gingerbread man mile {and pizza/movie night!}

 i signed all 6 kids up for what looked like a SUPER fun race the morning after thanksgiving. when my alarm went off EARLY that morning to get up so we could get there, i was doubting myself. but...after all was said and done, it was SO SO fun!

the race was at a town center about 20 minutes from our house that has such a fun atmosphere...ice skating, fun shops...

the race was broken up into age groups. lincoln and sawyer ran together. but, other than that, the kids were in separate races. the races started every 15 or so minutes.

bailey's age group (age 6-7) was first - at 8 am.
this is right before they started...

 here she goes!

 when they finished the race, they got a gingerbread cookie and a ribbon.

 yay bailey!!

 joshua was next (age 8-9). he was pretty serious about it.

 finished under 8 minutes.

 rebekah was next (age 10-11)

 pretty good time!

 we had about an hour break (the age groups went up through age 14...) before the little guys ran. we went into the hotel lobby there and hung out.

 the crowd forming for the 4-5 year old race to start. lots of parents ran WITH their kids. we just sent lincoln and sawyer down there and hoped they'd stay close and follow the crowd :-)

 their race was only .4 miles. here comes sawyer (red pants)

 there they go! (lincoln - red hat) we didn't tell them they HAD to stay together. but i loved that they did! for the record (sawyer said it LOTS of times...) sawyer beat lincoln :-)

 and levi's race! it was just 2 blocks long. they "chased" the gingerbread man. rebekah ran with him.

 see him? red coat.

 THEN there was a parade after! it was pretty impressive! like almost 2 hours long!

fist pumping one of the star wars dudes :-)

not so sure about...

this guy!

santa!

we were going to get our tree that afternoon. BUT...we didn't know the morning race/parade was going to be a 6 hours affair. SO...we came home and took naps and made pizza for dinner and watched Field of Dreams together. we'll get our tree next weekend!