Crossfit, Nike and Drew!

A few years ago, my son, Drew, asked me to help him with the header he was putting together for Crossfit training blog. He works for Nike and they have a number of amazing gyms on campus. Off we went for the photo shoot. What he didn't tell me was that the campus is also awesome. It was a beautiful spring Sunday and we had the place to ourselves. I captured loads of wonderful; images and compiled this photo collage to remember the day. 

 

And this...

These images tell his story. They capture him lifting, running, pulling up, Core Performance, his work group, some of his shoe models, Nike athletes, including Brandon Roy, International flags and the large G for Girl Effect. Look that one up.

Hey, Drew, what do you think of this one?

Cinco de Mayo

I may not be Hispanic, but I am a believer.
So looking forward to a margarita and quesadillas this eve.

A story from a Cinco de Mayo celebration a few years back...

Today is the Cinco de Mayo half marathon except it is on Once de Mayo and Mother's Day to boot. A rainy day in Portland but would you expect anything else. I am the designated driver and stuff-holder. Here is this fit young man posing for the photographer at the start of it all. He’s got the Portland Spirit.

One of the benefits of running this race is the promise of a couple of beers at the end. Drew left his ID at home. They wouldn’t serve him. I grabbed his race placard and went to the oldest person taking tickets, showed her “my” race number and started to pass through the line. She looked at me quizzically and asked if I had run in the race. I replied “Doesn’t it look like I did?” Me in my jeans and birkenstocks. Who argues with a 60 year old woman? Not a 70 year old that’s for sure. One benefit of aging. PS The beer was good and cold even if it was 9AM

Ya Gotta Love Skype

I know I do.

My son lives in Amsterdam and Skype allows us to video conference on a regular basis and best of all, it's free of charge. Having worked for Ma Bell back in the day, I wonder how all this is possible.
Sundays generally are our day to connect. I was thinking about him today and made this digital layout with a picture he sent to me when he was in the French Alps. Photo via Smartphone and What's App messaging. Ya gotta love this too! Hi Drew!

Confidence

This is my son, Drew. He's 27 today. Happy Birthday, Drew!

 He's all grown up and living in Amsterdam. Yes, I'm jealous. He is in Spain in this photo, which is the beauty of living in Europe. 

Seeing this photo reminds me of a long ago story. He was in middle school. I was driving him to one of his many activities. I had on my glasses. It was very bright. It had to be after July 4 in Portland (inside joke). I didn't have prescription sunglasses so I just put my sunglasses on over the top of my regular lenses. He looked at me and said "You must be really confident." I didn't understand. He added "that you could go out in the world looking like that". It's become a family joke. If someone tells you that you must be confident, look in the mirror.

Hi Drew, comment if you are reading this...

So on Mother's Day

I arose at 6:15 AM to drive Drew downtown to run the Cinco de Mayo half marathon. There is no place to put your license or cash or car keys so I was the designated depository.

Hamming it up at the start

I wandered around and treated the morning like a photo shoot, finding some interesting things: flowers blooming, interesting things in windows, graffiti and lots of people.

I heard the holler that the winner was coming and so I rushed to catch a glimpse. Drew was hoping to finish in 2 hours. The winner was estimated to have completed the race in one hour 20ish minutes. I held my place along the route and it wasn't too long before I saw a very red shirt coming my way.

He ended up finishing the race in 1 hour and 51 minutes and with a grin on his face. He doesn't even look like he's working hard.. Running entitled him to 2 beers (at 9:30 in the morning:) I got one of them. HA! We toasted him.

Always On My Mind

I love scrapping our family photos from back in the day.



This is Drew in the summer of 1987. Just 21 months old,
he liked nothing better than "driving" his Grampa's tractors.
Thinking about those times today!

Backwash

I love this old picture of my son, Drew. He always loved
drinking from the hose. Problems was, so did the dog.
Turn the hose on and they both came running. Sometimes
Drew drank first and Tosh was on the tail end; sometimes
Tosh went first. EEEW!



But then, isn't life about give and take, she says with a smile.

Round 3: Hawaii aka My Kids Will Probably Kill Me

This is the latest but not the last. Aren't you glad. LOL
It is the funniest.



Need I say more!

Aloha

It's Not About the Weight

Isn't it interesting that you can set a goal and see it through but in the end what you accomplish is something totally different, something totally unexpected. That was the case for Drew when he was a senior in high school. He worked out nearly everyday in the gym, to get ready for football, to get ready for track, to get into the Pound for Pound club but in the end, while he accomplished all of those things, his gift to himself was so much more. His gift was knowing that he could see something through no matter how difficult. It was one of self discipline. And that, is a big one!