Carving Pumpkins!

Since we are in the midst of the busiest fall of our family's career, we did not have a single evening this past week when we had the time to gather around the kitchen table to carve pumpkins.  So, although it made for a later evening, we headed home after our ward's trunk-or-treat last night to work on our pumpkins.  We opted to not buy one this year for Ron to expedite the process of helping the younger kids with their carving.  So, although Lia painted a darling candy corn pumpkin herself, Ron helped Ella carve her pumpkin while I carved Emmett's and my pumpkin and helped Logan with his.  When all was said and done, we had a unique line up of pumpkins to put out on the porch for Halloween.  I just love these little family traditions that we get to do every year!

Emmett helping me scoop out the guts of his pumpkin.

A proud Emmett showing off his finished product before he ended up covering it in multiple colors of paint!

Logan working on cleaning out his pumpkin.

Daddy helping Ella with her creation.

Lia getting ready to pain her pumpkin.

Lia's XC League & District Meets

I have been so impressed with Lia as she has made it through the busiest two months of her life as she has had to juggle early-morning seminary, school, XC practice 5 or 6 days a week, and play practice 3 to 4 days a week on top of completing her homework every day.  Although she has been able to keep up with this grueling schedule and also has been able to maintain straight As, it has definitely started to take its toll on her.  Lia is absolutely exhausted and, although she can sleep in on the weekends and has even started taking a Saturday or Sunday afternoon nap, her running is starting to be impacted which isn't the best timing as the post-season began on October 22nd with the League meet and continued on October 29th with the District meet.  Both of these meets were very large and exciting to run at, but unfortunately, Lia wasn't able to perform like she had hoped.  Since she has been able to PR at every single meet this season, Lia had hoped to be able to continue this pattern at both of these meets.  Although the rain held off until after her race, she ran her 5K in the exact same time (down to the second) at the League XC meet at Ft. Steilacoom Park in Lakewood on the 22nd.  Although her time was not worse than her PR, she was pretty disappointed with her performance and asked us to immediately take her to play practice 20 minutes early since she didn't feel like doing her cool-down run with the rest of her teammates.

After another hard week of training with her team this past week, Lia headed off today to the big District meet at the beautiful Chambers Bay park right on the Puget Sound with high hopes for getting a new PR.  However, all of these weeks of burning the candle at both ends finally caught up with her as she suddenly and unexplainably started crying after starting her race.  So the poor girl had to run the majority of her 5K with tears streaming down her face.  As a result, this total emotional release slowed her pace down by 40 seconds which was slower than Lia's first 5k time back in September and was totally devastating to her.  She disappointed herself, her teammates, and her coach.  So, needless to say, Lia's first experience running at Districts was not the positive one she hoped for.

So after some long pep talks this week from us, we are hoping that Lia can turn it around and finish strong this coming weekend at the State Championship Meet in Pasco.  Although we are leaving the three younger kids behind with my brother's family, Ron and I are driving the 3.5 hours each way to cheer her on.  I hope and pray that Lia can run well this weekend and be proud of her performance so that she can finish the season on a positive note and give herself the confidence that she needs to start off her track season in a few months.  Time will only tell...  

October 22nd:

League Meet at Ft. Steilacoom Park

Lia and the rest of the girls at the start of the race.

Lia running by us right after beginning her run.

Lia running after her teammate, Kiley, at the one place where we were able to see her run between the start and finish point of the race.

Another shot of Lia as she ran by us half way through the 5K.

Lia running towards the finish line.

Lia approaching the finish line.

October 29th:

Districts Meet at Chambers Bay in University Place

Lia's coach leading the girls' Varsity team in a cheer minutes before the race started.

The girls waiting at the starting point for the race to begin.

Lia running by us at one of three points we were able to see her between the start and the end of the race.

Lia running by us another time.

Lia running towards the finish line.

Lia approaching the end of the race.

The girls team with their four XC coaches after learning that they qualified for state.

A pretty sad Lia posing with Emmett at the end of her race.

Disney on Ice 2022

In keeping up with tradition, I bought tickets a few months ago to take Ella and Logan to see the current show of Disney on Ice that skated through our area this weekend.  Although I knew that Emmett would absolutely love going to this show, I just didn't know if he would last the full two hours, so I opted to hold off for one more year before bringing him along.  So, while Lia was at play practice, Ron was supervising a football game, and Emmett was being watched by the neighbors, the two "middles" and I spent a glorious evening watching this year's show titled, "Road Trip Adventures," together.  Although Logan is a 10-year old boy, I just love that he still enjoys watching this show as much as Ella and I do.  We had so much fun watching the skaters flit around the rink while performing to songs from several of our favorite, Disney movies.  I am so grateful that I still have kiddos young enough who are willing and excited to go see this show with me!

