Fall 2013

 Thought it was about time I did a new post.  Every year Dennis likes to go over to eastern Washington at least once to go hunting with his good friend Bill Guido.  This year was no exception.  After spending a couple Saturdays at hunter safety Cooper was able to go as well.  This first picture is a little weird because the camera was on the ground, but it has Bill in it so that's nice.

 Tucker got 2 1/2 birds and Cooper got 1 1/2 (they each shot at the same bird and Dennis said he couldn't tell who actually got it so they each got a 1/2).  The hunting dog is named Sandy (Bill as three now but one of them is pretty old and no longer hunts and the other is brand new so is a dog-in-training).

Tucker was talking about the hunting trip to some friends at college and some lady overheard him.  After class she came up to him and said, "You know you are a murderer don't you?"  I also mentioned it at church to someone and she got all concerned and later came up to me to make sure the ate what they hunted.  Crazy.   A different mindset for sure.

Bittersweet, but this is Spencer's last year in Cross Country (at least for high school--who knows if he will join a group in college or not).  After spending most of last year injured, he was hoping to beat his fastest time from last year.

 I made a point to attend several of his meets this year.  These next pictures of from my favorite one.  September 28, the Bellevue Invitational.  It was raining the proverbial cats & dogs (with some rats thrown in).  On the way over to the east side I had my wipers going full blast and still could barely see--actually sometimes I really couldn't.  It was kind of scary.  At the meet which was in Lake Sammamish State Park there was standing water everywhere up over your ankles!  It was crazy.  So here is a few shots from that meet because it was so crazy.  It shows that nothing stops a cross country race!

I included this next picture because I really like the kid running next to Spencer.  His name is Sean and despite the full beard, he is just a senior like Spencer.  Spencer took his senior pictures and they were hilarious, original and unique--just like him.  He sported the full beard the whole season until the very last meet.

I included this next picture because…well look at the caption below the picture.

The Four Horsemen 

 So every team has some type of chant or yell they do before the race starts.  Ballard's team gets in a big circle and links arms.  The team captains (one of which was Spencer this year) get in the middle and start the chant.  "To the boats..to the boats…to the boats….a bunch of other stuff" and then a big roar.  Don't ask me what "To the boats" means I have no idea and neither do any of the kids on the team, because I have asked.

And yes, the really itty, bitty kid in their circle is in high school.  He is shorter than some of our 6th graders at the middle school.  He looks like he is about a 3rd grader--but he is one of the faster boys on the team--he beat Spencer a few times this season!  

Sadly Spencer didn't beat his fastest time ever from last year (18:34) but he came close at 18:37 which is pretty smokin' for 3.2 miles I'd say.  A good finish to his XC career at Ballard.