the day the weather gods saved the turkey trot

Ha! Ok, I don’t really believe in weather gods, (although I do believe in a God who can fix anything…maybe sometimes things don’t really need to be fixed…and oh that’s coming out all wrong but bear with me here!). I think even if it would have rained like gangbusters on the day of the turkey trot, it would have been a grand (and cold) adventure.

But, it didn’t.

And I did thank that God who can fix anything over and over and over again that we didn’t have to deal with the deluge of rain the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday forecast called for every time we looked up the weather the two weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Gradually that forecast shifted to just Thursday and Friday rain. Sure, it was supposed to start on Wednesday night (right when all the setup hoopla begins), and rain right through. But the day before even that shifted.

We all texted each other pictures of the sky filled up with hope that night. Dave from the registration packet pick-up:

The girls and I taking a break from Thanksgiving dinner set-up watching from the back yard after the “sunset call” from our group family text.

And that “sailor’s delight” sky held up to it’s promise when we woke up on the big morning with nothing but glorious gray skies.

Oh yeah, baby.

It was a grand celebration with the best turn-out yet.

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But really, before we go there let’s back up for just a minute to talk about what happened before that big day. I talked a little bit about that back HERE, but there’s so much work that goes into this day (hence the extra excitement with no rain!). They rolled the remainder of those 4,000 t-shirts at Brainfood, there were numerous Turkey Trot meetings, together with the “team,” as well as with sponsors and police who would be blocking off the streets, etc.

Lucy took some time to write special thank you notes to all the Turkey Trot “dream team” guys (including Dave) who put in so much work (that’s what I call them because they are pretty awesome).

We also got all the T-shirts she was giving to all her teachers at school ready to go along with making up some flyers so they could know about this whole dealio.

I have to include one of the notes because Lucy is a pretty great note-writer:

Then it was off to find all the right supplies to write the “I Am Thankful for…” but first trying to situate all these table settings for the big meal the next day with Dave’s whole family after all the turkey trot hoopla was over. (Dave’s family had helped out setting up chairs and tables earlier in the day, so grateful!):

Claire finished her texas sheet cake making:

Bob and Gin dropped by and Bob helped me with the kids’ table stuff I was doing while Lucy held triumphant over Virginia in chess:

These guys live in Wisconsin (we got to visit them when we went to Hamilton last month), and Virginia has a ton of family in the desert too so when we get a minute alone with just them we take it!

Then my friend Julie and I painted this on one of our big boards to be ready for the next morning (I was sure missing my girls and niece who are usually so nice to do it and weren’t available, but so glad for Julie to help me fill it all in!):

(There’s a good story coming up sometime soon, the story behind who painted those boards the last two years and how tricky it is and how NICE it is of people to help with that…so grateful!)

I ordered a new “Families Fighting Blindness” backdrop this year since our old one was pretty well worn out. So we set it all up to be sure it was going to work:

Dave worked with the team late into the night until early in the morning, and the girls and I joined them at the site where this sucker was already set up ready to go:

Here’s how the Families Fighting Blindness “station” looked this year before all the people came:

Yeah, these girls were pretty happy about it.

I had to take a picture of this guy because there are so many people behind the scenes doing stuff like this. I never even thought of the electricity it takes to run everything until I stopped to see this.

Lucy’s friends showed up early to help pass out “I am running to save __________’s vision” stickers:

…the ones we started using last year:

Cousins started gathering:

All of Dave’s siblings were there, and in addition it was so fun to have my brother Noah and his family who were in town for Kristi’s side of the family Thanksgiving:

Um, can you tell who was excited about that?

Lucy loves Lyla so much! And who can help but just adore these folks?

…and these ones:

Cousins rock.

I’m going to let some of the pictures tell more of the story:

…except to bud in right here and say that there were people ready to start racing as far as the eye could see:

Coming out at that start speedy quick:

Funneling into the start a little more slowly:

They just kept coming and coming.

Dave’s sister Julie and her family got there late the night before so this was the first time we saw them in the race:

These guys looked fast 🙂

The board kept getting filled and filled:

Wait, I was going to let the pictures tell the story. Ok, here goes, except that I’ll say this isn’t rain you’ll see, it’s snow from the snow machines the people from BrainFood set up each year.

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Look at all those good people up there! It was my favorite Turkey Trot yet.

Claire and cousins kept right at it until the very end…through all the clean-up:

There were so many families that came pretty decked out!

Love all these sweetie friends of Elle’s:

And then it was down to just a few. Our tiny little family missing so many, but for sure feeling the hearts of everyone who couldn’t be there:

And really, these guys are the ones who should be pictured in front of the thankful sign, because they are the ones who got it painted and there:

…and taken down and put away again.

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The last of the trash was hauled out, the cords put away, the signs and tents and donuts all done for another year.

And back home to poor Bo Jangles who we had take a turkey trot hiatus this year but luckily still got a t-shirt, which she was SO excited about.

Wait, I think Claire might have been the excited one about that.

And off to the next race to get ready for all our guests who would be showing up in a couple hours (I wrote all about that dinner already over HERE).

All of this, under these beautiful gray skies that let only a couple drops of water escape….

…and stayed that way until after our giant wiffle ball game with the cousins after dinner, and then transformed into a torrential downpour as I lay in my bed in the wee hours of the next morning, my heart swollen up with gratitude for a day well spent.