Rainy day at the races

Before the race, he was so nervous, it was terribly cute.

The kid next to him had pushed him down earlier and he got back up and caught up to him.  Go Damon.

He ended up finishing 7th and he was crying by the time we got to him at the finish line.  He was upset because he thought he could have done better if he wasn't pushed.  His buddy and hockey teammate came in first and another friend was 4th!  After he thought about it more, he was pretty proud of himself and his friends.

It was so cute though, when his friend came out of the finish line (like a queue), with the utmost admiration, he says to us, "Now I am like PATRICK." Later I overheard him telling a group of admirers how he followed the leader until the homestretch "just like Patrick". Patrick is the stuff of legends at our school.

Here is Patrick shortly after the start of the race.  He was about 12th, exactly where he wants to be at this point.  Remember he just moved up to this grade 5/6 age group.  So he is one of the younger kids.


Now he is about 300 metres from the end of the race.  He just finished passing the boy in the red who had the lead before the bridge.


The boy in red is trying to pass him.


He manages to hang onto his lead for now, but right before the finish line the boy catches him and won it by a hair.  Patrick isn't disappointed though.  They shook hands and congratulated each other.

We are so proud of both of our runners!  Didn't they do an awesome job!?

Testy

I'm trying to do a cross country update, but I can't focus on uploading pics.

I am waiting for the nurse to get here to take blood for a FASTING bloodtest for our new life insurance policy. I said FASTING! It was a last minute appointment and when I called her we hadn't eaten yet, just snacked at the meet. So she said no food until after she took our blood. NO FOOD and we hadn't even had lunch. I'm not doing so good with that.

Test me kids, I DARE you!

Oh yeah and my husband bought me a new minivan. A Ford Freestar Limited. Leather interior, dvd package, and so on. Fully loaded. I get it on Friday. Cool, but kind of weird. We're standing at the meet and he says, "oh yeah I want to go visit Coach Kevin at the Ford dealership after the meet." He called me to ask if it was okay to buy it. I told him I don't really care, as long as it has 4 wheels, 7 seats, gets me there all the time and I don't have to hear whining about how much the payments are. I'll be grateful by the time we pick it up.

Today is Patrick and Damon's semi-annual cross country meet. I'm excited for them, but a bit nervous.

Last year, Patrick finished second in the fall and first in the spring (despite being up all the night before with stomach flu), so he has a certain expectation of himself. But this year he moves up to the next age category where he will race against boys a year older than him (and since he was born in November, some of the boys will be almost 2 years older than him). He is smart enough to know that if he doesn't do as well it isn't anything to be ashamed of, but he i still driven to try to win.

Damon came in 164th and then 31st, so this guy is moving up in the ranks as he gets more focused. This year he will be one of the oldest kids running. Last fall he had no clue what he was there for. He was more interested in the sights along the race route. In the spring, he was much more competitive and he was so proud of Patrick after his win that now he wants to be like Patrick.

Fall fun

Last Friday, I took Campbell and Kira on a big walk in the woods with our friends Sean and Reiko.  At the end of the walk our wagons and strollers were full of autumn leaves, teasels, dried grasses and other fall goodies for our Thanksgiving decorating.  We stopped at the park where our very tired kids got a second wind.

Here is Campbell at the fall fair.


The weather here has been fantastic, but finally this past weekend, the temperatures have dropped and we are into real fall-like weather. *sigh*