Bike racing

We had an awesome weekend. We went to Athens to spend time with mom and dad and let the kids race their bikes in the Athens Criterium kids races. We had been talking to Ek about it for months and she was quite excited, H was a last minute add on. Because of their personalities they approached the race quite differently. The course started down hill, turn around and finish up hill. H took off, pedaled as fast as he could and did great, he finished 2nd and was just so strong. Ek was her wonderful cautious self, stopped peddling half way down the hill in preparation for the turn but passed many girls going up hill, she was so strong as well. The race was quite short and I was looking forward to the evening parade. Parade, not so much- all out race without prizes more like. In front of 1000s of people, on a downtown street course that they had never seen, the kids took off full force down the hill. J ran along with them, I took pictures. J said H was about 40 yards ahead of Ek, it was a down hill start, but at the bottom of the hill, H's chain popped off his bike. Ek kept on in her consistent steady way and made it all the way around with not problem. I was at the half way point in front of the podium and the announcer, I screamed her name as loud as I could 3 times before she saw me and when she did she smiled. The lady beside me asked if I promised her a cake, 'her name is emma kate,' i said. After J and H passed by I took off back to the finish line to meet them. I told Ek and H the next night that I hoped they knew that there were people in their lives cheering for them like that all the time. I hope that J and I, and all the people who love them, can give them great courage to follow unknown paths that God has set, help them along when their chains pop off, and give them great hugs and smiles along the way. Ek said today that after she saw me, she just kept smiling. It was awesome. We hung around for the women's race and a bit of the men's, it was amazing to see how fast they ride!