October'd

If October were a verb, it would mean: "to expend 99% of one's energy on cross country season and then squeeze out that last 1% for all other autumnal activities." As I draped myself into a cold hard metal chair in our church gym during the ward harvest party last night, I felt in my bones (and my many sore muscles) that we have sufficiently October-ed. 

This picture sums up our mental and physical state at the end of October: Jeff brought his backpack out to the garage on Monday, but forgot to put it inside his car before he left for work. This juxtaposition of tragic and hilarious is not lost on me. I dropped Amber off at school and then dropped Jeff's backpack off at the high school.

Event-full

Even though there was no school on Thursday and Friday, it was still a jam packed event-filled week. 

We burned a pile of yard waste and several pallets on Saturday morning.

Barn

Since we had no cross country meet for the first time in six weeks, we had a bit more time at home this week. It took half the week to recover somewhat from the intensity of all we've been doing, before we found energy to jump in and work on neglected projects closer to home. On Saturday (after cross country practice), Rose and Amber cleaned the barn floors and Jay mowed the lawn. Rose and I worked to fix the floor scrubbing machine for a while because at first it wasn't emitting enough water to clean the floors. In that evaluation process, I noticed that our machine didn't even have a debris trap at all (we got it used), so I ordered one online for a ridiculous $40. In the meantime, I cleaned nasty gunk out of the machine as best I could so the water could spray again. A little while later, we realized that the suction hose was torn, so the dirty water was not being sucked back into the machine and instead was just being spread evenly over the floor. Awesome. Back online to order another expensive part, this one for a gouging $170. I think Rose would love someone to pay her $170 to clean the barn floors! Hah!

Sunrise on my cold journey between the house and the barn, post-workout. It's not far, but it feels far when the cold wind hits my sweat!

3 dates, 2 meets, and 1 fuzzy purple dementor

It was a two meet week: the last truly intense week of cross country season. We still have 3 weeks to go, but the busiest part of the season is done. It was also a three date week for Jay! It was homecoming week at the high school, and Jay was impressively social. He went on three dates. As introvert parents of an introvert son, Jeff and I were downright impressed with Jay's activities this week. Having two cross country meets and three dates, plus five days of school and four days of early morning seminary, did not leave much down time for our boy. Jay is a great guy and I loved seeing him explore new things and have these experiences.

The Longest Day

Saturday was the longest day of the season, and I am still really tired from it, so without further ado, here are some journal excerpts from the week:

Selfies and scenery

When I looked at the pictures I took this week, I saw that most of them fell under two categories: selfies and scenery. This is what life with older kids looks like: no more daily pictures of cute squishy cheeks building towers of blocks or jumping on the trampoline with wild hair and wide grins. I like taking pictures for my own memories, but lately it's been extra tricky to get pictures of my busy family, and I find myself taking more and more pictures of scenery and myself doing everyday tasks. We did have a cross country meet this week, so at least I got a few pictures of the kids there! 

The light puffs of wildfire smoke in the sky gave us extra pretty sunrises and sunsets this week. This sunrise filled the entire sky with the most beautiful warm peachy color!

Recalculations

We had to make several recalculations this week. Since Jay, Rose, and Amber were extra busy, I had to recalculate how to use my time during the school day so I could mow and maintain our vast lawn. Since my ankle tendons were still aching and stiff, I had to recalculate (yet again) my expectations on the recovery process and when I can return to running. A runner with special needs got cleared to join our cross country team on Thursday, causing us to recalculate how to run practice with 50+ kids, 2 coaches, and 1 kid who needs extra supervision. It was a lot. A wildfire caused air quality to spike into the red and our cross country meet in Wenatchee was cancelled. Jeff recalculated like a pro and created a time trial event on our track for the cross country team on Saturday morning. 

Sunset in our backyard.

The Sunburn

After our intense camping and mud race in Oregon with the cross country team last weekend, we hit the ground running this week with prep for hosting our home meet. When we started hosting this meet 3 years ago, Jeff lovingly named it the Sunburn Invitational because there is no shade on the course and it is usually very hot since it's held so early in September. The top 3 runners in each race get a bottle of sunscreen as a trophy. This year's edition of The Sunburn was actually a bit cooler than the past, although temperatures were still in the high 70s/low80s, which felt plenty hot in Sunnyside's shade-less South Hill Park. 

Ultimook 2025!

We survived our 7th Ultimook cross country meet! This trip pushes the limits of our endurance every single year: hours riding a school bus, sleep deprivation, heavy lifting, organizing, accounting skills, running, emotional support, inclement weather, mud, etc. 

Cross country is brutal!

The first week of school

We revved into gear this week: Monday was the first official practice of cross country season, and school started on Tuesday (August 26th). Another defining feature of my week, apart from the school year and cross country season starting, was my abnormally intense period. It was out of control and I had an embarrassing moment (wherein I left church early to go home and do laundry), and several nights of interrupted sleep, all thanks to the red doomsday floodgate Niagara situation I had to endure. Everything I accomplished this week was done during and in spite of an exceptionally awful period, so BE IMPRESSED. I am impressed with myself, even though I still succumbed to a few irritated rants and breakdowns, thrown in for variety. Here are a few journal excerpts from the week:

Burroughs Mountain Trail

Rose and I said goodbye to summer in style with a nice long hike! On Saturday, August 23rd, we woke up at 4am and started driving west at 4:30am. A little over 90 minutes later, as we drove through Chinook Pass, we saw a spectacular view of Mt. Rainier over Tipsoo Lake. The big snowy white mountain was painted pink in the reflected light of sunrise. We didn't stop and take pictures, but we ooohed and ahhhhed as we drove onward (after a quick stop at the nasty smelly vault toilet on the other side of Tipsoo Lake). Our plan was to get to the White River Entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park before 7am, so we didn't need to have a timed entry permit. (This year Mt. Rainier National Park started doing timed entry reservations for the Sunrise corridor, required between 7am-5pm.) We rolled through the entrance at 6:30am and continued slowly along the winding park road, all the way up to the Sunrise parking area. It was completely full. Cars lined the road. We turned around and drove back down the road until we parked on a gravel roadside. 

The Warm-up

This week was a mix of summer and the school year, so it felt like a warm-up for the fast-approaching school year. The first day of work for teachers was Wednesday, August 20th, so Jeff went back to work while the rest of us were still clinging to summer. But summer kept slipping away. Rose had two pre-orientation half days for freshmen at "Grizzly Academy" on Monday and Tuesday. Amber had meet your teacher night on Thursday. Rose had official freshman orientation on Friday. Since Jeff was back at work, I was the solo coach in charge of the last three mornings of summer training for the cross country team. Jay was the only one who really got to keep living his best summer life! He had friends over, went to a friend's house, and went out with the missionaries on Wednesday night. He did help pick Rose up from the high school, though, so even his summer bliss was bracketed by school events.