Home again, home again....and PROUD of m'girls!

My traveling is over, for the most part; I've been back from class (2 hours away), and now I'm also back from my sister's house (5 hours away), where the girls ended their visit.

The weekend consisted of relaxing and swimming (pics on camera, still packed away), and making strawberry jam from strawberries I brought from our home garden. {{pictures from my camera}}
In addition to the big bowl of strawberries, I also took along four packages of frozen (chopped) rhubarb from last year, figuring we'd use some of it to make jam too.

In the end, we made 15 containers (2 cup/ea) of strawberry jam, and 19 containers of strawberry-rhubarb jam. I foresee another jam-making session because more strawberries are ready to be picked again, and in a few weeks, our raspberries will be EXPLODING on the vine. ;0) We'll be set for the year, SURELY, so I'll be gifting some more to my sister since she's a big fan.

The weekend ended with a 5K race I signed up for two weeks ago, right in my sister's town (well, over the bridge anyway in the neighboring town, 3 minutes away). Candace had crashed the night before around 8:00, so I shushed the other two to bed at 9:00 so that they would be able to come and "watch Mom run."

We were all up-n-at-'em well before the alarm clock sounded; ate breakfast and headed out. The morning was beautiful, and the turn out was AMAZING for the 5K Memorial run. (Ella Smetana's Memorial Run. The organizers were humbled. And the t-shirts were AMAZING!!!! In fact, my sister said that she was going to "register" just to get a shirt, ........., and when Cassie heard that, she gave me a longing look......puppy dog eyes......

Me: You want to run, don't you?
Cass: **shrug** yeah....
Me: Should I register you? I'll run/walk with you
Cass: Okay

Jen: (my sis wearing sandles) Okay. You do that. I'll take the other two and we'll just walk to see how far we get
Me: You sure?
Jen: Yup!

38:50 later-----Cassie and I crossed the finish line. I am SO happy for her!!!! This had been her first 5K!

So, THEN.....I got my phone from my car to call Jen in order to find out where they were.....No answer. Cass and I walked around Stephenson Island to find them, figuring they were off watching the festivities going on due to the race and holiday weekend. Well....it was still quite early in the morning, so nothing was really going on yet, so.....???

Finally, I said to Cass that we'd just walk the course backwards and maybe we'd see them on their way back from their "modified" course....

1:01:50 later, Jen, Caitlyn and Candace finished THEIR ENTIRE walk of the WHOLE race course! I COULDN"T believe it!!!! And neither could my sandle-wearing sister!

So, after the event, Jen went up to the organizer with a strange request to register Caitlyn and Candace "after-the-fact" because they had finished the race. NO PROBLEM :0)

{{Oh, and don't fret! Candace isn't pouting because she had to walk the whole race......she's pouting because the bouncy-castles weren't open yet and she wanted to play.}}

During the final steps of their race, my sister made me think of that race in a whole new way. She had said that the girls were asking questions all along of how long they'd walked, how long they have left, etc. At one point:
Caitlyn: We've walked one mile
Jen: How do you know?
Caitlyn: It's marked.
.....
Caitlyn: We've walked two miles
Jen: Yup.
Candace: How much is left?
Jen: About one mile.
Candace: How long is that?
Jen: 5280 feet
Candace: Oh my gosh!
Jen: Yeah, but we've already walked 10560 feet
Candace: **amazed face** How far have we walked when we're all done?
Jen: Ummm...that's too much math.

So when Jen recounted this with me....and I looked down to watch Candace's steps........a bit of awe hit me when I realized her steps are about a foot apart. That's a LOT of continuous steps for those little legs to have made! I'm still amazed they finished it!

So, all safe-n-sound now back home. The garden calls and the laundry calls. Time to start my day.

Happy Independence Day to all Americans!
Happy Monday to everyone else :0)