Natalie's first race

Last week on Facebook, I saw the upcoming event, Tour de Lawrence-with a kids fun run in the morning. So I signed Natalie up, thinking she'd ahave a great time. We got there a little late-thanks in part to the fact that Natalie wouldn't wear anything but a skirt, a necklace, bracelet, pretty sandels and a tank top to run in. And in part to Mom and Dad being slow at getting around. Anyway, we missed her age group race. I really didn't think she'd care about it, but boy did she! She started to cry and said she wanted to "run fast", so we ran to the registration table at Gribble's and begged them to let her run in the next age group. Then we ran back to the start and she lined up with a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds. The guy there was SO nice...when we arrived (me panting BTW)he kind of looked at Nat like "she's a little small?" and I said, "she REALLY wants to run (and whispered)she REALLY doesn't care about winning-I mean look at her" and he laughed and said, "Hey there! We've been waiting for you!" So they shot the gun and off they went. I tried to run back to Andy and Hannah to get some pics of her. Andy shot a video-SO CUTE! She waas the hit of the race! Even the announcer said when she passed him, "Hey honey, as long as you look good, that's all that matters" ;) I caleld my Mom the next day so that Natalie could tell her all about the big race and I was saying how Natalie really enjoyed all of the cheering and clapping from everyone. When I mentioned how she was grinning from ear to ear and it was almost as if she was saying "ahhhhhhh", she interuppted me and said, "No Mom, I wasn't saying that, I was saying Thank you, thank you very much, thank you" !