Fully Amused

We finally went to Elitch Gardens for the first time. We've lived here for 8 years and people are always shocked when we say we haven't been. It's an amusement park with lots of smaller rides and a few larger roller coasters. Elena actually has been there once or twice with friends or a school group, but not the rest of us.

Landis actually doesn't remember EVER riding a roller coaster, so this was a big deal for him.

Speaking of big deals...I really love a big deal.

And every year Elitch's holds a ticket sale for one week at the beginning of July. Tickets are over half off and you can use them at any time the rest of the season. We decided that this was finally the year to go and I happily bought tickets.

But life was busy. Really, really busy. And we couldn't find a time for all of us to go!

Two months later we decided to go on Labor Day....but then someone woke up extremely sick and we needed to stay home. Which was probably okay because it would have been very crowded and also miserably hot.

Four months after purchasing the tickets we finally found a Sunday afternoon. A cold and possibly rainy afternoon.  But it was also the final day of the regular season and so it was now or never!

To quote Plucky from Tiny Toons, "I'm gonna go on every ride until I barf twice!"

Thankfully no barfing, but Shaun did sit out a few of the more spinny rides. ;)  He said the biggest problem was that there weren't enough people and so all the lines were short and there weren't any built-in breaks between the rides!  The rest of us didn't mind -- we pretty much just went nonstop for 4 hours.

To introduce Landis to the amusement park, we took him on the biggest ride first. Ha!  Thankfully he was a fan so it all worked out okay. 

And then the sun disappeared behind clouds...and the rain came...and we nearly froze. We decided to call it a day and go find a restaurant with hot food. Headed home, curled up in blankets, watched a movie, and decreed that it was a very good day indeed.

Colorado State Cross Country 2024

Elena and Greta were so excited and proud to help their team qualify for the State XC championships this year. There weren't any expectations for them to place at State, but simply qualifying is a huge achievement!  And this way there wasn't a lot of pressure on their shoulders -- just the desire to do well for themselves.

And, as one parent put it, getting to go to State is like a big party to reward them for all their hard work during the season. ;)

We're so thankful for this great group of girls as well as the coaches and entire team. It's a lot of hard work, but such a positive experience for our girls.

The State meet was in Colorado Springs on a cold but gorgeous day.

It's a notoriously tough course.  After the race I heard a random girl say, "I know it's State and all, but I hope I NEVER have to run that course again!"

It was especially bittersweet this year as it's Elena's last season with the high school. The past two years she was the alternate for the team going to State and she really, really wanted to make it as a main runner this year. Not only was she an important part in helping the team qualify, but she ended the season as their third fastest.  So proud of her for sticking with it!

It was fun to watch Greta consistently improve her race times this year. It'll be exciting to see how to she continues to grow next year!

Sisters!

After the race I asked Landis if it had been worth the 2-hour drive. He quite bluntly replied, "No."  Ha, such brotherly love. I think he secretly enjoyed it though. At least a little bit?

The girls team is quite large and they traditionally have two captains which are chosen by the returning members of the team. Elena was honored to be selected and did a great job this year with her captain duties. Lots of encouragement to the new kids, needing to "be the adult" at times keeping everyone on their best behavior, weekly prizes to acknowledge hard workers, coordinating bonding events for the girls, etc.

At the beginning of the season they planned a party for all the girls to get to know each other. At this party they each made a personal container of glitter gel. During the season the girls would use it in their hair or on their skin to amp up the school spirit.

 I'm sad that the XC season is over....but I definitely won't miss finding orange and silver glitter all over my house every weekend!!!

Halloween

The kids are old enough that they didn't really think about Halloween and costumes much in advance.

However, they still enjoy dressing up and hanging out with friends (and getting candy).

Elena and her friend had The Best costume ever -- Bob Ross and one of his masterpieces!

Landis pulled out his trusty bacon costume and attended a party hosted by one of his friends. The boys also had fun trick-or-treating. One of their favorite houses possibly belonged to an elderly couple who was cleaning out their pantry; alongside a small bowl of candy, kids could instead choose other food items. Two of his friends picked tomato soup, Landis got a bag of expired dried fruit, and several chose little jars of herbs/spices. 😂

Greta and her friend went trick-or-treating just for a bit (wearing some warm onesies from our stash) and then delivered candy to their friend who has a concussion and wasn't allowed to be outside.

Thanks to Archie freaking out every time the doorbell would ring, I chose to sit on the front porch for an hour or two. Shaun made a fire for me and I wrapped up in my blanket and just relaxed and handed out candy.

No costume for Archie -- we didn't think he'd approve. But he did enjoy stealing my smoky blanket once I came in for the night.  For such a manly dog, he often seems to end up looking a bit girly. :)

Fall Life

The past two weeks brought us:

- More cross country races for the girls. These pics were taken after a race where both girls improved their 5k times yet again!  (Greta was very elusive and I only got one picture of her in the background.)

