"The air smelled so clean that breathing deep felt like medicine." --Kathryn Nicolai, Nothing Much Happens.
My running shadow, cast upon a mowed mint field, with golden corn tassels in the background and grapes to the far right.
Here's an album of the end of September and the first few days of October:
Hello, horizon! We haven't been able to see Mt. Adams in weeks, thanks to the smoke from the Schneider Springs Fire 50-60 miles to the northwest. We had some rain in the third week of September that seems to have ended the smoke problem at last.
Family game night (aka family home evening): guess the nose--a family favorite. Everyone draws part of a face on a person's back, and the person has to guess who drew the nose. It inspires squeals, strategy, and laughs every time.
Amber always wants to play in her pajamas instead of getting ready for school in the morning. She was quite proud of the design she made with the pattern blocks.
We watched stake conference via Zoom (my favorite innovation of this entire pandemic) last Sunday. During cross country season, Sundays are our only days to stay home, so Zoom-ing stake conference was just what we needed.
The girls built a fort and did artwork during stake conference.
GRAPES! They aren't ours; I stopped and took a picture of this gorgeous dusky purple cluster during a run last week. The sweet scent of sun-warmed grapes is my favorite perfume.
Apples! I snapped this picture during the same run.
Last Monday, it was all warm and sunny in the morning and then dark clouds rolled in and it dropped down into the 50s and started pouring rain. Pouring rain is unusual in Sunnyside before November.
I hung our fall garland last week. It adds such a nice fiery cheer to our dark family room.
Our cross country team is so fun. They were doing a clapping hand rhythm game as a group before our hill workout in the park the other day, and it made me smile.
My cute masked Amby, hugging me on her way outside to catch the school bus.
I am still following along with the cross country team's training plan in hopes of chasing down a sub-20 minute 5k. Usually that means doing the workouts before practice, since I need to help with timing and coaching while the team does the workouts. After doing a solo hill workout on Wednesday morning, I tossed a jacket and a skirt over my running clothes and went to the grocery store. My compression knee socks were a nice touch to the hasty sweaty outfit. I was shopping blind, because my glasses were at home (my sunglasses are prescription). I thought I saw a guy from our ward at the store, but I wasn't 100% sure (what with my fuzzy glasses-less vision and the fact that he was wearing a mask). I said hi anyways and then walked away awkwardly in my awesome sweaty skirt and knee socked glory. I wasn't as embarrassed about my outfit as I was about my awkwardness of not being sure if the guy was who I thought he was. Plus, I don't know him very well anyways so that did not help my comfort levels. I am proud of my weird socks, but not my grocery store greetings.
Speaking of food, I cancelled our meal service subscription to Hungryroot after our second order came. It was just too expensive and the foods were better fresh cooked than reheated, which didn't work for us in our cross country season busy-ness. But the food was rather pretty and definitely not what I normally cook. This was my first time cooking salmon!
We welcomed donut month (October) with a trip to Pepe's Bakery on Friday afternoon. Pepe's has really upped their donut game over the past year. These massive fried confections were absolutely divine!
Saturday morning, October 2nd: we left home before sunrise to go to a cross country meet on the ski hill in scenic Leavenworth, WA.
I packed a donut in my bag and it got more squished than I thought possible. FYI, smashed donuts still taste good.
Rose ran the 1.1 mile 6th grade race as a 5th grader.
The classic Leavenworth uphill finish!
Jay ran the super hilly 1.4 mile 7th-8th grade boys race in 9:21. He finished 5th on his cross country team--a scoring member of the team!
Jay, finishing on the uphill, with Grama Leslie (in blue) and cousins Tate and Cole cheering him on.
The sun came out for the high school races. When this varsity boys' race began, they were a thundering herd, attacking the big hill and kicking up a big billowing cloud of smoke. It was great!
The entire course was on packed dirt roads through the lovely ponderosa pine forest. Jeff and I enjoyed lots of jogging and sprinting around on these paths while watching each race. This is the prettiest course we run all season. It's not at a city park or school campus, so it's a taste of the wild.
While coaching 6 races, I ran 5 miles total and Jeff ran 8 miles. Our voices were hoarse after all of that cheering and encouraging.
Amber and Rose shared a very bulging backpack.
It was another long 2.5 hour bus ride, but the bus didn't break down!
We may have a lot of catching up to do with the Saturday sessions of General Conference that we missed while at the cross country meet, but we watched the Sunday ones! Rose and Amber always build a fort and do my hair during conference.
The fort!
Grampa Dan always makes homemade waffles during General Conference. (Jay enjoyed his waffle too, but I did not manage a picture of him or the full cousin table.)
Welcome, October.
1 comment:
I have never experienced the scent of sun warmed grapes.
Amber’s pattern block design skills are excellent.
I like your knee socks.
That squished donut!!!
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