Running With Dead Fish and Grouchy Teenagers

Yesterday, my dad told me that my youngest sister, Melissa, let her daughter go running with her the other day.  By now you know that my family has a slightly competitive nature.  I'm not exactly saying that she was trying to one-up me, but she knows that my oldest daughter is going to be running on our relay team... Her oldest daughter is 4.  When my sister headed out the door to go for a training run, Kaydee started crying and begging to go with her.  I'm sure it never crossed my sister's mind that she might be starting a "my kids are tougher than your kids" competition when she agreed to let Kaydee go with her, and then called to tell my dad about how Kaydee stayed up with her for a whole mile, and then my dad called to pass the amazing news on to me.  I'm sure it never crossed her mind.

However, it did cross my mind today, when my 8 year old daughter started begging to go with Mattie and me as we were headed out the door.  If my sister's 4 year old can do it, then my 8-year-old-catcher-for-her-softball-team, sure as heck ought to be able to....

This time we went out to a tiny little lake in town called Sunset Lake that has a paved path around it maintained by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.  According to the spray-painted markings of another runner, I'm estimating that it's about 1 mile around.  We went around 2 and a half times - there's a bridge over the lake which makes the 1/2 possible - and Jenna hung with us the whole time.  So there.

Mattie was really grouchy today.  I think she was irritated that her sister was crowding in on her time with Mom.  And then she was a little threatened by how well Jenna was staying up with us.  To top it all off, on our first time around the lake, Mattie stepped on a dead fish that was laying on the path.  It squished under her foot.  She was really grossed out.  Jenna and I thought it was hysterically funny.