May 1st---found us in Logan

for Jena's area track and field meet for Special Olympics.  This is the first year Jena has done track and field and she is enjoying it.  She runs the 25 and 50 meters events and also does the softball throw.  It was a beautiful drive up to Logan (which is about 1 1/2 hours north east of Syracuse) through some mountain ranges and up in altitude from where we are.  Spring was evident all the way there...but things changed during the morning

Here is some of her team gathering to walk in the Opening Ceremony.

Getting on her mark for the 50 meter dash.

She came in third on this event.

She then took first place in her division of the softball throw.  However, they didn't take the measurements correctly so we are not sure how far to actually threw the ball.  Oh, well.  She is showing great improvement from the first of the season.

The weather was a bit cold but it was enjoyable for a brief while.  Then the wind came up and clouds began to appear.

Things were okay if the sun was shining but if the clouds covered the sun, it was cold.  Luckily, our team had a tent with a heater so we could keep warm if we didn't need to be outside.  Gary had to step in and help with timing races since they were short of volunteers so he had to be outside all morning. 

Here is Jena waiting to get her metal in the softball throw. 

By now it was very cold and it had been raining off and on all morning long.

Gold metal!

Right after lunch and with several events still to do, it started snowing like crazy so they finally called the meet and we all ran to our cars.  No pictures of the snow as we were trying to take things down and get them out of there as quickly as possible.  I was so wet that it felt like it took hours to get warmed up again, especially since we had not thought we would need a change of clothes, although Jena, always prepared, had packed some for herself.

Now it is on to State Games at the end of May--we heard that it was 100 degrees last year during the State Games for track and field.  We are hoping not to have a repeat of that this year.