Here are miscellaneous pictures from the Special Olympics track meet last weekend. Some of my favorites out of the several hundred I took!
Lunch with the team.
One of her relay teammates. The girl in blue used to swim with Angela.
Love this picture: Dean with his ducks.
Handsome Axel.
My favorite man in the world.
They have an Olympic Village, where there are all kinds of things for the athletes to do. One of the biggest hits is always Karaoke. Angela had a song in mind but they didn't have the music for her. She didn't really seem to care. For those going to the NDSC conference in DC, she'll be performing there. LOL
Asher defying gravity. He is ALL BOY, always climbing whatever he can. His feet are 2 ft off the ground here. LOL
This is the 2nd time Axel has competed in Special Olympics. The first time was a month ago and he really had NO CLUE what was going on. But on this day, after watching all of Angela's races the day before, he finally got it. Suddenly it all made sense to him, all of our explaining "pump your arms and RUN." was for a purpose!
Hi all you people! (I know my mom is out there somewhere. I can hear her.)
There she is, pointing that camera at me again.
Runners on your mark...
Running running running...
Look at all those people cheering for me! HI PEOPLE!!!!!
While I was at the starting line taking pictures, Dean was at the finish line taking video. :-) Axel is the very last green shirt.
Woo! That running is hard work!
Alex...I mean Axel getting his first medal EVER! (and clearly he has been watching Angela too much.)
Look Papa! I got a silver medal!
Leaving with one of the coaches for his next race.
He looked so small out there on the field!
Keeping his eyes on the finish line.
Here I go! Pumping my arms like Mama showed me.
This running business is SO FUN!
See the orange cones? Yea that would be the finish line, but he's still running. LOL
(whistling to himself)
As I was watching him walk to the awards stand, I had to capture this face. You have to wonder if he thinks about how different his life was 18 months ago. There were no races, no Special Olympics, nobody cheering for him. Life was very different then....
Now he has this: A big sister who is more proud of him than anyone else could possibly be!
Although this past weekend was quite difficult as we said goodbye to Destany, it was also a weekend of smiles as we focused much of our attention on the Special Olympics Minnesota Summer Games. Since we have two kids competing now I took several hundred pictures! I will spare your eyes and only post some of my favorites, and divide them up into two (or three?) separate posts.
Getting ready to run the 100 meter. (she's looking for her mom. ;-)
Runners on your mark!
And she takes the silver!
She's awesome and she knows it!
4x100 relay handoff
This was at the end of a long, hot day and Angela was totally wiped out. She only had to run 100 meters but that did her in.
Crossing the finish line. She ALWAYS cheers for herself at the end, but not this time. Instead she sat down. BAD SIGN for the kid with anhidrosis!!! She did it though!
Her relay team took 5th place.
Sunday, nice and cool, perfect for a track meet! We've always said Angela is her own best cheerleader. You'll see why in some of these pics. This was on her way out to complete her standing long jump.
If you know Angela, you can almost her her "Woooo!!!" in this picture! As in "Wooo! It's my turn!"
It's been a long weekend and it's not even over yet. I don't have a lot to say at the moment but I wanted to post my favorite picture from this weekend.
Yesterday I shed a few tears as I watched Angela and Axel participate in the 2012 Special Olympics area meet. It was a super busy day making sure the kids were in the right place for their events, helping other athletes get to theirs, and making sure field events were taken care of as well. Our team has some awesome coaches! We have over 200 athletes on our team (though not all participate in every sport) and 67 athletes who compete in the summer games! That is a lot of athletes to keep organized, making sure they all get to practice all of their events, not to mention keeping the meets organized! I would not like the job, but I'm happy to help out wherever I can.
So, onto the games. Here is just part of the team who participated in the grand march. Many of the athletes who have events later in the day hadn't arrived yet.
The first event for us was Axel's 50 meter run. What is important to know is exactly one year ago, on May 16th 2011, this was Axel, just after he came out of an 8 hour surgery, laying in the Intensive Care Unit at Shriner's Hospital in Philadelphia:
When we got him he didn't know how to run. It was kind of a fast walk instead. Then he had his surgery and COULDN'T run. When he got his halo off in August, all the new motor skills he'd just learned he had to learn all over again. Running was one of them.
And now look at him today! Our boy, waving to his adoring fans. LOVE THIS BOY!!!!
Next up was Angela's 50 meter run. She ran as hard as she could! (Watch her at the finish line. She's always been her own best cheerleader! LOL)
Next up was Axel's 100 meter run. Sorry for the bouncing, I was walking along behind him.
There was softball throwing....
And standing long jumping...
There were ribbons awarded....
Friends to hang out with....
and hands held along the way.
And just for kicks, here's a video of Angela in 2006 when she was 10.
