The first weekend of March is always the Blossom Trail festival and race in Sanger, CA- the town where Ambra lives, which is on the outskirts of Fresno. The Fresno area is known for it's agriculture- especially fruits and nuts. And when those fruit and nut trees bloom in the spring, not only are the flowers on the trees beautiful, but the fragrance from those blooms literally fills the air and you can smell the sweetness. It is amazing! I remember when I first moved to Fresno, I thought my neighbors were always cleaning and had their windows open! Nope, it was just the sweet smelling spring air!
The "Blossom Trail" is miles and miles of orchards that are in bloom from February-April. Visitors come from all around to see the beautiful trees. So I thought it might be fun to finally get to Sanger to see this and participate in the race too! In the last year, my sister has lost over 100 lbs! So we decided to walk the 10k together, along with her husband Frankie. I signed Tate and Macy up for the kids race too!
Friday night we got to town and all the family- Ambra's 7, plus my mom and dad- met up at John's Incredible Pizza. This place is like a Chuck E Cheese on steroids- it's pretty awesome. If you are a kid. (Thank goodness they served alcohol!) The kids loved it of course and earned LOTS of tickets-
Saturday morning we somehow managed to get 11 people out the door by 7am! Not an easy task with so many teenagers! 3 kids had a track meet and the rest of us headed downtown... It was a beautiful, warm, sunny morning- perfect for a race!
Our 10k started before the kids race, so my mom, jake and his girlfriend Jess coordinated their races.
Runners Ready?!?!
Tate had no problem running the 1/4 mile with the other 6&7 yr olds. He did not even come close to winning the race, but everyone got a medal just the same-
In the week before the race, Macy was SOOOOOOO excited to get to run in this race! We went out and bought her a new "running girl" outfit and she was ready to win! Her race was only 1/8 of a mile, with kids 5 and under. Jake and Jess said that she started out strong and was doing great, but then 1/2 way through, she tripped (over her own feet maybe?) and wiped out. She scraped up her knees badly and Jess ran out to pick her up. Macy was very upset (hurt, disappointed and embarrassed i think) and did not want to finish the race. The athelete in Jacob wouldn't let that happen, so he took Macy from Jess and carried her over the finish line so she could get her medal too!
this picture doesn't even do her injuries justice- but it shows her injuries a bit. both knees were scraped up badly!
While the kids race was downtown, ours was off in the orchards-
on one side of the road would be orchards of trees in bloom (i learned that almond trees smell the best!) and on the other side of the road were oranges! the scents were amazing!!!
excited to start!
these trees were full of pure white flowers- it looked like they were covered in snow!
We did it! It was an awesome walk together. We kept our pace at 15 minute miles and really had a fun time.
After the race we headed over to the high school to watch the kids track meet-
and that was exhausting!!!!!!! these meets last all day- literally for 12 hours! I kept telling the girls that I didn't know how they did it- standing, running, competing all day in the hot sun without much time for drinks or food. I admire them for their passion for the sport.
We had a lot of play time too- with their beloved cousin, Jake-
Before we headed home sunday, we all went to the pet store so that they could be with jake when he bought his new pet- a spotted leopard gecko!
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