Feelin' Good in the Rain
Tonight the girls asked if they could go running with me. It had been raining practically all day and while it was still cloudy, the rain had stopped and I figured we probably had a while before it started again. The three of us ran for 3/4 mile and then Julia came home to take a bath. Riley and I started out to do around 3 miles - at her request. The girls tend to run really really fast and then wear themselves out so much that they have to stop and walk for long periods before running as fast as possible. Riley and I have gone running together a few times and I've explained how to pace yourself so that you can go for longer periods of time, but at a steadier pace. Tonight I asked her if she wanted to do intervals of 2 minutes walk/2 minutes run or if we wanted to do it by distance - run .25 and walk .25. She said she wanted to do intervals by minutes, but asked if we could run 1 minute and walk 3 minutes. So that's what we did to start... for about the first ten minutes.
After a few minutes (literally only 2 or 3), Riley asked if we could run to her school. It's about 3 miles away. She is determined that she should be allowed to ride her bike by herself to school and doesn't understand why we won't let her. We've shared reasons:
- you have to cross two intersections with 7-lane roads
- she has no way to contact us if something happens
- no way on earth am I letting her do a 3-mile bike ride by herself through neighborhoods
- tons of traffic in our area (we are in the city of Dallas after all)
- because we said so
I texted Jeremy to see if he'd pick us up at GSES, but Julia was taking her bath and we didn't want to leave her home alone. So I said 'never mind.' We decided to go about 2 miles and then turn around to head home. Riley and I chose to walk the new trail that's being paved and to at least make it up to the first huge intersection she'd cross if she'd be riding her bike. She told me that it didn't look as dangerous in person as it does on a map. I shared that I thought it looked more dangerous in person than on the map. We talked for a long while about random things and once we hit the major road, Riley shared that maybe she didn't want to walk all the way to school as she was really tired, but that riding a bike would be so much easier as she could just 'coast' the whole way. Despite the fact that the terrain is going uphill on the way there.
We turned around and started to head home. We continued to chat and laugh. It was really fun. Riley said she was really hot and wished she could cool off. Seemingly out of nowhere the rain began again. And it was one of those rains that comes down hard with nice, big drops of water. Riley began to laugh hard and was so excited!! She took her hair out of her ponytail and had the largest smile on her face. I put my phone under my shirt and held it with my hands over the top so that the rain would stay off of it. We had about half a mile to go until we were home.
We were soaking wet from head to toe pretty quickly. We looked at each other and just laughed. Then we started to jump in some puddles - they weren't very deep, but it was fun. My phone had been tracking our path and playing Riley's playlist. The song that came on during the heaviest part of the rain was "Feelin' Good" by Christina Grimmie. We sang parts of it and enjoyed the remainder of our walk home.
When we crossed the road nearest to our home, ran across the street and got to our driveway. Jeremy had opened the garage ahead of time so that we wouldn't have to stay outside trying to get it open with wet hands. He'd also set out our oversized towels in the laundry room so that we could dry off somewhat before coming inside. It was so thoughtful and helped tremendously. I asked him to take our picture so that we could remember it - it was so fun. Then we headed to take showers and wind down for the night.
Riley is praying for rain tomorrow and wants to go outside in the rain to play. With the forecast calling for a 90% chance of rain, she might get what she prays for!
After a few minutes (literally only 2 or 3), Riley asked if we could run to her school. It's about 3 miles away. She is determined that she should be allowed to ride her bike by herself to school and doesn't understand why we won't let her. We've shared reasons:
- you have to cross two intersections with 7-lane roads
- she has no way to contact us if something happens
- no way on earth am I letting her do a 3-mile bike ride by herself through neighborhoods
- tons of traffic in our area (we are in the city of Dallas after all)
- because we said so
I texted Jeremy to see if he'd pick us up at GSES, but Julia was taking her bath and we didn't want to leave her home alone. So I said 'never mind.' We decided to go about 2 miles and then turn around to head home. Riley and I chose to walk the new trail that's being paved and to at least make it up to the first huge intersection she'd cross if she'd be riding her bike. She told me that it didn't look as dangerous in person as it does on a map. I shared that I thought it looked more dangerous in person than on the map. We talked for a long while about random things and once we hit the major road, Riley shared that maybe she didn't want to walk all the way to school as she was really tired, but that riding a bike would be so much easier as she could just 'coast' the whole way. Despite the fact that the terrain is going uphill on the way there.
We turned around and started to head home. We continued to chat and laugh. It was really fun. Riley said she was really hot and wished she could cool off. Seemingly out of nowhere the rain began again. And it was one of those rains that comes down hard with nice, big drops of water. Riley began to laugh hard and was so excited!! She took her hair out of her ponytail and had the largest smile on her face. I put my phone under my shirt and held it with my hands over the top so that the rain would stay off of it. We had about half a mile to go until we were home.
We were soaking wet from head to toe pretty quickly. We looked at each other and just laughed. Then we started to jump in some puddles - they weren't very deep, but it was fun. My phone had been tracking our path and playing Riley's playlist. The song that came on during the heaviest part of the rain was "Feelin' Good" by Christina Grimmie. We sang parts of it and enjoyed the remainder of our walk home.
When we crossed the road nearest to our home, ran across the street and got to our driveway. Jeremy had opened the garage ahead of time so that we wouldn't have to stay outside trying to get it open with wet hands. He'd also set out our oversized towels in the laundry room so that we could dry off somewhat before coming inside. It was so thoughtful and helped tremendously. I asked him to take our picture so that we could remember it - it was so fun. Then we headed to take showers and wind down for the night.
Riley is praying for rain tomorrow and wants to go outside in the rain to play. With the forecast calling for a 90% chance of rain, she might get what she prays for!
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