two tickets to the gun show

This little dude right here cracks.me.up.  Griffin belongs to my brother (if you can't tell!) and is his little spitting image.  Today was his 3rd triathlon.  We couldn't make it to the first two, so I was uber excited to see him today!  When we got there, he was walking around showing his "guns".  Again, my brother's son.  He would kiss them and call them by name.  I think he called them Poe and Tigress, from Kung Fu Panda.  My brother proclaimed that he had "two tickets to the gun show"! Ha.   

These boys are the best of buddies.  Levi loved being there with him today.

And, of course, Maggie followed Emmy around like a little puppy dog. ;)

My dad was having some fun with the boys by flipping their chair backwards and making them squeal like little girls. Ha!

Okay, one self portrait and then it was time to get serious because Griffin's age group was up!

SERIOUSLY, is this not the cutest thing ever?  Look at these little kiddos waiting in line to jump in the pool and take off.  Now, this was a little different than waiting for Travis to take off for the Ironman.  I don't think anyone in Travis' line was trying to flip up the lawn chairs with their feet or pinch someone to make them giggle. ;)

I did think it was pretty neat to watch my brother.  I think he gets just as excited for Griffin as we were for him during the Ironman.  He was a proud papa waiting for Griffin's name to be called.  Then he took off, following him to each transition, cheering him the whole way.  Precious.

And, these two little cousins couldn't help but cheer, too!

His name was called and he took off like a champ.  Really...give this child a steak and baked potato or something.

Next up was the bike.  He looks so little on that bike but he did great!

As we were waiting on him to come through on the second bike lap, I really thought my brother and dad were going to go look for him!  We just kept waiting and waiting...

All this swimming and biking was making Levi hungry. ;)

Finally, it was time to run.  I took off a little bit to see if I could spot Griffin coming and I saw my brother, running along side him on the sidewalk.  I got a little teary eyed.  He was there by him the whole way to the finish line encouraging him to keep going strong.  {Travis is in the yellow shirt and little man G is in the white shirt on the street.}

Way to go, little man!!!  Way to go!  We were so proud of you.