10 seconds of fame

We went on a last minute adventure last Saturday.  We needed something that would get us out of the house.  Five days of 100+ degree weather and bad air quality were trapping us in our house and it was getting a little cagey around here.  To say the least.
Jared had heard of a cool event in downtown Boise that was kid friendly: the kids ride of the Twilight Criterium.  It is an annual bike race and this year the fastest bike riding woman in the world, Olympic champion, and local Boise gal Kristin Armstrong was going to be there to ride with kids and sign autographs.
I remember when I was a kid going to see the olympic mens gymnastics team at a mall.  We got their autographs and took pictures.  I was kind of star struck.  So we thought this would be a really fun thing to do for our kids.
We got their bikes loaded up in the car and headed to the race.  We got to meet Kristin Armstrong and she was awesome.
 
Here are Afton and I from the online newspaper photo:


Ben wasn't really into the meeting, but I kind of nudged Afton to talk to her.  Kristin was super friendly and engaged Afton in a really sweet way.  Afton had her fingernails painted blue and Kristin told her that she loved the color and was kind of getting inspired to do her nails blue for the Olympics now.  :)

When it was time for the kids races, Ben's age group went first.  He was all excited to participate now! He leaned forward on his bike and zipped along with a huge grin on his face.

 
This is Ben's online newspaper photo of his race

Next up was Afton's group.  She positioned herself on the front line (just a bit competitive, he he) and eagerly joined in the shouts "I'm ready!!!" as Kristin led them off on the race.  Afton made the loop around the course and came in among the first few kids, also with a big grin on her face.
Here's Afton on the far left with a purple shirt and helmet in the race.
  



One of our kids favorite things to do at our house is tear around on their bikes.  They just love it!  So this quick, fun and free activity was totally perfect.  We even got approached by a journalist asking if they could get our names because they'd taken pictures of Afton and might put them in the local newspaper.
Although she didn't get in the paper, she did get on the 6pm news!  Her little face even got a close up of her excited shout at the beginning of the race. So now she's famous.  For a few seconds, anyway.
We're looking forward to watching Kristin in the Olympics in a few weeks!