Ella and Logan standing in front of one of the many booths bursting with overpriced, Disney paraphernalia!

My kids and I standing next to a giant tower of cotton candy!

Heading into the arena!

Logan and Ella somehow convinced me to pay a ridiculous amount of money for one bag of popcorn and one snow cone.  Here they are enjoying their treats before the performers came out on the ice.

The kids and I waiting for the show to begin.

Moana skating with her tribe.

Elsa "letting it go" with two snowflake acrobats twirling from the ceiling.

Timon, Rafiki, and Pumbaa.

Jasmine dangling from the ceiling while holding Aladdin's hands.

The Toy Story gang cruising around in Mickey's road trip van. 

Bearded Baby

Ron and Emmett were sitting at the kitchen table today eating some snacks while having a little conversation.  Out of the blue, Emmett asked Ron, "Were you ever a baby," to which Ron replied, "A long time ago."  After thinking it over and trying to picture his dad as a baby, Emmett then said, "Ahhhh.  Did you have a cute, little baby beard?"  Can you even begin to imagine Ron as a little baby with the massive beard that he has been sporting these days?!  It's enough to make you laugh yourself silly.  Oh that Emmett.  He is just saying the cutest thing these days!

Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Since we are in the midst of the busiest fall of our family's career with two soccer games and one play practice and sometimes a XC meet every Saturday, I realized the other day that a family trip to the pumpkin patch over the weekend was not going to happen before Halloween.  As a result, I started looking at Friday afternoons and decided that today would be the best day to go although it meant that Lia would miss due to XC practice and Ron would miss due to being too early in the afternoon.  I was surprised to learn that Lia was disappointed about not going since she said that this is one of her favorite, autumn traditions, but we really had no other option and she sadly had to miss going with us.  I picked the kids up 30 minutes early from school to try to beat the mad, Friday afternoon rush at the pumpkin patch, but apparently that didn't really work as the place was packed.  However, we were still able to get a decent parking spot and the three little kids and I enjoyed spending the next 1.5 hours wandering around Spooner Farms which we haven't been to for the past two years due to trying out another farm (that now charges for entry) in Sumner.  Since we are in the midst of the longest dry spell that I can ever remember as it really has not rained at all since July, we enjoyed a beautiful, autumn day walking around Spooners and would have had a stunning view of Mt. Rainier had it not been covered in a haze from the endless forest fires that are still burning due to the lack of rain.  Here are some pictures of our little outing this afternoon...

Our annual, family picture in the "pumpkin house" minus Lia and Ron for the first time ever.  Sniff.

Logan, Ella, and Emmett posing in the picture cut out.

The kids sitting on pumpkins with Mt. Rainier barely visible in the background due to being covered by smoke.

Logan helping Emmett with the duck races.

Ella pumping away.

How tall this fall?

The three kids in a giant, yellow chair.

Emmett sitting on a massive pumpkin between Logan and Ella.

Ella trying on one of the many beautiful, witch hats in the gift shop.

My two little pumpkins.

Emmett, such a cutie!

Hole in the Wall XC Meet

Ever since Lia's high school cross country season officially began on August 22nd, she has never missed a practice.  She has ran with her team five or six days a week (depending on whether or not there is a Saturday invitational meet) and has given it her all.  She seriously runs 15 to 25 miles a week and has continued to improve.  We found out from her coach after the first two meets that Lia had qualified to run on the varsity team.  We were all so blown away by this as only the top seven girl and guy runners qualify for varsity.  Although the majority of the team is older than Lia, there are only four girls that consistently run faster than her each week at the meets.  There is another 9th grader who runs neck in neck with Lia and sometimes runs a little bit faster or a little bit slower than her depending on the week.  So, Lia is either the 5th or 6th fastest girl on her team which has been such an accomplishment and a testament to how hard she has trained over the summer since finishing her track season early last June. 

