Corona Virus Quarantine Day #65: 5K’s, Snakes and Riding through the sprinklers: May 23, 2020

Tonight our guest writer is the talented, smart and hard working Finley Joe aka Moose.

We started the day with a long bike ride.  We all wore yellow shirts to help Alex’s Lemonade Stand.  The kids we were helping have cancer.  I think it’s fun to help these kids, I like helping people.  After this we came home and had a big lunch.  We were all really hungry from the long ride.  Cooper was walking the dog and found a ginormous snake by our house and went to tell Uncle Luke who was outside.  Uncle Luke had to kill it with a shovel. It was super freaky.  Then I went to the barn and played basketball. I did dribbling, shooting and layups.  When I was done I played volleyball with mom and the girls.  It was fun and I love the barn.  Cooper and I helped Daddy down by the pond to hook up our sprinklers.  After we tested them all we rode our bikes in the sprinklers.  We got really wet and had an awesome time.  Tonight we started watching Soul Surfer. It’s about a girl that lost her arm when she was surfing. She was amazing and she didn’t give up and she kept on fighting.  That’s the kind of person I want to be.  She was awesome.  We have to finish it tomorrow.  I can’t wait to see what happens.  It was an amazing day!

It’s Corona Virus Quarantine day 65 already?  Doesn’t seem that long.  Mostly I feel like I want to go back to school and go places and I want to start going and seeing people more often.  Today I am thankful for this house, a big yard, the barn, the pond and our family!

Mommy’s thoughts:

Everything about today felt like summer…the heat, the activities.  It was glorious.  We started our day doing a 5K for Alex’s Lemonade Stand.  I got associated with ALSF at St. James.  We do an annual event now (5 years running) and raise money for Pediatric Cancer.  It’s my favorite event of the year.  The founders or ALSF posted about a virtual 5K to raise awareness and money during these strange times and I knew we had to participate.  The kids were excited to get in their yellow t-shirts and ride our bikes for a good cause.  Before we left I talked to them about how if they were struggling at all on the bike ride to offer it up for those kiddos and their families, because any pain they might feel on this bike ride is nothing compared to what these families feel.  As parents, we try so hard to give our kids perspective.  Kids believe most things are a big deal and a lot of kids, if not all (through no fault other than just being a kid) believe the world revolves right around them…but when they can see a child who suffers the way a sick one does, it makes those little things seem not so big and hopefully helps them understand what is really important in life.

I was really proud of them today.  They kept asking to go farther.  Even Fletcher who literally mastered riding a bike a few weeks ago rode his little butt off.  We estimated we rode close to 6 miles. That’s a long way for a 5-year-old kid.  All of the kids crushed it and there was not one second of complaining.  Perspective.

A family selfie.  We had to make a few stops along the path to see things…like this cool dock at Kill Creek Lake.  In all the times we’ve been there they had never seen it.

It wouldn’t be a bike ride if we didn’t stop off at the “river”.

After that we spent a lot of time in the barn and played volleyball.  Finley played with us girls today.  I love when the boys play.  It’s even more special.  Can I just say for the sake of my memory of these days…Moose can set! Finley Joe has good hands.  So maybe he has a future in setting if that NBA career he is planning doesn’t pan out!  Also…I can’t help but get a little emotional when the girls are out there in their spandex and kneepads that are bigger than their body.  It’s beyond cute.  Today Ellen even had her shirt tied with a pony tail holder.  Ugh. Adorable.

Ellen had untied her shirt by this point but their knee pads.  Ugh.  Adorableness!

The kids had a blast riding their bikes in the sprinkler and Fiona and Fletcher got a little special time with their cousin Logan out at his house.  I am so grateful our kids have cousins that they can grow up with.  They say a cousin is your first friend and ours have been blessed with 2 on my side and 7 on Bryan’s side.  They are close with all of them and spend a lot of time together.  I hope when they grow old they will always be at each others side!

Slip and sliding at Logan’s and Fiona behind the wheel of their go kart.  She was in Heaven. I’m hoping I’m not looking at the next Danica Patrick…cause this momma’s heart couldn’t handle that!

The highlight or low light of the day depending on how you look at it…was the 6 foot snake that Uncle Luke killed next to our house.  Holy moly do I HATE snakes.  In the almost 5 years we’ve lived here we have never had one by our house.  This did not make me feel happy inside.  But…Uncle Luke destroyed this snake, which was awesome!  What wasn’t awesome was when the snake opened his mouth and looked like he was going to kill Uncle Luke.  Yikes.  That is not an image I’ll soon forget.  What was equally not as awesome was the fact that our Fletchy wanted to hold it.  Gross.  I’m just glad Fletcher didn’t discover the snake or else it might have ended up in our house as a “pet”.

This was my first snake murder.  Although I was just a bystander…not an active participant.  Thank GOD for Uncle Luke today!  

Look at the size of that thing…can you say “hell no”?  I can!  No thank you…no snakes for me!

Finally, if you haven’t seen the movie “Soul Surfer” about Bethany Hamilton the 13 year-old girl whose arm was bitten off by a tiger shark…run don’t walk.  We still have 30 minutes left and I can fully endorse this movie. I will likely be buying her book this weekend too. At a very young age this girl was a total badass.  She says at one point to her dad “I don’t need easy…I just need possible”.  Ugh.  That destroyed me.  I cried in this movie like it was my job.  These tears were proud, happy, blown away by her bad assery kind of tears.  Never met her, probably won’t…but I’m super impressed.  She’s obviously a very special person.  A lot can be learned from her bravery.  Lessons.  There are always lessons.  I was glad to hear Finley Joe’s assessment of her.

Today when I told Finley it was Day 65, Finley said “already?”  Sometimes I would agree, other days it feels like day 650.  Today I was with him.  It was a beautiful day with our beautiful people and it was pretty darn special.

The boys helping Daddy hook up our sprinklers to the pond and Fletchy scooting on a Barbie scooter.  Good times had by all!

Until tomorrow…

#celebr8awesome

#dorseyshenanigans