State 2013

November 8-9 found us driving 5 hours to the east side, to Pasco, for the State XC meet. We sent Sarah off early in the morning, so that the team would have time to run the course on Friday afternoon before their big fancy dinner. We left around 10:30 and actually had a pretty enjoyable drive together. Once we got to Pasco, we stopped at the Country Mercantile to look around and we could have spent a lot more time in there! They have all sorts of locally made jams and chocolate and salsas and local produce. It was a wonderful place!

We headed the hotel after picking out some goodies (blueberry syrup, laffy taffy, and chocolate peanut butter cups) and got there in time to see the whole team all dressed up after their Olive Garden dinner. I stole a picture from FB…man, that girl in the turquoise dress is incredibly beautiful!

We spent the evening hanging out in the hotel together as a family, chatting with parents and coaches, and watching the runners have fun. In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to the course, about a 10 minute drive from the hotel.

Sarah had a really good race, taking about a minute off her time from last year. She moved up in place from 69th to 28th and she is already looking forward to next year!

All the girls had good races and it was fun to watch them run and cheer for each other, just like every other meet.

These two showed their Lyncs pride with face paint & wearing their blue & white!

We chose a different vantage point this year at state, which meant that we missed the starting line. From “the island” where we were, you can see the runners frequently…but not generally as close up. It’s also hard to get to the finish in time. So…I don’t think we’ll watch from that area next year. I didn’t like missing the start and the finish!!But, it’s always good to try stuff out and see what you like the best!

Coming into the last stretch and the finish line

After the race…happy and tired friends!

Love this girl!

Congratulations on all your achievements both on and off the course, Marissa! We love the way you’ve encouraged Sarah and the team and we know God has great plans for you. We will miss you next year!!

I had to include this picture because Sarah just looks SO happy. Love.

Becca is 10!

Back in October we celebrated Becca’s 10th birthday! It was also my grandma’s 91st birthday and my friend’s 39th birthday. Big year!!

Becca is an energetic, beautiful, vibrant, talented, and fun daughter. 4th grade can be a tough transition year for girls and she is dealing with some of those things at school, but is handling the changes remarkably well. She’s smart and boy, can she sing & act when she doesn’t know anyone is watching! We celebrated her birthday with our traditional family Sunday lunch (she chose French Dip and ice cream) and she had a sleepover last weekend. The girls had such a good time…I think!

I love how you can see Elise blowing along with Becca while she watches…

Becca didn’t really have a “cowgirl party”, but we did cut out these cute cowboy boots to make cupcake picks and she also created her own “pin the tag on the cow” game. She drew a cow head on posterboard and I made tags with numbers (like ‘10’ and ‘28’ and other numbers pertinent to Becca) which she colored and cut out. It’s your basic “pin the tail on the donkey” game, but you want to tag the cow’s ear. Unfortunately, none of the pictures turned out…you’ll have to take my word for it that it was super cute and they had a blast!

For a craft we made friendship bracelets with safety pins and tiny glass beads. They turned out really well!

Pizza for dinner followed by a movie (“Second Chances” – about a crippled girl and a crippled horse who yes, you guessed it, both heal as they develop a friendship. And of course the girl’s mom (a widow) and the horse’s owner eventually get married. Sigh. I really do love those sappy little movies.) They ate Kettle Korn while watching the movie. After the movie two friends went home, but two stayed for a sleepover and I think they actually got about 7 hours of sleep!

In the morning they did each other’s hair and ate French Toast. I brought them home and then we hit the road for state XC!

Tri-Districts 2013

This past Saturday was the class 1A Tri-District meet down in Lakewood, near Tacoma. This is the biggest meet of the year because it, and it alone, determines who gets to run in the state meet in Pasco the following Saturday. Despite the high winds and cold temperatures, we had SUCH a good time watching the races! Our boys didn’t do great, but our top runner was in the top 30, so he qualified to run at state as an individual. The boys placed 9th overall, but only the top 6 teams get to compete at state. The girls did AWESOME! Our Sarah ran an incredible race, passing a girl she’s been running against and trying to beat for 4 years in the home stretch, and placed SEVENTH. It wasn’t her PR, but considering her PR was on a “fast course” and this was considered a “difficult course” and the weather conditions were pretty awful for running, her coach told her she had the race of her life. It was SO FUN to cheer her and her teammates on – who ALSO ran well. The girls did place 6th, so they are headed to state as a team. One other teammate of Sarah’s also placed in the top 30, so she will compete as an individual as well.

We discovered at awards time that placing 7th means you actually get to stand on the podium! Sheer joy!!

Here are the girls! Congratulations! ON TO STATE!! SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!

Fall Concerts

I’m a tad bit out of order here, but the concerts our big girls participated in recently were SO GOOD! We are so amazingly blessed to have such an incredible music program at our school and we are privileged to glorify our Heavenly Father through music at school!

First was the 7th/8th grade music assembly. These music groups aren’t generally ready for a full-on concert by October, but the choir, band, and orchestra each performed a couple numbers on a Thursday morning for parents and 5th & 6th graders. It’s always a lot of fun. Here’s Bethany’s orchestra performing…

Professor Wigstein’s Amazing Melody Machine

What a fun piece!!

This past Tuesday was the high school fall music concert. At Christmas and in the spring there are 3 concerts, one is grades 7-12 band, one is 7-12 orchestra, and one is 7-12 choir. This one is the only one that is just high school and includes both bands, the orchestra, and 3 choirs, and boy, do they put on a great evening of music and praise!

The pinnacle was a never-before-attempted full symphony of LCHS students…orchestra, band, and choir…performing a beautiful arrangement of “This is my Father’s World.” I recorded it. The whole thing. And then my phone said it didn’t have enough memory to save it. But once I deleted some other non-essential photos, I had enough memory for it to save all but the last two seconds. Sarah participated in both the band and choir during the evening, but in this piece she sang in the choir. Her head is the over-exposed splotch above the red-headed violinist who is to the left of the conductor. Please watch and enjoy.

This is my Father’s World