NXR

The Nike Northwest Regional Cross Country meet (NXR) dominated the title of this post because more than 50% of the pictures I took this week were at that cross country meet. Before NXR, we had plenty going on at home all week long, even if there aren't that many pictures of it.

Jay lugged his bass home from school for the first time in at least a year. While he practiced, his sisters peered over his shoulder in the funniest way, like they were hoping he wouldn't notice? It made me laugh. 

State, etc.

Journal excerpts from the past week, edited for coherence as usual:

Monday, November 3rd: It's 10:12 p.m. I'm so tired. Tonight Jeff and I went to Ellensburg the district cross country coaches meeting. It was pitch dark and raining for 80% of the 80 minute drive there and back. Jeff almost ran a stop sign where there was a car crossing the intersection. That's a stop sign and I squealed, and Jeff slammed on the brakes just in time. It was scary because it was so wet dark. Thankfully we were okay, but my car anxiety was pretty high for the rest of the trip. I was dreading the gross diner food at the cafe we met at but this time I managed to get the massive plate of spaghetti that was pretty good. It wasn't $18 good but at least it didn't make me feel ill like the weird thing I ate there last year during this meeting. We left at 5:10 p.m. and got home at 9:35 p.m. It was so long and tiring.

It was cloudy and dark and wet all day today. The weather app says we got .63 inches of rain today. Our driveway is muddy mess with giant lakes of puddles. I went to the chiropractor and got my body cracked this morning, then came home and went on a 4 Mile run in the 41° drizzle. It was my longest run in almost 3 months, and I felt pretty good. It was a good farewell to age 38. 

Birthday!

Amber and I had some plans for our shared birthday this year, and we made up other birthday-ish celebrations along the way. Instead of attempting to separate the birthdays, we ended up just doing all the celebratory things we both wanted to do, whenever we could. Two days pre-birthday on Sunday night (Nov 2nd), we had Amber's extended family birthday dinner. One day pre-birthday, I made myself an experimental dairy-free pumpkin cheesecake that actually was pretty good. 

Amber's birthday interview. My favorite responses: 

Hero: Mom and Dad. 

Favorite drink: "smootie" 

(aka smoothie, written by Amber before Jeff took over writing her interview answers.)

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!