Fun Run

We had beautiful weather for the race yesterday. It was a little hot by time they actually ran, but better that than the rain that was expected. Jasmine and Kayla before the race.

Looking at the boats at the marina before the race.

Stretching out.

Kayla came in at 9:38. This is her first one-mile fun run. She did a 1/2 mile one last April, and will do that one again in two weeks. She does run in PE and at home.

This lady ran the second half of the race with Jasmine and was encouraging her. I thought it was someone she knew from school, but turned out not to be. I wasn't that worried with it being Jasmine (she has always had great attachment) and me being right there. I think it was nice of the lady to stay with Jasmine even when Jasmine walked.

Jasmine came in at 10:47.

They didn't give places, just a ribbon to all the kids who finished. Kayla would have been first in her age group I think.

The thing about my kids, well, anyone's kids probably, is that they are all different. Jasmine is four years older than Kayla and taller, but Kayla is scrappier and more competitive. Some days they are the best of friends and other days they can't breathe the air in the same room.

I would say that Jeff, Adam and Kayla are my more competitive ones and perhaps my more athletic ones although Jeff's talents seem to be mostly in running. He played some baseball when he was younger but was just average and wasn't really into it. He played a season of soccer and his strength was his speed not his soccer skills. He played a little tag football but really running is his thing.

Adam enjoys cross country and track. He played baseball when he was younger and was quite good but doesn't really like it. He did tumbling and gymnastics this past year and now wished he hadn't dropped out when he was younger, but at that time he didn't really want to work on it. He has played some soccer, but he didn't make the high school soccer team this year. That was really because he hasn't played in a couple of years and didn't practice for try outs. He is going to try again next year.

Jasmine started out very competitive in soccer. As a U 6 player, she was unstoppable and was the one the other team hated to play against. But when she moved up to U 8 she lost her fire. Perhaps she realized she was much smaller and could get trampled. Or maybe she did get trampled. But she backed off and is now one of the players who let the others go after the ball.

We're going to try one more season of soccer in the fall and if she doesn't like it, we'll just let it go. She has so much homework that she's overwhelmed so we are going to have to pick activities carefully and stick with the ones she really loves. Right now she has band, drum lessons, jazz and tap. A nearby city is offering summer basketball. She's never played basketball but may give it a try since she won't have the homework pressure during the summer. We'll have to see how it fit in our travel schedule.

Kayla and Kaleb have played soccer one season and basketball one season. They did a little football camp and a soccer camp. Kaleb usually has no clue what's going on. He just runs around crazy doing whatever he wants and in general drives the other players crazy. Kayla is pretty focused though. She sat out sports this year due to some behavioral issues but she seems to be working hard on getting them under control, so I think she'll play soccer again in the fall. I'm not sure about Kaleb. It depends on if he is really going to focus and play. His PE teacher also has problems with him intentionally hurting other children during games, and I'm not going to risk that. They'll be U8 which is more competitive and it's expensive so if he's just going to run crazy and not listen to anyone, he can do that on the playground.

Jessica is not in sports any longer, but she starts scuba for her underwater crime scene forensics program in the fall, so if her ear cooperates, she'll be focused on the scuba.

That's probably more than you ever wanted to know about my kids and sports, but there it is. Here are some photos from earlier sports teams in no particular order. I don't have many scanned in yet from about 1995-2004 so these don't show much of Adam's first teams, but I'm scanning them in to make a book for him for his graduation (May 29, 2013)
Jasmine

Adam
Jeff

Jessica

Jessica (I have more of her scanned in due to making her a book for her graduation two years ago)

Jessica indoor soccer

Jessica roller hockey

Jasmine U6, me coaching

Jeff

Jessica

Jessica

Jessica

Tyler

Tyler, roller hockey