no P A I N no G A I N

A very good day for a track meet. After a long night of flying back from Alabama {sitting next to a big, stinky man} Jim's shuttle dropped him off here at home and we hit the road to Heidelberg. The weather was absolutely beautiful- blue skies, warm rays. Even better than the weather- everyone was content.

Both boys had a really great day of competition- we're SO proud of them. Still not where he wants his time to be, Ty did both hurdle events. Ty's stinkin' shin splints just won't go away- what a pain, literally. In his four years of running track this is the first he's ever had shin splints and the pain continues to linger. As a parent, it is a helpless feeling not being able to figure out how to stop the pain. I told him yesterday as he headed to check in to his event, "No pain, no gain." He's not buying it. He'd prefer the pain go away.

I'm bummed this picture is blurred. I had my camera all set to go when two girls walked right in front of me, ugh. Hurdles are kind of hit and miss... you have to be quick. I told him he was just so fast he blurred the picture. He just rolled his eyes in response. He did come in first in his heat, which he was happy about. In Caden's eyes, his brother won.

This is as huge a smile as we ever see on Justin's face. He couldn't stop grinning. He placed third in both disc and shotput, but more importantly has a new personal best for his shot with a throw of 40 feet, 4 inches. Early on in the season, he qualified for Europeans in disc and has been working on his distance in shot. Yesterday, he finally did it. Only the fifth boy, he's now qualified {for shot} for the European Championships, he's jazzed.

I can't forget Coleman and Caden. They had their own kind of track meet as well, hurdling over their daddy's legs the whole afternoon. Even wiping out {Caden} a few times, they couldn't stop laughing.