Cross Country

It's that time of the year again when all the schools are having their cross country run.  Jalen's cross country was about a month ago.  It was nice having  it so close to home, but unfortunately we still had to go and pick up Noah from school to take him to it, as the buses from school don't have wheelchair access.  We really wanted him to be there for it though, as it was a beautiful sunny day.



Kobe loved hanging with his brothers for the afternoon, and spent lots of time rolling down the hill making people laugh.



Jay cracks me up with how short he is compared to the other boys in his grade, but I keep reminding him that I was exactly the same in grade 6.  I was the shortest of all my friends, and now I'm pretty much taller than all of them.  He always does the big warm up before he runs :)

Jay isn't athletic at all and running definitely isn't his thing (basketball is definitely his thing and even though he is so small he gets in there and surprises everyone as to how competative he is) but he did well and ended up finishing about middle of the group, which he does every year.

Last year Harri missed out on having his cross country because of the weather, and it was almost the same this year.  Last week it was cancelled, but yesterday he finally got to race.  He was checking the weather all week and was excited to tell me that my iPhone said it was going to be sunny.  It was sunny but was a very frosty morning, so it was quite cool.  Kobe and I turned up in our jackets and scarves, and crazy Harri was just sitting there with his shorts and tshirt on when we arrived.

Harri is quite a confident runner and kept telling me that he was going to come third as they had been practising a lot at school and he knew the two boys who could beat him.  I told him it didn't matter what he came, and to just have fun.  Before the race started the P.E teacher was telling them all that the grass was very wet from the frost, so they needed to be careful and if they fell over to just brush themselves off and keep going.


50 metres into the race I see a kid fall down and was like 'oh that poor kid' and then as he started getting back up another kid ran into him and kicked him in the head, and he fell back down again.  Then all of a sudden I realised it was Harri!  I had taken my eyes off him for a second to see where Kobe was, and didn't realise it was him that actually fell down, till I saw him get kicked in the head.

The P.E. teacher ran over to him as he lay on the ground and the rest of the kids took off down the hill.  I ran over to him, and as soon as he saw me he burst into tears.  I asked him if he was okay to keep running and he said no, but  I told him he could do it and the P.E. teacher told him he could probably catch up to the ones at the back, so then he took off like a rocket.

Next thing I know I see a group of kids running up the hill and Harri is taking over them! 

He did so well and overtook about 10 kids, and ended up finishing about half way through. 

He was happy with himself for catching up to everyone, and kept saying 'did you see someone kick my face Mum!?  I would've gone better if I didn't fall over'.  I told him how proud I was of him for getting up and not giving up, and all the teachers and Mum's kept saying the same thing to him.  When I was about to leave I gave him a kiss goodbye and said again 'I'm proud of you Harri' and he then says 'I know Mum!! You keep telling me that!!'. 

When he got home he kept asking me if he had a footprint on his face! He hasn't had a good week with a footy injury as well.  I got a phone call from school a few days ago saying he hurt his finger and it was swelling very fast and he was looking very pale, and that I should probably come and pick him up.  After a visit to the doctor we had to strap his finger up and give him panadol to stop the pain.  I guess it's just the start of a lot more sporting injuries to come.