Halloween

It definitely looks like fall around here.

We had the ward trunk or treat, lil' Sofia was running around barefoot.

DeA was running around in an emergency blanket because she thought it was so cold.

It isn't much, but it's honest work.

DeA found out that Jens had butterfly wings and wished that she had known earlier.

Ryker has been dedicated and working hard to qualify for state. He was pretty nervous and anxious, but he knew if he ran his race he'd qualify easily.

At about the 2.2 mile mark, I told him that he was 23 overall (he needed to be in the top 44). Right after, the assistant coach told him he needed to pass two or three (knowing that he was lying). Ryker was confused and was pretty sure that he was in a good place, but started passing people anyway. He ended up finishing 16 overall with an official 17:09 5k. That is a huge improvement since last year, and even since last month. We are pretty impressed with his effort and improvement.

He wanted to ride the bus home, so DeA and I had a Miner's and Cabela's date.

It's Christmas season at Cabela's.

This will be our family card this year.

Ryker's Halloween costume was as a worn-out state cross country runner. He woke up after the meet and crushed four pancakes. Later, DeA found him dipping Oreos in chocolate milk.

DeA and I went to watch the Ascanio boys play soccer. 

Play is a strong word for what Luca was doing.

 

October Stuff

DeA discovered the delicious taste of C4, but only drinks it when she has a migraine. The other day she actually said "I kind of hope I get a headache so I can drink it." 

It's been a little foggy in the mornings.

I guess the war between Horcha and Leo Puppy is over.

We had the cross country team dinner at our house before leagues. It was a lot of energy and one loud voice.

Leagues were at Liberty Bell in 40 degree rain. Lovely.

He looks like Leo Puppy after swimming.

Go Go Ryker Racer!

Yeah, he passed and beat that dude.

Last year, after the same race, we went to the BBQ in Twisp and he had a giant bowl of mac and cheese with brisket. He was looking forward to the same thing after the race this year. It made it even better that they had the BYU game on in the restaurant. 

Rissa and Javi raised two turkeys for Thanksgiving. They were the right size, so after the race it was butchering time.

The kids wanted to watch and "help".

The wannabe farm dogs were less helpful than the barefoot kids were.

 

Autumn is here

DeA sitting by a crackling fire on a cold, rainy October day is just about the best.

I went down to Singleton to pick up Ryker from practice. Rissa was there with her kids, and she told them to get in the car. Leo Boy looked at me and said "I want to go with them". I told him to jump in, and on the way home Ryker asked what was for dinner. We named some things off and Leo inserted "I want that pancake thing you gave me". About a week ago I gave him a Trader Joe waffle for breakfast, and I guess he really liked it. He ate two, plus a yogurt and part of an apple. He probably ate 1000+ calories in about 10 minutes. Ryker asked to play catch, and while standing out there he bolted to Nama's, probably because there was an iPad there but no Max.

Gyker had a race in Oroville on a Thursday afternoon. It was in a pretty park by Lake Osoyoos, but the course was going to be difficult. 

His racing buddy unofficially ran her race in 18:04 (3 miles, not a 5K), so that was his time to beat.

Apparently he likes to talk to people while he's running the race. I'm glad he's friendly, but that might not be the best competitive thing to do.

"You don't need to time Ryker, just write Grace's time down" - Coach Jefe.

The kids discovered that the town of Osoyoos isn't just a border crossing and truck stop like I had always believed. It has a Boston Pizza, Tim Horton's, and other cool stuff. So, we loaded the passports and crossed the border on the night that the Blue Jays were playing the Mariners in the playoffs. All the Blue Jays fans were fairly vocal, so the boys tried to match it. Unfortunately, there was much less to be vocal about on the M's side than for the Blue Jays.

It was a fun evening in BC, and crossing the border was not as difficult as we expected. Now the kids think we will do this every time we travel to Oroville, but I guess that's not a bad thing.

Spokane Cross Country

Ryker ran in the biggest race he's done so far, a big on in Spokane. He was pretty nervous, there were about 300 kids.

Apparently his race included normal high schoolers with mustaches and absolutely not an informant from Starsky and Hutch.

He finished strong and PR'd hugely with a time of 18:54.

He was pretty proud of himself.

This all happened on Conference weekend. In the past, the noise and mess has been a problem, so this year we tried baking donuts.

NGL, they weren't good.

Conference Sunday was a wonderful day, especially relaxing for most of the family.

We enjoyed going up to Tonasket to watch Jens kill it.

Speaking of killing it...

Rock: I need to lock in and get lean

Two minutes later:

Despite turning the game off a dozen times, going for two long walks, and saying he hated that we made him a Mariner fan, Ryker still got to witness a game 5 win to advance to the ALCS. He better cherish it, because that feeling will not come often as an M's fan.

We took another trip to the temple for stake temple day. It was a pretty relaxing trip home.

Jensley and Cady decided that it's never too early to carve pumpkins.