moving fast--like, created their own wind fast.  

There was lots of getting on and off the bike to go up stairs or cross barriers.  The whole event was very fast paced and it was exhausting just thinking about doing all that!  I have to admit I wondered how long it would take me to run a lap--probably as long as it took some of the bikers to do 4 laps!

I know I'm partial since I'm his sister and all--but, basically, Seth rocked it!  He's worked very hard to get to this point of racing and I'm pretty proud!

There were all of 10 kids or so in the race and it was so precious to watch.  See the little girl in blue to the left of Rory?  She reached over and patted him on the back right before they started.  You can't script moments like this!  Rory was by far the smallest and youngest competitor but he had the heart of a champion and he rocked it too!

Uncle Seth ran along with Rory while he raced and Dad video taped the whole thing.  The course for the kids took about 5 minutes and it was such an awesome 5 minutes.  I'm learning as a Mom that my child is capable of much more than I can ever dream and I should not hold him back.  He can do this and he did a great job!

Rory was able to pick up his own bike during the race and hop the barrier--seriously, I love this kid.  Can you tell?

Each kids received a "trophy" which was a treat from the bake sale...now, Rory rode fast in the race but as soon as he crossed the finish line he really kicked it gear and rode even faster to the cookie table.  I literally had to run behind him to catch up!

It's not every day that moments like these are born but it's the every day moments like these that I will cherish forever. 

Planes: The First Theater Experience

Josh and I found out about a year ago that Disney was releasing a movie similar to the Cars franchise that was about planes.  We figured Rory would be old enough to go to the theater by then so we've anxiously been anticipating the release of Disney's Planes.

I took half the day off so we could go see a matinee (it's cheaper that way!), go to dinner and still be home in time for bed!  After work I picked up the boys and we headed over to a part of town we don't normally go to.  We like it there though-busy, lost of shops and things to see.  We hit up the local Christian bookstore first.  Well, I did since Rory fell asleep in the car on the ride over and Josh stayed with him.  It was nice but did make me miss the bookstore back home.  I realize though--I need to get over that and things are different here.

There were hardly any people at the theater and we practically had the place to ourselves.

We splurged on popcorn--which was oh so delicious slathered in fake movie theater butter!

Rory was enthralled and sat through the whole thing.  Thankfully, previews are a bit shorter with kids movies.  He stood up a couple times but mostly sat in the chair and paid attention the entire time.

The movie was very cute but even for a 3 year old I found myself explaining things that I wasn't quite ready for.  The basic premise was the underdog rising to the occasion and along the way some people (or planes) are helpful and supportive while others are mean and resort to sabotage.  Rory couldn't understand why some planes were not being nice to Dusty, the main character.  Dusty's coach is a old war plane that is teaching him maneuverability skills.  At one point, the coach flashes back to his only time fighting in war--there were guns, explosions and planes meeting their death in the deep blue ocean.  It was all done in Disney fashion but still left quite a bit to be explained.

I know that soon enough he will be exposed to these things but for now his innocence is so precious and fragile.  I appreciate the fact that he doesn't understand why people aren't helpful or are mean to each other.  In some ways, it makes me feel like we've done something correctly in these 3 years.  Neither of us act that way and we hope to instill that in Rory. I think the world might be a bit nicer if we all approached life from that viewpoint....And I could be thinking about it too much!

We ended our evening eating at Mimi's Cafe.  It was the first time we'd eaten there since it's not a restaurant we had in our area before moving--it was quite yummy!  It was fun to try a new place together!

All in all it was a wonderful afternoon and we were so happy to spend it together!