Cross Country Season for Matt

Best friends, Matt and Anders had such a great Cross Country season.  Both of these boys sure love running.   Everyone on the team practices on Monday and Friday mornings before school from 7:45 – 8:30 by running about the field in front of the school.  It’s such a great program – even the parents join in.  Matt was always super anxious to get there on time so he could have the maximum possible laps recorded for the day.  He usually ended up running 3 – 4 miles every morning.

The first race was just for Chinook students.  Matt and Anders raced in the 2nd and 3rd grader section.  First place for Anders and Third place for Matt.  Love it!

Race #2 was a longer one and despite the path being a little confusing at the end, Matt did so great.   I think Matt ended up with 2nd or 3rd.

Matt had all the girls in the family as his personal cheerleaders for the D20 Stadium 3- school cross country race.   He sprinted to the end with such determination – coming in 4th – and then started crying because of how bad his throat hurt breathing in the freezing cold air.  Proud of how hard he tried and loved watching the girls encourage and support him. 

Matt and Ian : )

The last race was the Chinook Invitational.  So many runners from quite a few Elementary schools.  It’s on a Saturday morning and there’s always breakfast after the race for the runners.  Anders was out of town this weekend but he was adamant that his mom text me the night before to “tell Matt good luck on the race”.  I love that they are not competing against each other but area always cheering each other on.

Matthew ended up coming in 1st out of 190 2nd and 3rd graders.  What a way to end the season.  Great job Matt!

A few more pictures at home to end the season.

Katie–Seventeen

Cute Katie … Can NOT believe we’re taking SENIOR pictures for this year already.  Slow down SENIOR YEAR!

Luke and Matthew’s Room

Luke and Matt have shared this room with these bunk beds and this bedding for 4 years now.  Love this cute room.

Typical Grocery Shopping

I thought I’d take a picture of what a typical grocery shopping trip looks like these days.  I usually head to Costco and Great Harvest Bread on Monday’s after volunteering at School in the Woods.  Staples for us include Costco’s salsa and Organic chips, Sea Salt Chips, Mango Naked juice, Kodiak Pancake Mix, Salmon and lots of fruit and vegetables.  I can race around Costco pretty quick getting exactly what I need and then head to Great Harvest Bread picking up at least four loaves of whole wheat bread.  Love eating healthy.

October General Conference

Saturday started with two soccer games.  I took Luke down to El Pomar to his game while Katie and Megan simultaneously took Matt to his game.  Dad spent the day at work but was able to listen to Conference throughout the day.  After our morning soccer games we came back to watch the Saturday morning Conference and then after a short break, the Saturday afternoon Conference.  I made ‘Conference Cash’ earlier in the week so I set up a bunch of treats: packs of Smarties, Lindor chocolates, Yorks, boxes of Junior Mints or Nerds, and even a box of Lucky Charts.  (Items we don’t usually have around because of our focus on healthy eating.)  The kids were really excited.  For each talk that they listened to and took notes on, they received on Conference dollar.  It worked well.  Of course everyone is pretty engaged anyway – but it was just fun. 

Conference itself was wondeful.  So good to hear such great talks.  At 4:00 as soon as Conference was over I took Megan to her soccer game at the Pride field.  Dad met me there after work.  She played really well.  Back at home Dad listened to Priesthood Session while I made ham and cheese crepes and nutella, strawberry and cream crepes for dinner. 

Sunday Conference was great today as well.  Elder Hales passed away between sessions.  Matt was quite upset about that and kept saying “He died today? On the day of General Conference?”  He then drew a sad face on his notepaper by Elder Hales name.  In between sessions we went over to the Pattersons with the Seaquists to eat brunch.  Fun to be together.  After the afternoon session I finished up a service project I’ve been doing to make English flashcards for the Refugees who are here in Colorado who need to learn English.  It’s been a good project.  We played Settlers and ate more crepes.  A great day.