Cross Country Wrap-up

As promised, I wanted to post about the end of the cross country season.  When I last wrote about XC, Adam was heading into the district meet, and I was certain that I'd have a lot more to write about.  I thought about entitling this post "Adam Young and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" because, unfortunately, that's kind of what the district race was for him.  He just didn't run very well in that race, and he missed qualifying for the state meet.  He was so disappointed, but I think he has learned that his whole self-esteem shouldn't be wrapped up in his running, or any other ONE thing, for that matter. It's okay to have a bad day every once in a while.

Not where he wanted to be in the end but
still running hard.  Strong work!

His ability to endure a lot of pain always
blows me away.  I stop when I'm hurting.

A day or two before the meet, the parents were invited to "Senior Night" at the track right after practice.  The seniors took one last lap around the track together, and then they were given some personalized pictures (8 x 10's) that one of the parents had doctored up and printed out.  The parents of the seniors could then say a few words about their kids.  It was a nice moment for a great group of kids.  

There were about 28 seniors, one of the biggest classes
the program has ever had.  

I think this means "Class of '14."

Senior Boys.  Adam logged a lot of miles with these kids. . . and had a lot of fun.

The cross country awards banquet was two nights ago, and Adam was recognized in a few ways there.  He earned his fourth varsity letter for cross country, which may have been the feat that amazed me most.  To letter four times in any sport is pretty impressive.

  

He also received an academic award from the conference.  Smart cookie!

Centennial gives a trophy to each runner who
participates in four years of cross country.
Has it really been four years?

He was very honored to be name the most inspirational
boy runner on the team.  I know he inspires me, but I'm his mom!

As tough as it was to feel Adam's disappointment right along with him--watching one of my children hurt is, oh, so much more difficult than hurting myself--I know that Adam learned a lot from falling a trifle short of his lofty goals.  Those lessons will be even more valuable to him than participating in the state meet would have been.  I'm sorry he had to hurt but very proud of his resilience.  It has been a pleasure to watch him grow, physically and otherwise, these last four years.  I love cross country, but not nearly as much as I love Adam.  

Best Birthday Cake Ever!

Oh, how I've been waiting to share this news!!  Social media and blogs are awesome, but they create an interesting challenge.  While I wanted to shout from the rooftops that I'M HAVING ANOTHER GRANDBABY, I certainly didn't want to steal the thunder from my daughter and her husband.  Once they let the cat out of the bag, however, I was happy to do the same on Facebook.

The next surprise was the gender.  I believe it was Karen's idea that we do a gender-reveal cake for my birthday since she was having an ultrasound on that very day that would likely tell them if they were having a girl or a boy.  I had to think about this for a bit...  If Mike were going to make my birthday cake, that means that he would have to know the news a few hours longer than I did. Adam would also get to know. Could I endure that?  Although the short time they knew the gender was excruciating for me, especially since I was banished to my bedroom while they were baking, the surprise could not have been more fun.

They did a good job.  I couldn't see a speck of cake peeking through.

Karen and Andrew "skyped in"

Check the crumbs on the knife. . .

IT'S A BOY!!!

Our smurf cake

Adam's kinda excited to have a little nephew.  A future sports
addict that he can brainwash. . .?

Just one little birdie left in the nest. . . He will most likely be
on his mission for my next b-day--WOW!!

Thanks, Karen, Adam, and Mike for engineering this surprise.  It was my best birthday cake EVER, and I'm so excited to welcome this little boy to the family in about five months!!