On Saturday, we did the Bubble Run as a family. We all had a great time, even though it rained on us almost the whole time. In our morning rush, we forgot a jacket for Cece (which wouldn’t have helped much since all her jackets are cotton), any blankets for Cece, and we ran out of time to search for umbrellas. Luckily, it was still fairly warm.
Grant took our slow team, wearing Cecilia, pushing the stroller for Curtis to hop in and out as he pleased, and keeping track of Phaedra. Eleanor and I ran together, only stopping to walk when we reached a new set of bubbles (at every kilometer). Eleanor did so well! She didn’t complain at all, kept a happy attitude, and even managed to stay with me while we had to weave through all the people walking. My one wish would have been for them to ask walkers to keep to one side. They took up the whole path, so if you actually wanted to run, you had to do it in the sloshy grass or weave in and out of the crowd the whole time.
I had wondered how Eleanor would do because our training did not always go smoothly. There were times I felt like I was dragging her along, and she just wanted to stop and walk—or pick dandelions. I experienced some frustrations with that, but hopefully I was able to teach her a few things about changing your attitude when trying to get through something. If anything I taught her about motivation; the last time we ran the whole 5K as a practice, I only got her through it by promising to get chocolate milk after we finished if she would try hard and have a good attitude.
The temperature was probably in the high 60s, so the light rain actually made the run pleasant. We were not too hot or too cold. Eleanor loved the bubbles. The set of bubbles at the starting line weren’t colored, but at each kilometer, they had colored bubbles that would add color to our white shirts. Eleanor liked going directly under the bubble dispenser, where she would practically have to swim through. Then we would smear bubbles on each other’s shirts, and Eleanor liked giving me a bubble crown each time. Our legs and feet carried the bubbles the longest, and by the end, my socks were completely squishy with suds. They also had music playing at each of the bubble stations to keep things fun.
Once Eleanor and I made it to the finish line, I was afraid we might miss Grant and the kids if we didn’t wait and watch for them. I didn’t have my phone because I don’t have any way to strap it on and I didn’t want to carry it. So we stood near the finish line and waited. In the rain. The rain got a bit heavier while we waited in our soaked clothes, and we started to get a bit cold. I worried about the little kids and wondered if they enjoyed themselves or if they were making Grant miserable. I worried about Cece being warm enough with no umbrella to keep her dry. I had brought hats for Curtis and Cece, and I put one of our towels in a bag in the stroller in case they needed to wipe off their faces after the bubbles, so I hoped those things had helped.
After a while, they showed up, and we ran with them across the finish line. Phaedra was getting cold and starting to feel sorry for herself because of it. Cece had stayed warm and pleasant strapped to Grant. Curtis was starting to get cold, but he was in pretty good spirits. And I was happy to see that Grant was happy.
As they neared the end of the race, Grant started to worry that there wouldn’t be any bubbles at the end (I had wondered myself). He knew the kids would be really disappointed. So as they were coming, they reached the point where the pink bubbles (the first set) were on the opposite side of the path, and he looped back around with the kids to go through them a second time to make sure the kids had plenty of chance to play in bubbles. He said that helped them a lot.
Just past the finish line, they had two bubble makers going constantly for everyone to play in. Once the kids saw them, they all perked up, and luckily, the rain stopped soon after they started to play.
Since I didn’t take my phone and I kept my camera in a plastic bag in the stroller, all my pictures are from the end. Grant got some pictures and video with his phone while they were walking. I’ll have to go through those and share some of them, too. For now, here are a bunch from the finish line and the bubbles they played in at the end.
Curtis was like a little moving cloud of bubbles, like the Charlie Brown character, Pigpen, but with bubbles instead of dirt. He would come to the stroller, wipe his face with the towel so he could see, and then he would disappear into the bubbles again.
I didn’t get as many pictures of Eleanor because I lost her for a while. I was starting to get worried because I couldn’t see her in that sea of bubbles, but Grant found her.
The kids loved every minute of it and probably would have stayed and played for a very long time.
Curtis recently got a new set of crocs so he’ll have summer shoes he can put on himself, and he kept losing them in the bubbles. He’d come out of the bubble pile with one bare foot, holding his shoe. Grant was afraid he would lose a shoe for good, and he decided it was time to gather the kids to go home before that happened. Of course, that’s when Curtis lost a shoe. Grant was trying to search for it, but he couldn’t get very deep in the bubbles with Cece strapped to him. I was going to switch Grant places and have him watch the stroller, camera, and kids so I could look for the shoe. As we were swapping, a lady found the shoe in the bubbles for us. What a relief!
We went back to the car, drank chocolate milk from our cooler (yes, we brought cold chocolate milk but didn’t have time for umbrellas—priorities), changed the kids into dry clothes, and headed off to pick up some lunch. All the kids except Eleanor were asleep in the car by the time we got home with our food.
The kids are already talking about the bubble run next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Don't be shy! Leave a comment! I read all of them.