However, Lia's XC journey this year has not been without some bumps along the way.  After discovering the wonderful children's theater in our town last June, we signed up Lia to audition for the fall musical production that takes place almost at the exact same time.  The first practice was the evening before the first day of school and the performances are the weekend after her state XC championship meet.  Since we thought that the high school cross country schedule would be similar to her junior high schedule from last year, we naively thought that she would be able to participate in these two activities simultaneously without any conflicts.  However, we quickly found out that this would not be the case as several meets are on Saturdays when Lia has play practice.  As a result, I had to make some very difficult phone calls two weeks in a row to Lia's director to beg for permission for Lia to miss practices for four regular-season meets and then to miss two crucial dress rehearsals for post-season meets when we found out that Lia made varsity.  This is due to the fact that her coach absolutely refused to let Lia run on the varsity team unless she could commit to these post-season meets which also was a very difficult conversation to have.  Needless to say, I seriously lost several good nights' sleep tossing and turning over these unexpected turn of events.  

In addition, Lia has been suffering from hip pain in both of her hips ever since she started running long distances with the high school team at the end of the summer.  Although she was managing the pain on a daily basis with ice and Motrin the first few weeks of the season, it really blew up two days before the Portland invitational.  Lia was so excited to run in this race as it is the largest, high school cross country invitational on the entire West Coast. She was absolutely devastated when we made the difficult decision at 8:45 the night before that she should stay home and rest and ice her hips all weekend long instead of competing due to the fact that it hurt her hips to even walk around our house that evening.  So, needless to say, her coach was not thrilled about her last minute cancellation.  

So, ups and downs set aside, I am happy to report that Lia's hips are doing a little bit better.  We miraculously got in to see a brand new sports medicine doctor at our children's clinic a week later who diagnosed Lia with a weak hip muscle (called the Tensor Fasciae Latae) and an extremely tight IT band.  He gave her a lengthy set of stretches to do nightly and will send her to physical therapy after her busy XC and play season ends next month.  Lia is managing to nurse her hips along in the mean time and has even PR'd at both of the meets that she has run in since she had to cancel on the Portland invitational.  In addition, Lia is being a champ about juggling seminary, school, cross country, play practice, and homework.  She is getting straight As right now and is gone on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. and then still has to do homework when she gets home.  I don't know how she is juggling it all, but I am super proud of her!  And, I am happy to report that we have learned our lesson and Lia will never juggle participating in a play while running in a sport.  So as long as Lia can survive until the middle of November, she will hopefully never have a season this busy again during her high school career!

So with all of that said, here are some fun pictures from Lia's big adventure today.  Although she missed the largest XC invitational on the West Coast, she was able to compete in the largest one in Washington state.  It is hosted annually in a town called Arlington about two hours north of us and is called "Hole in the Wall" as the runners actually run through a hole in the wall (see photo below).  Only the varsity runners from her team were allowed to compete and so the kids had a great time driving up there in tiny vans instead of a large bus.  Lia had so much fun and was gone from 9:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.  She ran her 5k in 22:47 and shaved 14 seconds off of her time and her hips didn't even hurt!  I am so grateful that Lia was able to go and have this experience and even came home with a t-shirt to prove it!

Lia with a bunch of the girls on her team riding up to the meet in one of the district vans.

Lia's good friend, Erika, taking a silly picture of Lia and her other close friend, Hope.

A bunch of the girls hanging out before the race.

Erika, Lia, Hope, and Janae.

The varsity girls team posing on the actual hole in the wall that all of the kids got to run through during the 5k race.

Some of the girls posing inside a giant picture frame.

A close up of the girls.

Logan Loses a Top Canine!

This will probably be the last time I write a Logan-has-lost-a-tooth post since he seems to be losing all interest and excitement that he used to have whenever he lost a tooth.  In fact, he didn't even mention finding money and a note from his tooth fairies the next day until I remembered to ask him.  However, I just couldn't resist including this post in our blog since it proved to our family that not everyone is going to be struck with the 'impacted canine curse' that unfortunately landed in Lia's lap (or should I say mouth).  Logan pointed out to me several weeks ago that one of his top canine teeth was lose, but since my life is nothing but a busy blur of motherhood these days, I totally forgot about it...until he came home from school today with his tooth in a sandwich bag!  Apparently, Logan's tooth had gotten so lose that he could twist it 180 degrees.  He was twisting it in class today while listening to his teacher and twisted it right out of his mouth.  Since Logan has grown to hate any sort of attention, he quietly opened up his backpack and took his lunch bag out.  He then pulled out his sandwich and placed his tooth inside the zip lock bag and put it back in his lunch.  No one in class had any idea that this had even happened!  What a silly kid.  Logan didn't tell a soul about losing his tooth today until he walked through the door after school.  And although there was zero celebrating at school, there was much hooping and hollering by his family members (well, mainly me) when we found out that one of Logan's top canine teeth had actually come out on its own without surgery and chains pulling it down!  Oh poor Lia...