Five for Five

 Last week we had a combined five track meets in five days:

1. Monday, May 2nd was our home middle school track meet, with over 200 kids from five schools participating. Jeff hosted set up, and timed the meet. I was his assistant clerk at the timing table by the finish line. Jay ran the 1600 and the 400 in the meet, and Rose and Amber played on the infield for four hours during the meet. We were all so tired when it was over!
2. Tuesday, May 3rd was a high school JV meet. As the head coach, Jeff did not have to attend this meet, but he did have to prep all of the gear and paperwork, etc. that the JV kids needed for the meet. (The eight track coaches divide up who goes to each JV meet, and it wasn't Jeff's turn this time).
3. Thursday, May 5th was a high school league meet in Wenatchee (2 hours 20 minutes from home). Jeff got home after 10pm.
4. Friday, May 6th was a middle school meet for Jay in Naches, WA (55 minutes from home). I took Rose and Amber to watch Jay run.
5. Friday was also a high school distance festival track meet in Issaquah, WA (3 hours away). Jeff drove a school van with the top six distance runners to the meet. He got home after midnight.

Jeff and I had to get creative in order to see each other at all during the busiest week of track season yet. On Sunday evening, Jeff took me on a coach-date to his classroom at the high school, where I helped him assemble and organize the race packets in preparation for the middle school track meet. It was an entire hour of just the two of us together--pure gold at this time of year. For some reason it always feels sort of naughty to kiss in a high school classroom, so we smooched and chuckled a bit, then got down to track business. 

Jeff and I got to sit next to each other at the timing table for 4 hours during the meet on Monday. Jeff worked the finish line camera and I entered field event results into the computer. I also did other miscellaneous finish line work. We shared a blanket in the cold breeze. That was kind of it for our together time for the week. On Wednesday night, I had a Relief Society presidency meeting until 8pm, and Jeff was out till even later for the next two nights. 

Then came Saturday--Saturday! We had zero track meets on Saturday. So all five of us got to attend a ward activity: the annual ward walk to the park. This is my favorite ward activity all year. We met at the church and walked/biked/scootered 2 miles on the bike path to Sunnyview Park, and then had a picnic. Our bishop grilled burgers and hot dogs (several people drove to the park with picnic supplies), and we had a potluck of other picnic foods in the pavilion. I love this activity because it's a ward tradition rather than a "oh, it's ___ holiday so we need to have an obligatory over-the-top activity." The just-because tradition of it makes it feel extra special, and I love how low key it is. No performers or speakers or table/chair setup or floor sweeping. Nada. Just bring a side dish, walk, and chat. 

It was pretty cold (our cold spring continues) and windy on Saturday, but the kids played and played with their friends in the huge field of the park for three hours while the adults chatted by the pavilion. We lingered as long as possible, because the kids were having so much fun. It was such a novelty to have my actual husband at a church activity, I was all aglow. Jeff did have to go sit in the car and prop up his swollen sprained ankle after a little while, but he was there. And due to that same ankle sprain, he drove the car to the park rather than walking, so we didn't have to walk back to the church after the picnic. The stiff wind was blowing from the west, which made the way back on the east-west bike path uncomfortable. 

Sunday night in Mr. White's classroom. We tried taking a selfie with all of the track meet packets and clipboards that we assembled, but it was pretty hard to squeeze them in and it doesn't look like much. I should've done a mid-assembly picture instead, when the desks were covered in papers, bib numbers, and safety pins while we sorted, stacked, clipped, and stuffed envelopes.

Freezing clerks at the track meet on Monday. This was taken before I scooted over to share my blanket with Jeff. Working at a track meet together felt so natural. We fell in love on the track team in college, so track meets together still feel date-ish.

Amber's backpack rock saga continues.

Amber dresses herself everyday, and it gets rather spectacular. This outfit was exceptional, so I took a picture before she left to catch the school bus: Jay's old cargo shorts and a tank top dress, with a long sleeve shirt on top. And of course, the ever-present pink boots.

Six months after our piano tuner fixed our droopy damper pedal and tuned our piano, the same pedal went limp and stopped working again. I made an appointment with the tuner and he took the pedal all apart and replaced an L-shaped spring that had broken. In the process, we learned that our piano was made in 1954. A 1954 Gulbransen, gifted to us by sweet friends in our former ward.

One year is a tad too long to wait between haircuts, but I can't find a good salon in Sunnyside, and my neighbor's talented Chilean mother visits every summer...so I waited and she gave me yet another simple perfect haircut. Freeeeedom from the tangled Eve-hair! Also, lighting drastically changes my hair color. The before picture was taken in our bathroom, and the after picture was taken in front of my bedroom window. My hair is the same color as always, but bright sunlight makes it look lighter in pictures. Also, can we talk about how awful our bathroom lighting is? I know someday I'll have a wrinkly face in all levels of lighting, and I'm really ok with that. But right now at age 35, our bathroom lights really bring out my haggard side, haha.

Jay at the starting line of the 1600 meter race in Naches on Friday: he is in white, 5th from the right. He ran another PR! One mile in 6:34, which was 9 seconds faster than the last meet! He passed a kid during the last lap, but got passed again on the home stretch to finish in last place. My mom-heart practically burst, because he was trying so hard and it was so exciting that he ran his fastest mile ever! Placing is peripheral; PRs are preferred.

Sweet Jay humored me after the race with a quick thumbs-up picture. I did ask his permission first. This meet was cold! It rained off and on the entire time and the breeze came in sudden gusts. He ran the 400 in a 2 second personal record of 1:27. Double PRs again! Go Jay!

AMBY. Amber got lost twice during the first 45 minutes we were at the track meet in Naches. Jeff was not with us, so I was the only adult to keep track of her, and she is so used to spending long hours at track and cross country meets that she rarely sticks close to me; she jets off to play right and left. Normally that's fine, but this time she got good and lost. The first time we found each other in about five minutes, but the second time she got lost right before Jay's race, so I elected to watch Jay's race before hunting for Amby. It took a while to find her. She was up in the bleachers by the press box, sadly talking to a nice lady. When Amber saw me, she ran over, buried her face in my stomach, and started crying. I was relieved and honestly glad that she actually FELT some emotion, because after the first time she got lost, I told her to make sure she was always where she could see me, and she didn't listen. She did stay nearby for the rest of the meet, and it was actually kind of weird having Amber that close to me for so long at a meet! Hah. I took this picture to show Amber her cool multi-colored eyes. We had quite a while to sit and wait between Jay's races, so we looked at eyes, ate snacks, etc.

Rose found her happy place, lounging on the concrete railing during the lengthy lull between Jay's events. If she looks cold, that because it was cold!

The only picture I took at the ward activity at the park on Saturday: the youth playing ultimate frisbee. Jay is in the mix somewhere.

It was a super busy week, but also a good happy week. I watched too much Netflix while trying to stay awake waiting for my husband to get home late on Thursday and Friday nights, but Asian dramas are adorable so I was happy about it. Let's have some warm weather now, shall we, Sunnyside?