- The fall colors were starting to make their appearance!

- Greta and a friend painted some pumpkins -- they're Sully and Mike Wazowski from the Monsters, Inc movies. :)

- Elena carved a pumpkin featuring the dog Frankenweenie.

- Shaun and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary!  We went out for some Indian cuisine the night before because on our actual anniversary we had soccer games to attend, kids to drive around for band and robotics practices, and then a houseful of Greta's friends who were convinced that they could watch the 3 original Star Wars movies in just 6 hours. (They didn't quite make it!) We fed them Shaun's homemade pizza and at the end of the movies some of the girls stayed for the night. I think the boys were hoping to convert some of the girls into Star Wars fans. I don't think they succeeded, lol!

- Archie got a bath which he absolutely loves!

- Our high and middle schools had a joint band concert. Landis played with the 7th graders...

...and then Greta came in with the marching band. The only problem was that a tuba stopped right in front of me and blocked Greta from my view!  I held my camera way out to the side and snapped a picture of her playing flute down in the front. :)

- We hosted the final Pasta Party for the high school cross country team. Throughout the season families take turns feeding the kids the night before a meet. 23 kids showed up and they quickly polished off about 5 pounds of pasta and a whole counter-full of desserts!  (The kids help bring sides and desserts -- usually lots of veggies, fruit, and breads, but for some reason they all brought desserts this week!)

- The cross country Regionals race was held on a very, very windy day. The kids may have had a fast first mile thanks to the wind pushing them, but then the final mile+ they had to try running directly into it. Definitely no new records set!  But both the girls' and the boys' teams qualified to run at the State Championship next week!!!

 - Landis had his final soccer game.  It was a strange season -- it felt like every game they either won or lost by about 8 points -- the skill level among the teams in the league didn't feel very consistent or even.

- Greta played with the marching band in another parade.  It's the 4th one of the season (although she actually missed the 3rd one since she had to run a race at the same time).  It was a Halloween parade, if you can't tell. 😏

Greta is dressed as Winnie the Pooh

More Music

This week Elena played with her school orchestra in their Masquerade Concert.  I always have to point out that it's the "masquerade" one because how else would you explain the strange costumes? ;)

And Greta performed with the marching band in the big District Band Night. All of the marching bands from the district perform and it's really fun to watch.

It's hard to see Greta, but she's playing the flute...and she's the one breaking into laughter below because her sister and some friends were sitting right in front (see above) cheering and yelling to her!

At the end of the night, all the bands join together and do one final song. It was incredibly loud, ha!

Hand on Head

 These two.

They're best friends and they're silly.

This year at homecoming they tried to recreate a picture from last year.

Pretty sure they'll need to make this a yearly thing from now on!

A very busy Saturday

This past Saturday was full. Very, very full.

It was our home cross country meet, the Mead Stampede. We were happy that it was so close to home! Shaun volunteered the whole day helping direct runners and keep spectators off the course.  I took photos to share with the teams, ran back and forth across the course, ran home to pick up Landis before his race (he was still asleep when the rest of us left in the morning), and burnt my nose because really who remembers to wear sunscreen in October?!?

I was so happy to see that the senior banners were hanging at the stadium!

We jokingly refer to our course as "The Cornfield Meet."  I was talking with a young athlete from Denver and she totally agreed with me. 😂

Elena had a great race and set a big PR!

Greta had a really strong race as well and set a small PR (hard to beat the big PR she set last week!).

After taking a small break to reset the course from a 5k to 2 miles, Landis and the middle schoolers also raced. His hair is glorious in full motion!

A conversation after the race --

Landis: I hate running.

Joy: So don't sign up next year.

Landis: Of course I'm going to sign up next year!

He really is in it because of the good friends (and snacks, ha!). The boys below are all on a Robotics team together, including one other boy who also runs but we couldn't track down for the photo.  I'm glad he enjoys Cross Country....even if he hates running...

The girls also have such great relationships on their team too.

And then once we got home from the meet, we had less than an hour for the kids to eat and get cleaned up and ready to head back out the door.

Our elementary school hosts a big Harvest Festival every fall and one of the features is musical entertainment by all the middle and high school groups. Bands, orchestras, choirs, cheerleaders, etc.

Thankfully Landis and Greta's groups were back to back, but then there was a break before we had to head back for Elena's group.

Oh, and we can't forget that Landis technically had a soccer game today as well right in the middle of everything. Over an hour away in Denver.  We went back and forth so many times trying to figure out his schedule for the day -- which of the 3 events he could/should do -- how best to be a team player for all his groups but not run ourselves ragged. It was a hard decision but finally decided that skipping soccer for the day and fully committing to the other two events was probably the best decision. Plus that way I didn't have to miss the girls' activities.

By car trip count we made 4 round trips to the high school and 4 round trips to the elementary school. Thank goodness we live fairly close!

And then we all went to bed by 9:00. No lie. We were exhausted!