I didn't give it much thought, until he said, "Please Mom, I really want to do this race with YOU." There it was. I had recently felt pretty shafted by this kid at a certain Pack meeting for Scouts.
There had been all this hype for him to get his first real badge, his Bobcat... and I "had to be there, it was so important for the moms to be there! Don't you dare forget to be there! And look nice, because there will be pictures! Don't forget! The scouts always pin their mom with an award! Be there!"
So of course I was there. Because I was proud of him! And I made sure to look nice. So I'm sitting there with all the parents and I see that it's Jaden's turn. I start to stand up to walk to the front of the Pack meeting to join Jaden so he could receive his badge and he can put a pin on my shirt, when I hear the person in charge say, "Jaden Socci! Who's your favorite parent?" And he yells back, "Dad!"
So I sit back down, and... proudly... so proud that I'm even fighting back tears... take pictures of the moment.
After that I think I was a little tender and it seemed like everything Jaden said to me cut straight to the heart. So when he said he actually wanted to do something with ME, I jumped on it.
I starting looking at dates, and how much it cost. It all sounded reasonable. I was getting excited about doing something special, just the 2 of us. Then I read...
"Must be 10 years or older."
Reluctantly I gave him the sad news, and he tried to casually walk away to cry in private. I knew he was upset, and I was a little upset too. I wasn't ready to let this bonding moment slip through my fingers.
So I emailed the company.
I didn't expect to hear back from them, but I thought why not try? So I was pretty surprised when I got a response about a week later. They said Jaden could run the race as long as he had an adult with him. They didn't want him to get trampled. And I would need to sign an additional waiver. Jaden was ecstatic.
When I told my mom about it, she said something that shocked me even more than the news that my 8 year-old could do this race. She said, "Maybe me and Ethan will do it too."
Whaaaaaaat? Now I was really excited. I never in a million years would have ever thought she would even consider doing something like this!
So we all signed up.
You might be wondering why Kaleb and not Jaden is in this group picture. (But he sure is cute.) As luck would have it, Jaden came down with a fever the night before and couldn't run the race. Kaleb stepped up in his place. But Jaden wanted to come along and sit with Grandpa to watch.
He didn't last very long. He ended up needing to go lay down in the car before the race even started. He fell asleep fast.
Kaleb was really excited to do it. We just gave him Jaden's shirt and number and snuck him in.
When the race started, we kinda stayed in the back. We needed our space!
I'm surprised how many good shots my Dad was able to get of us. Just keeping track of us in that herd was an amazing feat! And he must have a pretty long zoom, cuz he was way far away.
This was our first little mud pool.
There was a rope swing, and we crossed some logs, then there were trenches with barbed wire. Mom and Ethan crawled under the wire, but Kaleb and I stepped over.
Then we got to the slide. The video online made it look a lot steeper and faster than it really was. But I guess if you go down on your stomach or your back you can pick up some speed. Kaleb went down on my lap.
Now we were starting to get muddy! Can you see the handprint on my boob? Thank you, Mom! And I'm diggin' Mom's soccer cleats and shin guards!
Kaleb was so cute. He was excited and had a great attitude, even though some of the time, I could tell he was really trying to be happy about being so dirty. I was glad I got to do this with him.
Then we had a wall to climb. That was about as high as Kaleb got before he climbed back down to walk around.
But Mom and Ethan made it!
Some of the obstacles were either too tall or too scary for the boys, so we just walked around them. Which was good because they usually had a long line.
Almost to the finish line... the 1st of 3 laps.
After Lap 1, Ethan said he was done, but Kaleb wanted to keep going. Mom and I took Kaleb around to a few more things before he too decided he was done.
When Ethan left, Jaden was awake and feeling well enough to cheer on and take pictures of his cousin.
Nice job Eth!
Dad and Jaden took Ethan to the showers while Mom and I were still out with Kaleb.
After Kaleb decided he was done, we asked Jaden if he was feeling up to doing a lap. I felt really bad that this whole thing was supposed to be for him and then he wouldn't even get a chance to do it. But after his little nap, he seemed to have enough energy to do part of it. So Jaden and Kaleb switched shirts, and we were off. I didn't feel bad. We had PAID to go around 3 times. We would be lucky if got around twice. Instead of following the course, we just asked Jaden what he wanted to do and we went there.
Here we are at the trenches. Jaden's shoe kept getting stuck in the mud. And I decided that I wasn't nearly muddy enough to pay for a "mud race." So while Jaden and Mom stepped over the trenches, I rolled under them.
Can you see my head?
This is Jaden seeing me come towards him, and getting far far away. See his a handprint on him too?
Mom on the other hand, didn't run fast enough. Bwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!
Some lady saw Jaden and said, "You're not nearly muddy enough!" and then rubbed mud all over his face. I was kind of annoyed at that, since he was sick, but the damage had already been done, so I tried to just laugh it off.
It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we did it. I'm even more glad that my mom offered to drive and deal with the muddy mess in her car. Thanks again, Mom! And thanks for your help too, Dad!
No comments:
Post a Comment