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But back to the important bits; we started the July 4th celebration by doing exactly what our Founding Fathers hoped and dreamed we'd do - running a 5K race.
Also doing exactly what our Founding Fathers hoped and dreamed we'd do to celebrate the unfriending of the British, The Boy and the grandkid's dad Needs Cool Name both went to work. After all, people that want to celebrate the day by getting their oil changed or buying a new laptop also have rights.
Grandboy Riley asserted his right to be pushed by his mom in a stroller (and yell encouraging things to his mom like "Shouldn't you be running faster than this?"). Which left Grandgirl Darci, Weird Haired Mom (who was coming back from a leg injury and had promised her doctor that she would take it really easy, Riley's encouragement notwithstanding), Mrs Notthat, and I to do this race.
Mrs Notthat started off with Darci and then left her with me and took off after it became obvious that I was not going anywhere fast due to all the pictures I was taking.
Darci and a school friend were accosted by the media IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE!
Media Guy: "How has your race strategy gone so far?"
Darci: "I'm staying hydrated, I'm beating my mom, I haven't stepped in any horse poop, and I'm going to try REALLY hard to talk my grandpa out of going for that third lap."
Media Guy: "Offer him beer."
I love that Darci is floating in that picture.
The race required us to make three laps of the course, but I didn't know that when we started. Darci was thrilled when we saw the finish line after going for only about 15 minutes. That's when I asked someone and found out the real deal. Darci REALLY did not want to do that third lap, especially since her friend dropped out at the end of the second lap. But she sucked it up and did it, and I was SO proud of her for continuing on.
The funny bit was that, while I was selling her on the benefits of that third lap, WHM almost caught up to us. There was no way she wanted to be beat by her mom pushing a stroller, so she took off and finished strong, with almost no whining. Mrs Notthat, who had finished earlier, met us about a quarter mile from the finish and ran her the rest of the way in, beating me by several seconds.
You can see a lot more race pictures here.
The next big event on our schedule was the annual Battle of the Bands that features the Stanford and UC Davis bands making a LOT of noise and mayhem for two hours. I've gone on and on about them before, so I'm going to be gentle this time. I do like this picture though of Riley trying to work out where the batteries go in this hair brush.
For my money, the UC Davis band was more entertaining and won. Here the sax players are attacking someone from the one of the other food groups. They also did a nice thrashing of the Stanford Tree.
The Stanford band was also very good - it's always impressive that these people hang in there for two hours in the sun, enthusiastically making loud noises and doing wildly improper things with their instruments. The guy in feathers is their director.
Darci kept herself entertained by collecting escaped feathers from the apparently molting director.
Once the concert was over, it was time for kettle corn, hot dogs, and shopping.
As evening fell, Mrs Notthat, WHM, and the grandkids (who were later met by NCN once it was worked out that nobody really wanted to buy a laptop on that day after all) headed to Foster City to watch the fireworks. (The Blog was encouraged to stay home since he is not a night person and little of his grumpiness goes a long ways, or so he has been told.)
A vicious game of Uno helped pass the time.
So it was a great day all around (post-fireworks traffic being the exception). I think our Founding Fathers would have been OK with it all.
Except maybe understanding the oil changing part.
That's it - move along...
2 comments:
This really looks like a fun day. I love how you're all doing it together. And that the drummer finally molted down.
Great and colorful 4th. Love the floating Darci pic.
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