It was time again for soccer team pictures. We have the BEST photographer who does an amazing job and is so patient with the crazy girls on the team. This year we went to Tonaquint Park and they posed on the bridge.
We got there and, while the girls were having individual pictures taken, the ones who were finished played in the leaves. They had a blast throwing them and making a heap to jump into.
What a cute bunch of girls!
Playing in the leaves.
Courtney is starting to do the "Calvin and Hobbes" thing now. Ugh!! She makes faces all the time!
When the pictures were finished the girls wanted to throw leaves and have the photographer take their pictures. She was so nice that she did it!
There was an awards assembly for the Geckathon participants. It wasn't a huge deal but it was fun to see all the kids who participated. They gave them a beautiful certificate and then their shirt.
Bryan bought some gift cards to a car wash across town. I dropped Courtney off at soccer practice and then went to wash the van. It was one where you could wash it yourself with the bubble wand and sprayer, or you could go touch less and drive through.
I decided to wash the van myself since it was so dirty! The bubbles in the bubble wand were pink and smelled like bubble gum. I thought it was cute until I finished and I had pink stained hands and pink all over my white sweater!
Luckily, it was just soap so it washed out of my sweater but my hands were pink for a while. Next time I will use the touch less wash. ;)
When we arrived home, Courtney decided it was time to start decorating for Christmas. So we started getting the boxes out. I moved the living room furniture around so we could try the tree in a new location. Bryan put up the tree and got the lights hooked up and then I spent a couple of days getting everything else out and ready to put up. The kids lost steam and didn't do too much but it ended up looking festive.
We woke up really early on Wednesday (23rd) and drove to Denver. The roads were great and we didn't have any problems.
Here is what we saw when the sun came up:
Thanksgiving morning we went bowling. This is tradition and so much fun. We were shocked when we got there because usually there is a line but there wasn't this year. It did get busy when we were leaving.
This was Ethan's typical "waiting for the ball to hit something" pose:
I actually did pretty well!
Courtney had so much fun with her little cousins.
Dinner was wonderful and we sat around playing games, watching movies and watching football. It was a great holiday!
On Friday, we went to the movie "Magical Creatures..." It was a good movie and we had a lot of fun watching it.
On Saturday, we went on a hike. The view was beautiful and it was great to be out. Courtney loved helping Clara.
Ethan on his perch...
On Friday night we noticed that the weather was going to be really bad on Sunday for our planned drive home. After watching it for a couple of days we decided it would be best if we left on Saturday afternoon instead. We were bummed but it turned out to be a great decision. Our van wasn't prepared for the bad weather and Sunday was pretty bad in some areas. We arrived home around 11 p.m. on Saturday.
It was a fun holiday and we loved seeing everyone!
Every year, Lava Ridge Intermediate does their own Geckathon. It's a triathlon the kids participate in and look forward to. They only allow 40 girls and 40 boys to compete and you need to have parent permission and teacher permission. The school gives the interested kids forms that they have to get their parents to sign and their teachers to sign. The first 40 girls and the first 40 boys were allowed to compete. Courtney was so anxious that she went to school early the next day to get all the teacher signatures. I think her paper was the 2nd one handed in.
Bryan has taken her to the pool and had her bike and run a time or two to let her practice. She felt she was ready to go but...she was pretty nervous this morning. It was a 300 meter swim, about 3 mile bike ride (a little less) and a 2 mile run.
This was Courtney's face before the swim began at the SHAC:
Yup, she was nervous. I think it was all so new to her (she has participated in triathlons before but not one for the school and at these distances) and things were really well marked, so she wasn't sure what was going on.
But she started her swim and did great. They had 5 girls in her lane at once and they all started at the same time...kind of. The teacher in charge asked "Is everyone ready?" and they started swimming. He gave up and just let them go. Courtney started at the back but passed a couple of girls and was number 4 out of the pool.
Here is her swim (it's over 6 minutes long, so you don't have to watch the entire thing unless you want to). Courtney is in a bright pink swim suit and a green swim cap (but I guess you already knew that from the previous photo):
Her transition was kind of slow. They had everyone go into the changing room and I think she got distracted talking with some of the other girls. But she came out and got on the bike. She used my road bike so it was lighter and easier to ride for her.
She took a bit longer than we anticipated she would but she finished the bike in 6th or 7th place.
Courtney handed her bike off and started running. She did great on her first lap but got a bit of a side ache on the second lap.
She finished strong and with a time of approximately 51:43. We aren't sure how she placed. We think it was 6th or 7th. And we know that at least 3 of the girls ahead of her were 7th graders.
Here is her finish:
Courtney was happy to be finished:
I am so glad she wanted to do the Geckathon. A bunch of her friends told her they want to do it with her next year. What a great motivator she is!
