Three weeks ago, we drove down to Brenham, Texas, to run in the Blue Bell 5K Family Fun Run. Blue Bell is our FAVORITE ice cream--it has been for a few years now, ever since they came to North Carolina. Like most Southerners/Texans, our loyalties have not swayed with the whole listeria outbreak at their factories and the six months or so that they were closed. Everyone I know here was back to buying Blue Bell the day it was back in stores. I saw a quote on Facebook that said: "Here in Texas, without Blue Bell, it's not that we buy another kind of ice cream. When there's no Blue Bell, it means THERE'S NO ICE CREAM." And I think that is pretty near accurate, for us and most Texans we know.
I found out about the Blue Bell 5K last year, but it was actually on Graham's due date, and he was born a week beforehand so it just wasn't going to work out. This year we thought about it months in advance and signed up. We were so excited when we found out that my cousin Brittney and her family from Houston were signed up to do it too. Their kids are Dane's FAVORITES and they are some of the coolest people we love to hang out with. So we figured this was well worth the drive and the effort.
(Also, why didn't I get any pictures with us adults? All of the pictures are of the kids! I mean, they're cute, but come on. Next time.)
We drove down to Houston on Friday night (a 4.5 hour drive) and spent the night at my aunt and uncle's house. Then we drove to Brenham (a little over 1 hour) early in the morning to pick up our race packets, including Dane's for the 1 mile kids' fun run. He was so, so, so excited to run in a race of his own, especially because all the big Bodine boys were doing it too. How cute is this:
We were all just hanging out talking near the starting line for the kids' race when all of a sudden the gun went off and all the kids took off running. Tommy jogged off with Dane and got these adorable pictures of his pure JOY at running in a big race. I know this is kind of overkill, but this makes me so happy. That face.
He worked really hard, and was running so well. But after a few minutes, Tommy said that he tripped and fell, and got a few scrapes, and that really dampened his enthusiasm. So sad, after such an exciting start! Tommy ended up having to carry him for a while. I was waiting and waiting at the end of the race for them to come, when they finally came walking slowly towards the end.
Everything was better once he got the Blue Bell waiting for him at the end. AND his medal, which of course he thought meant that he won the whole race, which was what he told everyone the rest of the weekend. Never mind the fact that he came in almost dead last in the kids' race. He got a medal, so he won. (The medal itself was shaped like a gallon of ice cream. Pretty snazzy.)
Is this not the cutest thing you ever did see? Since we don't live near any of Dane's real first cousins, we are sure lucky to have a ton of "cousins" who are more extended, distant relatives but are a ton of fun nearby.
Tommy and I ran the 5K after the kids' run. Dane got to hang out with the Bodines while we ran, while Graham came with us. He was so nice the whole time. He didn't make a peep.
And then we got to enjoy the spoils after the race. Everyone got 3-4 ice cream cups, at least.
After the race, we drove around looking for wildflowers. We apparently just missed the bluebonnets; we didn't see hardly any. But we did see a few fields filled with some beautiful flowers still.
Our beautiful boy with the wildflowers. Too bad he is still in his jammies.
This was the best picture we could get with the two boys. Neither of them were interested in looking at the camera.
We then made our way to the Washington-on-the-Brazos state park, and had an awesome picnic lunch next to the Brazos River. The kids had a blast running around, waving huge sticks, and playing with other people's bubbles.
They had a living farm museum there, which the kids were really excited for. We were having a real Texas day--Blue Bell ice cream, bluebonnet hunts, AND longhorns!? We spent maybe an hour walking around the little farm, seeing the animals, learning about life on the farm as a pioneer, and watching Dane and Lily chase this one chicken around incessantly.
Dane and Lily were just holding hands and being pretty darn cute. They will be in the same grade eventually. I sure love seeing them together.
I think I need to frame some of these picture and put them up in our house. They just seem so perfectly Texas. Most of the artwork/pictures we have are still from Durham/North Carolina. This just perfectly epitomizes Texas to me.
After we finished on the farm, we had to pack up and start the 3.5 hour drive back to Dallas. So it was a LOT of driving for us to only be there for the morning and early afternoon. But oh man, it was such a beautiful, nice day. The temperature was SO nice, and we were super excited about our race. Dane had so much fun with his big cousins, and we had a great time talking to them too. It was honestly an almost-perfect day. (Other than Dane's near-accident in the car... Let's just say that Tommy earned the Dad of the Year award helping Dane poop on the side of the road!)
It reminded me that we can and should do these bigger outings every once in a while. It's easy to get stuck in our routine and spend every Saturday just exercising and cleaning the house--which are things we definitely should be doing. But we bit the bullet and did all this crazy driving for this one event, and had such a good time. We made some really good memories because we were willing to deal with a little stress and hassle of traveling. I think that is worth it, and I hope we keep it up whenever we can.
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